Tales from the Crypt (TV Series) The Sacrifice (1990) User Reviews

A good episode with a few neat plot twists

[SleepTight666 · 7/10 · 28 June 2009]

A memorable and underrated episode, it might not be scary or horror-like at all. But it's still a good episode with a few neat plot twists. I did not see them coming.

It's all about blackmail and schemes. Sure, a few things were a little far-fetched. I mean, what a coincidence that James fell for her, convinced her to kill her husband and eventually committed suicide. Not very logical, but still good storytelling.

Gloria was a heck of a woman, I expected her to be scheming the other guy she was with at the end. She used two, why not the third? As far as weaker episodes go, this one had a pretty good cast.

Okay episode

[Woodyanders · 7/10 · 14 February 2011]

Hotshot insurance agent James (a solid performance by Kevin Kilner) gets involved with the beautiful and seductive Gloria Fleming (well played with sultry elegance by the lovely Kim Delaney), who's the wife of crude tycoon Sebastian Fleming (a delightfully robust turn by Don Hood). James and Gloria decide to bump off Sebastian for his considerable fortune. They succeed with killing Sebastian, but things go awry when the meddlesome Jerry (veteran bad guy thespian Michael Ironside projecting his trademark cold menace) enters the picture claiming he has photographic evidence of the murder. Although this episode is competently directed by Richard Greenberg, with uniformly sound acting by the capable cast, sharp cinematography by John R. Leonetti, a fine moody score by Jonathan Elias, and an appropriately hard film noirish tone, this show nonetheless suffers from Russ Thomas' trite script and an overly familiar and predictable story with an obvious and unsurprising twist ending. On the plus side, Delaney makes for a perfectly crafty and sexy femme fatale, there are a couple of steamy, but non-explicit love scenes, and Hood is a crass hoot as the vulgar Sebastian. A watchable, but overall unremarkable episode.

Out of place...

[mattressman_pdl · 5/10 · 25 June 2011]

A rich man's wife and a conman conspire to do away with the rich man for the cash only to be confronted by a witness who begins to blackmail them for the woman's company.

This episode is out of place in this series, lacking seriously in any horror characteristics. It would fit in better as an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode then as Tales from the Crypt...and even then it wouldn't be very good. The writing is stale, the ending is choreographed and easily guessed, and there are no exploitative elements present. Big miss! On the positive side, Michael Ironside appears and adds some class. Too bad the episode was beyond saving.

One of the poorer episodes from the first few Tales from the Crypt seasons.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 28 June 2008]

Tales from the Crypt: The Sacrifice is set in Los Angeles & starts as rich businessman Sebastian Fleming (Don Wood) buy's a new insurance policy off salesman James Reed (Kevin Kilner). While at Fleming's luxurious penthouse James meets his beautiful wife Gloria (Kim Delaney), they quickly become involved with each & start an affair. To get Sebastian out of the way James comes up with a plan to kill him & make it look like an accident, the plan appears to have succeeded but James boss Jerry Jasper (Michael Ironside) saw & photographed the entire thing...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 7 from season 2, directed by Riachard Greenberg this is one of the poorer episodes & lacks imagination. The script by Ross Thomas was based on a story from the 'Shock SuspenStroies' comic book which wasn't particularly as horror themed as either The Vault of Horror or Tales from the Crypt comic books & it show's here with The Sacrifice which is really just a bland thriller supposedly with a twist ending. I say supposedly because the twist ending of The Sacrifice is maybe the most predictable the Tales from the Crypt series ever threw up, I knew very early on how this was going & that the guy who thought he was in control & was manipulating everyone for his own purposes would eventually have everything turned upside down & the twist would be that he was the one who was being used in a somewhat over complicated plan. Most Tales from the Crypt episode live or die by their twist endings which are usually dark, macabre & ironic but not here in The Scarifice it isn't so for me this episode is right down there at the bottom of the quality scale. The episode feels long as well, the character's are fairly bland, there's no horror or supernatural content at all & The Sacrifice just feels like a routine thriller with very little going for it.

The most entertaining aspect of The Sacrifice is probably the fun opening & closing Cryptkeeper sequences even these are hardly that memorable. I will admit The Sacrifice is well made with very strong production values, this show certainly seemed to have a pretty good budget. There are two brief sex scenes which aren't graphic & a bit of bad language otherwise The Sacrifice is pretty dull going all the way with no horror, scares or gore. What makes this even worse is that the terrific Michael Ironside is totally wasted in one of the worst episodes, luckily Ironisde got a reprieve & appeared in the later Tales from the Crypt episode Comes the Dawn (1995) from season six.

The Sacrifice is a huge disappointment in otherwise very strong second season, for me it's probably the single worst episode from this season & one of the worst from the show as a whole.

Boring.

[callanvass · 4/10 · 13 December 2013]

A cocky young insurance salesman James (Kevin Kilner) falls in love with a seductive woman named Gloria Fleming (Kim Delaney) they scheme to kill a disgusting tycoon named Sebastian Fleming to gain the wealth. They kill Sebastian successfully, but the meddling Jerry (Michael Ironside) has proof of the murder, and that's when the celebration gets put on hold. This has to be the weakest Tales from the Crypt episode in the history of this series. If not, it's pretty close. It's boring, overly talky, and over long as well. I didn't give a damn about any of the characters in this one. The lazy writing really does them in. This one cranks up the star power, but they do it in the most routine way imaginable. This feels like a derivative episode in every way. Kevil Kilner is boring as James. He didn't feel like a man that was madly in love. He was awfully wooden. Kim Delaney is beautiful and fares a bit better, but she is dull herself. Her con artist character wasn't interesting enough for my liking. Michael Ironside is by far the best thing about this episode. His sinister performance had me grinning like an SOB. Don Hood is one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen. His constant "Boy" whenever he spoke got on my nerves rather quickly. The ending is flat out stupid. It made no sense, and it just seemed like they decided to throw in a twist for the sake of it. The only good things about this episode are the spectacular photography, and Michael Ironside. It's a mediocre episode. I never thought I'd be bored during this show, but there is a first for everything

4.8/10

Lust, Greed, Blackmail, and Betrayal. And Kim Delaney as a clever girl!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 13 May 2007]

This crypt episode "The Sacrifice" clearly ranks as one of the better because of the many themes and the scheming plot it has by fooling and surprising everyone at the end. Starting out as an insurance scheme with Kevin Kilner as an agent with a plan to overthrow an L.A. penthouse tycoon type with the real prize awaiting not only just the money but his attractive and elegant wife(Kim Delaney). The plan seems to work out, but wait a new character enters played by veteran Michael Ironside, and three is a crowd in money plans and relationships! So soon guilt is felt for one, as the plan is perfect for the new guy in town that's the Ironside character. This episode is also memorable for the sexy scenes provided by Kim Delaney and her performance was good to the very end her character was so clever to keep the plot concealed to the very end. Remember guys be careful it teaches the old moral lesson watch out for greedy women especially when it comes to love and money!

"Thank you, my poor dumb darling."

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 4/10 · 23 April 2012]

This is the overall thirteenth episode of the series, and the unlucky number certainly lived up to its name.. This seems to be one of the most disliked tales of season two, and not without good cause! As worthless a watch as I found "The Sacrifice" to be, I still didn't find it quite as bad as the awful "Judy, you're not yourself Today." I by enjoyed other episodes like this that don't have any monsters or supernatural elements or just a lot of gore, in fact to me some of the best examples of Tales from the Crypt's particular brand of greatness were the murder thrillers ones. "The Sacrifice" actually feels like an okay story that may be going somewhere at first, but it doesn't. The big revelation is a terribly lame one, and it's just a weak and thoroughly unengaging attempt at a story. For a start the cast is mostly pretty poor, I just found Kim Delaney's performance to be one of the weakest ever portrayals of the scheming predatory female to ever grace the show and I didn't really get anything out of her character at all. Kevin Kilner I thought was better than her, but not by much in his role of a most unfortunate dupe. Why was his character supposed to love her that much exactly? All they did was sleep together a few times, was I supposed to buy this all-consuming,self-sacrificing love they had based on ten minutes of that?! Something else that really irritated me were the cheesy eighties blues riffs that played during their lovemaking scenes. The twist really is unexpected, but so daft and unbelievable it means nothing. That everything in the secret plot between Gloria and Jerry would depend solely on James's suicide. Why would he kill himself over her when he only knew her for what? Couple of months? Sorry, not buying it, just dumb and bad story writing! Not even the presence of Michael Ironside could make it worthwhile. He's good in his part of course, particularly back here in his younger days. He does his classic fine routine of subtle menace, all cool and in control. I'm a big fan but they really should have used him in a better episode. The other one they used him in wasn't much cop either, so the show unfortunately wasted this great character actor's talents twice! For me the only real highlight was Don Hood's enjoyable little spin as an arrogant and obnoxious old millionaire. He made me laugh, particularly during when he waxing on his "money, pussy, and bulls**t" philosophy on life and business. And his dialogue just before he is shoved off his own penthouse balcony is good and tension inducing, they really butter him up for that drop! His parrots, which feature quite prominently, while being very beautiful birds, were also quite annoying, and it was laughable how obvious it was that it wasn't them doing the talking! The last scene of this lame tale of lust, greed and backstabbing with them just caps off its lousiness for me. I think what they're saying is meant to imply that Gloria and Jerry may eventually be caught-but you know, who cares! I don't like this one, it's bland, it goes nowhere, and the twist is an insult, it's really one of the show's worst, and during it's best season to. No thanks, burn it!

Weak

[shellytwade · 5/10 · 30 March 2022]

Tales from the Crypt is overall a pretty amazing show but not every episode can be perfect. If you are watching this in order, this is probably the first really weak episode you'll hit. Contrived and silly. But the bad ones make you appreciate the good ones more.

Shock

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 29 December 2023]

"Eye of newt, bladder of cobra, and whisker of a rat. Oh! Hi, kiddies. I was just rustling up a sickening snack for a ghastly guest. Let's see. I need the blood of a sacrificed goat. Whoops! It's got to be a virgin goat. Guess you're off the hook, Nellie. Tonight's story is about a different kind of sacrifice: A sacrifice... made for love."

Insurance agent James (Kevin Kilner) meets Gloria Fielding (Kim Delaney) to talk about her husband's policy. This soon turns into him tossing that man, Sebastian (Don Hood) off a balcony for love. Or lust. Or the usual mix that motivates so many in these Tales from the Crypt episodes. The bad part, beyond murder, is that his boss Jerry (Michael Ironside) has been stalking Gloria for years as she's his ex-girlfriend. In exchange for not going to the law, he starts getting Gloria whenever he wants. But maybe, just maybe, there's a plan that James doesn't know about.

Directed by Richard Greenberg (Little Monsters) and written by Steven Dodd and Ross Thomas (who wrote the book that St. Ives is made from), this is as much a film noir as a horror story.

This episode is based on "The Sacrifice" from Shock SuspenStories #10. It was written by Al Felder and Willam Gaines and drawn by Jack Kamen.

Nice tale about greed and betrayal

[bellino-angelo2014 · 8/10 · 14 June 2021]

Hot-shot insurance agent James becomes involved with gorgeous Gloria Fielding and goes to see her often. However, he really hates his client Sebastian Fielding and one day when he visits him in his penthouse he throws him from the balcony and Gloria agrees to be silent about the murder since she had some feelings for James. However, trouble is behind the corner as his boss Jerry (Michael Ironside) knows about the murder and blackmails James for meeting his demands in order to not let anyone know about the murder. However, the plan will work much better for Jerry.

This episode was better than the last three previous installments as there was a good tale with real characters that had real motivations for their actions. And the final scene of the parrots calling Gloria after we saw the scene of her going away with Ironside was very funny. A nice return to greatness in the show.

The American Supernatural businesswoman

[trokanmariel-17760 · 10/10 · 7 September 2021]

The advent of technology. The advent of newspapers, and television, and sophisticated politics and capitalism.

The aftermath, to the warrior leader dimension (a different universe, but one that's still of trees, plants and planets) in which the corruption of glamorous warrior leaders is the first law of warrior leaders.

This is the baseline context, of Kim Delaney's and Kevin Kilner's The Sacrifice.

The warrior leader corruption syndrome, the prelude - Americanism, the mystical nationalism of outside left-right syndrome, the present.

In the relatively recent past, my interaction, with the warrior leader universe, extended as far as my invocation of the American supernatural businesswoman (my personal deity-idol). In the month of February 2019, I first saw The Sacrifice on YouTube, and instantly and incessantly became the brainiac betrayed; the ASW was the deity, I was then currently invoking, on a daily basis through literary writing, and it was a connection that was tenable.

I had to find the American Supernatural businesswoman, but I didn't know if the brainiac-betrayed was good enough.