This may have been 1991 but it feels very eighties-ish with four kids on an adventure through the neighborhood. It reminds you of something Spielberg would have made. Still it's not bad, just doesn't have the wicked sense of irony that is usually accompanied with other TFTC episodes.
7 Reviews
The undertaker and his youthful pals!
Coventry8 February 2006
Four adventurous teenage boys break into to local mortuary as a prank but coincidentally stumble upon a devilish conspiracy! Apparently, the town's odd mortician collaborates with the doctor in order to increase the weekly amount of funerals and they split the profits of the expensive burial services. When one of the boys' fathers becomes a victim, the gang decides to videotape the mortician during the execution of his fiendish crimes. This is another terrifically light-headed "Tales from the Crypt" episode with a rather ingenious premise and an overload of macabre humor. Especially the gory make-up effects of this episode are memorable, since they include a lot of unorthodox embalming techniques! The mortician (a fantastically over-the-top performance by John Glover) for example smashes the face of a corpse with a hammer and eats his pizza over a cut-open chest. The four teenagers give away surprisingly good performances, especially Jason Marsden and Jonathan Quan! You might still recognize his face as he was Indiana Jones heroic little helper in "The Temple of Doom".
Nifty and inventive episode
Woodyanders27 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Four teenage boys discover that the local undertaker (the always excellent John Glover in fine creepy form) is in league with local pharmacist Grundy (well played by Graham Jarvis); the dastardly duo have people killed so they can rake in substantial money from their funerals. The courageous teen quartet break into the undertaker's place of business with video cameras so they can produce concrete evidence to nail both of these guys. Director Michael Thau and writer Ron Finley ingeniously craft a more dark and serious version of "The Goonies" that's firmly grounded in a certain grimly plausible reality and make supremely creative use out of the video camera format. Moreover, the adolescents in this episode aren't depicted in a sweetly sappy manner; instead they are a believably scrappy and profane bunch of kids who constantly insult each other and curse like truck drivers. Scott Fults, Jason Marsden, Aaron Eisenberg, and especially Jonathan Quan all do fine and convincing work as the adolescent protagonists. This yarn further benefits from a wickedly funny sense of inspired gallows humor; Glover as the marvelously quirky villain is a riot to watch as he nonchalantly eats a pizza and listens to blaring opera music while doing his macabre job. Naturally, there are several effectively gross and disgusting moments of graphic gore and the undertaker meets a memorably gruesome demise at the end. Levie Isaacks' fluid and dynamic cinematography makes exciting use of a prowling Steadicam and shaky hand-held camera. Nicholas Pike's shuddery score likewise hits the shivery spot. One of the definite highlights of the third season.
Decent tale from the crypt.
poolandrews18 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Tales from the Crypt: Undertaking Palor starts as four young friends decide to make a horror film & they feel the perfect location would be the local mortuary which they break into. While there they are interrupted by the undertaker Sebastian Esbrook (John Glover), they hide & witness his sinister ways & learn of his evil scheme to deliberately kill people to help raise business...
This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 9 from season 3, directed by Michael Thau I thought Undertaking Palor was alright but not the best ever episode. The script by Ron Finley was based on a story from the 'Tales from the Crypt' comic book & seems something more akin to what Disney might make with the obvious added adult elements of violence & swearing, I mean a bunch of annoying kids uncover an evil plan & use their ingenuity to save the day. It just seemed a bit routine, a bit predictable & the annoying teens didn't help. There's no twist at the end of this story & it play more like a crime adventure rather than horror or suspense & there's not really any fun to be had watching Undertaking Palor either. Not the best by any stretch of the imagination.
As usual this episode is well made, there's not much in the way of scares or laughs & as whole it's rather dull going at times. There's not much gore here although the dead body used with it's chest sliced opened seems to be the exact same one used in the earlier Tales from the Crypt episode Abra Cadaver, not that it really matters. The acting isn't great & I hate watching annoying kids.
Undertaking Palor was a disappointment, it lacks any fun & lacks a good twist ending which all the great Tales from the Crypt episodes have.
This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 9 from season 3, directed by Michael Thau I thought Undertaking Palor was alright but not the best ever episode. The script by Ron Finley was based on a story from the 'Tales from the Crypt' comic book & seems something more akin to what Disney might make with the obvious added adult elements of violence & swearing, I mean a bunch of annoying kids uncover an evil plan & use their ingenuity to save the day. It just seemed a bit routine, a bit predictable & the annoying teens didn't help. There's no twist at the end of this story & it play more like a crime adventure rather than horror or suspense & there's not really any fun to be had watching Undertaking Palor either. Not the best by any stretch of the imagination.
As usual this episode is well made, there's not much in the way of scares or laughs & as whole it's rather dull going at times. There's not much gore here although the dead body used with it's chest sliced opened seems to be the exact same one used in the earlier Tales from the Crypt episode Abra Cadaver, not that it really matters. The acting isn't great & I hate watching annoying kids.
Undertaking Palor was a disappointment, it lacks any fun & lacks a good twist ending which all the great Tales from the Crypt episodes have.
Season 3 is very hit or miss
SleepTight66618 October 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Yet another crappy episode, Season 3 is very hit or miss.
In this episode, four kids decide that they want to make a horror movie and go hide in a morgue. Little do they know that the undertaker is a murderer.
One of the young boy's father is murdered by the undertaker and some other guy, and the boys decide to take revenge.
In the end, they win, and the bad guy has his guts sucked out.
Meh, the episode fails because of more than one reason. The child actors are just horrible, and the dialog is poor. It tries too hard to be funny, and it just isn't. It looks very poorly produced and is just another Season 3 dud.
In this episode, four kids decide that they want to make a horror movie and go hide in a morgue. Little do they know that the undertaker is a murderer.
One of the young boy's father is murdered by the undertaker and some other guy, and the boys decide to take revenge.
In the end, they win, and the bad guy has his guts sucked out.
Meh, the episode fails because of more than one reason. The child actors are just horrible, and the dialog is poor. It tries too hard to be funny, and it just isn't. It looks very poorly produced and is just another Season 3 dud.
Could have been better
bellino-angelo201419 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
After four kids watch a horror movie in the theater, they decide to make an horror movie themselves. So they go to the local morgue but they are forced to hide after the undertaker comes. This undertaker is a very gross guy that does nasty things such as taking out dead people's organs while eating some pizza or sucking their fluids and organs with a vacuum cleaner (something that would make even Tom Green throw up in disgust). While they are still hiding the kids find out that the caretaker is in cahoots with the pharmacist for killing people just for earning the profits of their funerals. When one of the boys discovers that his father died as a victim of this conspiracy, he decides with his friends to take their personal revenge (and as you guessed, they win).
The idea for the plot was nice. The problem with the episode was that it mostly focused on gross scenes (such as the ones mentioned earlier) and that really turned me off. So sad that after at least 10 excellent episodes, there had to be a failure such as this one!
The idea for the plot was nice. The problem with the episode was that it mostly focused on gross scenes (such as the ones mentioned earlier) and that really turned me off. So sad that after at least 10 excellent episodes, there had to be a failure such as this one!
"She's smiling..."
Foreverisacastironmess1239 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
It may sound odd but I'm pretty sure that how much you'll like this episode will depend on how much you enjoyed the movie The Goonies, because this tale is a tiny bit more adult but it has the same young kids on an adventure type of a vibe.. Well I never liked the damn movie and this thinly developed episode doesn't work for me either. It's about four inquisitive young teens, the cool tough greaser one, the fat one, the uh, Asian one, and the other cool more 'street' one, and they decide to try and help out their buddy who'd like to make horror movies when he grows up by giving him a little healthy inspiration by sneaking into the local morgue, where they soon inadvertently discover that there's a ruthless murder for profit scheme going on between the resident undertaker and a pharmacist, and after the father of the wannabe director becomes the latest victim it becomes personal and they set out to expose the murderous plot. It really doesn't do it for me at all, it feels like an episode of a horror kids show, and I don't mind that but not when I'm watching Tales From the Crypt. To me it feels very weak and artificial and just very dumbed down and immature thanks to the obnoxious and downright cringe-worthy dialogue they gave the boys, I think the little story dies on its feet. I mean it's cool how an anthology TV show tried out different things once in a while, but seriously what harebrained idiot gave the go ahead for this turd of an episode? I find it weird when most of the second part of it is from a hand-held camera's point of view, I think it gives the action an off putting remote quality that makes it all seem like a cheap mess. It's only the darker elements and the swearing that reminds you that you're watching a Crypt episode at all.. It's not supposed to star kids, it just doesn't fit the tone. And besides they give you very little reason to care about them as they're basically all just a bunch of irritating foul-mouthed caricatures. John Glover is fairly wasted in it, although he does give the best scenes when he's whimsically cutting a lot of corners in his perpetration of the cadavers, and it's so ghastly when he uses a mallet to bash a 'smile' onto the dead woman's face. The abrupt and unsatisfying ending raises a big question mark, when the dead woman whom he had creepily played with is appearing to smile at his demise, adding a possible hint of the supernatural at the very last second, but didn't he put that smile on her? John Glover could have gone way bigger with a villainous role, he was awesome in Gremlins 2! Anyway to me this episode was a big mistake and it's a real anomalous stinker in a season that has some real classic gems in it. No favourite of mine, 'Nuff said!
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