Tales From The Crypt's Weirdly CRUEL College Story

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Welcome back to Crack Attack. I recently did a very long video covering four different tales from the Crypt episodes.

[00:00:06]Unfortunately, my worst enemy, the algorithm, decided not to promote it, and subsequently it flopped. So, that was a complete waste of four episodes.

[00:00:15]Maybe it was the horrendous title. Or maybe it was the even more horrendous thumbnail. I don't know. It doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is that I've been pulling each of those four episodes out of that video and giving them their own video. And now it's time for House of Horror. If you're not familiar with Tales from the Crypt, it's a HBO horror anthology TV series. Each episode tells a different story and features a mix of genuinely frightening imagery, ironic punishments, and dark humor with some terrifying monsters, but others that are quite cheesy. The show ran from 1989 to 1996 with seven seasons altogether. It was adapted from a series of comics from the 1950s that got into a lot of trouble due to how graphic they were. But HBO was a premium cable channel notorious for being extremely lenient when it comes to nudity, profanity, and violence. So, they had no problem making the show as graphic as the comics, and they did exactly that.

[00:01:10]But the creators thought outside of the box. They wanted as many people as possible to see what they had in store.

[00:01:16]So, they shot PG versions of each episode with the mindset that the show might sometime air on a normal broadcast TV station, and it did eventually because it was shown on Fox temporarily in 1994. The creators of Tales from the Crypt are William Gaines and Steven Dodd. But if you ask someone, remember that show Tales from the Crypt? They're most likely not going to say, oh yeah, that's the show created by William Gaines and Steven Dodd. They'll probably say something along the lines of, "Oh yeah, that's the show that had an absolute shitload of Hollywood actors and guest directors who worked on it."

[00:01:49]Because everyone wanted to be a part of this show. Since Tales from the Crypt was so big back in the day, they kept the momentum going by making three spin-off movies based on it, a game show with the Crypt Keeper as the host that aired on CBS on Saturday mornings, and even a kids cartoon called Tales from the Crypt Keeper. Enough about the show in general. Let's talk about House of Horror. It's the seventh episode of season five of Tales from the Crypt and it's based on the original story House of Horror from the EC comic book Haunt of Fear. Anyways, I have one fun fact for you just before I start the episode.

[00:02:24]The haunted house in this episode was actually reused for the Dan Akroyd movie featuring Chevy Chase, John Candy, and Demi Moore called Nothing But Trouble.

[00:02:33]That movie may have rubbish ratings, but I'm sure if you've seen it, you can agree with me when I tell you that it's got a pretty good set. Now, I have nothing more to say. Nothing but trouble, you know. So, let's just get into the episode. The crypt keeper appears to be a judge, and he accuses us of watching too much Tales from the Crypt. Yeah, that's right. You stop watching so much Tales from the Crypt.

[00:02:55]Okay, that has to be the first time that I've ever agreed with the Crypt Keeper.

[00:02:59]And then he opens up the book and begins the story House of Horror. We're shown a bunch of college boys. The story actually centers on them, by the way.

[00:03:07]And they're dosing in their fraternity home. One of them is playing a video game and not watching where he's going.

[00:03:15]Nothing new here. We see that kind of thing every day nowadays. Reminds me of when Pokémon Go came out. People would just be mindlessly walking about the streets with their phone in their hands without watching where they're going.

[00:03:26]Like this. Like I'd even see people on their iPads. It was that mental like this just walking around.

[00:03:34]Anyways, on top of that, one of them is reading a porn magazine and another is cleaning the floor with a paintbrush in his underpants. Then we're shown two more cleaning the floor in their underpants. And written on their asses is, "Kick me. Someone please tell me what the hell I'm witnessing.

[00:03:51]>> Get back to work before I paddle your asses."

[00:03:53]>> Apparently a bunch of slaves. and they're referred to as the three pledges. This one is Ireland, the main one. This is Henderson and he's Waters.

[00:04:03]The slaveholder is Les Wilton, and these are his brothers. He takes it a step further.

[00:04:07]>> You forgot to kiss the souls of my shoes.

[00:04:10]>> You know, if it was me at this stage, I'd have knocked this out. He'd be the one kissing the souls of my shoes along with my ass. We discover that he is a wall of shame with a guy on it called DD Dwit who was a former slave of Les, but he couldn't take the torturing any longer, so he had a nervous breakdown.

[00:04:27]Straight off the bat, this is dark comedy. This idiot kisses his shoes instead of knocking him out like a real man. Wait for him one night behind the door. Crack him in the head with the baseball bat.

[00:04:39]>> Finally, a bit of common sense. But if you were going to do that to him, why haven't you done it already? Arling answers the door to in hell, a fine woman called Mona. Anyways, the reason she's here is because she's from the sarity house called Delta Omega Alpha.

[00:04:55]As I was saying, she's here to affiliate her sorarity with theirs for events, and she wants some of the lads to come over to their house tonight to get a taste for what it's like. Less declines her offer and makes an excuse about having a final pledge ritual tonight. I'm just noticing that there's a poster in the background that says, "We are what we watch." Maybe the show is trying to tell us something. We watch twisted like Tales from the Crypt. Maybe we're all psychopaths or something. I can't quite make out who it is on the poster, but it looks to me like the crypt keeper.

[00:05:26]Anyways, Les invites Mona and her girls to come over for the ritual tonight, and she agrees. I can't take any of this seriously when during their conversation, there's three lads crawling around like dogs on the floor in their underpants. It's time for the ritual and two of the brothers are driving the three pledges to where it's going to take place, the haunted house.

[00:05:45]They admit that they don't agree with Les and then end of the line kitties.

[00:05:50]>> Tada! Look who it is. Les himself. On the way to the haunted house, one of the lads tells the story about how the house came to be haunted. It was owned by a hermit who had a cough that could be heard from a mile away. And that's why it's called Coffer House. The corrupt mayor kicked the hermit out of the house to give the house to a fraternity. Then the hermit killed himself. To wrap it all up, nine fraternity brothers were found murdered by an axe in the house.

[00:06:15]And who was it that killed them? A bloke in a cloak who was coughing loud enough that he could almost choke. I'm actually quite proud of that rhyme, I do have to say. Les makes the pledges play a little game. Each of them has to go inside and flash their lights at the second floor and attic windows, and that's it.

[00:06:32]Simple, right? No, it's really not that simple. Not for the pledges anyways because they're not aware at all of what Les has planned. He has the entire house rigged with fake scares to frighten them all. Les plays this off by saying, >> "Well, the joint's haunted and Mr. Axe murderous ghost doesn't like visitors."

[00:06:50]>> Henderson is first. Off he goes inside the house. First, he hears coughing from the speakers.

[00:06:58]>> Great coughing sparks.

[00:07:00]>> And then a fake dummy scares the living [ __ ] into him.

[00:07:06]You didn't kill me.

[00:07:09]>> If it was real, it wouldn't have happened so soon. Usually in haunted houses, the ghosts tend to play with you for a little bit before they actually come out, you know? Henderson gets to the second floor window and flashes his light. But then >> Jesus, that sounded like Henderson.

[00:07:26]Well, no [ __ ] Who else would it have been? The housemate. Henderson is taking ages to get up to the attic, so they send waters in after him. And then we see this in the window.

[00:07:39]It's up to you to decide whether that was real or just a dummy. Waters hears the coughing from the speaker and then he puts his hand on the railing of the stairs, which isn't a very good idea because now he has ketchup all over his hands.

[00:07:58]>> Strawberry jelly.

[00:08:00]>> Well, all righty then. Strawberry jelly.

[00:08:02]I raise my arms and stand corrected.

[00:08:08]Looks like someone else also raises their arm. When asked why they're taking so long in there, Les's response is because they'reing with us, that's why.

[00:08:17]>> Les tries to make Arling go in next, even betting him 100 bucks if he makes it to the second floor. The only thing that actually encourages him to go inside is this.

[00:08:27]>> 100 bucks would buy us one terrific dinner date. And honestly, I don't blame him at all. Inside, Arling hears the coughing from the speaker. Of course, he does.

[00:08:38]And then we see this.

[00:08:43]A fellow with a scythe. Once again, is that a fellow who's part of the prank or is that an actual grim reaper? That's up to you to decide.

[00:08:55]I have to admit he has got a pretty good costume from Spirit Halloween if it's fake. After hearing him scream for his life, the brothers go inside to check out what happened.

[00:09:05]>> Take a good look, [ __ ] Just a dummy with a stupid mask when rigged.

[00:09:09]>> Judging by their reactions, it's clear that even they didn't know that there was a grim reaper just wandering around in there. So, apparently that part wasn't a setup. Not set up by them.

[00:09:19]Anyway, Les says that the story of the place being haunted is a load of horse.

[00:09:24]After whining for 2 minutes and being a [ __ ] he finally starts heading up to find the other two pledges. And then this happens.

[00:09:31]>> HEY, FOX, CUT THAT OUT.

[00:09:33]>> WASN'T ME. I I I ALREADY YANKED THE WIRE.

[00:09:35]>> Les is jumped by the Grim Reaper and his pants.

[00:09:39]When he takes off his mask, it's not a real Grim Reaper at all. It's DD Dwit, the guy Les had on his wall of shame back at the start. He's clearly proud as hell, so he stomps downstairs with his newfound gratification. And then Les continues upstairs to find the other two pledges. One of the brothers asks Dit if he's the one who set up the severed arm as a scare prop, and he says it wasn't him.

[00:10:09]Oh, what the hell is that? A human skull or some? A bunch of girls show up and say >> DOA is an all ghouls sorority.

[00:10:19]And then they reveal that they're all flesh eating ghouls and less is for dinner. But it doesn't end there. Even more ghouls show up along with Mona who now has aed up face. Bloody hell. I can't believe I've been calling a ghoul attractive this whole time. It's one of those classic twists in Tales from the Crypt where the [ __ ] gets what he deserved.

[00:10:45]That's the end of Les now. Anyways, now he's splattered up there on the wall of shame. I bet all those guys downstairs are wondering when Les is going to head back down to them. Well, his actual head was thrown back down to them.

[00:11:01]I'm sorry, that was actually horrendous.

[00:11:03]That was the worst joke I've ever made.

[00:11:05]And that's where the story ends. But of course, like always, we can't end without the crypt keeper showing up.

[00:11:11]This time he says that he knows college costs an arm and a leg, but this is just ridiculous. Followed by his obnoxious laugh.

[00:11:22]And that's the end of the episode. That was actually a really fun episode and contrary to what most people think, I think it was great. It definitely has a very weird premise to it, you know, with the slave kids and all that, but it ends up pulling it off pretty well, especially when they leave their fraternity home and head off to the haunted house because there the college boys think they're in control of everything as they play their scary noises through a speaker and set off their jump scare dummies. But they're really not in control. Not at all.

[00:11:51]There's a guy in there pranking them back. And even worse, we find out in the end that there's also a bunch of real ghouls in there. Overall, if I'm being honest, the scariest part for me was watching that bunch of lads crawling around like babies in their underpants.

[00:12:05]That freaked me out. No, all jokes aside, when I saw that arm flying out the window, that was pretty scary.

[00:12:12]Especially because when I looked closer at it, it clearly wasn't fake. And then to further prove my point of it not being fake, one of the brothers, Sparks, asks DD Dit if he's the one who set up the severed arm to scare the pledges.

[00:12:24]When he said it wasn't him, I knew something was up with the house 100%.

[00:12:29]And finally, I was kind of freaked out by the fact that the ghouls went so far as to behead less in the final scene.

[00:12:36]That was brutal. Overall, the atmosphere in the haunted house was genuinely eerie and fit the premise well. I can see why they reused it in that movie Nothing But Trouble, to be honest. It's better than bloody breaking it down or something. At least they got some use out of it. So, as I always say, that's about all I have to say. So, I'm going to call it a day.

[00:12:55]I'll see you in the next one. All right.

[00:12:57]See you. Good luck.

[00:12:59]>> Where the cat has gone at all?

[00:13:13]We die.