In 2011 there was a rumored return of ‘Tales from the Crypt’ in the works and now it seems that the show will be released on TNT with M. Night Shyamalan (‘The Sixth Sense’,’Unbreakable’) on board as the executive producer. With his recent success on ‘Wayward Pines,’ it shouldn’t be surprising that his plan is to stick with television. Fans of The Crypt Keeper have reason to rejoice at his return though that should be tempered with TNT’s higher restrictions over what HBO could show combined with the double-edged sword of having Shyamalan work on the series. While it might worry some, it should be noted that most of the projects he has had a hand in that didn’t involve him fully writing or directing such as ‘Devil’ have fared rather well with audiences.
The original R-rated horror anthology series ran from 1989 to 1996 and spawned two films with a huge following. From blood to gore to nudity to language to serious horror to b-movie styled horror, it really had it all. On the one hand, you can get away with showing a lot more on TV these days while on the other, it really is hard to imagine how a network show can possibly do the original series justice.
How does the new show go about things? According to TBS/TNT executive Kevin Reilly:
“We are definitely going to utilize the underlying comics. There’s something we’re doing online that I think could lead to a very unique aspect of audience participation. We’ll talk more about that as it evolves.”
That will provide the series with a ton of source material that can easily delve into darker horror without having to go quite so far on the nudity and swearing, though there will clearly have to be a cutback on some of the gore. Of course, fans of the last incarnation of the TV show want to know if we’ll be seeing a return of the Crypt Keeper. Unfortunately, Reilly responded simply with “we’ll save that for a later announcement.”
Hopefully that just means they are holding off on announcing his return and who will be voicing him though it is clearly far too early to tell. With the announcement of the series, however, we’ve learned that they plan on expanding this into a block of both horror and the outright strange:
“We’re going to put a variety of different genre shows, some which may have a weird sense of humor, some downright frightening, some a blend of genres, all united under the Tales From the Crypt brand. We already have about four properties in the development pipeline to move through this.”
It should be interesting to see what ends up on screen and what will work for TNT’s audience.
Are you looking forward to the return of ‘Tales from the Crypt? Do you think that M. Night Shyamalan is the right person to be in charge of the series? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Slash Film.
