Tales from the Crypt (TV Series) Seance (1992) User Reviews

Another quality tale from the crypt.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 10 May 2007]

Tales from the Crypt: Seance concerns a con-woman named Alison (Cathy Moriarty) & her partner Benny who have set up an elaborate plan to con $3000,000 out of rich businessman Prescot Chalmers (John Vernon), unfortunately the plan fails at the last minute & if that wasn't bad enough Chalmers then dies in a freak accident. Not wanting to leave empty handed Alsion speaks to his widow (Ellen Crawford) who says she is planning to speak with her deceased husband at a séance that evening, sensing an opportunity Alison decides to 'fix' the séance & make Chalmers widow part with his cash but things don't quite work out...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 4 from season 4, directed by Gary Fleder I thought Seance was yet another great episode. The script by Harry Anderson was based on a story from 'The Vault of Horror' comic book & has all the right ingredient's for a good Tales from the Crypt episode, it has the set up, it has the satisfying pay-off & some decent exploitation along the way. What more do you want? OK so the twist ending may be a little predictable but it's fun getting there & at only 25 odd minutes it doesn't bore, it moves along at a nice pace & has that dark comic book feel to it. This one also features very funny opening & closing Crypt Keeper (John Kassir) scenes as he impersonates Humphrey Bogart from Casablanca (1942) complete with puns including 'slay it again Sam'...

As usual for this series this looks really good, it has nice 30's or 40's period production design & it's generally well made despite it's made for TV origins. There's some gore here, there's a decapitated head, a mutilated face & someone has their heart ripped out. The acting is good & it's always nice to see John Vernon.

Seance is another top Tales from the Crypt story among many I might add, definitely worth a watch & throughly recommended.

Another decently twisted story

[bellino-angelo2014 · 7/10 · 27 June 2021]

Con artists Alison Peters and Benjamin Polosky (Cathy Moriarty and Ben Cross) make a living in swindling fortunes from rich people. One day they set an elaborate plan to con 3000,000 dollars from rich businessman Prescot Chalmers (John Vernon). Unfortunately their plan fails and if that wasn't enough Prescot dies after falling in the elevator shaft and the cabin crushes him. After the funeral they meet Prescot's widow and she says them that is planning to speak with her deceased husband at a seance. Things have an unexpected twist as Prescot's ghost comes and snatches Alison's heart out of her chest for seeing if that was real.

While the story might look like something out of a movie of that period, it looks still fresh in this installment. John Vernon gives as usual an unforgettable performance with that deep voice of his and I really loved his apparition at the end. Not excellent but still a decent episode.

Decent

[shellytwade · 6/10 · 13 April 2022]

Not my favorite episode but once again I can understand why people do like this one. I don't know just something about it just didn't really stick to me. Cathy Moriarty was great and she always is good in anything she does but besides that I find it to be average at best.

Don't mess with John Vernon!

[Coventry · 4 May 2006]

Pretty cool "Tales from the Crypt"-episode that stars charismatic actor John Vernon ("Killer Klowns from Outer Space", "Animal House") as the rich and old target of two amateurish swindlers. They try fooling him into believing he's the lawful heir of a deceased bank robber but, before getting access to his fictional fortune, he has to buy off the fake notary. John discovers the fraud quite easily but dies nevertheless in a banal accident (= falling down an elevator shaft!). The deceptive couple sees this as a new opportunity to steal his money, this time by focusing on the blind and superstitious widow. The directing by Gary Fleder ("Kiss the Girl") is very stylish and Vernon obviously had a great time portraying the sleazy rich bastard. The tale has a nice and moody 1930's gangster-atmosphere going for it and there even are a couple of gory moments to enjoy. The Crypt Keeper's intro is the most fun, since he does a pretty good impression of Humphrey Bogart in "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca". Good episode, recommended to everyone who likes the series.

Hearts & Flowers

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 13 February 2016]

***SPOILERS*** The old Crypt Keeper, John Kissir, does a good Humprey Bogart imitation in this episode of greed and exploitation with these two con artists Alison Peters & Ben Polosky, Chaty Moriaty & Ben Cross, getting all that's coming to them. That in trying to steal the late Mr. Chalmers', John Vernon, old lady Dorothy out of his 3 million dollar inheritance. That was the result of a bank robbery a dead relative of Chlamers pulled off that Polosky claimed to have kept the police & courts from finding out. The plan was getting Chalmers to come back from the dead during a séance and announcing that they, Alison & Polosky, have it all coming. What the two con artists end up getting is not exactly what they expected.

Chalmers smelled a rat in all this at Polosky's lawyers office when he was about to hand over some $300,000,00-in covering up knowledge from the police of the bank robbery-for his services in getting him the 3 million dollars he hummed a song that only he knew. Chalmers realized that Polosky was at his place, secretly taking photos, when Polosky's partner Alison seduced him. Charging out of the office despite Polosky threatening to show the photos to his wife Chalmers slips down an elevator shaft and is later crushed to death by the oncoming elevator.

***SPOLIERS*** It's at the séance with Chambers coming back from the dead that a shocked Alison who was impersonating the medium Madame Leona, Lupe Ontiveros, finds out that her fellow scam artist Mr. Polosky had suddenly lost his head in all this as well as her ending up losing her, if she even had one, heart as well. The ironic thing about all this is that Chalmers was immune from being blackmailed with incriminating photos of him romping in the hay with Alison since his wife was totally blind!

Standout episode

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 30 June 2011]

Heartless Alison Peters (a splendidly snarky and wicked portrayal by Cathy Moriarty) and her wimpy partner Benny Polosky (an excellent performance by Ben Gross) are a couple of squabbling and adversarial two-bit con artists who concoct a tricky extortion scheme to bilk wealthy old sleazeball Mr. Chalmers (robustly essayed with smooth panache by the always great John Vernon) out of his considerable fortune, but things don't exactly go according to plan. Directed with commendable style and assurance by Gary Fleder and smartly written by Harry Anderson, with a tasty and credible 40s period atmosphere, a classy and moody score by veteran singer/songwriter Jimmy Webb, across-the-board ace acting from the fine cast, dialogue that crackles with razor-sharp wit, and slick cinematography by Rick Bota, this episode moves along at a constant snappy pace and delivers a good deal of nice grisly gore, with a spot-on satisfying gruesome punchline at the very end as justice is served in that perfectly macabre EC manner. Moreover, the Cryptkeeper bookends this show with a hilarious impression of Humphrey Bogart. One of the definite highlights of the fourth season.

You ain't got no heart

[mattressman_pdl · 9/10 · 6 November 2007]

Two scheming con-artists, Alison and Benny, attempt to steal a fortune from an older gentleman through an extortion scheme. However, after certain complications, their scheming enterprise much reach beyond the grave. But something reaches back...

Cathy Moriarty and Ben Cross are aces as the con-artists, both cold hearted and likable, and the late John Vernon chews the scenery as only he can as the older gentleman, Prescott.

The episode, as well as the Cryptkeeper lead in and lead out, are filmed in noir fashion of the fifties, giving this one a unique feel that sets it above the rest of season four.

The end is gruesomely brutal and savagely clever, leaving everyone exactly where they deserve to be. EC justice, baby, gotta love it.

Conning

[SleepTight666 · 16 August 2011]

Fun little con story with a ghost twist.

It's about two con artists, they try to blackmail a rich man into giving them a ton of money.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work out well for any of them. He falls down an elevator shaft and is squashed by the lift.

They try to con his blind wife into giving them the money, by playing up a ghost act. Unfortunately for them, he returns as a ghost and his vengeance was incredibly sweet.

Original con horror story.

Fun episode, if not a bit silly.

"You wear your wickedness like a cowl!"

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 8/10 · 28 December 2017]

So as the title of this episode probably suggests it does indeed feature a seance, and like any good seance, it all ends in horror and death! It's about two unscrupulous con artists who, after failing to scam and then blackmail a rich old man out of his fortune after he accidentally dies shortly after finding them out, they decide to try and fool the man's superstitious blind widow into signing over the money by staging a phony seance, only to find out that this particular seance is a little more real than they bargained for... For me the best part of this tale by a mile and what kind of actually redeems it is the ending, which I feel perfectly captures the awesome just desserts macabre magic punchline that the show was really all about, the great gory image of the still-beating heart being held up by the darkly chuckling ghoulish figure is so very classic that it could be taken straight out of the finale of tons of classic tales of terror, or indeed comic books! It's one of my favourite endings in the series. I sure wish the rest of the story leading up to it had been quite so effective though, I found most of the scenes with Kathy Moriarty and Ben Cross plotting to just be rather bland, except for the ones with John Vernon. I mainly rate this episode highly for its pitch-perfect ending, although the whole tale is enjoyable enough. I find the old style 50s gumshoe detective/con artist lingo and tone that this one tries to go for to be a bit on the cheesy and forced side, it's done better in other tales. And Moriarty played a sassy scheming bitch better in Casper! The late John Vernon was great and really chewed that scenery like the old pro he was. I love how they made him look at the end when he's a murderous spectre, it played up to his natural traits like his stern face and his naturally sinister voice, they made him damn creepy! Something that I find a tad confusing about the plot, which is told in flashback, is that it seems the Ben Cross character is killed almost as soon as he hides in in the closet two-way mirror thingy in preperation for the fake seance, but he's doing the narration? Makes no sense man! The morality of this story is also a bit screwed-up somewhere, they were both lying creeps but they didn't actually kill Prescott, he accidentally killed himself, and while he was definitely a partner in crime, at least the Ben Cross character showed a little remorse, so if such harsh justice was well deserved is a bit up in the air as far as this episode goes. Not ideal but an entertaining good episode with a killer ending! Give it a go, have a heart... X