You know what Tales From The Crypt really needs round about now? An episode that slaps on a pair of medical gloves and delves into the hollow carcass of the macabre right up to the elbow; an episode that isn’t afraid to burrow under your skin and make it crawl; an episode that pulls out the stops to give you the creeps. Aiming to do exactly that Stephen Hopkins’ gloriously titled Abra Cadaver, an episode that hopes to give the season a shot in the arm by trying out something a little different from the usual serving of murderous lovers and unscrupulous con-men, so it’s off to the morgue we go for a story about brotherly grudges taken way too far.
With a more notable guess director at the helm (Hopkins was fresh off Predator 2 at the time), a nicely recognisable cast and a scenario that proved to be a refreshing break from the norm, could this tale of medical malpractice improve the third season’s body of work…?
Years ago, both the Fairbanks Brothers were medical students, but while Martin had a natural aptitude for it, the younger Carl could hardly be described as a natural. One day, when Martin is attempting to help his brother study by getting him to figure out how various cadavers in the morgue died, he scolds his sibling for getting a bit too handsy with a rather nubile corpse. However, when said dead body suddenly lurches of the slab screaming, it turns out that Carl is only playing an elaborate birthday joke on his brother. The problem is, the joke goes over so well, it manages to give Martin a near-fatal heart attack and as we wind the clock forward a couple of years, we find that their dynamic has changed greatly.
Now a successful surgeon, Carl is on the verge of cutting his brother off, who due to partial paralysis from his heart attack, has had to ditch his dreams of being a surgeon and settle for medical research instead. But despite Carl’s complaints, Martin insists that he’s made a major breakthrough with an experimental serum that’s derived from various voodoo potions and concoctions that will allow someone to live on beyond death. To prove his point, Martin chooses to poison his brother and inject him with the glowing green liquid in order to keep his brain functions alive after death.
However, while it seems that the serum works and Carl us completely conscious within his cold, lifeless body, it seems that Martin has some old grudges to work through first. Plotting to get a grisly revenge, he’s planning to allow his dead-but-very concious bro go through the discomfort of an autopsy and as Carl screams for help inside his own head, it seems that nothing can help him in time.
However, it turns out that Martin has a sense of humour after all, and Carl’s ordeal is nothing more than an elaborate gag. But due to an unforseen snag, it turns out that the untested serum gives Carl actual heart attack, and it seems he’s going to experience that autopsy first-hand after all…
While Abra Cadaver sometimes struggles within the limitations of its budget, it’s exactly this sort of bizarre experimentation I was hoping season three would have more of, I mean, why waste time on delivering endless stories of the same old stuff, when you can go for broke and try something vastly different for a change? Hopkins seems to agree and as a result, his episode relies heavily on POV shots as we watch Carl’s ordeal through his black, lifeless eyes as his brain gives us a panicked, frantic play by play of all the horrible shit that’s happening to him. But beyond a truly creepy concept, another thing that helps Abra Cadaver stick in the mind is that it feels very much like a spiritual sequel to a rather notorious film from the eighties.
You can’t play around in morgues with dead things while waving syringes of glowing green goop around and not invoke thoughts of Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator and while Abra Cadaver stops short of fully announcing that it’s set in Miskatonic University, it brings up welcome comparisons despite telling a very different story. However, the opening flashback certainly starts to creep into the same territory thanks to the casual use of managed bodies and some morgue based nudity that implies necrophiliac tendencies (revealed to be a joke as the woman in question is only pretending to be dead). But those Re-Animator comparisons go even further when the prank zombies look similar to the ones that stagger about the place during the climax of Herbert West’s cinematic debut and that obsession with medical practises gives proceedings a nicely nasty edge.
It also helps that the episode is carried by two familiar faces. Beau Bridges may be considered the lesser of the Bridges Brothers, but when you consider that the whole basis of his character is that we’re supposed to believe that he’s a man disgruntled by the success of his younger brother, he ends up being perfect casting. Similarly, Tony Goldwyn at the time was highly recognisable thanks to playing the villain from Ghost, and he fully embraces his inner douchebag with aplomb as the shittier half of the Fairbanks Brothers. The two actors provide the framework that allows Hopkins to scratch any remaining horror itch left over from A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child and deliver some first-person chills as we join Carl on his harrowing journey to the morgue. Not only does the surgeon have to endure the body horror of thinking he’s been hung up in the freezer by having a meat hook inserted into his back, but the big finish to Martin’s prank is to pretend to remove his brain with a saw as Carl screams within his own mind.
However, while the episode manages to get its wild (for 90s TV at least) premise across well, you can’t help but feel that the final denouement is a little clunky. Maybe the episode wrote itself into a corner by having too many similar things echo what came before (multiple practical jokes, multiple heart attacks, numerous instances of living death) but even though Carl is a confirmed prick, I’m not entirely sure he actually earned his horrific fate – I mean, if Martin has forgiven him for his careless act, shouldn’t we? Weirdly enough, I’m reminded of another prank laden movie concerning feuding brothers in David Fincher’s The Game that also kind of stumbled trying to neatly round off such hefty rug pulls, but this installment certainly deserves points for trying.
It may not stick the landing, but this darker, more serious episode cements my need for more far-out episodes that want to take wilder swings. Plus, upping the macabre factor and giving multiple nods towards Re-Animator is always going to win me over no matter how you end the episode, so let’s pump the breaks on all the goofier stuff, shall we. The Crypt is always far more fun when you get to play with the dead things.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 