Published Jul 17, 2026, 2:39 PM EDT
Abdullah Al-Ghamdi joined Screen Rant in August 2019 and is now one of the leading contributors of the TV News team. Having written over 4000 news stories in that time , with his work cited in Buzzfeed and TV Insider, he's always bemoaning that there's too many shows and not enough time. You can contact him at: [email protected].
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HBO's iconic horror series just dethroned Rick and Morty.
The seminal cable network, which launched in November 1972, has cemented a name for itself over the past three decades for pushing the envelope in the comedy and drama space, with game-changing series such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City. That continues into the 2020s, thanks to breakouts like Euphoria and The White Lotus.
But executives have dabbled in the heavy genre space, especially in more recent years. There's been Stephen King's The Outsider, Lovecraft Country, and the Pennywise-spotlighting It: Welcome to Derry, which is awaiting a season 2 renewal.
There's an argument to be made, however, that HBO's dalliance with genres like horror never got much better than Tales from the Crypt, which dislodged Rick and Morty from the #1 spot on Vudu's Top 10 charts after an impressive 51 days.
Running from 1989 to 1996 for a total of seven seasons and 93 episodes, with three movies, Tales from the Crypt is notable for featuring A-list actors such as Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt, early in his career, in some chilling one-offs. Hanks directed and cameoed in an episode about a man who targets elderly women until his murderous secret is threatened to be exposed.
Pitt played a young man with a reckless penchant for speed. Demi Moore, in another relatively early turn, portrays a gold digger who follows the word of a fortune teller and pays the price. Viewers can even see Daniel Craig, years before James Bond, in a leading TV role for a story premised around revenge.
The variety of Tales from the Crypt is what made it a fan-favorite in the 1990s. Based on the EC Comics of the same name, the HBO Original is hosted by the unnerving and wisecracking corpse named Cryptkeeper that's voiced by John Kassir. And just as it did on screen, Tales from the Crypt boasted impressive talent that included filmmakers such as Richard Donner, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis as executive producers.
Fans have hoped for a proper revival of Tales from the Crypt for over a decade, with the first reports of the franchise's return stretching back to the early 2010s. Nothing has moved forward so far, including a high-profile attempt by famed horror director M. Night Shyamalan. But the original can be found streaming on platforms such as Philo, Shudder, and AMC+.
Release Date 1989 - 1996-00-00
Network HBO
Showrunner Gilbert Adler
Directors Russell Mulcahy, Elliot Silverstein, Tom Holland, Gilbert Adler, Stephen Hopkins, Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill, William Malone, Gary Fleder, Kevin Yagher, Howard Deutch, Rodman Flender, John Harrison, Randa Haines, Richard Greenberg, Robert Longo, Peter S. Seaman, Peter Medak, Roland Mesa, Rowdy Herrington, Roy Ward Baker, Andrew Morahan, Tobe Hooper, Steve Perry
Writers Scott Nimerfro, Terry Black, Colman deKay, Mae Woods, Randall Jahnson, Scott Rosenberg, Rob Cohen, Robert Reneau, Ross Thomas, Scott Alexander, Teller, Stanley Ralph Ross, Richard Christian Matheson, Yale Udoff, Kim Steven Ketelsen, Shel Willens, Joe Minion, Richard Tuggle, A. Whitney Brown, Andrew Kevin Walker, Harry Anderson, Connie Johnson, Dick Beebe, Don Mancini
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John Kassir
Crypt Keeper (voice)
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Michelle Johnson
Liz Kelly-Dixon
English (US) ·