Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House

When people ask you about horror on TV, one of the answers you think up is Tales From The Crypt. This oddity is one of the few spin-offs aimed at kids, and it's a game show.

Each episode, two teams of kids enter the titular character's haunted house and compete in five rounds of games, or frights as they were called, as they try to get the most points. With games like Fireball Alley, where the player defends headstones (or blocks with skull designs) from a CGI skull named Digger, The Swamp From Hell (yeah, they used the word Hell in a game show for kids), where one member has to collect skulls from a tree to save his partner from being vaporized, to the final event of Skullduggery, where the two teams rummage through the Cryptkeeper's home to find skulls that will decide the winner, this show was okay.

One of the things that this show has is CGI. Frights like Fireball Alley and The Swamp From Hell are set in CGI segments, which may not look good in today's terms, but this was 1996, back when computer animation was getting popular thanks to Toy Story, which was released a year before this premiered on CBS. Another thing is the Cryptkeeper gives some funny banter during the games.

Sadly, the game show does have some flaws. The CGI has not aged well, and the prizes are the same thing (winning team receives a Machintosh computer, while the runner-ups get a twenty-one volume encyclopedia set). Yep, the contestants are basically given stuff that is supposed to be used to learn, which is sad. Not even once do they switch the computer for something like the PSX (the hottest gaming console at the time) or even the Game Boy Pocket, which was on shelves when the show aired.

Sadly, this show has been mostly forgotten. As of this review, only one episode, Sloth Vs. Hogs, has been posted online. This is a spin-off that has to be watched to believe.