User Reviews

Selfish Dr. Carl Fairbanks (an excellent performance by Tony Goldwyn) plays a cruel practical joke on his gifted older brother Dr. Martin Fairbanks (a terrific portrayal by Beau Bridges) which causes Martin to have a heart attack and leaves him slightly paralyzed in one hand. Many years later Martin gets his belated harsh revenge by making Carl the recipient of an equally nasty practical joke by injecting him with an experimental serum that makes Carl appear dead. Director Stephen Hopkins, working from an ingenious script by Jim Birge, offers a cracking tale of sibling rivalry taken to its ultimate savage extreme, ably milks the premise for oodles of morbid and truly nerve-wracking suspense, and delivers a good deal of ghastly gore. Moreover, the edgy tension between the two brothers really crackles and gives this particular episode a very potent extra emotional punch. Best of all, the plot not only has a few pleasingly mean twists and turns, but also gets more increasingly brutal and warped as it unfolds and culminates in one doozy of a startling double twist surprise ending. Kudos are also in order for the outstanding acting by the two leads, with Bridges a total treat to watch thanks to the sadistic relish he brings to his role. Both Alan Silvestri's moody score and Levie Isaacks' polished cinematography are up to par. As a sweet added bonus, lovely "Playboy" Playmate Tina Bockrath (Miss May 1990) provides some tasty gratuitous female nudity in a bit part. One of the third season's strongest half hours.

This episode was my introduction to TALES FROM THE CRYPT when I found it one night on late TV. The first time it scared me, but I later found it on YouTube and I must have seen it at least 4 other times (and this counts as the fifth) and I loved it each time. Now I can talk about it.

Our story begins in 1979. Martin (Beau Bridges) and Carl Fairbanks (Timothy Hutton) are two brothers that study in medical school and at night they go in the college's morgue section for seeing if Carl is prepared for the final exam. Carl staged a practical joke; he let his girlfriend and a colleague dress up as corpses for making a birthday surprise to Martin. Unfortunately, his heart doesn't see it and he soon has a stroke that leaves him with a paralized hand. Now, in the present, Carl has become a successful surgeon while Martin is limited to a research position. Soon Martin shows Carl the confirms of his theories about the human brain that could remain alive when the body is dead or paralyzed. Carl as always doesn't believe anything, but this time, he has a stroke and he is paralyzed. He has to suffer lots of pain (being hung in the meat locker of the medical school basement, treated like a punching bag by Mitch the fake Rastafarian) and it's also the alive subject of Martin's first class (about cranial anatomy). Soon Carl realizes that his fingers and toes are beginning to move again but it's too late as Martin and his colleagues already tear his skull apart with an ephidermal saw (the one that cuts both skin and bones) and remove his scalp and his brain while he screams for help! Carl wakes up horrified and after Martin tells him about the joke, he has a stroke just like it happened to his brother twelve years earlier. The episode ends with the autopsy on Carl's body while his sense of touch is still alive (the only thing on which Martin wasn't right!).

I love this episode for all the good reasons: the soundtrack by Alan Silvestri which is very haunting and suspenseful (and in one point a bit tropical sounding), the props since the brain looked so realistic and also the story. And Timothy Hutton here gives probably his best performance to date and, I don't know why, but I really loved to hear him scream things such as ''HELP! I AM BEING PEELED! THEY'RE TEARING MY SKULL APART!'' or ''STOP MARTY STOP! I AM ALIVE (and his scalp is removed)! I AM ALIIIIIVEEEEEE (and his brain is removed)!!!'''

I would recommend this episode to everyone (even to those who are not fans of TALES FROM THE CRYPT) as I personally think it's funny, and the fact that I have seen it 5 times and loved it all of them certainly says a lot!

Martin Fairbanks (Beau Bridges) is a super-intelligent doctor specialized in the human brain and he even developed a serum that preserves the brain functions for several hours after all other vital organs have died. He's on the verge of a real medical breakthrough when a morbid prank by his irresponsible younger brother Carl causes him a heart attack and a permanent physical handicap. Years later, frustrated Martin still works in his now successful brother's company and he develops another dubious plan that'll both prove his medical theories AND give Carl a taste of his own 'medicine'. Following Martin's treatment, Carl is clinically dead and ready for his autopsy, yet he can still see, hear and suffer everything that happens around him. To my knowledge, "Abra Cadaver" is the most complex and ambitious Tales from the Crypt episode ever penned down. Most episodes simply provide basic frights and a bit of gore, whereas this tale trots out with heavy medical terms and several twists in the plot. It's actually also one of the most frightening installments in the entire series as it brings forward a topic that portrays many people's worst nightmare: being totally paralyzed but alive and unable to call for help. Some of the scenes, like the preparation of Carl's corpse for the freezer, are quite disturbing and atmospherically choreographed by director Stephen Hopkins ("Predator 2"). Beau Bridges is phenomenal as the slightly sadistic doctor and his performance might even be the best one in all seven Tales from the Crypt seasons.

Boy, is this an original one! The punning title has been used before, but as far as horror goes, "Abra Cadaver" takes some beating. Martin and Carl are brothers who have followed the same career path in medicine, though talent-wise, Martin is far superior to his younger sibling.

One night, Carl plays an amazing prank on his brother in the hospital morgue, which entails a murder victim coming back to life. Martin sees the joke but his heart doesn't, and the resulting cardiac arrest leaves him with a useless left hand, which scuppers his career as a surgeon.

Instead, he goes into research big time, the climax of his work being a cruel experiment which returns the deadly joke in spades. Unfortunately, it has an unpredicted and grisly ending for Carl, who clearly didn't deserve this, but who said life was fair, much less death?

Tales from the Crypt: Abra Cadaver starts a number of years ago on the birthday of a young trainee surgeon named Martin Fairbanks (Beau Bridges) whose brother Carl (Tony Goldwyn) arranges a surprise party & a cruel practical joke the shock of which gives Martin a heart attack a result of which means Martin has permanent paralyses in his hand, since a surgeon needs two hands Martins career is over. Jump froward to the present day as Carl is now a hotshot doctor & the disabled Martin is a lowly research scientist working on a theory that the human brain remains active for days after the body has died, of course he needs results & Martin has a plan to prove his ideas & he decides to use Carl as the raw material...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 4 from season 3, the first of three Tales from the Crypt stories directed by Stephen Hopkins I thought Abra Cadaver was a great episode. The script by Jim Birge was based on a story from the 'Tales from the Crypt' comic book & is much better than the previous episodes from season 3 so far, this is much more like the Tales from the Crypt that I know & love. The story has that macabre darkly comic tone to it as most of the story is told from the point-of-view of a corpse & the things that happen to it, there's not one but two neat twists at the end which round things off nicely, the character's are good & this one might surprise you. It moves along at a good pace & is a fun episode.

This episode looks very good & is well made, there's some gore here including a sliced opened body & a fair amount of blood splatter. There's a nice morbid tone running throughout this episode as well & there's a little nod towards Re-Animator (1985) with some fluorescent green serum in a syringe used in the story. The acting is very good in this one.

Abra Cadaver is a top tale from the crypt & as good as season 3 has been so far, this ones well worth a watch.

Wow, I just never get tired of watching that classic magical intro that gets you in the right mood for and takes you into the gleefully macabre world of the show every time. Always loved to watch this series as a kid, which was once a week late Friday night if I remember correctly - it totally blew my mind man! One of the absolute worst nightmares imaginable is realised in this astonishingly suspenseful and frightening tale, which has a certain startling element of realism to it. And rather than the gore that's actually seen which isn't all that much, most of it's done through the power of suggestion. It's kinda morbid and f****d-up, but awesomely scary because it could just be true... I mean who's to say if you can feel or sense anything after you're dead? They've been cases of people on the operating table where the anaesthetic has somehow failed and they've been able to feel the entire experience. And you know one day guys, we're all gonna find out. We're all gonna be like that. But enough of that depressing s**t, this is a review of a Tales From the Crypt episode, so ya know let's lighten up! It's all good!!! This one's all about a brother who enacts a cruel and ruthless revenge on his younger sibling for a twisted practical joke that went horribly wrong years earlier, and let's just say that he one-ups him to say the least! Once again, it's one amazingly chilling plot device, and I could see how some fans view this as the scariest episode, but for me personally I've found that when you've seen it before and you know what the complex twist at the end is, that everything that happens has merely been another sick prank by Marty to get his revenge on Carl, it doesn't have the same level of impact to it, but it doubtless remains a gripping tense blast of an episode that makes you think twice about what practical jokes can lead to. The disorienting camera movements excellently convey the perspective and building dread of the man and the hellish position that he finds himself in. And despite verging on being annoying and corny at points, I thought Tony Goldwyn did a fine job with his role, which must have been some kind of challenge because of course for most of the time he's in a death-like state and his performance is the inner-monologue thoughts in his head, and he was very effective because when you think about it it's really him that sells the concept of the story and keeps you interested. And even though the proceedings turn out to have been faked, it still serves the purpose of adding to the payoff of the very final scene where he really is about to be eviscerated alive. And the ending's the creepiest part, even if you've seen it a hundred times. (That's what you get for hiring a Hispanic mugger to kill Patrick Swayze!) Still a lot of fun and disturbing as hell, Abra Cadaver is a hair-raising experience of a tale that creeps up on you, grabs on and does not let go - not even after the tale's over! Fantastic, and practically guaranteed to make you ~squirm!!!~