While The Twilight Zone remains the most iconic anthology series of all time, the best each episode by the Crypt Keeper, was to deliver horrific, demonic, and disturbing tales, but always with a look at making horror fans smile with a mix of humor and irony in each episode.

Tales from the Crypt also shares much in common with The Twilight Zone in bringing fans some familiar faces g on for single episodes and delivering performances they never got the chance to deliver when they appeared in more mainstream movies and television shows. Faces like Demi Moore, Lance Henriksen, Kevin Dillon, Will Wheaton, and Jeffrey Tambor were all on hand for episodes directed by luminaries like Richard Donner, Bob Gale, and Walter Hill. What resulted was fun and gruesome horror tales, all told with a laugh.

10 "The Ventriloquist's Dummy"

Season 2, Episode 10

In season 2, some familiar faces ed up with Tales from the Crypt in a disturbingly shocking story called The Ventriloquist’s Dummy. Bobcat Goldthwait plays Billy Goldman, an aspiring ventriloquist. When he gets the chance to meet an icon in the industry, he jumps at the opportunity. However, this icon, Mr. Ingles (played by the legendary Don Rickles), has a secret he has been hiding his entire life, one that will send Billy to the edge.

The episode has some major shocks, and when Mr. Ingles reveals his shriveled-up twin, Morty is actually the dummy – and he is calling all the shots – Billy realizes that he might not get out of this meeting in one piece. This episode allows Rickles to play against the character, but he is very much in his wheelhouse as he sets out to ensure that Billy never reveals his secrets. It also ends with two major twists, which is always one of the best reasons to watch Tales from the Crypt.

9 "The New Arrival"

Season 4, Episode 7

While it isn’t the best Tales from the Crypt episode in the series, this fourth season episode might be the scariest release in the entire series. The New Arrival stars David Warner as a radio child psychologist who is invited to a home to help a mysterious, disturbed child. When he shows up to help, he realizes things are way out of control, and there is little chance he has to help the child, but less get out of this situation alive.

Zelda Rubenstein (Poltergeist) is in the episode in a very fun role, and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) also shows up in a cameo role. Peter Medak (The Changeling) directs the episode and he brings a 70s horror feel to the proceedings, with the atmosphere really adding to the terror and sense of dread that the psychiatrist experiences as he makes it through it all.

8 “Yellow”

Season 3, Episode 14

Yellow has one of the best cast who stars alongside his lesser-known son. The legendary Kirk Douglas stars as General Kalthrob, while his son Eric Douglas takes on the role of Lieutenant Kalthrob. They are two soldiers serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. However, the two suffer strife when the son asks his dad for a discharge, and when his father refuses, the younger Walthrob goes AWOL, abandons his squad, and shows cowardice in the face of his duty.

What makes this entire episode stand out is that it isn’t the type of horror story that fans of Tales from the Crypt episodes are used to. There are no demons, curses, witchcraft, or boogeymen. This is the story of a father and son, and one man who takes his duties for his country and his desire to put patriotism over his own family. It is horror, but only in the idea that a father would choose to have his son killed by firing squad.

7 "Dead Right"

Season 2, Episode 1

Demi Moore was one of the lead cast in the season 2 Tales from the Crypt episode, Dead Right. She stars as a secretary named Cathy who will do anything she can to marry a man with money as she seeks a higher social status. However, when a person is only marrying for money, they often find that what they get is not what they were expecting. That happens here as she finally finds a man with money but ends up wishing she had never started looking to begin with.

Expecting she would become a widow and inherit a fortune, she rushed into the marriage.

The man she finds is Charlie, played by Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor. She is even more excited because a fortune teller (Natalija Nogulich) told her she would meet a man, marry him, inherit money, and die soon thereafter. Expecting she would become a widow and inherit a fortune, she rushed into the marriage but then won a lottery and decided to leave him, only to find out the fortune teller’s prediction had a different meaning.

6 "Abra Cadaver"

Season 3, Episode 4

The Tales from the Crypt episode Abra Cadaver is a tale of two brothers, one holding a long grudge against the other. Beau Bridges is Martin, a research assistant whose dreams of being a surgeon ended thanks to a cruel prank his brother played on him. That brother, Carl (Tony Goldwyn), is now the respected surgeon that Martin always wanted to be, so this episode shows what happens when the jilted brother decides he wants revenge against the man he thinks ruined his life.

This is one episode that has no morality tale ending...

Martin gives Carl a drug that makes him think his body has died, but his brain has remained alive. The horror then comes on strong as Martin begins to do things to Carl that cause the surgeon to panic as his brain realizes there is nothing that he can do to stop his brother from torturing him. This is one episode that has no morality tale ending, as Martin simply tells his brother in the end that his body really isn’t dead, but it is too late since his brother has a heart attack and dies.

5 "Forever Ambergris"

Season 5, Episode 3

Steve Buscemi starred in the Tales from the Crypt season 5 episode Forever Ambergris. Also, in one of his acting roles, The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey starred as a combat photographer named Dalton Scott. He has spent much of his career living in the shadows of photographer Isaac Forte (Buscemi), and Dalton comes up with a plan to take over Isaac’s life, including winning over his wife.

This is a tale of deceit and terror as Dalton forces Isaac to head into contaminated lands, where he ends up catching a disease that slowly begins to destroy his body. When Dalton attempts to take over Isaac’s life, he finds to his horror that Isaac unknowingly gave the disease to his wife, and in turn, she ed it on to Dalton, delivering the twist ending to this morality tale. What really makes this episode stand out is the body horror, as it does not shy away from showing the rotting skin and deteriorating bodies.

4 "What's Cookin'?"

Season 4, Episode 6

The season 4 Tales from the Crypt episode What’s Cookin? has some very familiar faces in the cast. Christopher Reeves (Superman) stars as Fred, a chef running a failing restaurant with Erma (Bess Armstrong). However, they take the advice of their busboy, Gaston (played by Judd Nelson), to create a new steak recipe. The horror of this episode is that the idea that they take on is using human meat.

The first victim they acquire the meat of is their landlord, Chumley, played by rock and roll icon Meat Loaf

While it sounds like a Tales from the Crypt version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this episode mostly plays it for fun, although it doesn’t hold back on the gore and disgusting nature of the experiment. What is even better is that the first victim they acquire the meat of is their landlord, Chumley, played by rock and roll icon Meat Loaf (Rocky Horror Picture Show). On top of the great casting, the special effects here really stand out in the horror anthology series.

3 "And All Through The House"

Season 1, Episode 2

All Through the House was a Tales from the Crypt Christmas special, and as expected, it brought murder, blood, gore, and offbeat humor to the holiday season. The episode starts when Elizabeth murders her husband and then calls her lover to let him know she has finished the task. However, she soon has a run-in with a patient who has escaped from a mental health hospital dressed as Santa, who seems determined to kill her.

Since the episode opened with a woman killing her husband to move on with her lover, it was clear that the morality tale here was that she would somehow get what was coming to her. What really makes this episode work so well is that it doesn’t mess around. She kills the husband and then the man in the Santa costume comes gunning for her. She can’t call the police since she just killed her husband, so the hunt is on.

2 “Death Of Some Salesman”

Season 5, Episode 1

The season 5 episode, Death of Some Salesman, offers up a very fun tale of terror based on something everyone can relate to. In this case, it is a traveling salesman who is running a scam to rip off unsuspecting people. That makes this Tales from the Crypt episode one where most viewers were happy to see the victim get what was coming to him after cheating so many vulnerable people out of their life savings.

Ed Beagley Jr. stars as Judd, the salesman who is selling fake cemetery plots to the unsuspecting. However, he gets what is coming to him in a perfect morality tale moment when he knocks on the door of a family he never should have tried to rip off. Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show) stars as Pa, while he, Ma, and Winona Brackett don’t like the idea of someone trying to steal their money and they take it out on the salesman in very gruesome and shocking manners.

1 "Television Terror"

Season 2, Episode 16

In the 1990s, Morton Downey Jr. made his name as one of the kings of daytime shock television, hosting his own reality show where he invited guests and then proceeded to allow things to spiral out of control for the entertainment of the audience. That made him a perfect person to play the tabloid television journalist Horton Rivers in the Tales from the Crypt episode, Television Terror.

Horton decides to investigate the home of a mass murderer named Ada Ritter. However, while they record their investigation, they begin to encounter several instances of paranormal activity. They then realize this might be more than they bargained for. It is similar to the recent ghost hunting reality shows, but with a very creepy and disturbing twist. Tales from the Crypt plays with the found footage idea years before that was even popular.