Viewed: Late February early in the morning
Season/Episode: 01/02
Christmas Episode Status: Yes
Christmas Episode Already?: Yes
Comic this came from: Vault of Horror #35
Read it?: Yes
Variation from the original: Not too much. A couple of changes from the original to add a new plot twist, but not much besides that.
Synopsis: Wife and mother of one daughter kills her husband during the Christmas holidays. Unfortunately, she decides to commit the deed the the night a psychopathic killer--who only targets adult females--escapes the (conveniently) nearby asylum. Further coincidence ensures that the psychopath has decided upon the murdering housewife to be his prey, creating a difficult situation for the wife: she could call the police, but she happens to have her dead husband lying around. As a plot twist, the daughter--fast asleep throughout the events of the story--allows the antagonist in the house.
Highs: The make up on the psychopath does a great job at making the character look disgusting, which can be assumed to be a good thing. Also a scene where the wife is trapped in a closet and the escapee looks into the window during his climb up a ladder can is actually considerably creepy.
Lows: The poor acting really detracts from the episode. The themes and absurdity of the plot clashes with the general feel of the show.
Views: I question why the producers decided to make this story an episode. The first episode, the Man Who Was Death (see my review earlier), achieved the attitude for which this show was going: adult takes on a children's horror comic. Keeping that general approach in mind, "And All Through the House" would be an episode the producers would avoid at all costs. The story itself reeks of self-parody, as the comic's story is pretty much exactly what the episode's was. However, the comic story came out long after the EC comics had established themselves; the show's take, on the other hand, is only the second episode. The first season of a television show should be about establishing its footing and making a name for itself, not already creating a self parody with what is honestly a goofy "evil Santa" gimmick. Think "Santa's Slay" with Bill Goldberg, and you would get the idea. That movie was terrible, and this episode was pretty terrible as well.
The episode failed to be scary, except for the scene mentioned in the Highs section. The acting was atrocious, and the fact that almost the entire acting load is carried by a fairly mediocre actress really accentuates her weaknesses. Spoiler: Demi Moore stars in an episode in the second season. I'm not really sure if Demi Moore is generally considered a great actress or not, but she apparently has demonstrated enough competence to land her some lead roles--which is more than you can say about several of the actresses who also performed on this show. If the creators of this show can land a talent like her, then use those resources to sign an actress who can perform roles such as this convincingly.
Other than that, I do not really have much else to say about this episode. It was boring and predictable. The only original direction the writers took with the story involved something small. In the comic, the wife kept the body in the house; and the presence of the body prevented her to be able to call the police when the psychopath showed. In the episode, she dumps the body outside beforehand--allowing her to call the cops and blame the dead husband on the psychopath. While I laud the innovation in storytelling, the change does not make much sense; it undermines a plot convenience in the original story and makes it less believable that cops would get involved.
One neat thing I liked about the story involves the Crypt Keepers closing remarks. Although the girl invites the psycho Santa in the house, CK makes sure to notify that the girl was not hurt by him. I do not remember much from the original comic; but I do remember that the Vault Keeper (the original teller of the story, a discussion for another day) said the same thing, as I was curious about this detail myself.
Overall, a boring episode that I was eager to finish five minutes after it began.
Rating: 1.75 out of 5 stars.
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