Monsters On Screen: Tales from the Crypt (1989)

All episodes of Tales from the Crypt were bookended by sequences presented by 'the Cryptkeeper', a puppet designed by Kevin Yagher and operated by several puppeteers; among them (depending on the episode) being Van Snowden, Brock Winkless, Charles Lutkus, Erik Schaper, Mecki Heussen, Shaun Smith, Patty Maloney, David Stinnett, and Rico Topazio. Yagher personally directd all the Cryptkeeper sequences for each episode, as well as those for the feature films Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood.

The undead makeup effects for the episode 'Til Death' were realized by Chris Walas. Different stages of decomposition were designed for Pamela Gien's character. The first stage was achieved with facial prosthetics, second stage with heavy prosthetics including a ribcage worn over the performer's chest, the third and final stage an elaborate costume.

'Korman's Kalamity' had its monster effects realized by by Alec Gillis (miscredited as 'Alec Guiness' and Tom Woodruff Jr., future founders of Amalgamated Dynamics, with Shannon Shea, Roger Borelli and Jeff Farley also credited as 'creature FX crew'. The first monster is a barely seen frog-like 'laundry monster'; Woodruff was the perfomer inside the suit.

The second creature that Gillis and Woodruff realized was the fridge zombie, realized as a performer in a prosthetic mask.

The last monster in the episode is an ogre-like monster, caricaturing Korman's nagging wife; the ogre was realized as a heavy mask, chest and arm prosthetics.

'The Thing from the Grave' had another undead monster, this time realized by Kevin Yagher and his own effects team. The undead lover Devlin Cates was realized as a puppet for the closeup shots, and a prosthetic makeup for distance shots.

Yagher would once more contribute special makeup effects to the episode 'Lower Berth', where the deformed Enoch was achieved as Jeff Yagher (brother of Kevin Yagher) wearing a heavy foam facial appliance with animatronics installed to move the second face.

The episode ended with Enoch fathering the Cryptkeeper; the baby Cryptkeeper was realized as a puppet coated in foam latex, which has since rotted away by the time the puppet was auctioned off. The eyes had actually been reused from a Chucky puppet Yagher's team had constructed for the Child's Play films.

'The Secret' had a very brief appearance of a werewolf, realized as wolfman facial prosthetics worn on young Mike Simmrin's face. The prosthetics were designed by Kevin Yagher, yet again contributing to an episode outside of its respective Cryptkeeper sequences.

The ghouls in 'Mournin' Mess' were realized as facial prosthetics and bald caps, handled by Michael Spatola.

The various undead makeups and puppets in 'None But the Lonely Heart' were the work of Todd Masters and his team, who would go on to contribute many special makeup effects for the series. It's a shame that some of the undead makeups are so briefly seen. A puppet skeletal zombie was also constructed.

'On a Deadmans Chest' had a brief sequence where Yul Vasquez's dragon tattoo comes to life, bursting out of his skin; the living tattoo dragon was a puppet realized by Todd Masters' team.

The undead Felicity White in 'The New Arrival' was realized as a prosthetic mask, designed by Michael Spatola.

Todd Masters also worked on the episode 'Werewolf Concerto', realizing the werewolf that Timothy Dalton transforms into; much of the werewolf suit's components were reused from the suit that Masters' team had built for Howling VI: The Freaks a few years earlier, in particular the leg extensions. This time around, the suit was now complimented with more lupine facial prosthetics.

Masters also realized the vampires in the episode 'Comes the Dawn', the most complex prosthetic being this especially demonic vampire with a skeletal ribcage.

Following on from Demon Knight's success, Bordello of Blood, would prove to be less successful; the production moved to Vancouver and did not take the Los Angeles teams with them. Problems arised when it was realized that the Vancouver special effects artist teams did not have the necessary skills for a movie production; as Todd Masters remembered 'Vancouver at that time really only had X-Files experience, so the monster-maker teams there were behind what L.A. was doing. Production was expecting the speed and type of work that we were previous doing.'

Todd Masters was hired to 'save' the productions special makeup effects; he was not happy with the designs he had to follow, especially the final form taken by the vampire Lilith, which consisted of latex appliances applied to Angie Everhart; 'Every show should have its signature monster. ET is ET, whether you like that monster or not, that's not in any other movie. Bordello of Blood had Witchiepoo'.