Tales From The Crypt is a unique horror franchise in that it combines genuine and artificial horror to provide a thrilling ride for horror fans. Naturally, the renowned anthology became a fan favorite as soon as it debuted, but the Crypt Keeper, the show’s famed narrator, and host must have had a substantial role in its success. He made a slew of puns and opened and ended the show in his trademark brash style. The series lasted seven seasons and featured over a hundred episodes. However, there was one episode dubbed Lower Berth that explained the Crypt Keeper’s origin narrative. The show was noted for its unexpected endings, and Lower Berth was no exception.
It was the only episode on which he did not serve as the show’s host and instead appeared in the plot. Aside from the show, Tales from the Cryptkeeper is an animated series, and Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood are two films. In this video, we will look at episode 15 from Season 2 of the program, which tells the story of a traveling carnival and the origins of the Crypt Keeper himself. We will also point out the contrasts between the origin stories of the Crypt Keeper in the program and the comic on which it is based.
In the opening segment, the Crypt Keeper says, “So call the babysitter and break out the barf bags as I narrate a nauseating novella with a very special place in my heart. I affectionately call this one Lower Berth.” As many of you would know, these carnivals and their attractions were the only sources of entertainment for people in the past when there was no radio, films, television, internet, or even comics. These carnivals would settle in open tracts near small towns. Sometime around the third quarter of the nineteenth century, a carnival arrived at a small town in the Ozark Mountains.
The carnival brought with it Feeley’s Fantastic Fairway of Freaks, which had several attractions like an enormously huge fat lady, a family of dwarves, etc. But what made Feeley’s show a hit among the townsfolk was Enoch, the two-faced man. He was a grotesque-looking person with another face growing from the right side of his face. Both these faces had an array of decayed teeth, eyes that resembled an old man, hair that seemed to be falling off due to sickness.
Enoch was owned by and brought to Mr. Feeley by one Mr. Sickles, who maltreated Enoch and released his anger from other issues by thrashing Enoch. But a graver issue with poor Enoch is that his clock is ticking, and he would die soon of natural causes. And without Enoch, Mr. Feeley’s sideshow would become another two-bit sideshow with typical attractions and nothing special. Although Mr. Sickles tried to bribe the company doctor to keep this fact a secret from Mr. Feeley, the latter got to know about it. What would Feeley and Sickles do when Enoch is gone is not quite a mystery.
But then a mysteriously shifty Brit came to Mr. Sickles and introduced himself as Dr. Zachary Cling. He tells Sickles that he had an offer to make, the salvation of sorts to save Sickles from his impending retirement. Cling had an Egyptian mummy in his possession, whom he had won from a game of poker from an archeologist who didn’t have money to shell out. The mummy was the only female mummy in all of America. She was called Myranah by the Egyptians but Clings like to call her Myrna. Now, the story of Myrna is fairly interesting.
She was the lady-in-waiting for the Pharaoh’s wife, but her beauty and body soon caught the Pharaoh’s fancy. He approached her, but she declined his advances because she was extremely loyal to her queen. Angered by this disobedience, the Pharaoh ordered her to be mummified alive. And for four thousand years, the sarcophagus in which she was buried became her home. Zachary Cling offered to give Myrna to Sickles on the condition that Sickles would pay Zachary forty percent of the commission. Realizing that this was the only option he had, Sickles agreed to the offer. Myrna turned out to be a blessing for Feeley’s Fantastic Fairway of Freaks. With her as a new attraction, people started to turn up for the sideshow in large numbers.
Myrna clearly had a great deal of impact on the new customers, but more than that, she also impacted Enoch, who had clearly fallen in love with the 4000-year-old mummy. One day, a young girl named Elizabeth wandered near Enoch’s cage and gave him a doll before leaving. Enoch pressed the doll against his chest as if it were his baby. But then came Sickles in one of his usual rounds to taunt and thrash Enoch, but in the cage, Sickles noticed a newspaper article that said Myrna was a precious stolen artifact.
Enraged by this knowledge, he went to confront Cling, who conceded to stealing the mummy from a boat in New Orleans. However, Cling also tells him that it wasn’t the ancient mummy that interested him, but the necklace she was wearing. Apparently, the necklace was very valuable, but at the same time very cursed. Anyone who tried to take it from the mummy ended up getting castrated—a jewel for a jewel. But Sickles didn’t believe his story and grabbed a huge pair of scissors to take the necklace himself. As he stormed out of there, Cling sort of clung onto him, but Sickles accidentally stabbed Cling.
Not wanting to get caught, Sickles goes to Enoch’s cage and plants the murder weapon there. After which, he goes to Myrna, and after much struggle, he manages to pull the necklace out of her bony and decaying neck. But Enoch had had enough of Sickles’ sick treatments by now. He had endured the crude behavior all his life, but when Sickles touched Myrna in a compromising and hurtful way, he lost his cool and charged at Sickles, only to slash his jewels with the pair of scissors. Strangely, the castration curse that Cling was talking about had been fulfilled.
Mr. Feeley didn’t know about these events and resumed his show as per schedule, only to find that Sickles was placed in Myrna’s sarcophagus and Enoch was gone. Enoch had taken the very dead Myrna and disappeared into the dead of night. A year later, the police show up at Mr. Feeley’s sideshow to inform him that his missing attractions had been found in a cave. Upon arriving at the cave, Feeley saw the craziest sight of his life, and remember, he runs a freakshow business. Enoch, the two-faced man, and Myrna, the long-dead mummy, were lying wrapped in each other’s arms. Feeley and the cops left the place, but they missed another being present in the vicinity. The result of Enoch and Myrna’s copulation, the fruit of their twisted tale of love. It was a hideous baby; it was the Crypt Keeper.
As for Enoch and Myrna, I guess you figured out by now where I get my good looks. Old Two-Face was my daddy, and the mummy was my mommy.
As we mentioned earlier, the episode was based on the 1950 comics Tales From The Crypt Issue #33, and the show took some artistic liberties to have a few changes made from the comics. For instance, in the comics, Myrna was an already-existing exhibit at Feeley’s sideshow, who would be introduced to the audience by Zachary Cling, a retired archeologist. Later in the comics, Jebson Sickles would approach Feeley and tell him about a dead man named Enoch, who had two faces.
So, in the comics, Enoch had already been dead and would be preserved with formaldehyde. Furthermore, Enoch and Myrna escape from their containments and get married. But the most striking difference between all of the Crypt Keeper comics and the shows is the appearance of the Crypt Keeper. In the show, he looks like a deformed, decaying, and skeletal figure, but the comics present him as an old man with white hair.