It has to be said, however, that the drafty corridors have seen a few equally fearful intruders of late; indeed, an exorcism was performed at Hanworth Park House less than a year before the Tales team arrived, as film crews less accustomed to such frights were reluctant to venture inside while the house's ghost was still in residence. Today, there are no such apparitions evident in most of the 100-plus rooms, though one entire wing of the house is currently occupied by a number of grisley ghouls in crumbling make-up, a mad scientist with sleep-deprived eyes--and a camera crew that looks only marginally healthier. It is the third day of a five-day shoot on "Report from the Grave," the ninth episode of the series' seventh season, and director Bill Malone is discussing the ferocity of a lightening storm with the director of photography, his only fellow countryman among the 30-strong crew. The episode was also written by Malone, who, having helmed last season's scariest episode, "Only Skin Deep," was invited to contribute a story of his own when Tales moved to England as a change of style for season seven.

"That episode was staight-ahead horror," malone says of "Only Skin Deep." in which a man picks up a girl at a masquerade party, only to discover that her grotesque mask is actually her true face, "and that's what I really like to do." An avid reader of FANGORIA sonce it's very first issue, Malone has previously directed the feature films Scared to Death, "a drooling-monster-in-a-sewer picture," and Creature, "a drooling-monster-in-space picture," before catching the eye of Tales producer Gil Adler.

"Report from the Grave" stars British actor James Frain as a scientist who invents a device with which he can communicate with the dead, and later finds it extremely useful after he accidentally kills his girlfriend, played by young Welsh actress Siobhan Flynn. "It's really a wildly romantic tragedy rather than straight-up horror," Malone says. "I see it as a kind of Wuthering Heights-kind of story." Actor Frain agrees: "Oh yeah, it's got Emily Brontė written all over it," he says, tongue planted firmly in cheek in the best Crypt tradition. Frain is equally jovial about his recent role in the Ted Danson starrer Loch Ness, which he describes as "a romantic comedy with monsters --Local Hero meets Jurassic Park. It was a shame we did not have enough money to get a proper Loch Ness Monster, " he deadpans, "so we had to use the Cookie Monster with some seaweed over it's head. Actually, it looked quite good."

Frain admits that, like a lot of Brits, he wasn't familiar with HBO's highest-rated show, probably because British television channels tend to bury it, or screen it incomplete using Fox TV's butchered versions. "A friend of mine told me he's enjoyed doing one earlier in the season," the actor says, "so I read the script and thought it would be fun. Yesterday, for instance, we did a shot where I was ina mental hospital, straitjacketed and strapped to a bed. All of a sudden, the bed comes flying out of the wall, and behind it are these three naked women in tubes, and my girlfriend strapped to an electric chair with electrodes all over her!" In other words, he laughs, "Standard soap opera stuff."

For the complete article on the UK season of Tales From The Crypt on our Press page: The Bloody Olde Crypt