Tales from the Crypt (TV Series) Came the Dawn (1993) User Reviews

Great "Tales from the Crypt" episode... totally different than the source material

[Edie_Revolution · 8/10 · 8 January 2013]

I've just been getting into reading the original EC Comics stories that these "Tales From the Crypt" episodes were based on. This is a terrific episode... But I just thought it was funny how different it was from the original comic. The only things similar are a cabin in the woods and a mysterious, wet, stranded woman. The title actually makes sense for the comic...

But no worries... I just thought it was interesting. Curious to see if I find any more adaptations in the series that are this different from the original comic.

Anyway... on to the actual episode. Brooke Shields is totally effective, as is Peter King. I really don't want to give too much away, as the plot is pretty twisty...

This really isn't one of the funnier episodes of "Tales from the Crypt"... just a nice, scary little crime tale. The prologue is pretty damned funny though. Some great Cryptkeeper puns!

Watch it and enjoy. Hopefully all of these episodes will be streaming somewhere soon. HBO Go? C'mon! As of now, they are readily available on DVD.

Nifty mystery thriller episode

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 15 June 2012]

Lecherous millionaire Roger (ably essayed to the smarmy hilt by Perry King) picks up beautiful young lady Norma (a sharp performance by Brooke Shields) on the side of the road. Unbeknownst to Roger, Norma is really a thief who plans on robbing him. However, Roger has an extremely deadly secret of his own. Director Uli Edel, working from a crafty script by Ron Finley, relates the engrossing story at a brisk pace, offers a generous sprinkling of bloody violence, and delivers a neat surprise twist at the end. King and Shields play off each other well, with Shields a particular stand-out as she brings a strong, compelling, and alluring, yet enigmatic edge to her brash character. The always quirky Michael J. Pollard pops up in a funny supporting role as antsy store owner Ed while yummy blonde Valerie Wildman has a memorably sexy bit as a hot gal who gets brutally murdered in a restaurant bathroom. Rick Bota's slick cinematography gives this episode an impressive glossy look and makes fine occasional use of overhead camera shots. A cool show.

Not a fresh plot but still decent

[bellino-angelo2014 · 7/10 · 3 July 2021]

A woman known as Norma (Brooke Shields) is driving with her pickup truck during a thunderstorm, but after a while the truck breaks down. She then stands by at the side of the road under the soaking rain when she is noticed by a rich businessman named Roger that takes her in his cabin. As they arrive they have a dinner and suddenly Norma is convinced that Roger is a rich womanizer and plans to steal his valuable stuff, but she will find out that he has a woman in his life...

While the story looked a bit similar to that of some TV movies of those years, it was still a decent episode with an unexpected ending and a funny cameo by Michael J. Pollard as the liquor store owner that talks to Roger about women who murdered men for robbing them of their riches. Decent overall.

"They'll have to take him to the morgue in a bucket." Good tale from the crypt.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 21 March 2007]

Tales from the Crypt: Came the Dawn starts as rich businessman Roger (Perry King) is driving through torrential rain to his luxurious log cabin out in the sticks, on his way he comes across a young attractive woman who calls herself Norma (Brooke Sheilds) soaking wet by the side of the road her pick-up truck having broke down. Being the guy he is Roger stops & offers her a place to stay for the night, however Norma has ulterior motives for accepting other than a dry place to sleep...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 10 from season 5, directed by Uli Edel this is another top tale from the crypt. The script by Ron Finley was based on a story from the 'Shock SuspenStories' comic book & is one of those straight faced episodes without the dark humour which is perfect for this particular story. The build up is very good in Came the Dawn as it manages to throw in some very effective red herrings & it completely changes the character's motivations & the significance they have in the story by turning everything on it's head so when the unexpected twisted twist ending happens it's even more satisfying. Most, if not all, of the best Tales from the Crypt stories rely on strong twist endings & this is why Came the Dawn works so well but I have to say where did that obscure meaningless title come from? Came the Dawn means absolutely nothing in context with the tale itself, or am I being stupid? Running for what seemed like a few minutes less than the average Tales from the Crypt story this is well worth giving 25 minutes of your time up to see.

There's a great atmosphere to Came the Dawn, the isolated dimly lit log cabin in the middle of the night with a raging thunderstorm outside is well realised. There's not really any gore in this one, just some blood splatter. The acting is very good & Sheilds is very easy on the eyes.

Came the Dawn may have a nonsensical title but it's yet another highly entertaining offering from the Crypt Keeper.

One of my favorite crypt episodes of all-time. Nice to see the beautiful Brooke.

[blanbrn · 9/10 · 13 November 2006]

"Came the Dawn" is one of my favorite crypt episodes of all-time and clearly the best of season 5 due to it's plot and twisted end, and most of all it features the beautiful Brooke Shields. It all begins with a beautiful woman murdered in a bathroom, then preceding on to a rainy night which is such a spooky and suspense setting you have a motorist(played perfect by veteran Perry King) who picks up a stranded chick(Brooke Shields) along the roadside. As this tale unfolds word is around town that an ax killer is killing off female after female, so this plot appears to have you thinking you know the direction, though you will be shocked how it turns out! The build up to the ending here is great, as the sexual tension between Brooke and Perry is super the kind of thing you expect from two veterans. Over a night dinner filled with opera music which is a good work of art, the two try to get to know each other, but always take the lesson no one is whom they seem and never trust anyone! The Shields character has plans to be the jewel thief of the day, because diamonds are a girls best friend, but only she finds out a nasty bad secret that this man has come out of the closet ready to swing! The words ring true ax questions later! This episode has some of Alfred Hitchcock applied to it just like in Psycho you never should trust strangers you may be trying to hide your past, but you meet up with a person who has a darker secret than yours and also they turn out to be crazy! Overall a good episode of tales with a great script and good twisting of plot with justice served!

"This just isn't your night is it?"

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 9/10 · 30 December 2016]

This episode came fairly late in the series but it's one of my favourites, I think it's one of the Crypt's more subtle efforts, relying on performances and atmosphere to build up to more bigger scary moments. The only word to describe a lot of this episode is cosy, I love how strong and engrossing the atmosphere is when it's just two strangers chatting and driving in the middle of nowhere in the rain, it really shows that the series could be just as much fun and nail-biting to watch without any supernatural elements. The rich mood is edgy and clearly building up to something, but it's still quite romantic for a while when it gets to the luxurious log cabin and the Gothic decor and oysters for dinner..before things really start to go nuts! Brooke Shields and Perry King had excellent chemistry with each other, King was so nice and charming as a very polite admirer of classical feminine strength and beauty, and she was tough and independent without being bitchy about it, and I love how they both have their dark secrets and how neither of them is quite what they appear to be, she's no damsel in distress and he's sure as hell no prince charming... One has something that's just a little bit more than meets the eye than the other, but it makes for an interesting and tense dynamic between them. Norma's morality is definitely backward somewhere as she's so mad at Roger for being dishonest to his crazy ex-wife when she herself strongly implied that she may have murdered her own philandering husband as well as planned to tie Roger up and steal his stuff! And him, well it's pretty obvious that the tale is going to take a Norman Bates turn at some point, which it eventually does as it's outrageously revealed that Roger has an alarming gender-bending split personality disorder, with his regular male half being gentle and polite and his raging feminine side being personified as a psychotically jealous wife! But that said, the first time I watched it I'm not sure that I saw it coming, you at least don't totally know how it's going to play out. They do a good job of misleading you into wondering if they're really is a crazy woman running around somewhere or not.. The opera score that plays throughout most of it really drives things along and gives the tale a distinctive tone. And at the end, the way it's orchestrated so that the music reaches its crescendo as the story reaches its brutal conclusion with poor Norma being cornered by a terrifying murderous tranny with a huge executioner's axe who brings it down upon her again and again in time to the music as blood seeps under the door and a hand leaves a bloody print on the window, it's very macabrely grand and chilling... It's so sad to see her go, 'cause it's Brooke! She's way to likable and interesting to die, come on now! So to me this one is a very sharply directed, classy and suspenseful episode with a cleverly-revealed twist that may have been seen before, but it was terrifically executed by the actors in this, and I find it to be one of the show's many highlights. Encore!!!

One of the best ones ...

[bfp13108 · 8/10 · 6 September 2022]

Another gender bending, Norman Bates kind of tale where the right villain gets beheaded. My momma always said, "Look out for the rich ones. They're the most demented." Didn't even recognize B. Shields (watched this in 2022). Perry King, best jawline ever! Spooky, zig=zaggy tale of a boy meets girl, momma kills girl. I've watched most of Crypt and in my opinion, this was a superlative episode. This series DEFINITELY needs to be reintroduced to a different, wider audience today. Who wants to take up the mantel??? I think it would be hugely successful considering the poor outcrop of horror today.