"Tales from the Crypt" Retro Recap: "Seance"

Written by Scotty

In life, we all have our special talent.  Some of them may be good, while others are a bit darker.  Putting these talents to work in our favor is one of the hardest things to do as not all of them are marketable in the private sector.  Some people have a great deal of talent in deception and these are the people you have to watch out for when trying to make a deal. They will always get their end of the deal, no matter if you find them out or not since they have perfected their craft over the years.  It is always good to keep these people at arm’s length, but if you get sucked in to their stories, you will never be able to escape, even with the shirt on your back.

Benny Polosky and Alison Peters are at the top of their craft.  Being professional cons, they know how to make every dice roll show in their favor.  Their next job is getting three hundred thousand dollars out of Prescott Chalmers by playing him.  Coming up with the perfect story to seduce the older man, there should not no problem getting away scot-free.  Telling the story that Prescott’s father was robbed a bank back in 1902 and invested the money wisely before being thrown into prison seems to have its issues, but with the current funds of three million dollars being ripe for the taking will be too much for the man to pass up. 

As Alison Peters pretends to be Prescott’s cousin, she is able to get a little bit deeper inside on the story with the old man, and with Benny hiding in the closet during her romantic interlude, she thinks everything will go off without a hitch.  But when Benny starts to hum the song that was playing earlier in the night, Prescott knows that he has been had and will leave without even breaking a sweat, even though the pictures are damning to him.  Benny and Alison had no idea that his wife was blind and it would only be hearsay of what happened, but Alison is not happy with losing her current payday.  Trying to hold up the old man, Alison draws a gun on him, but he is not frightened and walks straight to his death in a malfunctioning elevator shaft.

Going to the police station to give their statements, Alison and Benny are almost ready to call it quits, but running into Mrs. Chalmers, Alison gets an idea of a lifetime.  Mrs. Chalmers believes she can talk to her husband from the other side with her spiritual advisor and Alison is able to fill that role.  Taking Madame Leona’s place for the night, Alison hides Benny in the closet to come out and tell Mrs. Chalmers to make Prescott’s final transaction complete.  But when using all of the spiritualist’s chants, someone comes out of the closet and it is not Benny playing his final role in the con, but Mr. Chalmers wanting to finish his final transaction.

A con gone wrong would be an understatement for Alison and Benny in this episode.  Even though they have the know-how and skills to pull it off, more than one thing goes wrong and they will not ever receive their payday.  I especially liked the looks on their faces when Mrs. Chalmers said she had to talk to her husband, as you can tell the gears were turning, but even then, they are left with nothing more than a head heavy suitcase.  Starring Cathy Moriarty as Alison, Ben Cross as Benny, Ellen Crawford as Mrs. Chalmers and John Vernon as Prescott Chalmers.  This is the perfect group of actors to make this story come to life and I could not imagine anyone doing it better.  The Crypt Keeper even got to change his accent in this episode to a 1920’s detective voice.  Until next time, you shee, Stay Scared.

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