"And now for his monsterpiece: Drawings of a Tales from the Crypt cartoonist come to life...and death."
-- DVD description for the episode
Korman's Kalamity is the thirteenth episode of the second season of Tales from the Crypt and the nineteenth episode overall. The episode aired on June 26th, 1990.
Plot[]
An employee of the Tales from the Crypt comic named Jim Korman (Harry Anderson) is put-upon by his shrewish wife (Colleen Camp) to take potent fertility pills. After a series of weird and bizarre monster attacks, an attractive policewoman (Cynthia Gibb) interrogates the cartoonist, believing that he is somehow making his stories come true. The cartoonist must figure out the cause of the threat while also struggling with his own personal feelings for the policewoman.
Summary[]
Jim Korman is a successful comic artist, but was married to Mildred, an extremely overbearing and very jealous woman. She was such an unpleasant person that Jim's colleagues actively avoided her, quickly disappearing into their offices when she visited. Mildred believed that Jim was actively pursuing his female colleagues, viewed his job with contempt, and also was angry that he hadn't gotten her pregnant yet. She forces him to take some experimental fertility pills, and they were revealed to have major side effects. The pills seemed to give him creative highs and allowed him to quickly draw very impressive monster pictures--after taking one, he went from struggling with his latest comic to easily drawing a reptilian monster attacking a man.
That night, Jim briefly flirted with a young woman he saw at the laundromat. This woman, Lorelei Phelps, was reading a romance novel after Jim left, but was surprised by an electric outage and was attacked by a rapist. She revealed herself to her attacker as a policewoman and used her martial arts skills against him, but he was not intimidated. However, the reptilian monster Jim drew suddenly made its way out of one of the washing machines and attacked her rapist, easily killing him by biting his head off. Due to this, Lorelei was able to escape and alert police, who clearly did not buy her story. However, after noticing Jim's drawing appear in the next issue of Tales from the Crypt, Lorelei realizes that it matches the monster she saw. In fact, drawings in several other Tales from the Crypt issues match other monster sightings known to the police. Noting the author's name, Lorelei decides to meet with him.
Later that evening, as Jim leaves the office and gets in his car, he is startled to find Lorelei in the backseat. He's skeptical at her theory that his drawings are connected to the monster sightings, but as an experiment he agrees to draw a new monster. While he and Lorelei are in the office together, they resume flirting, and Jim mentions a willingness to give up monster comics and begin drawing romance instead. His latest drawing does indeed come to life, appearing in an alley and terrifying a group of children.
Jim is clearly smitten with Lorelei and begins drawing pictures of the two of them having dinner together, and later arranges a romantic dinner date. Unfortunately for Jim, Mildred overheard their phone conversation and angrily confronts him. She storms out of the office, and an agitated Jim vents by drawing a hideous version of his wife. Mildred reenters the office with a gun, and, to Jim's horror, threatens to kill him. Luckily for him, he is saved by the monster version of Mildred he had just drawn. It came to life just like his previous drawings had, and when Mildred makes the fatal mistake of insulting its appearance the monster attacks her. Jim pulls his pill out his pocket. he throw the pill in the trash. As the two fight, Jim is able to escape and meets Lorelei, who had just arrived. During their date, when she asked if he was married he replied "not anymore", as Mildred was clearly killed by the monster, evidenced by the blood on the carpet.
Opening Segment[]
"Oh... Hi there fright fiends. How do you like my rancid rendering? Not bad for an amateur. Hopefully it will give you an inkling of what tonight's fungusy photo-play is about because long before my eerie offerings appeared on your silver screen, they were a magazine called, get a load of this, "Tales From the Crypt." So tonight, let's take a behind the screams look at a struggling artist named Jim Korman who one day got a little too drawn into his work."
Closing Segment[]
"Well, how's that for a sappy ending? Was it a little too graphic for you? Oh, well. Next thing you know, Jim and his new ‘gal pal’ will be walking down the easeI together. I guess he learned that life imitates art after all. As for poor Mildred, she learned that death imitates art too. Maybe if she'd been nicer to him, she wouldn't have ended up a monsterpiece!"
Trivia[]
- Harry Anderson, who played Jim Korman, later wrote the screenplay to Seance.
Gallery[]
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