Recap / Tales From The Crypt S 6 E 5 Revenge Is The Nuts

Justice may be blind. But retribution? Not so much.

(The Crypt Keeper is seen dressed as a mime and performing a series of pantomime routines; a man walks by and tosses a coin into the skull that serves as the Crypt Keeper's collection plate)

Crypt Keeper: (to the man, sarcastically) Thanks, pal. For nothing! (to the viewers) I tell you, kiddies. Things are tough all over. What with my hack-spenses going up, and suddenly finding out I owe the DieRS a fortune, your pal the Crypt Keeper's had to find himself a second chop. Still, it's worse for the people in tonight's terror tale. It concerns a group of inmates at the local home who've got a few horrid choices of their own to make. I call it: Revenge is the Nuts. (snickers)

Arnie Grunwald is the sadistic manager of a home for the blind, which he has effectively turned into a booby-trapped labyrinth that he uses to delightfully torture his residents, using them for putting practice, bricking up the bathrooms, and dumping marbles on the floor to make them slip and fall. He also keeps the windows boarded up and the rooms in near-darkness (as he believes that the blind don't need light), and has allowed for passing commuter trains to shake the entire building every hour. He keeps his brother Benny employed as the home's resident handyman, who he treats as badly as the residents and goes along with his brother's plans out of fear.

An attractive, no-nonsense young woman named Sheila is soon committed to the home, where Benny explains to her that his brother hates the blind so much because his mother, who was blind herself, had disinherited him and turned her mansion (which he ultimately converted into the home it is today) over to the state. Sheila tries to seduce Benny into letting her go free, but he turns her down and warns her that Arnie had him committed to a mental hospital the last time he upset him, and will not be ashamed to do so again. Benny then puts her in the squalid ballroom that serves as the residents' dormitory. From the residents (Samuel, Amelia and Osgood), Sheila learns that Arnie uses his attack dog Bruno to thwart any escape attempts, even letting the dog rip off Osgood's leg to make an example of him.

Arnie summons Sheila to his office and offers the possibility of her release if she begins sleeping with him. She turns him down, but as Benny is taking her back to the dormitory, she swipes his pocket knife. Later that day, Sheila uses it to pick the lock on the door and leads the residents toward Arnie's office, the only way out of the building. Unfortunately, they find Arnie and a hungry Bruno waiting for them at the door, causing them to give up on the idea. In retaliation, Arnie reduces their already diminishing heat and food, but offers to restore them if Sheila sleeps with him. She decides to accept Arnie's proposition and has Benny bring her to the office, but is stopped by the residents, who decide to do things Arnie's way for a change. Once there, she knocks Arnie to the floor, only to find herself penned in by both him and Bruno. Benny takes his brother by surprise, knocks him out with a pipe wrench.

Arnie wakes up in a small room, whose door opens after several hours to let him into a dim corridor freshly constructed by Benny. He can barely squeeze through sideways, and the walls are studded with razor blades that slice him when the train rattles the place. Waiting for him at the end of the corridor are Benny, Bruno, and his former residents. Benny forces Arnie to admit that he killed their mother with his marbles-on-the-floor trick as revenge for being disinherited, and the residents gleefully use it against him, shut off the lights, and sic Bruno on him, listening in satisfaction as the dog tears Arnie to pieces.

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Tropes:

• The Ace: In spite of how his brother treats him, Benny is an efficient carpenter and handyman. He even manages to construct an entire hallway lined with razor blades to get back at his brother, only a day after his brother's knocked out.
• Actor Allusion: Osgood, the mute resident of the home, is played by Tim Sampson, whose father famously played a mute patient of a medical facility before. Samuel even calls him "Chief" when he beats him at a game of chess, and he breaks his muteness in a similar way as the Chief to convince Sheila to do things Arnie's way.
  • Samuel, played by Isaac Hayes, gets one of his own in the same exact moment detailed above, where he tells Osgood that he's "been shafted!", a reference to the film of the same name that Hayes recorded the theme song for.
• Adaptational Villainy: The versions of Arnie from the comic and the 1972 film may have been an Asshole Victim, but there's no indication that he killed his mother or desired to rape someone.
• An Arm and a Leg: Osgood got half of his leg ripped off by Arnie's guard dog Bruno, and the experience likely scarred him into silence. He comes out of his silent state to motivate Sheila and the others to get rid of Arnie once and for all.
• Angry Guard Dog: Bruno, who Arnie sics on residents who try to escape the home. He's also proven to be angry at his master, who starves him as an incentive to attack the residents.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Arnie is certain the others will never get away with killing him on account of how others will eventually call asking for "Mr. Grunwald." Benny pointing their shared last name makes prompts a nervous Arnie to start backing away to try to save himself.
  Arnie: What are you going to do then?
  Benny: Well, I'm Mr. Grunwald.
• Artistic License – Law: With the atrocious conditions of the home and his own sadistic behavior, there's no way in hell Arnie would hold his position of power for as long as he has without severe legal repercussions.
• As You Know: Benny and the residents spill the beans to Sheila about why Arnie is in charge of the decrepit home they're forced to live in.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Even Bruno, Arnie's attack dog, isn't safe from the wicked man's abuse, since he starves the poor thing to give it a drive to attack escapees.
• Big Brother Bully: Arnie treats his younger brother no better than his residents, even having him committed to keep him from questioning him.
• Big Damn Heroes: Sheila clubbing Arnie doesn't go quite as planned, due to Bruno. Just as a recovered Arnie is about to attack her, Benny hits him with a wrench.
• Big Labyrinthine Building: The home is a variable labyrinth of painful traps that Arnie pulls on a daily basis.
• Blackmail:
  • Benny is under Arnie's thumb for most of the episode, due to fear of being sent back to the mental hospital.
  • Arnie turns up the pressure on Sheila by cutting the heat and the rations, until she agrees to his offer.
• Blind Black Guy: Samuel, one of the residents.
• Blindness in Media: The episode is a prominent example of the trope, as over half of the cast is depicted as blind.
• Blind People Wear Sunglasses: Every character who isn't a Grunwald is blind, and as a result, wears sunglasses.
• Boots of Toughness: Sheila spends the episode wearing combat boots as a sign that she doesn't let blindness stop her from being tough. Arnie even tells her that a person can learn a lot from another's shoes, wondering where her boots would fit in.
• Bottle Episode: The entire episode is set inside the titular home for the blind.
• Bullying the Disabled: Arnie utterly loathes the blind, and he uses his power as manager of the home to inflict sadistic torture upon them. Benny says that the hatred started with his and Arnie's mother, who disinherited Arnie and was also blind.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Arnie gives no attempt to hide what a blatant sociopath he is, using his power over the residents to torture them nonstop.
• Cat Scare: Or "dog" scare in this case, as Bruno furiously barks at the residents as they reach Arnie's office, which is unfortunately occupied.
• Chekhov's Gun: The trains that pass by the home and make it shake furiously every hour come into play during the climax, where the shaking causes Arnie to cut himself on razor blade-lined walls.
• Death by Irony: Bruno tearing his master Arnie to pieces, after Arnie was already subjected to a rather painful simulation of what it was like to be one of his residents, is an exceptionally ironic way for the bastard to go out.
• Dingy Trainside Apartment: The home is revealed to be built next to a railway that has commuter trains passing by every hour, which cause the whole place to rattle uncontrollably.
• Disabled Means Helpless: Downplayed. The residents are shown to have moderate difficulty moving around the home by themselves, given how Arnie has effectively turned it into a house of torment. Despite this, they manage to nearly escape from the home at one point, and when that fails, they get Benny to help them turn the tables on Arnie.
• Disabled Snarker: The residents of the home certainly get snarky when they insult Arnie behind his back. Sheila proves to be the one with the highest amount of wit at her disposal.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Given how cartoonishly villainous he is, this is Arnie's go to plan for anyone who upsets him, even killing his mother for cutting him out of her will and having his brother falsely committed for crossing him.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Benny gets treated as another victim to torture by his older brother, even though he isn't blind or an official resident of the home. Sheila outright calls him a fellow prisoner, which rallies him into joining the residents to get revenge on Arnie.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • After everything Arnie puts his residents through, they strike back at him by forcing him in a narrow and dim corridor, similar to the terrible rooming conditions that he forced them into earlier.
  • They then trip him up with the marbles he would use to trip them and that he already used to kill his mother.
  • And to wrap it all up, a literal example comes at the very end, as the residents and Benny sic Bruno on him.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Arnie violently insists that everyone inside the home call him "Mr. Grunwald" instead of "Arnie", even giving his brother a slap in the face when he doesn't comply.
• Electroconvulsive Therapy Is Torture: Arnie openly tells Benny that he's going to be subjected to this when he's thrown back into the mental hospital.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted. A portrait of Mrs. Grunwald hangs in Arnie's office, suggesting he has some affection for her. Instead, he openly denounces the woman as a bitch. Benny later reveals he's certain that Arnie murdered her.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Benny expresses disgust with Arnie pulling the marble prank on a couple of residents, though this gets him a slap in the face.
  • As cold and hungry as the other residents are, they refuse to let Sheila give in to Arnie's blackmail.
• Everyone Hates Mimes: The Crypt Keeper does a mime act, which earns him a paltry coin from a passerby. No wonder he switches to fast food for the closing segment.
• Evil Is Hammy: Arnie always alternates between being a Cold Ham and a Large Ham whenever he speaks, no third alternative.
• Exact Words: Benny offers to take over the home once his brother is gone, since after all, he's also "Mr. Grunwald."
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Benny tells Sheila that Arnie's hatred of the blind goes back to his blind mother, who cut him out of her will and turned her mansion (which would become the home) over to the state. Of course, that's still no excuse to validate his utterly deplorable behavior, such as killing his mother as revenge for her actions.
• Great Escape: Sheila rallies the residents to make their way outside the home without Arnie knowing. They make it as far as Arnie's office, where they find him and Bruno waiting for them. They finally escape his clutches in the end, after they sic Bruno on him.
• Hated by All: Arnie is utterly reviled by every character in the story. Benny only goes along with him out of fear, but he joins the residents in making "dogmeat" out of him.
• Hate Sink: Arnie, who quite obviously goes out of his way to torture all of the home's residents, and tries to get rid of anyone who wishes to put an end to his reign of absolute superiority over the home.
• Heroes Love Dogs: In contrast to Arnie's abuse of Bruno, Benny can get the dog to behave with a simple commands and pleasant demeanor.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Bruno, the dog that Arnie uses to prevent his residents from escaping the home, is used to kill Arnie himself at the end of the episode.
  • To a lesser extent, the horrid conditions he subjects his residents to (razor blades, brick walls, marbles, and blaring trains) are applied back to him right before Bruno tears him to bits.
• Horrible Housing: The home for the blind where the episode is set. Not only is the place built like a maze, but Arnie lined the walls with razor blades, routinely spills marbles on the floor, walled off the bathroom, had the building built next to a railway line that causes it to shake when trains pass through every hour, boarded up all the windows, and has the residents sleep in a squalid ballroom with a nauseating odor that Samuel says "grows on you. Literally."
• Hypocrite: Arnie pleads to Benny that he can't kill his own flesh and blood, right when Benny admits that Arnie killed his mother many years ago.
• Improvised Lockpick: Sheila swipes Benny's keychain/pocket knife as a means of picking the locks on the home's doors.
• In Name Only: Despite taking its name from a story in the Vault of Horror, its actually based on "Blind Alleys" from the book the show takes its name from.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: The Crypt Keeper is working as a mime in the opening segment because he owes a lot in taxes and needs to raise some cash fast. In the closing segment, he's switched over to fast food. With all the customers buying up, he feels comfortable that his money problems are solved.
• Ironic Echo: Samuel rebukes Arnie with "In your eye!", which he repeats as he releases the marbles.
• Karmic Death: Arnie enjoyed playing the marble prank on his charges, and it's said that's how he killed his mother. As Arnie tries to get away from Bruno, Samuel releases some marbles just to make his demise even more ironic.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Sheila boasts that she, Benny, and the other residents never deserved to be locked in Arnie's twisted home, Amelia tells her that they each felt the same way, then just grew to accept that they have no escape.
  • The trope is reversed after the failed escape attempt, where Samuel and Ameila stop Sheila when she despondently prepares to sleep with Arnie, having been inspired by her defiance of him. Even Osgood, who was scarred into silence by Bruno's attack on his leg, finds the will to start talking again after Sheila's attempted escape, deciding to play by Arnie's rules to get rid of him.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Osgood breaks his perpetual silence to motivate Sheila after she momentarily gives up and prepares to have sex with Arnie.
• Loophole Abuse: Just before Arnie is killed, Benny tells him that he'll be taking over the home, since he's also "Mr. Grunwald".
• Matricide: The end of the episode has Benny reveal that Arnie killed the brothers' mother by spilling marbles on the floor and making her trip and fall. Arnie insists that it was an accident, but it was obviously out of revenge for being disinherited by the old woman.
• Momma's Boy: Benny was very close to Mrs. Grunwald. He has little patience for Arnie's behavior, but the old woman's murder is the big reason he turns on his detestable brother.
• Nobody Poops: Arnie went out of his way to wall off the home's bathroom just to make his residents suffer, inviting them to go in their pants. Not only is this the first thing he's shown to have done, Samuel admits that this isn't the first time he's done it.
• Non-Indicative Name: The episode's title doesn't match up with its actual content at all. The story from the comic and the 1972 film had the name "Blind Alleys", which was more thematically appropriate.
• Oh, Crap!: Samuel blurts "Oh, shit!" when he and Amelia hear the marbles rolling across the floor.
  • Arnie has the same reaction as Bruno charges at him and Osgood turns off the lights.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Just before Bruno is released on Arnie, who is desperately trying to navigate the corridor.
  Osgood: Say goodnight, Grunwie. [turns out the lights]
• Properly Paranoid: Benny notes he never believed Arnie's claims about their mother dying in a mere accident.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Arnie only ever views Sheila as a sex toy for him to screw as he pleases. She refuses to whore herself out for him and instead ropes Benny and the others into getting revenge on him.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: Bruno is Arnie's preventive tool against any residents trying to escape the home. Benny manages to tame him so that he seals Arnie's fate at the end of the episode.
• Sadist: Arnie takes sheer, unrelenting delight in torturing the blind who are under his care.
• Sanity Slippage: Early on, Benny tells Sheila that he had been committed to a mental hospital. Benny's later talk of what really happened to his mother imply her death affected his mental state and that Arnie took full advantage by having him committed.
• Sex for Services: Arnie tries to pressure Sheila into sleeping with him in exchange for her release, and then offers it again, this time every single night, so he'll make conditions around the home more humane after the failed escape.
• Shout-Out: As described above, Samuel, played by Isaac Hayes, gets two with one line, telling Osgood during a chess game, "Sorry 'bout that, Chief, you've just been shafted!" Hayes recorded the theme for Shaft, and his opponent is played by Tim Sampson, son of Will Sampson, who played Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
  • Sheila is also insultingly referred by Arnie as "Cinderella", just before he has Benny taker her to the "ballroom".
  • Osgood's Pre-Mortem One-Liner is a play on the sign-off from The Burns and Allen Show: "Say goodnight, Gracie."
• Sibling Rivalry: Arnie treats his brother almost as badly as he treats the residents under his "care". In fact, he had his brother committed to a mental hospital, though he had him released if he promised to do whatever he told him.
• Slippery Skid: Arnie routinely spills marbles on the floor to trip up the residents. It's revealed at the end of the episode that he "accidentally" killed his own mother this way, and Samuel does the same to Arnie to let Bruno catch him.
• Spiteful Spit: Sheila does this in Arnie's face when he tries to fondle and kiss her.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Arnie is adamant that everyone call him "Mr. Grunwald", even smacking his brother across the face for not doing so. Benny turns it around on him by saying that he's also "Mr. Grunwald", just before Bruno's let loose on his brother.
• Time-Passes Montage: Arnie spends one of these in his makeshift cell, passing the time pacing, standing, and yelling for his brother, who is busy constructing the new hallway that leads to his death.
• Truer to the Text: Arnie shares his comics counterpart's love of sadistic pranks on the charges, something that Major Rogers from the 1972 movie did not stoop to.
• Underestimating Badassery: Arnie is initially unintimidated when seeing just Benny with Bruno, openly doubting that his little brother has it in him to kill. The residents say they certainly do, though Benny still has no problem releasing Bruno.
• Urine Trouble: Arnie advises Samuel and the others to go this route after he bricks up the bathroom.
• The Voiceless: Osgood never says a word throughout the majority of the episode, having been severely physically and mentally scarred from Bruno ripping a chunk of his leg off. He suddenly starts talking again to keep Sheila from swallowing her pride and having sex with Arnie, which is treated as a moment of great significance by the others.
• Wham Line:
  • Osgood speaking to Sheila is the point where the residents go from trying to escape to fighting back instead.
  • After hitting Arnie with the wrench, Benny gets one of his own that reveals the true extent of their relationship.
    Benny: My brother's not gonna bother you anymore.
• Wicked Cultured: Arnie apparently has a fascination with religion, often reciting Biblical proverbs when engaged in conversation with Sheila.
• Wrongfully Committed: Arnie had his brother thrown into a mental hospital for trying to question his methods.

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Crypt Keeper: (working at a fast food counter and wearing a vendor's uniform, holding a wad of dollar bills and a hot dog bun while tending to a skeletal customer) That Grunwald! One little problem and he goes right to pieces. At least now we know what's really eating him. (snickers, he puts the bills in a cash register) As for me kiddies, I think I've got my money problems licked! I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. Talk about a killing! (puts a severed finger into a hot dog bun) Everybody loves finger food. (snickers again, to the customer) Hey, you want a side of ghoul slaw with that? (cackles)