Web Video / Crypt TV

Freaks Unite!

Crypt TV is a YouTube channel consisting of anthology horror shorts, which are often either funny or scary. Or sometimes both. Its channel is located here.

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CryptTV contains example of:

• Accomplice by Inaction:
  • "Shelley":
    • In season 2, the titular ghost turns on Celine and leaves her to take the blame for the murders, as while she did try to tell people the truth about Shelley's death, she still watched it happen and did nothing to stop it.
    • To a lesser extent with Lauren, one of the bullies. While she does feel remorseful for what happened to Shelley and did attempt to get Shelley help, she still covered up Shelley's death and Shelley makes sure to target her as well. She is the first of the bullies to go but has the quickest death.
• Adults Are Useless: In Shelley, Celine told the teachers she saw Lauren, Nikki, and Heidi hang up Shelley's body to make it look like she hung herself. They did not believe her and the three got away with murder. This is Subverted after the release of the Season 2 trailer, as it would appear that the teachers not only knew the truth all along... they were the ones who planned it. Also it was only Heidi who actually killed Shelley.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Several videos feature the various creatures of the Crypt TV fighting one another, sometimes very one-sidedly. Notably, the Sunny Family Cult, being humans, usually end up on the receiving end of a massacre when pitted against anything supernatural, like the Look-See, the Brute or Shelley.
• And I Must Scream: In "The Binding Box". Anyone who opens the box becomes trapped in the form of a puppet, aware of everything, until someone replaces them.
• Asshole Victim: The entire idea of Fight Night: horrible people are kidnapped and thrown into an electrified cage to fight for survival against monsters before an audience. This is then turned on its head, however, when it's revealed that not all of the "contestants" on either side are all that horrible, with the showrunner fabricating evidence to sell out seats for high-demand criminals such as child murderers. Thus, it gets hard to care about Myka or Mars's well-beings afterwords when Porter and Colossus kill them.
• Boarding School of Horrors: Shelley takes place in two neighboring ones, considering that not only is the titular Shelley herself was killed by several students, but it turns out it was orchestrated and hidden by the staff of both schools who are also responsible for the death of Shelly's boyfriend, Oliver.
• Botanical Abomination: The Birch. It (she?) has a roughly female shape, but a face like a skeleton, has no eyes, and a head that's covered in branches.
• Breakout Character: The Birch would eventually get its own series.
• Canon Welding: A number of shorts seem to be set in a Shared Universe (confirmed by Word of God) and the connections come in the form of various Easter eggs. So far, The Look See, The Birch, Mordeo, The Sunny Family Cult, and Stoneheart are implied to be connected. Confirmed in Sunny Family Cult S3E02, where a flashback shows a young Roger studying a creepy-looking book with images of the Look See, the Birch, the Mordeo, and Aponi (Stoneheart). More specifically, there's a ritual that he's interested in, which seemingly involves summoning the Look See, the Mordeo, and Aponi. Officially confirmed in S3E03, in which Roger explains to Taylor that monsters in the book are "divine creatures of darkness."
• Cassandra Truth: In season 1 of Shelley, Lauren, Nikki, and Heidi weren't the only ones who knew the truth behind Shelley's "suicide"; in episode 3, it's revealed that a classmate of theirs named Celine saw them hang up Shelley's body to make it look like she had hung herself, and cover up what they had done. Celine even told the teachers what she saw, but no one believed her. This is subverted in Season 2, as it's revealed that not only did the staff know the truth, but they orchestrated Shelley's murder due to her being too nosy about the death of her boyfriend Oliver.
• Cats Are Mean: The protagonist in Meow suspects the stray cat she found is murdering people. Subverted. It's her landlord trying to make the cat look guilty. Said cat saves the protagonist by killing the landlord, in one of Crypt TV's very rare happy endings.
• Crossover: The Birch-Witch, the Look-See and the Mordeo were added to Dead by Daylight in 2021 as paid skins for existing Killers.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Miss Annity, from the "Miss Annity" series, chooses her victims for not living up to her old fashioned views. Of the victims, the first is a ballerina who doesn't have a perfect hourglass figure, the second is a work from home dad who wants to spend more time with his infant daughter instead of letting his wife do everything, and the third and last victim is a young gay man who doesn't fight back when beaten up. He's the only one to survive because he doesn't fight back and forgives his attacker. So Miss Annity takes his father instead.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Subverted in "Demon Clown." The reason Norton was running after those kids at night? He went to meet a client who had a clown fetish, and she threatened him with a knife before sexually assaulting him. He wasn't running after those kids because he was trying to kill them, he was running after them because he'd just been sexually assaulted and was crying for help. It's played seriously as it should be.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The monsters have rules they follow, and don't react well to deviations from these rules.
  • The Look-See hunts those who cannot let go of negative emotions. If you don't have any, it will not harm you. It kills two men who have guilt over committing murder, but when it is about to attack the third man involved, it discovers he doesn't feel any guilt at all - and lets him go.
  • The Mordeo are monstrous man-eating demons, but they kill only to consume. Killing without the intent to feed enrages them. They've attacked the Brute and, more impressively, the Look-See out of rage at their killing without eating the remains. Notably, when they encounter the Look-See, they have a chance at killing and eating a human and pass it up to attack the Look-See.
• Fan Disservice: The Birch has visible feminine breasts with exposed nipples, but considering she's a skeleton-faced tree demon who violently kills people, the potential sexiness factor is severely diminished.
• I Am a Humanitarian: In Drug Deal, a couple buys marijuana from a man who got it from a tribe of cannibals, the strand of weed gives the couple a desire for human flesh. The name of weed is a Pun for cannabis, the scientific name of weed.
• Knight Templar Parent: Mother's Day is about a daughter praising her mother for protecting her by mutilating or killing anyone that's a threat to her, and providing for her by undertaking Self-Surgery learned from a YouTube tutorial so she can remove a kidney to sell.
• Monster Clown: Zig-zagged with the titular clown in "Demon Clown".
  • At first, we're shown a video of a clown creepily stalking towards some kids across a dark street. Pretty standard setup for a Monster Clown, and it seems they're playing the trope straight.
  • We then cut to an interview with the clown in question, who's named Norton. Norton turns out to be a simple-minded, if somewhat socially awkward, Non-Ironic Clown. It appears to be subverted...
  • That is, until the interviewer asks Norton about the video from the beginning. He suddenly quiets down, like he has something sinister he wants to hide. If Hesitation Equals Dishonesty, then it seems he might a Monster Clown after all, just one who puts on the veneer of friendliness.
  • Ultimately, it's subverted. It's revealed that he was sexually assaulted by a woman with a clown fetish. That video of him supposedly creeping towards some teens was actually him desperately trying to ask for help, only to be cruelly mocked.
• Monster of the Week: Much like its spiritual predecessor and inspiration, Crypt TV's formula usually boils down to presenting a new monster for every video. Though there are a few series on the channel that follow one monster over multiple episodes, such as The Look-See.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The three bullies in Shelley season 1 Heidi, Nikki and Lauren. Heidi is the mean one who willingly murders Shelley with her bare hands. Lauren is the nice one who tries to help Shelley out after she is choked out and feels the most remorse about covering up her death. Nikki is in-between as she smiles at Shelley getting chocked out but feels great remorse upon finding Lauren dead and didn't physically harm Shelley.
• Non-Ironic Clown: The title character in "Demon Clown" turns out to actually be this. As he says at the end, "I just want to make people happy!"
• Practical Effects: Since it's a web series that doesn't have the budget for CGI, all of the monsters are portrayed by people in costumes, and a lot of them are pretty damn scary-looking.
• Reforged into a Minion: The creature from The Widower can do this to its female victims, turning them into its new "Wife".
• Santabomination: Walter from the Milk & Cookies is a monstrous blue-skinned beast in a Santa suit that eats people and regurgitates them as lumps of coal.
• Self-Made Orphan: At the end of season 2 of "Shelley", the titular ghost brutally murders her sister Lucy and their elderly mother and then burns down their house. Subverted as it's then later revealed to be Celine disguised as Shelley, who murdered her family in revenge for cutting off her hand and letting her take the blame for the murders in season 1.
• Sinister Deer Skull: One of the monsters that appears is a creature called The Mordeo. The Mordeo are a race of demons that are created when a human resorts to cannibalism out of desperation. When someone transforms into a Mordeo, the flesh on their head will tear off as their skull changes into that of a deer.
• Space Whale Aesop: Most of the stories have an Aesop that is convoluted and strange.
  • In Black Sugar, Don't do drugs, or you will be sent to an Eldritch Location.
  • In Valentine's Die, Don't cheat on your significant other, or cupid will hunt you down and kill you.
  • In 7 Rules, When in someone else's domain make sure you follow their rules, or else you will be killed by an unseen force.
  • In The Look-See series, holding onto your pain is unhealthy because a tall man with a Glasgow Grin will come and murder you if you don't let go.
  • In the Miss Annity series, follow social etiquette or you will be tormented by a spider-demon.
• Spiritual Successor: To Tales from the Crypt, both are anthological horror with the name crypt.
• Toilet Horror: In the introductory video to the monster Look-See, "The Wedding Hand", a woman is trapped in a bathroom stall as the Look-See comes to get her. Forced to flush her wedding ring down the toilet to appease the monster, she snatches it back at the last moment, and is promptly killed. It's later revealed that she survived, though seems to be the Look-See's new assistant.
• Token Good Teammate: In Shelley season 1 one of the bullies Lauren is this. When Heidi starts strangling Shelley in the bathroom, Nikki keeps smiling. Lauren however, stops smiling and when Shelley falls down she rushes over to help her. When Shelley is dead and they hang her body to make it look like she died Lauren has a look of clear remorse over her face. It's so bad that in the present day she goes to the bathroom and starts reliving her moments of remorse and saying, "We need to get her help!' to herself. Sadly Shelley does not spare her.
• Was Once a Man: Multiple monsters fall under this, such as The Mordeo, who were transformed after devouring human flesh on cursed grounds, and Colossus, who was a father bio-engineered into a blade-armed, hulking killing machine.