This week on It Hails from the Crypt, hosts Fred and Tim tackle “Judy, You’re Not Yourself Today,” Season 2, Episode 11 of HBO’s Tales from the Crypt: a twisted suburban nightmare of body swapping, witchcraft, marriage, murder and identity starring Carol Kane, Brian Kerwin and Frances Bay.

As always, we begin where Tales from the Crypt began:

Before “Judy, You’re Not Yourself Today” came to HBO, the story appeared in Tales from the Crypt #25 in 1951, written by legendary EC editor/writer Al Feldstein with artwork by Wally Wood.

Fred and Tim dig into the original seven-page story, examining Wood’s artwork, Feldstein’s black-comic plotting, the body-switching premise and its connection to H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep.”

How much of Lovecraft survives in EC’s version? How does Feldstein turn identity horror into a nasty domestic joke? And what changes when HBO revisits the story almost forty years later?

Then we turn to the 1990 HBO adaptation, directed by Randa Haines filmmaker behind Children of a Lesser God from a screenplay by longtime Tales from the Crypt writer Scott Nimerfro.

Carol Kane stars as Judy, whose already strained marriage to gun-obsessed husband Donald, played by Brian Kerwin, gets considerably worse when an elderly cosmetics saleswoman shows up at the door.

That mysterious visitor is played by Frances Bay remembered by horror and cult fans from Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks and she has much more than a makeover in mind.

Soon Judy isn’t acting like Judy, Donald realizes something impossible has happened, and what begins as suburban marital comedy turns into a bizarre story of witchcraft, body swapping, murder and revenge.

Fred and Tim break down Carol Kane’s performance, Brian Kerwin’s increasingly frantic Donald, Frances Bay’s wonderfully sinister witch, Randa Haines’ direction, the practical makeup effects, dark comedy and escalating absurdity while comparing the HBO adaptation directly with the original EC Comics story.

We also dig into a great deep-cut credit: a young Todd Field — future director of In the Bedroom, Little Children and TÁR — appears in a small role years before becoming an Oscar-nominated filmmaker.

How does the HBO version expand the comic? Does Carol Kane make the body-swap premise funnier, creepier or both? And is “Judy, You’re Not Yourself Today” secretly one of Season 2’s strangest episodes?

Finally, Fred and Tim unlock the Vault of More for another collection of movies, television, books, comics and music connected to the episode.

If you love Tales from the Crypt, EC Comics, Carol Kane, Wally Wood, H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep, Twin Peaks, body-swap horror, horror comedy or classic anthology television, join us as we dig into “Judy, You’re Not Yourself Today.”

⚰️ EPISODE, CAST & CREW

• Randa Haines — Director

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0354279/

• Scott Nimerfro — Screenplay

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0632350/

• Carol Kane — Judy

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001406/

• Brian Kerwin — Donald

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0450116/

• Frances Bay — The Witch

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062844/

• Todd Field — Eugene

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276062/

• John Kassir — The Crypt Keeper

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0440885/