For more than three decades, Kevin Yagher’s dream job has been creating the stuff of nightmares.
From Chucky to Freddy Kruger, the legendary makeup effects artist has spent more than 30 years working on creature and puppet designs for some of Hollywood’s most notable horror franchises. His considerable skillset and talent led to collaborations with producers like Joel Silver and filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Richard Donner and Robert Zemeckis.
Working with Silver and executive producers Donner and Zemeckis on HBO’s Tales from the Crypt added another iconic character to Yagher’s list of macabre accomplishments: The Crypt Keeper.
In the first part of the Television Academy’s two-part exclusive interview, Yagher revealed how Silver recruited him to work on the famous producer’s adaptation of the comic book of the same name. Now, in our concluding interview, he reveals how designing the elaborate puppet put him on the path to direct two distinct episodes of the show. He also shares his thoughts on a little known corner of the Tales from the Crypt-verse — a “scary” live-action game show aimed at children(!) — as well as his feelings on the character’s legacy, 30 years after the HBO series’ finale.
Television Academy: Let’s talk about the two Tales from the Crypt episodes you directed: “Lower Berth” and “Strung Along. “Lower Berth” is notable because it reveals the Crypt Keeper’s origin. Given that most episodes of the show were standalones, how did this one come about?
Kevin Yagher: It's from the comic book. I was surprised to see it, [too]. [The late writer and producer] Scott Nimerfro was working at [Richard Donner’s company] at the time, and they would try to help you locate something that was right for you, story-wise. He mentioned an episode called [“Lower Berth”], and I looked it up, and there it was. I'm reading it and thinking, “Okay, there's a mummy. Okay, so she's dead. And then there’s Enoch, the two-faced man, and they have sex.” There’s this weird, bizarre thing! You never see it, of course, but somehow she's pregnant with a baby? The whole thing was absurd.
The baby Crypt Keeper from "Lower Berth"
But when they show that it is the little baby Crypt Keeper from the comic, I went, "Oh, well, of course I have to do this one." I had gotten to know [writer] Fred Dekker, and he wrote an excellent episode for me. We built this whole 1910 carnival; a lot of money was being spent. We had top-notch people working on it.
In “Strung Along,” you got to do a story about a puppeteer and their puppet, Coco. Was it interesting to tackle a scaled-back episode that had less makeup or animatronic effects?
It was, especially after [“Lower Berth”]. Because my brother, Jeff, was in, I think, a four-hour makeup application when he played [the two-faced man in “Berth”]. We applied an animatronic face on the side of his real face, and it had little servos that were hidden in the back of his hump. That was complicated because of all the sets, costumes and performers that we used. [“Lower Berth”] was great, but it was also very complicated.
[“Strung Along”] was a smaller story. At that point, I think they were trimming down the size of things. We went to a location. We had a couple of sets built, and then Greg Melton, the production designer, built this wonderful kind of Geppetto’s basement where all the puppets were hanging. We went to René [Zendejas], who was a famous marionette puppeteer, and he built the body for the Coco puppet. We also did the animatronic face on it. Melton did a wonderful production design, with all these things hanging in the foreground, but it was a smaller story, basically. The puppet comes to life, and a couple of things in it, and that was that was it.
Yagher's brother portrayed the two-faced man in "Lower Berth." 
What are your memories of working with the talented roster of filmmakers and creatives on Crypt?
It was incredible. I got to work on Walter Hill's “Cutting Cards" episode, with actors Lance Henriksen and Kevin Tighe — the one where they chop their fingers off. I got to watch Walter work, which was great. I also observed Dick Donner and Bob Zemeckis a little bit when they were directing. That, to me, was like going to [film] school, directing-wise. I came out [to Los Angeles] in 1983 to start my effects career. I had no idea I'd be writing and directing. Watching these guys work was amazing — I just picked up so much interesting stuff. I was just wowed by everything, starting with Joel. It was a dream come true. There was just nothing like it, and there hasn’t been ever since.
Tales could have been a disaster for me, but it was one of those things that was just magical. Dick Donner was a huge mentor for me. I recently told his wife, Lauren, that I really appreciated him — because he trusted me, had faith in me and he would promote me.
When the Tales from the Crypt feature films were made — Demon Knight (1995) and Bordello of Blood (1996) — was there anything you were asked to do as far as making the Crypt Keeper ready for movie screens?
I think we were given a budget to sweeten him, certainly — like re-skin him. I went to all the [production] meetings for both Bordello of Blood and Demon Knight. I did an effect on Angie Everhart [for Bordello], where she spits out a tongue. I was busy on both those films, so I believe Gil Adler directed [the Crypt Keeper segments]. He had already done some of the series, so he was familiar with the puppeteers and all of that.
There was an animated series, Tales from the Cryptkeeper. There was also a live-action, Saturday morning game show for kids, The Secret of the Crypt Keeper's Haunted House, which used your puppet.
[Crypt Keeper voice actor] John [Kassir] got a lot of work out of that! The Crypt Keeper would just come on and introduce some things at the beginning. But yeah, that was when Joel came and said he wanted [the puppet] for Crypt Keeper’s Haunted House.
He also wanted to get [the Crypt Keeper] puppet down from requiring six puppeteers to one. I said, "Joel, I don't know what you're paying John Kassir for the voice, but you're paying these guys scale. If it's not broken, why fix it?” But he was always harping on that. So, when they went to do the kids show, he wanted to use [the Crypt Keeper puppet]. I said, “Well, technically, I own the possession rights of it. You can't have it without my involvement." He threatened to sue me. And then he was saying that Dick Donner and everyone else was going to sue me, which was not true. That was Joel! And I went, "You know, fine, I'll just give this to him."
Joel Silver sounds like such a classic, bigger-than-life producer persona. You’ve mentioned he can be very supportive as far as what you're actually doing as a filmmaker, but then he’s also the type who might threaten to sue you in pursuit of a project’s bottom line.
He can be extremely scary that way, but you kind of realize that it's a game. That took me a while. I was raised in Bible Belt, Ohio, back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. We didn't speak with cuss words. I wasn't like Amish, or whatever, but you come into Hollywood and people are always using “eff bombs.”
Joel was like that. But, at the end of the day, Joel stuck with using six puppeteers because he knew that I was right — even though [later on] he thought this Saturday morning thing would be fine, because it was a lower production cost. He was just trying to cash in on anything to do with the merchandising, so that was part of it.
When it came to making good quality stuff, however, he would put the money into it — even though he'd [complain] about how much it costs. Which is understandable, because it is astronomical.
In recent years, there has been an increase of Crypt Keeper merch in the marketplace. And the show is finally available to stream. Is it gratifying to see it accessible again, for fans and viewers?
Kevin Yagher 
Yeah, he's finally here! It was gone for a while, and I thought, that's so sad, because he's such a fun character, and it's a fun series.
It’s amazing how horror has the life that it does, how horror icons continue to just live, and people appreciate the older stuff. Those things [like Crypt] just keep growing, I've been involved with, I can say, five or six properties like that. I’ve got Chucky, I've got [Bride of Chucky’s] Tiffany, I've got the Crypt Keeper, I did Jason's makeup in Friday the 13th, Part 4, and [Hellraiser’s] Pinhead, certainly. It's wonderful that I got to do all of that.
I didn't set out to be just a horror person, but I love monsters. My favorite, as a kid, was the Wicked Witch of the West. I used to dress up at Halloween, at least twice, as the Witch. I didn't think about what gender she was — she just scared the hell out of me, and I wanted to scare people the way she scared me. She's one of the most amazing characters ever.
Then I got into Planet of the Apes, and I started enjoying things like that so much that I wanted to make my own characters. I always set out to make my own monsters, my own designs. It's been fantastic. I couldn't have asked for a better life when it comes to being able to do that, and being involved with that.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
