Came the Dawn

"Came the Dawn" is the tenth episode of season five of the horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt and the sixty-second episode of the series overall. It was directed by Uli Edel and written by Ron Finley. It first aired on HBO on Wednesday, November 17th, 1993. In this episode, a woman on a date in a restaurant excuses herself to use the restroom only to be brutally murdered by an axe-wielding maniac moments later. Meanwhile, a wealthy man named Roger picks up a hitchhiker and thief named Norma and brings her back to his cabin where he tries to seduce her. Things heat up when Norma learns that Roger has a mysterious, jealous girlfriend and that there is a psychotic killer in the area.

Trivia

• This episode is available on disc two of the Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Fifth Season DVD collection.

• The Crypt Keeper

alters his voice slightly in the opening sequence of this episode. He adopts a more nasally voice while imitating the cadence of a flight attendant.

• This is the first work in the horror genre for director Uli Ede. It is also his only work on Tales from the Crypt.

• This is Ron Finley's fourth episode on Tales from the Crypt as a screenplay writer. He works on five episodes of the series in total.

• The director of photography for this episode is Rick Bota. This is his fifteenth episode on the series as a cinematographer.

• Leading actress Brooke Shields is best known as a fashion model

for Calvin Klein, as well as a film actress who first rose to stardom with the 1980 romance drama, The Blue Lagoon

(not to be confused with the Black Lagoon, known to be frequented by a 

certain scaly big-lipped creature). In the horror genre, Brooke is also known for playing Karen Spages in the 1976 psycho-thriller Alice Sweet Alice.

• This is the first work in the horror genre for actor Perry King.

• Actor Michael J. Pollard is also known for playing the role of Stucky in the 2003 horror film, House of 1000 Corpses.

• Axes are a very popular weapon in Tales from the Crypt episodes. Actress Amanda Plummer was known to swing an axe in the season one episode, "Lover Come Hack to Me".

• This episode was first broadcast on the same day that principal filming on the 1994 biopic, Ed Wood, concluded.

• Dismemberment

is the process of hacking up a body into its various pieces, removing arms and legs and so forth. The murderer in this episode hacks up two women with an axe, though this is more implied than shown.