What would you give up to be young, beautiful…and desirable again?

This week on It Hails From the Crypt, Fred and Tim crack open “The Switch,” Season 2, Episode 2 of HBO’s Tales from the Crypt — a wonderfully nasty tale of vanity, greed, body swapping, and the very high price of looking good.

Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his directorial debut behind the camera, bringing along a cast packed with familiar faces. William Hickey stars as aging millionaire Carlton Webster, who becomes obsessed with transforming himself to win the affection of the much younger Linda, played by Kelly Preston. His increasingly extreme procedures involve the considerably younger — and considerably more muscular — Hans, played by Rick Rossovich (The Terminator, Top Gun).

We dig into Schwarzenegger’s unlikely turn as a Tales from the Crypt director, the episode’s grotesque take on the pursuit of eternal youth, and its roots in the original EC Comics story from Tales from the Crypt #45, written by Carl Wessler and illustrated by the legendary Graham “Ghastly” Ingels. We compare the comic to HBO’s adaptation and look at what changed on the journey from the gruesome 1950s page to premium cable television in 1990.

Then we take a deeper look at the episode’s cast and crew, including:

Arnold Schwarzenegger – Director
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William Hickey – Carlton Webster
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Kelly Preston – Linda
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Rick Rossovich – Hans / Younger Carlton Webster
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Roy Brocksmith – The Doctor
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Ian Abercrombie – Fulton
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John Kassir – The Crypt Keeper
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And, as always, we finish things off with deep-cut horror and movie recommendations inspired by “The Switch” — more stories of vanity, transformation, aging, obsession, body horror, and people discovering that getting exactly what they want may be the worst thing that could happen to them.