This anthology starts with a setting that closely resembles popular TV series "Desperate Housewives". A woman is driving back to her perfect little home and starts up preparations for a dinner party that she is hosting. As she just came back from the supermarket, the bags are full of different ingredients for the dinner, but the main course is somewhat still fresh. She opens a secret door and we see a little boy that is to become a dish in this modern day adaptation of Brother Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel". Trying to buy himself some time, the boy starts reading a couple of stories from a book titled "Tales from the Darkside".
After the success of George A. Romero's "Creepshow", producers tried to create a spin off series that would look like a bit darker version of "The Twilight Zone", or even better a clone of EC Comics "Tales from the Crypt". Because of some ownership rights, it wasn't possible to use the name "Creepshow", so they went with the Darkside title. The show resulted in four seasons with more than 90 episodes.
Two years after the show got cancelled it was decided to shoot and release "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie". Besides the mentioned wraparound intro/outro, we are presented with three different stories.
"Lot 249" is an episode based on a short story penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish writer that gave us the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. The story focuses on Bellingham, smart scholar that just lost the grant as a result of being in direct competition with a wealthy jock and his sneaky girlfriend. She sent an anonymous mail saying he stole an important artifact, so Bellingham directly lost the opportunity of getting the grant. The jock was planning to spend the grant on a new Maserati, but Bellingham has other plans for him.
Delivery guys just brought him a wooden crate that hosts a mummy with a secret scroll that can bring it to life. As always with this kind of short horror stories, things don't end up like they were supposed to.
 
"Lot 249" is packed full with stars such as Steve Buschemi who plays lead character Bellingham, Christian Slater and Julianne Moore. Out of the three episodes, this one offers the most visual horror, as the mummy has its own inventive ideas on getting rid of people that cross Bellingham's way.
The next episode "Cat From Hell", doesn't host an ensemble of famous actors, but two horror masterminds were directly connected with the story. The original short story was written by Stephen King and the screenplay adaptation was done by George A. Romero.
We are introduced with a contract killer that was just hired by an old wealthy man to kill... ehm... a cat. While the killer smiles and thinks this was one of his easiest assignments, we see that the cat is much more than a cuddly little pet. After watching 90% of this episode I wasn't satisfied a bit, but when it finished, it made me think.
The cat is really just a cat, it doesn't transform into a monster, but it is so powerful and evil that it kills everyone on sight. This premise looked too basic, but just imagine - all the monster horrors we get are based on some huge, disgusting out-of-this world creatures - why, for once, shouldn't the real monster be something as plain as a little cat?
The closing episode "Lover's Vow" is penned by Michael McDowell, whose writing credits include "Beetlejuice" and the screenplay for Stephen King's "Thinner". This segment starts around a character that is a bit similar to Tim Roth's in "Tales from the Crypt" season 3 episode "Easel Kill Ya". Preston is a unsuccessful painter that cannot even pay his rent. After spending yet another drunk evening at a local bar, he becomes a witness of a gargoyle attack on the bar's owner. The gargoyle gives Preston a chance to survive - 'don't tell anyone about me or what happened here and I will let you live. As soon as you even give someone a sneak peak, I will be back to take your life.'
Soon after the incident, Preston meets Carola, a young lady he soon falls in love with. His life is becoming ideal, but the thing from the past is here to change that.
While the episode was a bit slow, its final sequence really delivered. To some the "finale" could be a bit predictive, but nevertheless "Lover's Vow" is giving us another perspective on what would be a typical love story.
I have been waiting to get a hold of "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie" for some time. As I never had the chance to watch any of the episodes, I was a bit interested in what is the usual scope of a "Darkside" series and what are the similarities between the more famous "Tales From the Crypt". Judging by the movie, the stories are pretty much the same - some of them good some of the bad, but the main difference is that "Tales from the Darkside" don't have the comical part.
Although the episodes in this movie were mediocre, the good thing was that each of them held something special to it. We got the visual horror, potential every day terror and even a sad, but creepy, love story.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1990
DIRECTOR: John Harrison
WRITING CREDITS: Michael McDowell, Arthur Conan Doyle
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
CAST: Deborah Harry, Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 93 min
RATING: 5/10
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie Website/IMDB Click here
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie Trailer Click here
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