Overrated and overhyped

As Good As It Gets

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Deadtime Stories starts late one night as a young boy named Brian (Brian DePersia) can't get to sleep, his pesters his babysitting Uncle Mike (Michael Mesmer) to tell him a story. Mike agrees & puts his own personal dark spin on some well known fairy tales...The first story Mike tells concerns Hanagohl (Phyllis Craig) & Florinda (Anne Redferne) two Witches who want to resurrect their dead sister Magoga & use Peter (Scott Valentine) their lowly slave boy to accomplish this...Next up is a story about Rachel (Nicole Picard) & her Grandmother (Fran Lopate) who get a visit from a guy named Willie (Matt Mitler) who is in fact a Werewolf...The third & final story concerns three escaped mental patients, Judith 'MaMa' Baer (Melissa Leo), Beresford 'Papa' Baer (Kevin Hannon) & Wilmont 'Baby' Bear (Timothy Rule) who head back to their old home only to discover a squatter living there, the murderous Goldi Lox (Cathryn DePrume)...Also known under the title Freaky Fairy tales here in the UK this light hearted anthology horror film was co-written, produced & directed by Jeffrey Delman who also has a small role in the film as the 'Strangling Man' & also wrote some of the lyrics for the hilariously overwrought songs used through the film (the opening theme song called 'Bedtime Tales' is hilarious & has to be heard to be believed) & takes three well known fairy tales & puts a distinctly darkish horror slant to them & ends up a pretty mixed bag. The first story actually feels like a fairytale as it's set long ago & features Witches & the like while the last two stories are set in contemporary times & just don't quite have the same feel. The second story is pretty good & you can see all the references to Red Riding Hood with the big bad Wolf, the Grandmother & Red Riding Hood herself but I felt the film felt apart with the third & final story which is a little bit embarrassing actually. It's played largely for laughs & feels more like a spoof than anything else, the only real resemblance this story has to any fairytale is that the names of some of the character's are the same (with slight spelling alterations) otherwise this is fairly poor & the links are tenuous although I did find the notion of Papa Baer coming home & finding Goldi Lox nude in the shower quite an amusing take on the often told fairytale. I think anthology stories work best when there's 20 odd minutes of solid build-up that sets a twist ending up but none of these stories have any twist's which is a shame as they feel rather unsatisfying despite some imaginative ideas. The pace is good & the stories differ enough but as a whole Deadtime Stories didn't quite work for me.I have to mention the opening credits sequence which is really cool as the various names are written in an old style storybook & some monsters hand turns the pages to the next one, it's just a shame it's accompanied by one of the worst songs in cinematic history. There's some reasonable gore & make-up effects, the scene showing Magoga coming back to life is quite impressive with all her veins & organs growing back inside & around her dusty skeleton, there's a slashed throat, a beating heart, various dead bodies, a couple of severed hands, someone is impaled on a wooden post & there are some cheap looking Werewolf effects. Goldi Lox also gets a nude shower scene. The first story goes for atmosphere & it's pretty good, the second story is a little flat but works OK but the third story just for all out laughs & just doesn't work at all & for me ends the film on a downer.Apparently made over a three year period between 1982 & 1985 this was filmed in Greenwich in Connecticut probably by enthusiastic yet amateur filmmakers. The production values vary with the first story looking the best, the second story looking the most polished & the third story, well, is just a mess. The acting varies as one would expect although none of it is particularly good.Deadtime Stories is a decent effort at a fairytale themed anthology horror film that is pretty good for it's first two thirds but then loses the plot with a less than impressive last story. Worth a watch if your into the genre but there is better out there if you look.

A little boy begs his uncle to tell him bedtime stories. The uncle does, but gives them all macabre twists in this fair-to-middling anthology film."Peter And The Witches" is about a young man (Scott Valentine) who is a slave to two witches. This segment is slow and almost plot less."Little Red Runninghood" has a high school girl in a red jogging outfit picking up medicine for her sick grandma at the drug store. She's given the wrong prescription, and the man the medicine belongs to has a very special reason for needing it before the full moon (hint, hint). You'll guess the punchline, but it's still a funny segment."Goldi Lox And The Three Baers" is a very broad, very black comedy about a telekinetic young woman (the very sexy Catheryn DePrume) and a homicidal family - Papa Baer, Mama Baer and Baby Baer - that team up together and go on a crime spree. Sort of a R rated Looney Tunes cartoon, this is the best segment of the film.Perhaps not the best horror anthology around, it's still amusing in spots. Apparently this movie was shot over the course of four years. The British title is Freaky Fairy Tales.

Sleazy Uncle Mike (a perfectly cranky Michael Mesmer) tells his bratty nephew Brian (the supremely annoying Brian DePersia) a trio of macabre variations on classic fairy tales. First and most ghoulish yarn, "Peter and the Witches" - Hapless nice young guy Peter (a likable performance by Scott Valentine of "Family Ties" fame) has to abduct sweet fair maiden Miranda (the lovely Kathy Fleig) so she can be used as a human sacrifice by a pair of ugly, bickering old hag witches (broadly essayed by Phyllis Craig and Anne Redfern) who want to resurrect their long dead sister Magoga. This segment offers plenty of creepy atmosphere for the audience to relish. Second and trashiet tale, "Little Red Runninghood" - Nubile young lady jogger Rachel (delectable brunette hottie Nicole Picard) gets stalked by predatory werewolf Willie (a pleasingly smarmy Matt Mitler). The punchline for this one is obvious, but still uproarious just the same. Third and funniest vignette, "Goldi Lox and the Three Baers" - The deranged Baer family -- Grouchy dad Beresford "Papa" Baer (an amusingly cantankerous Kevin Hannon), screwball mom Judith "Mama" Baer (the hilarious Melissa Leo) and their doltish son Wilmont "Baby" Baer (affably goofy Timothy Rule) -- escape from an asylum and join forces with daffy psychic murderess Goldi Lox (luscious blonder looker Cathryn DePrume). This episode goes for broke with the hysterically over-the-top lowbrow silly humor. Director/co-writer Jeffrey Delman maintains a steady pace throughout and does a solid job of creating an enjoyably campy tongue-in-cheek tone. Daniel B. Canton's plain, but acceptable cinematography, the groovy opening credits theme song, Ed French's shoddy, rubbery make-up f/x, and Taj's funky score round off the schlocky goodies to be savored in this entertainingly tacky treat.

DEADTIME STORIES was released a few years after the release of George A. Romero's CREEPSHOW. However, Deadtime isn't anywhere close to the caliber of quality that CREEPSHOW is. This movie is comprised of three stories, all of which totally suck. The first story deals with witches, as they perform stupid experiments. The second story is based on a guy that gets his pharmaceutical prescription screwed up with another patent's. This causes him to change into a werewolf. Finally, the third and final story is a black comedy that has the viewer forced to follow the path of three escaped mental patients who shard a country house with a character by the name of Goldi Lox. The bottom line is that all of these stories suck. It's a shame a producer thought that this project would be a success. I wonder what he was smoking?? The movie has a cool box cover, but that is all. AWFUL.