Tales from the Darkside
Tales from the Darkside
TV-14 | 30 September 1984 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    Tedfoldol

    everything you have heard about this movie is true.

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    Invaderbank

    The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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    Nayan Gough

    A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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    Fatma Suarez

    The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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    Parker Lewis

    The introduction to Tales from the Darkside really resonates with fans to this day, as demonstrated by web comments. It was really chilling and scary, seriously!The scenes were montages of bucolic USA (or maybe Canada) and I would love to know where the scenes were shot. Nothing scary about the scenes per se, but still the underlying horror and foreboding, and the creepy music and chilling narration really scared me!The episodes were so-so, and in some cases were let downs. I sort of wondered what the driving theme was for Tales from the Darkside - was there a twist in the tale, horror a la Freddy Krueger? But still credit to the creators and writers and directors and cast and crew, for a show that still generates much comment, especially for the introduction.

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    wmdude1255

    I have recently begun watching this series. I noticed a few things. one , the other writer is right about the new talent. Examples of that included Christian Slater and Seth Green. Two, Most of the stories tried to teach a lesson. Examples included the Pilot "Trick or Treat" in which an elderly old miser runs a haunted house where he invites the kids to come and look for their parents IOU's. In the end however he gets whats coming to him. It was kind of a take-off of a "A Christmas Carol" Other like "The Satanic Piano" and "Printer's Devil" reinforced the saying that's there's no such thing as a free Lunch. In Order to get something, you usually have to give something else up. I really liked the episode "I'll Give You a Million". I mean the idea that someone would sell their soul for a Million Dollars is just amazing. Also, a lot of the very best actors ever guest starred on the episodes. People like Danny Aiello, Christian Slater, Seth Green, Justine Bateman, and many others. This series is one of the best Horror/Sci-Fi series to ever come out. Everyone should have a chance to see this. I know the first 2 seasons are out on DVD Boxed sets but I don't know if they'll ever release the last 2 seasons.

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    Aaron1375

    This was one of my favorite horror shows as it was very watchable and enjoyable. There were many shows of this type during the time it ran and one can say it was probably the inspiration for a couple of the other ones that came on during this time such as "Monsters" and ever the one that Freddy Krueger had as the stories from those two shows I sometimes think came from this one. However, this one was around first and it is the best of the bunch. Granted, the episodes on Tales from the Crypt got a little darker and you could sometimes get lucky and see some nudity this one had by far the better stories. It also had one of the coolest openings of the bunch as well, for it may have been simple it was also effective in telling the viewer that they were on a trip to the darkside. Many good episodes are to be found, one of my favorite involved a woman renting a room in a place or something and there is a hole in the wall and something seems to be living there. I also remember one about some old lady who treated her father horribly and was good at making cookies, but she gets what is coming to her in the end. All in all one of the best horror shows out there.

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    Earl Roesel (Sanguinaire)

    The television horror anthology has a long and noble history. In the Fifties, Rod Serling blazed the trail with THE TWILIGHT ZONE; though the series mostly veered in the direction of what may be called "speculative fantasy", it did produce its share of horrific/macabre episodes. This was to be followed by THRILLER in the early Sixties, a much more overtly Gothic series hosted by Boris Karloff, and one of the first television series to catch flack for experimenting with graphic violence (one episode featured a man staggering down a flight of stairs with an ax buried in his head!). Serling struck again with NIGHT GALLERY in the Seventies, an often genuinely weird and experimental series that, like THRILLER, often drew from the great pulp horror tales of the past for inspiration. And, in the Eighties, came George Romero's TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE.I vividly remember the show as a pre-teen; it would premier late at night, around 11:30 after the news and "normal" programming concluded. As that bleary witching hour approached, when the wholesome prime-time like of FAMILY TIES and THE FACTS OF LIFE seemed miles gone by, disorientation and apprehension would set in - the atmosphere was right for a kid to be scared! And nothing was scarier than DARKSIDE's opening sequence. What looked like pastoral postcard scenes of rural Vermont would give way to the ominous intonations of Paul Sparer, backed up by a prickly synthesizer score. The title card would then appear in dripping letters of crimson. It was, in a word, unforgettable.For budgetary reasons, the episodes were shot on video; on the one hand, this gave them an air of cheapness, but on the other lent them a kind of creepy immediacy. The frequent appearance of veteran stars meanwhile, some of who hadn't then worked in years, provided some old-fashioned cachet. Eddie Bracken starred in one I'll never forget - A Case of the Stubborns, based on a story by Robert Bloch. Bracken plays a cranky old grandfather who refuses to accept the fact that he has died, much to the distress of his family. As the days pass, Bracken begins to decompose, to the point of literally sneezing his nose off. Another one that stuck with me was called Inside the Closet, which starred Fritz Weaver as a doctor with a horrible Tom Savini-designed secret locked in his doll closet. One of the (deservedly) best-loved episodes was a Christmas-themed affair called Seasons of Belief. This one had E. G. Marshall sadistically terrorizing his children with stories of The Grither, a sort of demonic Santa being whose name must never be spoken. Building to a truly spectacular conclusion, Seasons of Belief stands out as an endearingly bilious Yuletide classic. In addition to the old-timers, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE boasted some up-and-coming talent as well - the aforementioned A Case of the Stubborns also starred Christian Slater. Another one I remember, called Monsters in My Room, had little Seth Green as a boy who faces the titular trouble. To further sweeten the package, horror masters like Romero, Savini, and Bloch frequently contributed behind the camera.TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE looms large in the pantheon of Eighties horror (when the genre wasn't afraid to be bold and nasty), as well as in the hearts of those of us who remember it. As it's been off the air for some time, a DVD release may well be in order, so that a whole new generation might behold what gave many Children of the Eighties a pleasant little chill back in the day. As the show's closer immortally put it: "The Darkside is always there, waiting for us to enter, waiting to enter us. Until next time - try to enjoy the daylight."

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