Back in 1982 legendary horror director George A. Romero, best known for his deservedly famous zombie films, united with equally renowned horror author Stephen King to create Creepshow, an horror movie featuring several individual horror stories and presented in the vein of the E.C. comic books of the 1950’s…
The movie was a success and Romero and company wanted to make a TV series out of it. However, because of issues regarding rights and, I’m quite certain, money, it was decided to make a TV series in the vein of Creepshow but which had nothing to do with it… other than having some of the same creative talent behind it. The TV series Tales From The Darkside debuted in 1983 and finished off its run in 1988.
The series did well and, in the meantime and in 1987, Creepshow 2 was released. There was interest in continuing the Creepshow brand but, again due to those pesky contracts and rights, Creepshow 3 would never be made.
The project, however, morphed into something else and thus, in 1990, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie was released.
Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (let’s refer to it as TFD from here on in) featured a trio of stories tied into a framing story.
The framing story featured singer/actress Deborah Harry as a seemingly normal suburban housewife who happens to have a young child locked in her home and whom she intends to cook. The child (Matthew Lawrence) manages to hold her off by telling her the trio of stories which make up the film’s run time.
The first story, Lot 249, was based on a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes) and features Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi, and, in her motion picture debut, Julianne Moore in a tale concerning a mummy which is, eventually, brought to vengeful life.
The second story, Cat From Hell, is based on a tale by Stephen King and concerns and ornery millionaire (William Hickey) who hires a hit man (David Johansen) to take out a black cat the millionaire is certain is a vengeful spirit.
The last tale, Lover’s Vow, involves a struggling artist (James Remar) who witnesses a bloody, supernatural murder and subsequently finds everything he desires, including true love and artistic success, when he bumps into Rae Dawn Chong’s Carola.
It is after the telling of the third tale that we get resolution in the framing story involving Deborah Harry’s curious evening meal.
TFD is not a bad film but, I would quickly add, it didn’t exactly fill me with awe. The first story, involving the vengeful mummy, was probably the best of the four (including the framing device) yet it wasn’t without its problems. Still, it was fun to watch a trio of well established actors in their youth doing their thing. Christian Slater was quite fun as the clever, but not clever enough, college student out to do the right thing. Julianne Moore gets a chance to play the vamp and Steve Buscemi was fun as a nerdy student who seeks rightful vengeance from those who put him down.
I’d probably put Cat From Hell and the framing story in second place and, again, these weren’t bad but neither did they wow me. Actor/singer David Johansen was good as the hitman and Deborah Harry was fun as what amounts to a witch straight out of a Grimm Brothers fairy tale.
The final, and longest segment, Lover’s Vow, was clearly intended to be the showcase piece of the movie but, alas, winds up being the least of the tales presented. And this despite some good acting by James Remar and Rae Dawn Chong and the goriest, though by today’s standards pretty tame, effects. The main problem is that the story presented is way too obvious and never terribly gripping.
Ah well.
Still, TFD isn’t a total bust. It is far from the worst horror film I’ve seen involving multiple horror stories.
Having said that, one can understand why this movie isn’t as well remembered as the original Creepshow. Hell, even Creepshow 2, IMHO a far lesser film than the original, nonetheless has fans of at least one of their segments (The Raft).
With that in mind, I offer a mild recommendation for TFD but this is directed to those who want to see some very familiar actors in their formative years.