Psycho's Movie Reviews #206: Tales From The Darkside (1990)

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is a 1990 American comedy horror anthology film directed by John Harrison, and based on the anthology television series Tales from the Darkside. The film depicts a kidnapped paperboy who tells three stories of horror to the suburban witch who is preparing to eat him.

Plot

Intro

The film opens with Betty, an affluent suburban housewife and modern-day witch (Deborah Harry), planning a dinner party. The main dish is to be Timmy (Matthew Lawrence), a young boy whom she has captured and chained up in her pantry. To stall her from stuffing and roasting him, the boy tells her three horror stories from a book she gave him, titled Tales from the Darkside.

Lot 249

In the first segment, Michael McDowell adapts Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story "Lot No. 249". A graduate student, Edward Bellingham (played by Steve Buscemi), has been cheated by two classmates, Susan (Julianne Moore), and Lee (Robert Sedgwick), who framed him for theft to ruin his chances of winning a scholarship for which they were competing. As revenge, Bellingham reanimates a mummy and uses it to murder them both. Susan's brother Andy (Christian Slater) kidnaps Bellingham, forces him to summon the mummy, then destroys it and burns its remains and what he believes to be the reanimation parchment. He considers killing Bellingham, but in the end cannot bring himself to commit real murder. However, Bellingham brings Susan and Lee back from the dead (having switched the reanimation parchment with a similar one) and dispatches them to Andy's dorm, where they greet the terrified Andy by saying that Bellingham sends his regards.

Cat from Hell

In the second tale, George A. Romero adapts a 1977 Stephen King short story "The Cat from Hell". Drogan (William Hickey), a wealthy old man who uses a wheelchair, brings in a hitman named Halston (David Johansen) for a bizarre hire: kill a black cat, which Drogan believes is murderously evil. Drogan explains that there were three other occupants of his house before the cat arrived: his sister, Amanda (Dolores Sutton), her friend Carolyn (Alice Drummond), and the family's butler, Richard Gage (Mark Margolis). Drogan claims that one by one, the cat killed the other three, and that he is next. Drogan's pharmaceutical company killed 5,000 cats while testing a new drug, and he is convinced that this black cat is here to exact cosmic revenge.

Halston does not believe the story, but is more than willing to eliminate the cat since Drogan is offering $100,000. But when Drogan returns to the house to see if the deed is done, he finds that the cat has killed Halston by climbing down his throat. The cat emerges from the hitman's corpse and jumps at Drogan, giving him a fatal heart attack.

"Cat from Hell" was originally going to appear in Creepshow 2, but was scrapped due to budgetary reasons.

Lover's Vow

The third and final segment is written by Michael McDowell and based on the Yuki-onna, a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore or more specifically Lafcadio Hearn's 1904 version in Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.

Preston (James Remar) is a struggling artist. He lives in a studio with a skylight, through which a large stone gargoyle statue on the neighboring building peers down on his work table. Preston's agent calls, asking to meet with him at a bar a few blocks away. The agent tells Preston that his art work is unpopular and not selling. Dejected, Preston drinks heavily and becomes inebriated. The bar owner, also a friend, offers to walk him home.

Along the way, Preston stops to relieve himself in the back alley. While there, his friend sees and then shoots at the gargoyle monster, but it brutally severs his hand and decapitates him. Preston witnesses the horrific scene. Terrified, he tries running away, but the creature corners him. It spares Preston's life when he swears never to reveal what he saw or describe its appearance to anyone. The monster then scratches Preston's chest saying, "Cross Your Heart," then vanishes. Preston is traumatized and confused, but bound by his oath, can say nothing about what happened.

The horrified Preston runs into another alley where he sees a beautiful woman (Rae Dawn Chong) passing by. After grabbing her, he assures the woman she will not be harmed. The woman, Carola, claimed she became lost while going to meet friends and was searching for a taxi. Preston convinces her to call a taxi from his apartment. While there, Carola cleans the gargoyle-inflicted wound on Preston's chest, then they make love.

Preston's life soon improves and his struggling art career becomes wildly successful, mostly thanks to Carola's connections. They eventually marry and have two children. However, Preston is tormented by memories of the gargoyle, and his vow of silence weighs heavily on him. On the tenth anniversary of his and Carola's first meeting, as well as his friend's death, Preston breaks down and tells her about the monster. Carola appears uncomfortable by Preston's revelation and then emits a heartbroken wail, saying he had promised never to tell anyone, revealing herself as the creature that killed his friend.

With Preston's vow broken, Carola can no longer remain human and begins transforming back into a gargoyle. Their children, now awake, are terrified as Carola writhes in pain as hideous-looking arms and legs burst from beneath her human flesh. A terrified Preston pleads for Carola to change back, but she cannot assume a human form again as her transformation back into a gargoyle keeps on continuing. Their children are screaming in their bedroom as they also transform into gargoyles. Carola, now fully transformed back into a gargoyle, wraps her wings around Preston and the couple proclaim their love for each other, but with the vow broken, Carola is still reluctantly forced to kill him by biting his neck, before remorsefully flying away with her gargoyle children. The final scene shows the three gargoyles now turned to stone and sitting upon the building ledge, staring down at the city with sorrowful expressions.

{That whole scene where the wife and kids turn into Gargoyles is so cool yet terrifying. Man movies need to have more practical effects if this is how good it was then, just think of how much better it would be now}.

Epilogue

Betty remarks that Timmy saved the best story ("Lover's Vow") for last, but he says that the next one is best, and has a happy ending. She replies that it is too late as she has to start cooking him, and that none of the stories in the book have happy endings. As Betty advances on Timmy, he narrates his own actions: throwing some marbles on the floor, causing her to slip and fall on her butcher's block and impaling her on her own tools. Timmy releases himself and pushes her into her own oven. The film ends with Timmy helping himself to a cookie and breaking the fourth wall by saying "Don't you just love happy endings?"

Release/Reception/Box Office

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie was a modest box office success for Paramount. The film was released May 4, 1990 in the United States, opening in third place that weekend. It grossed a total of $16,324,573 domestically.

The film was given a rating of 43% on the ratings aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews, while receiving an overall grade of "C" at Box Office Mojo. Los Angeles Times writer Michael Wilmington criticized Harrison's directing choices ("too much ritzy film noir styling and self-conscious comic book frames") but said "there’s more brain than usual beneath the blood and guts." The Washington Post panned the film calling it a "lame effort."

Budget $3.5 million

Box office $16.3 million

My Review

Tom Savini once famously stated that he considered Tales from the Darkside: The Movie to be the official second sequel to the Creepshow franchise. This view reflects that of the majority of fans, even to this day. The reception of the first Creepshow film categorised it as being a box office success which resulted in Laurel Entertainment, the production company behind the first two Creepshow films, toying with the concept of creating a Creepshow horror anthology television series. Following a period of negotiations and changes due to complications with the holder of the rights, a decision was agreed to change the series title from Creepshow to Tales from the Darkside. The series was well received by its audience and three years following the commercial release of Creepshow 2, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie was released in 1990, sharing many of Creepshow's production team, making it the successor of Creepshow and its first sequel.

The film in question follows three individual stories; Lot 249, Cat from Hell, and Lover's Vow. These three segments are all orientated around a wraparound story which focuses on a little boy being held captive by a middle aged woman who intends on roasting and serving him at a dinner party. In order to prolong the wait for him being put in the oven, young Timmy reads short horror stories to Betty (Debby Harry){I didn't even know she had an acting career outside of Blondie}, the woman who has imprisoned him. This is where the individual stories are incorporated into the film.

The first segment, Lot 249, focuses on an ancient mummy being resurrected from the dead and participating in a killing spree. Initially, this story is rather slow but once the resurrection takes place, some considerably grisly killings occur that you can't help but cringe at. This is followed by an interesting series of events which ultimately leads to a rather bleak ending, in a typical horror anthology fashion. Lot 249 has a strong cast in the form of Christian Slater, Julianne Moore and Steve Buscemi in which the slow opening can be forgiven through their performances. The atmosphere present throughout this piece is significantly unnerving which makes the conclusion come across as being even more chilling.

The second segment, Cat from Hell, focuses on the assassination of an evil cat with a mysteriously murderous past. This story was written by Stephen King and adapted for screen by George A Romero, the two minds behind the original concept for Creepshow. This story was initially going to be featured in Creepshow 2 but due to issues with financing and the budget of the film, it was scrapped. Although this piece has a slow, nonlinear structure, an interesting eerie atmosphere is featured throughout and has a similar feel to film noir, only a killer cat is featured as opposed to a femme fatale with a pistol. In comparison to the cast of Lot 249, Cat from Hell mainly focuses on the characters portrayed by David Johansen and William Hickey. Halston, played by Johansen, has an irritating factor to his character which makes him somewhat unlikeable and therefore, partially ruins this segment. Like with Halston, William Hickey's character, Drogan, also has an irritating factor to his character which also makes him somewhat unlikeable. Combining these two characters together into one episode results in the whole piece not being as strong as potential would allow. However, the reoccurring bleak endings throughout the film make this particular story worth watching.

The third and final segment, Lover's Vow, is by far the most powerful story featured in the film. The storyline focuses on a man falling in love with a woman who isn't what she seems. The beginning and the end of the segment presents itself as being of the horror genre but throughout the middle of this piece, it's a romantic drama. The codes and conventions of the romance genre make this piece somewhat addictive to watch as you feel compelled to follow the relationship of the characters of Preston and Carola. However, this makes the conclusion of the segment all the more heart-breaking. Whilst Tales from the Darkside: The Movie doesn't always take itself seriously, Lover's Vow is definitely the darkest piece as explores the deepest of human emotion. Not only this, but the ending is genuinely creepy and is enough to send shivers down your spine.

Overall, I feel that Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is a highly underrated horror film that's due more credit than it receives. Although it isn't as mainstream as the original Creepshow films, it could be argued that Tales from the Darkside is a stronger film in terms of narrative and acting in comparison to the second Creepshow film. 9.3/10