DVD Review: Tales From the Darkside Season One
Retro Horror/Thriller 80's Show Rehashes Terror Tales
When viewers are subjected to any televised anthology that features fantastic or supernatural stories, they should always view the overall product as a live-action version of a book of collected works.
Shows such as Amazing Stories, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits and Tales from the Crypt have all managed this format decently well, and so it comes as no surprise that producer/director George A. Romero and uber-writer Stephen King, would want to try (as they might) to recapture the gory, scary elements of their film anthology Creepshow. Tales from the Darkside is the mixed result.
Tales From the Darkside Basic Overview
Without going into deep detail of each of the set's 24 episodes (counting the pilot), let us simply say that each of the stories revolve around some everyday people coming up against supernatural elements which end up changing their lives forever.
For example, in one of the more famous of the episodes, "Word Processor of the Gods", Richard Hagstrom (Bruce Davison, X-Men, X2 and TV's new Knight Rider) is an unhappy husband whose life could have turned out differently, had he married his wife's sister. As as result, he spends days enduring his loud slob of a son, and his hateful wife. When his nephew dies and leaves him with a special computer, Richard realizes he can edit reality by simply typing in new circumstances, and either executing or deleting them.
That episode came from a Stephen King story, and is one of the more lighthearted of the episodes. Others are downright spooky, and some come off as cornier than a pre-school play.
The pilot episode, Trick or Treat, starts out as a promising horror tale, but ends up falling flat, as a nonsensical, disconnected haunting, involving a cheap looking demon, and a witch. As much as they try for the horrific effect, it comes off as hilarious, probably not the producers' original intent.
Tales From the Darkside Season One Overall Analysis
On the whole, this series is a simple reflection of the times, having been produced in 1983. The production values will seem dated by today's standards, and this will unfortunately not go unnoticed. Granted, the video quality is grainy and shoddy at best, and the audio is acceptable, but most of the episodes end up looking like they were shot in the writer's garage, on a shoestring budget.
It's best to focus on the writing, and on the bevy of talent who appear on screen, in each episode. Many of the actors who appeared in this series, are still working today. Look for names like Danny Aiello, Tom Noonan, Justine Bateman, Barnard Hughes, Brent Spiner, Christian Slater, and Victor Garber, among others.
Labelled as a collection of tales of terror, Tales From the Darkside veer more towards the arcane and fantastic, probably more a labor of love by its makers, than a worthwhile commercial product.
For hardcore fans only.
3 out of 10, for shoddy production values, tacky stories, but worthwhile performances in some cases.
Tales From the Darkside Season One
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