Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit…a DARKSIDE!

So goes one of the most melodramatic “scary” narration sequences in horror history

Tales from the Darkside is one of those anthology shows that most horror fans have heard of, yet one that I rarely hear anybody talk about or in most cases, has ever seen. I’m sure everyone is familiar with the awesome (yes, I said “awesome”) feature length film but the show itself had some really interesting episodes. Though they look horribly outdated by today’s standards (that opening credit sequence is brutally bad), the show did manage to provide writing and directing outlets for some of our more well respected genre vets that many people may have overlooked.

Created by George Romero in the aftermath of Creepshow’s success, TftDS ran for 4 seasons at a hefty 90 episodes and helped pave the way for the most famous horror anthology, HBO’s Tales From the Crypt (although that debt is owed in large part to The Hitchhiker). The episodes varied wildly in tone and quality. Sometimes they would have a horror slant (as in the Tom Savini directed werewolf episode “Family Reunion”), sometimes a pronounced comedic angle (”The Grave Robber”, in which a Mummy plays a game of strip poker), and othertimes they would hearken strongly to the irony of old EC comics (”Trick or Treat”, written by Romero).

Other than the aforementioned Romero and Savini, other horror big guns participated in the series. Stephen King wrote a couple episodes, one of which was based on his short story “The Word Processor of the Gods” about a man whose recently deceased nephew has built him a machine that grants him whatever he types into it. It’s a tame episode that takes no risks and ends on a stupid happy note and feels completely out of place in the series. And that was what was so maddening, yet so interesting about the show. You got a crazy range of episodes that didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason to them. Horror icon Robert Bloch (if you don’t know that name, go away right now please) wrote some episodes. As did Michael McDowell who would later move on to bigger and better things, namely Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Even Clive Barker got in on the fun with “The Yattering and Jack” (a weird episode featuring Phil Fondacaro). And let’s not overlook the oddest fun fact: a 26 year old Jodie Foster making her directorial debut with “Do Not Open This Box” (which, it turns out, is a pretty fun episode).

Tales From the Darkside is definitely a show to take another look at. There were far more misses during the series’ run than there were hits, but I think there is a lot of hidden gems that most horror fans have overlooked. Stuff like “Lifebomb” in which a dying man has a device implanted in him that saves his life everytime he dies is great fun that holds up just as well as many irony-laced Crypt episodes.

As far as I know, none of the seasons have been released on DVD, which is a shame. I do know that, ahem, you can get them from various websites if you are so inclined, but if you don’t want to pay some outrageous price, the series is currently running on syndication on the Sci-Fi channel as well as Chiller. So, any of you out there Darkside fans like I am? If so, I’d love to hear about your favorite episodes.

Filed under: Remembering Forgotten Horror