Horror in the 90s: 'Tales from the Dark Side'

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)

Directed by John Harrison

Written by Michael McDowell, George A. Romero

Starring Debbie Harry, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Christian Slater, James Remar, Rae Dawn Chong

Release Date May 4th, 1990

Box Office Gross $16.3 million

Why don't more people talk about how great Tales from the Darkside The Movie is? I've seen Tales from the Darkside The Movie a few times but somehow, it wasn't until this viewing that it really clicked for me. This anthology of three horror movies, and one wraparound segment, combines the talents of Stephen King, George Romero and a powerhouse cast, across four stories, to deliver one of the most consistently entertaining horror movies of the 1990s.

Let's begin with our wrap-around story. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie opens on a peaceful suburban milieu. A lovely looking woman has purchased groceries and is returning home to start dinner for a dinner party. This is classic horror movie stuff as perverting the pristine perfection of suburban life is a classic trope. The first signs of such perversions of the normal only arrives once we are inside the home of that plain Jane woman and her groceries.

We arrive in the home of Betty, played by rock icon Debbie Harry, before she does. While she's getting her groceries, the camera takes us into her home and a strange looking broom is propped against a wall. While we puzzle over the broom, which brings to mind a witches broom, we begin to hear a noise. The camera slowly reveals a door in the kitchen and someone struggling to open the door before fearfully retreating when Betty comes inside. The skillful visual filmmaking tells us everything we need to know, Betty is a witch and whoever is in that locked pantry, is her prisoner.

Perverting things even further, Betty soon reveals her victim, a tiny moppet with floppy hair and a crooked grin. This is Timmy (Matthew Lawrence) and we soon learn that Timmy is set to be that night's main course as Betty is bringing her witch friends over for a Timmy casserole. In a desperate attempt to keep himself alive, Timmy grabs a story book called Tales from the Darkside and offers to tell Betty a scary story as a reason to keep him alive. She agrees and we proceed with our first terrific story.

The most star-studded of our three stories was not quite so star-studded at the time of release. Lot 249 stars a pair of stars before they became big stars. Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore were at the beginning of what would be lengthy and critically acclaimed careers when they played academic rivals in Lot 249, the story of a man and his mummy. Christian Slater, already having become a leading man by 1990, is the best known of the cast which is rounded out by lesser known character actor Robert Sedgwick.

Lot 249 is a tale of revenge as Edward Bellingham (Buscemi) is convinced that a rich idiot, Lee (Robert Sedgwick), has used his influence, and his equally rich and duplicitous girlfriend, Susan (Moore), to steal a lucrative scholarship from him. The loss may force Bellingham to have to leave school just as he is on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough in his research on ancient Egypt. Through nefarious circumstance, Bellingham has secured Lot 249, an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus that could be worth millions, depending on what he finds inside.

Slater plays Bellingham's neighbor, and Susan's brother, Adam, who begins to witness strange activities from Bellingham's apartment. Bellingham can be heard chanting late into the night and whatever he's up to knocks out the power to the entire building. Investigating, Adam is attacked and narrowly survives. What attacked him? He doesn't know but when Lee turns up dead, Adam begins to suspect Bellingham and whatever may be inside Lot 249.

The pedigree on Lot 249 includes legendary author Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote the short story on which the short film is based. It also includes horror legend George A Romero who worked to adapt the Doyle story alongside co-screenwriter Michael McDowell. Arthur Conan Doyle, George Romero, Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore? It's a murderer's row of incredible talent in front of and behind the scenes. Of course, Lot 249 is incredible and it's only the first of three incredible stories in this exceptional anthology.

Following another check in with Timmy and the Witch, we enter our second story, a deeply gothic horror tale called A Cat From Hell. This short combines the brilliantly hammy talents of a pair of actors with memorable faces, if not names. Famed character actor William Hickey stars as Drogan, a mercenary billionaire in the pharmaceutical industry. Drogan is now alone in his massive mansion because he believes something has killed the members of his inner circle. I would not call them family as they are merely three equally miserable people living off of Drogan's dole.

Enter Halston, played by flamboyant punk rock star turned character actor, David Johansen. Halston is a contract killer and Drogan has something that he wants killed. It's a job unlike any Halston has been offered before. Drogan is offering $12,000 for Halston to kill a black cat. Keeping his cool but clearly skeptical, Halston waits as Drogan lays out how the cat has claimed three victims. We see in flashback a series of scenes where the role that the cat may have played in each death could be exaggerated by a man who also happens to be taking his own designer pharmaceuticals that may or may not cause severe delusions.

Despite the outlandishness of Drogan's claims and the relative ease with which Halston believes he can kill the cat, the hitman accepts the job. This sets in motion a game of cat and hitman that ends in a severely gross and entirely unforgettable series of scenes. The Cat from Hell embraces a level of crazy, gory, and silly that I absolutely adored from minute one to minute last. You won't be at all surprised to learn that The Cat from Hell is based on a Stephen King short story and it has both King's irreverence and lowbrow humor and his remarkable talent for horror atmospherics. I loved this.

And we aren't done with the craziness as Timmy promises the Witch that she will enjoy his last story, a love story, so much that she will take him off of the menu and let him go home. The final story of Tales from the Darkside The Movie is wild. James Remar stars as a struggling artist who narrowly avoids a horrific fate after a night of late night drinking. After a winged monster flies down to the street and murders a friendly neighborhood bartender in grisly, head-chopping fashion, the monster strikes a deal with the artist.

The artist must never tell anyone, ANYONE, what he saw on this night. He can never describe the monster in any way to anyone. We can infer that if he were to break this promise his fate would be similar to that of his bartending pal. Once the monster flies away, the shaken artist rushes home. Along the way, he sees a beautiful woman, Rae Dawn Chong, waiting for a cab. Worried for her safety from the monster, the artist invites her home and the two begin a sexy love story.

Soon after, the artist becomes rich and successful and the woman waiting for the cab, she becomes his wife and the mother of his twin children, a boy and a girl. The two have everything they could ever want for nearly a decade until one night when the artist makes a horrific choice. Feeling that time enough has passed since his promise to the monster and genuinely wanting to share everything with the woman he loves, the artist tells the story of the night they met and reveals a statue of the monster that he made that night.

What happens next may be something you have already guessed but that doesn't matter. It's pulled off with style, high level emotions, passionate energy, and terrific acting by Remar and Chong. Whether intended as funny or not, the special effects in this segment, called Lover's Vow, are awesome, both gross and darkly, comedically, over the top. Like everything else in Tales from the Darkside The Movie, it works on its own as a short film and feels perfectly at home in this anthology, all from the same director working deftly and proficiently across multiple aesthetics and stories.

Director John Harrison may only be shepherding this material, overseeing multiple creative teams and the input of his screenwriters and cinematographers, but much credit to him. For a director to deliver such a consistently entertaining series of scares and shocks over three different stories in three different sub-genres of horror, is really incredible. Harrison might be more fondly remembered if he'd done any other work in the genre after this but instead, Tales from the Darkside The Movie was his last time directing a feature in the horror genre.

That he made one of the best and easily the most underrated horror moviesof the 90s in his only attempt makes him a minor legend. Tales from the Darkside The Movie is now one of my favorite horror movies of all time and, when I do rank horror in the 90s, you can bet that this one will be high on that list. I've never been much for anthology movies but this one was a revelation. It's just so much fun and weird, and gross, and exciting. I love this movie.

This review of Tales from the Darkside The Movie is part of my book project on Horror Movies in the 1990s, tentatively, but not officially, called Horror in the 90s. The book will feature reviews and features on as many as 200 horror movies released between January 1st, 1990 and December 31st, 1999. Not only will the book feature reviews and features about the movies, it will also feature rankings of horror in the 90s, the box office of horror in the 90s, and a look at the tropes, directors, and stars of horror in the 1990s.

It's a major undertaking and that is why I need your help to make it happen. Via Vocal, you can be part of Horror in the 90s by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one-time tip. Financially supporting Horror in the 90s will give me the best chance to make the book a real book. It will allow me to commission art for the book and, hopefully, a marketing campaign once it is complete. Everyone who makes a donation to Horror in the 90s will get a credit at the end of the book.

As I go through writing Horror in the 90s I will be sharing pieces of the book for you here on Vocal. These are only excerpts and not the entire book, there will still be plenty to enjoy inside the book, once it is complete. Currently, along with what you are reading now, you can read my take on Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, Brain Dead, and The First Power. More pieces are coming soon but the book can only be completed if kind readers such as yourself choose to donate and support this project.