Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is a horror anthology type film that includes three tales. One is about a mummy that kills, the second is about an attacking feline, and the third tells the tale of a murdering gargoyle. I've always loved these type of horror movies that tells multiple stories within it. Some others that come to mind are "Tales from the Crypt (1972)", "Cat's Eye" and "Trilogy of Terror". Like the 1972 flick Tales From the Crypt', this film has a main plot that surrounds the tales told. The plot for this one is of a little boy who is being held captive by a beautiful housewife who plans on serving him for dinner at her house party. The little boy tries to stall her plans by reading the three stories from the book 'Tales from the Darkside'.
The first story (Lot 249) is about a mummy who is brought back to life by a college student who wants revenge on those who have wronged/bullied him. The mummy kills the students in horrific ways, and the tale ends with a decent twist. The second story (The Cat From Hell) shows an old man named Drogan hiring a hit man named Halston to kill a cat. According to Drogan, the black cat is responsible for the death of his sister and two others. He offers the Halston $100,000 to kill the cat. So basically the whole tale revolves around Halston chasing the cat around the huge mansion, leading up to a pretty gruesome finale. The final story (Lover's Vow) is about a guy named Preston who witnesses another man getting slaughtered by a gargoyle one night in a New York alleyway. The gargoyle tells him that if he ever told anyone of what he saw, it would come back and kill him too! That same night, he meets a beautiful woman who he ends up falling in love with. A year later Preston makes the fatal mistake of telling her what he saw that night, leading to one hell of a twist that frightened me the first time I saw it.
The last story is the best of all three. It has a good story to it, lots of gore, and an interesting little twist at the end. The weakest of the bunch for me would have to be "The Cat from Hell". It was just to ridiculous for me, this cat running around with a professional hit-man not being able to capture it. There was definitely a lot of blood and gore in this film, we get a decapitated head and a cat who goes inside of a person's mouth and rests in their stomach. The wraparound story with the woman trying to cook the kid was decent, nothing special but nothing to complain about.
The acting was pretty good with some big names leading the way (Christian Slater/Julianne Moore/Deborah Harry). Overall, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie is an average horror film. I am a fan of the original TV series, I'd rate them above this film. The 'Lover's Vow' story was the best one, the other two lacked a bit and dragged on a little. I guess I'd recommend it for horror anthology fans. It isn't as good as 'Tales from the Crypt (1972)' or 'Creephow', but it has it's moments.
6/10
The first story (Lot 249) is about a mummy who is brought back to life by a college student who wants revenge on those who have wronged/bullied him. The mummy kills the students in horrific ways, and the tale ends with a decent twist. The second story (The Cat From Hell) shows an old man named Drogan hiring a hit man named Halston to kill a cat. According to Drogan, the black cat is responsible for the death of his sister and two others. He offers the Halston $100,000 to kill the cat. So basically the whole tale revolves around Halston chasing the cat around the huge mansion, leading up to a pretty gruesome finale. The final story (Lover's Vow) is about a guy named Preston who witnesses another man getting slaughtered by a gargoyle one night in a New York alleyway. The gargoyle tells him that if he ever told anyone of what he saw, it would come back and kill him too! That same night, he meets a beautiful woman who he ends up falling in love with. A year later Preston makes the fatal mistake of telling her what he saw that night, leading to one hell of a twist that frightened me the first time I saw it.
The last story is the best of all three. It has a good story to it, lots of gore, and an interesting little twist at the end. The weakest of the bunch for me would have to be "The Cat from Hell". It was just to ridiculous for me, this cat running around with a professional hit-man not being able to capture it. There was definitely a lot of blood and gore in this film, we get a decapitated head and a cat who goes inside of a person's mouth and rests in their stomach. The wraparound story with the woman trying to cook the kid was decent, nothing special but nothing to complain about.
The acting was pretty good with some big names leading the way (Christian Slater/Julianne Moore/Deborah Harry). Overall, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie is an average horror film. I am a fan of the original TV series, I'd rate them above this film. The 'Lover's Vow' story was the best one, the other two lacked a bit and dragged on a little. I guess I'd recommend it for horror anthology fans. It isn't as good as 'Tales from the Crypt (1972)' or 'Creephow', but it has it's moments.
6/10