User Reviews

This 1986 horror anthology film tells of a scared kid who gets his uncle to tell him bedtime stories to help him sleep. He reads 3 bizarre tales based on Fairy tales like, "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Goldilocks & The 3 Bears. The first is about 2 witches and a peasant boy, the second is about a teenage girl encountering a werewolf and the third is about a family trio of criminals meeting a blonde psychopath. This was ok, but could've been better. The first 2 tales are kind of creepy and the third is goofy. You could give this a try at least once if you're into anthologies.

The quote in this comment's subject line illustrates a beautiful example of what the dialogues sound like in this oddball and ultimately cheesy 80's horror anthology based on fairy-tales and children's bedtime stories. The sequence involves an elderly lady trapped in her house with a werewolf outside. She tries scaring him away by assuring him she has a meat clever and she knows how to use it! No offense granny, but meat cleavers usually don't come with manuals and everyone knows how to use them! You just pick them up and chop! Anyway, we're rambling off the subject… "Deadtime Stories" has a fairly ingenious basic idea but it's incredibly poorly elaborated and it ends up being more of a comedy instead of a horror film. A stereotype thirty-something bachelor, with only TV and naked models on his mind (in other words, someone you'd NEVER allow to baby-sit your children), is looking after his 8-year-old nephew and faces huge difficulties getting him to sleep. He tells him three bedtime stories that are all very personal interpretations of famous fairy-tales, namely Peter & the Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks & the three Bears. The first story is really dull but contains a handful of decent gory make-up effects. A young man is enslaved by two sibling-witches that live in the forest and command him to lure people to their house where they'll be sacrificed in order to resurrect a third sister. Trust me, it's a lot lamer than it sounds. The second story starts with totally gratuitous (but nonetheless weak) masturbation sequence! Little Red Riding Hood is a hot teenager who loses her grandmother AND her virginity in one day! What an exciting day! Her long-anticipated "first time" impresses her even less than the death of her granny. The werewolf-transformations look ridiculous and the acting is terrible, still this segment offers a couple of chuckles and a nice looking young actress. The third & final story is arguably the best but certainly the most original one. The "Bear"-family is a trio of lunatics escaped from an asylum and Goldilocks herself is a supernaturally gifted serial killer that impales horny young men for fun. The two parties combine forces and do more crazy stuff, like…um…going out for pizza! This story lacks in the blood & gore-department, but it bathes in an atmosphere of genuine black comedy and the performances are actually quite good. Especially gorgeous Cathryn de Prume is great. "Deadtime Stories" is irredeemably bad but fun and there are far worse ways to spend 90 minutes of your life.

Deadtime Stories starts late one night as a young boy named Brian (Brian DePersia) can't get to sleep, his pesters his babysitting Uncle Mike (Michael Mesmer) to tell him a story. Mike agrees & puts his own personal dark spin on some well known fairy tales...

The first story Mike tells concerns Hanagohl (Phyllis Craig) & Florinda (Anne Redferne) two Witches who want to resurrect their dead sister Magoga & use Peter (Scott Valentine) their lowly slave boy to accomplish this...

Next up is a story about Rachel (Nicole Picard) & her Grandmother (Fran Lopate) who get a visit from a guy named Willie (Matt Mitler) who is in fact a Werewolf...

The third & final story concerns three escaped mental patients, Judith 'MaMa' Baer (Melissa Leo), Beresford 'Papa' Baer (Kevin Hannon) & Wilmont 'Baby' Bear (Timothy Rule) who head back to their old home only to discover a squatter living there, the murderous Goldi Lox (Cathryn DePrume)...

Also known under the title Freaky Fairy tales here in the UK this light hearted anthology horror film was co-written, produced & directed by Jeffrey Delman who also has a small role in the film as the 'Strangling Man' & also wrote some of the lyrics for the hilariously overwrought songs used through the film (the opening theme song called 'Bedtime Tales' is hilarious & has to be heard to be believed) & takes three well known fairy tales & puts a distinctly darkish horror slant to them & ends up a pretty mixed bag. The first story actually feels like a fairytale as it's set long ago & features Witches & the like while the last two stories are set in contemporary times & just don't quite have the same feel. The second story is pretty good & you can see all the references to Red Riding Hood with the big bad Wolf, the Grandmother & Red Riding Hood herself but I felt the film felt apart with the third & final story which is a little bit embarrassing actually. It's played largely for laughs & feels more like a spoof than anything else, the only real resemblance this story has to any fairytale is that the names of some of the character's are the same (with slight spelling alterations) otherwise this is fairly poor & the links are tenuous although I did find the notion of Papa Baer coming home & finding Goldi Lox nude in the shower quite an amusing take on the often told fairytale. I think anthology stories work best when there's 20 odd minutes of solid build-up that sets a twist ending up but none of these stories have any twist's which is a shame as they feel rather unsatisfying despite some imaginative ideas. The pace is good & the stories differ enough but as a whole Deadtime Stories didn't quite work for me.

I have to mention the opening credits sequence which is really cool as the various names are written in an old style storybook & some monsters hand turns the pages to the next one, it's just a shame it's accompanied by one of the worst songs in cinematic history. There's some reasonable gore & make-up effects, the scene showing Magoga coming back to life is quite impressive with all her veins & organs growing back inside & around her dusty skeleton, there's a slashed throat, a beating heart, various dead bodies, a couple of severed hands, someone is impaled on a wooden post & there are some cheap looking Werewolf effects. Goldi Lox also gets a nude shower scene. The first story goes for atmosphere & it's pretty good, the second story is a little flat but works OK but the third story just for all out laughs & just doesn't work at all & for me ends the film on a downer.

Apparently made over a three year period between 1982 & 1985 this was filmed in Greenwich in Connecticut probably by enthusiastic yet amateur filmmakers. The production values vary with the first story looking the best, the second story looking the most polished & the third story, well, is just a mess. The acting varies as one would expect although none of it is particularly good.

Deadtime Stories is a decent effort at a fairytale themed anthology horror film that is pretty good for it's first two thirds but then loses the plot with a less than impressive last story. Worth a watch if your into the genre but there is better out there if you look.

Freaky Fairy tales just doesn't work as a film. When using a format such as this you need every story to be well written, but sadly things were lacking in that department. The first story is kind of weird and creepy, and has some good parts when the corpse comes alive. But that's about it. The second tale is about a werewolf and is only saved by the unintentionally hilarious lines from the old woman, such as when the man demands she open the door, to which she replies "I will not!" and then declares "I have a meat cleaver and I know how to use it!" I didn't see the third story because I was falling asleep by then and turned the TV off. That's how interesting Feeaky Fairy tales was.

No self-respecting horror fan should bother with this, unless you're a die-hard collector.