Watch Tales from the Darkside: The Movie For Free

Very disappointing...

To me, this movie is perfection.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

In a seemingly normal upper middle class suburban home, Betty (Debbie Harry) is revealed to be a witch holding Timmy (Matthew Lawrence) prisoner. She's preparing to cook him for her dinner party. He tells her three stories from "Tales from the Darkside" to hold off the inevitable. In the first tale, Andy (Christian Slater) is a friend to the underhanded arrogant rich college guy Lee. Lee is using Andy's sister Susan (Julianne Moore) to do his work and steal a scholarship from Edward Bellingham (Steve Buscemi). Edward has purchased Lot 249 which is a mummy he's looking to resell. A hidden parchment helps him take revenge. The first part is solid. The horror could be done scarier and more gruesome. It does have Slater going against Buscemi. It's solid work.The second story is less compelling. It's a story told by Timmy about an old guy who tells stories. The best thing about the second story is William Hickey but that's about it. A cat is not scary (at least not here) and it's flat. It tries to be funny and fails. The third tale is a great short story. As a cinematic endeavor, it suffers from a flat middle. James Remar plays an artist who is forced to keep quiet about his encounter with a gargoyle. The gargoyle animatronics is not the best. It looks fake which keeps it from being scary. The surprise twist is great but the story needs more tension in the middle. In total, the movie is an up and down affair.

Much like Cat's Eye was a series of three short stories, Tales from the Darkside is done similarly. In this Stephen King work a boy tries to avoid being cooked and eaten by a witch by occupying her with fanciful stories.There were three total stories featuring some well known actors. Some were already established, like Rae Dawn Chong and William Hickey. Others I don't believe were as well known at the time, such as Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi, and Jullianne Moore.I thought the three stories were solidly done. I can't remember the order but the order of preference for me was: 1.) Mummy story, 1A.) Gargoyle story 3.) and a distant third was the cat story.None of the stories were very spooky or scary, in fact you could say they were somewhat comical (especially the mummy story), but they all had an intriguing premise. The three stories all wrapped into the initial story made for a good movie.

The first segment features a mummy stalking selected student victims, the second tale tells the story of a "cat from hell" who cannot be killed and leaves a trail of victims behind it.And the third story is about a man who witnesses a bizarre killing and promises never to tell what he saw, and the wraparound story is of a woman preparing to cook her newspaper boy for supper.....It's an enjoyable anthology of horror short stories, but if you'd come into the film just at the start of the final story, you really wouldn't be missing a lot.The other two stories are just okay for seeing stars slum it a little and star in decidedly dodgy stories. Slater, Buscemi, Moore and the bloke from Die Hard 3 look glum as a mummy stalks them, and Hickey and the ghost of Christmas past try and kill a cat.The final story is pure gold, and almost makes up for sitting through the other two lame stories. Remar and Chong are great as the ill fated couple, and as the narrative progresses, you do sort of forget the main connotation of them getting together.And the twist knocks you for six.The wraparound story is quite enjoyable, but the first two stories really drag the whole film down and really make it a little mundane.

Deborah Harry, Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi, David Johansen, William Hickey, James Remar, Rae Dawn Chong and Matthew Lawrence star in this 1990 horror anthology film based on the TV series. This begins with a witch (Harry) preparing dinner to be made of her boy prisoner (Lawrence). He stalls her by reading 3 chilling tales from her favorite book, "Tales from the Darkside." "Lot 249" features a college student (Slater) discovering an ancient mummy being resurrected by an antique dealer (Buscemi) exacting revenge on his sister (Moore) and best friend. "Cat From Hell" features a wealthy old man (Hickey) hiring a hit-man (Johansen) to kill an evil cat, but it's no easy task. "Lovers Vow" features a struggling artist (Remar) who makes a promise to a gargoyle, but can't keep it to the woman (Chong) he loves. This is a good anthology flick with a decent cast, eerie score and gruesome effects.