Saturday, October 27, 2018

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN DAY 27: TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE 1983-1988 (PARAMOUNT) SEASON 4

The final season consisted of 20 episodes and the DVD collection had 2 bonus shows from the producers of Tales. Those will be listed last on this review.

BEETLES 9-27-87... An Archaeologist opens the coffin of a long dead Egyptian and is cursed with a most gruesome surprise. The ending reminded me a lot of the final tale in Creepshow.

MARY, MARY 10-4-87... Very odd tale of a reclusive and lonely woman who hides behind mannequins so she doesn't have to associate with people.

THE SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHER 10-11-87... A famous ghost hunter uses a special device to lure ghosts to him and a special camera for taking their photo. A clever story with a clever ending.

THE MOTH 10-18-87... Debbie Harry stars as a woman who practices the black arts. Before she dies she instructs her mother to capture the thing that comes out of her mouth upon death and keep it safe. Her mother has other ideas. One of the best in the entire series with a hell of a good twist at the end.

NO STRINGS 10-25-87...The series producer T.J. Castronovo stars as a gangster named Eddie Minelli who forces a puppeteer to use a gruesome new puppet, the bloody and very dead body on an enemy. This episode is one of my favorites.

THE GRAVE ROBBER 11-1-87... Arnold Stang stars as a mummy who comes to life and gets involved with a game of strip poker with those who profaned his tomb.

THE YATTERING AND JACK 11-8-87... Tony Carbone stars as a man haunted by a 3 foot demon who wants to claim his soul.

SEYMOURLAMA 11-15-87... Devin and David Gale star in this tale about a young man chosen to lead a far away country. The episode had potential, but is usually brought up as the worst of the entire series. I have read that some stupid people consider this racist, but as usual they are brainless idiots who should never be allowed behind a computer. Nothing racist here at all, but nothing funny either. Cathy Lipinski is gorgeous as Madame Wu, but sadly this is her only acting credit.

SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER 11-22-87...Deborah Harmon stars in this story about a woman who desperately tries to find out and help the crying woman on the other end of her phone. Again, this has a very cool twist at the end.

PAYMENT OVERDUE 2-14-88... A collections agent stars getting phone calls from a client that took drastic measures to end her financial woes. Part of the tale is very predictable, but the ending however isn't what I thought.

LOVE HUNGRY 2-21-88... Strange episode about a woman who is always eating and wants to go on a diet. She gets a hearing aid and a pair of glasses from a company which guarantees she will lose weight. The balance between comedy and outright horror is handled very well.

THE DEAL 2-28-88... A screenwriter tells his neighbor that he would give anything to have a top selling script and a bit of fame. His neighbor sets him up all to easily. There is always a price to pay is the lesson learned here.

THE APPRENTICE 5-1-88... A beautiful co-ed (Haviland Morris) gets a job at a museum called Colonial Village which shows life as it was in the 1600's. She soon finds things are all too real. Wayne Tippit and Gary Lahti also star.

THE CUTTY BLACK SOW 5-8-88... A top notch episode about a young boy who takes a deathbed warning from his great grandmother seriously as he tries to protect his family from a demon called the Cutty Black Sow. You won't soon forget the ending to this one.

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOX 5-18-88... A man named Charles is a meek and quiet inventor living with a nagging harpie of a wife named Rose (Eileen Heckart). They find a mysterious box that Rose opens and a postman (Richard B. Shull) comes back to get it. He promises a reward and Rose immediately takes advantage of that offer, but in the end she gets a big surprise.

FAMILY REUNION 5-22-88... Tom Savini directed this well crafted tale about a man who has taken his son from his wife and locks him away in a room every night. His mother (Patricia Tallman) vow to get him back no matter what. The father knows his son is a werewolf, but he has an even bigger shock in store.

GOING NATIVE 6-19-88... Kim Greist stars as a young woman who is really an alien sent to Earth to study humans. She gets caught up in a therapy group and she begins to unravel.

HUSH 7-10-88... A teenage babysitter and a young boy are terrorized by the boy's new invention. It's called a "sound eater" and it gets out of control.

BARTER 7-17-88... The lowest rated episode of the entire series and with good reason. By the summer of 1988 nobody was really watching this show anymore anyway and with junk like this is it no wonder. An alien named Klaatzu comes to Earth to help a young couple and their noisy son. This is actually a parody of "I Love Lucy" and has no business on a show like this. Awful.

BASHER MALONE 7-24-88... A professional wrestler named Basher Malone takes on a demon named Trog in the private basement of an crooked promoter. Vic Tayback and Brinke Stevens star.

That wrapped up a four year run and still to this day the show doesn't get the credit I think it deserves. On the DVD set at the end of Season Four there are a couple of unreleased shows from the creators of Tales From The Darkside. They are as follows....

AKHBAR'S DAUGHTER (No air date)... This bizarre tale tells the tale of a young man who has late night sexual encounters with a mysterious woman whom he thinks is the daughter of a very wealthy man, but the tables are turned in a surprise and somewhat grotesque ending.

ATTIC SUITE (No air date)... Brenda Vaccaro stars as a woman who along with her husband barely scrape by and are at the same time taking care of an elderly relative in an attic room. Vaccaro's character decides to rid them of the woman and gets a shocking surprise.

I don't even know the name of the proposed show these were supposed to be episodes of. If you've never seen TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE, I would recommend it for horror and George Romero fans.

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