Review of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) by William B — 25 Jan 2009

This movie is regarded by some as the unofficial CREEPSHOW III because many of the same people responsible for CREEPSHOW (notably, Stephen King and George Romero) did some work for this movie. Don't be fooled, though-- whereas CREEPSHOW has a grimy, kitschy charm to it, this movie is brain-meltingly earnest.

It's kinda cool to see Debbie Harry as a witch, David Johannsen as a hitman, and young Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater, and Julianne Moore as the world oldest and richest college students (seriously-- remember in college, when you shared an entire dormitory with one other guy?).

But the movie takes itself so damn seriously (except for the dark humor in the David Johannsen "hitman hunting a cat" story, which itself is entirely too long for such a simple premise). Whereas CREEPSHOW seemed to revel in the silliness of its premise, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE plays it straight.

And sucks as a result.