chiller blog

Posted Sep 29, 08 09:33 AM

It's Always Brighter on the Darkside

“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality.
But… there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real
But not as brightly-lit:
A Darkside.”

And with those glorious words flickering on the downstairs Zenith, so commenced my traditional last half-hour of a growing-up Saturday night. Lights off. The rest of the family – sensibly – asleep. Just me all sprawled out on the green-patterned basement carpet, leaning against the flower-patterned couch. (Mom wasn’t into pastels or solids.)

G(h)o(ul)-od times.

Now you, too, can goose-bump nostalgic. On October 5th, Chiller rekindles the art of sleepover flashlight storytelling with the viewers’ choice marathon of Tales from the Darkside (1984-88).

Mind you, kiddies – oops, wrong series – vaults and tombs can be a might-bit musty and dusty. Laurel Entertainment’s shot-on-video production paled next to the star budgets of Tales from the Crypt, the star wattage of a Boris Karloff-hosted Thriller, and all those disturbing Night Gallery paintings Rod Serling told you would look terrific in the dining room. Yes, Tales from the Darkside had a gnawing propensity to play camp better left to Elvira. And yes, only sporadically did the series truly reach the transform-the-mundane-into-creepy heights of The Twilight Zone.

But this trip down the more shadowed paths of Memory Lane is also – big surprise -- refreshingly genteel. In a period where horror has torn out of it’s straight-jacket and shed conceivable restraint, here’s a show that bridges the old school to the – sometimes, literally -- smash cuts.

The opening images… oooh, those opening images. Even given the ‘80’s “someone’s-playing-with-the-editing-bay” gimmicks and low-rent graphics, the intro really delivers on subversiveness. Ominous dissolves – parting clouds, an Ichabod Crane covered bridge, infinite birch trees – coupled with a sing-song synthesizer and deep-bass narration. The opening alone earns the series a place of honor at the horror anthology table. Oh, and a gigabyte on a loyal fan’s iPod.

TV shows’ enduring shelf-lives are often measured by the talents who contributed to their run. Darkside’s vets don’t threaten to become A - list; they’re already that.

Directors: Michael (Creepshow 2) Gornick, make-up artist Tom Savini, composer John (Creepshow) Harrison, character actor Bob (Seinfeld) Balaban.

Executive producer: Richard P. Rubinstein – a hand-in-gnawed-off-hand name with George A. Romero.

Writers: Romero, Stephen King, Psycho’s Robert Bloch, Michael (The Nightmare Before Christmas) McDowell.

Cinematographer Ernest (Do the Right Thing) Dickerson.

You really are seeing Christian Slater (“A Case of the Stubborns”) and a super-young Seth Green (“Monsters in My Closet”). Likewise, character actors Fritz Weaver (“Inside the Closet,” “Comet Watch”) and Vic Tayback (“Basher Malone,” “The New Man”).

Series fans unilaterally lick their genre chops over E.G. Marshall’s turn in “Seasons of Belief” as the Grandpa no one wants, recounting a Christmas Eve anti-Santa legend about a North Pole creature called the Grither. I personally rate highly Tom Savini’s high-style directorial mini, “Halloween Candy,” about a cantankerous grump – there are no male characters over the age of 65 ever having a good day on this series – scraping mayonnaise into trick-or-treaters’ bags. Bring on the comeuppance!

But the ripe maraschino cherry of this anthology is clearly the pilot – “Trick or Treat.” Barnard Hughes stars as Gideon Hackles, the antique shop miser hoarding a poor town’s I.O.U.s as bait to scare the daylights out of debtor parents’ kids whom he lures on to the eerie premises in a can-you-find-the-receipt-stash-to-save-Mommy-and-Daddy game. There’s a moment near the climax so carefully timed and so deftly written that I – and this is no cliché -- literally jumped. Jumped.

I don’t jump. I leap. I go up. I rise. But I don’t jump.

I jumped.

That instant’s a valentine, dressed in twilight, that’s forever endeared Tales from the Darkside to me. So don’t go sleepy-bye ‘til you hear narrator Paul Sparer intone…

“The Darkside is always there,
waiting for us to enter,
waiting to enter us.
Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.”

P.S. Ah, and don’t forget – which I momentarily did (the coffee’s only half-full) – Chiller’s Tales from the Darkside Marathon. Go online to vote for your favorite episodes (“Halloween Candy,” “Seasons of Belief” and “Trick or Treat” – heh, heh).