Tales from the Darkside: The Second Season – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

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“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.”

A small bit of joy comes into my heart every time something from my childhood finally makes it’s way back around into my life. Kind of odd then saying there was a small ray of sunshine that beamed down on me when the first season of Tales from the Darkside came out, but it’s true. The series is cheesy at times yet still invoked a lot of fear into me as a child and for some reason I found that entertaining. Still to this day it makes me happy to watch stories of revenge and people getting what they deserve because of their greed or conceit or just downright nastiness. Making Tales even better though was the “not so happy ending” factor that it occasionally had. Not only would the bad people of the word get what they had coming to them, but sometimes the unsuspecting good folks would find their lives take a bad turn as well. Call me morbid or demented but that reason right there is why I enjoy films like Arlington Road and The Mist.

The premise of the television series is quite simple in that each thirty-minute episode takes the victims on a journey of horror and trauma from their everyday lives into a much darker version of them. Usually the terror will strike someone who isn’t so nice or maybe they’re arrogant or perhaps they are just downright mean. But one of the best things about this series is that it doesn’t limit the horrible events so that they happen only to the scum of the world. You could be one of the nicest people ever to walk the face of the Earth and do everything right in your life, but the darkside will eventually find you and put you through hell. Think in terms of the Creepshow films or for those who may be a bit younger, imagine an earlier version of Tales from the Crypt. I like the possibility of bad things happening to anyone and everyone, but it just gives me a good feeling inside to see true scumbags get what is coming to them.

Tales from the Darkside started airing in 1983 and since I was born in 1979, I’m thinking that my initial exposure to it didn’t happen until at least the late eighties sometime. Maybe it was reruns I caught or something, but there was always something about the series that just intrigued me beyond all belief. It has a unique darkness and disturbing quality about it yet there it is on television and not kept strictly in theatres or on cable TV. Many nights during my childhood were spent staying up late very sneakily so that Saturday night’s episode of Tales from the Darkside could be enjoyed. Even though sneaking around to stay up late and watch them was thrilling; having the daylights scared out of me upped the thrill factor by tons.

Season two of the series kept the good (?) times rolling with some truly classic episodes including one of my all-time favorites, “The Devil’s Advocate” starring Jerry Stiller. Stiller portrays a brazen talk-show host that finds out just what it’s like to end up on the wrong side of his hateful advice. “Halloween Candy” is another great watch from this season because it reminds of the recently released horror film Trick ‘R Treat. Another of my favorites is “The Last Car” because I have an odd soft spot for television shows or films that take place on creepy trains. This second season has so many great episodes and you’ll find yourself hard-pressed to come across a bad one so just go with the flow and enjoy them all.

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Episodes

Disc One:

The Impressionist
Lifebomb
Ring Around The Redhead
Parlour Floor Front
Halloween Candy
The Satanic Piano
The Devil’s Advocate
Distant Signals

Disc Two:

The Trouble With Mary Jane
Ursa Minor
Effect And Cause
Monsters In My Room
Comet Watch
Dream Girl
A New Lease On Life
Printer’s Devil

Disc Three:

The Shrine
The Old Soft Shoe
The Last Car
A Choice Of Dreams
Strange Love
The Unhappy Medium
Fear Of Floating
The Casavin Curse

The creepiness is shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and all the episodes look decent enough but so many of them have begun to show their age. Not really that big a deal, but I’m sure some people would complain.

The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Sound and they sound more then fine because it’s virtually all dialogue. I wouldn’t have minded surround sound, though, for some of the audio effects and the awesome music.

On Air With George Romero – Co-creator and horror legend George Romero sits down for a very short interview in which he discusses the series and particularly the episode entitled “The Devil’s Advocate.” Not much to this.


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

Luckily there is a next time because Tales from the Darkside got two more seasons after this one to keep on rolling through the horror. Things don’t necessarily get better from the first season here, but they in no way get worse. The quality of each episode is sometimes better than the one before it making this a great set to own and check out no matter what time of year. It doesn’t have to be October or Halloween for you to get a little feel of the darkside now does it? Hell, it was every Saturday night as a kid for me so why not watch it during the middle of a Tuesday around Christmas? SURE! The special features are once again rather bare bones, but it’s a forgivable fault because a few more bones in the darkside never hurt anybody.


Paramount Home Entertainment presents Tales from the Darkside: The Second Season. Created by: Stephen King and George A. Romero. Starring: Various. Running time: 515 minutes on 3 discs. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: October 27, 2009. Available at Amazon.com