Tales from the Darkside/Tales from the Darkside: The Movie

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
Release Date	May 4, 1990
Screenplay by	Michael McDowell ("Lot 249") George A. Romero ("Cat from Hell")
Written by	Michael McDowell ("Lover's Vow")
Based on	a Story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ("Lot 249") a Story by Stephen King ("Cat from Hell")
Directed by	John Harrison
Produced by	Richard P. Rubinstein and Mitchell Galin
Distributor(s)	Paramount Pictures
Running Time	93 minutes
Origin	USA
← Season Four	— N/A
Tales from the Darkside

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is a feature film based on Tales from the Darkside.

Starring (In Order of Appearance): Deborah Harry, Christian Slater, David Johansen, William Hickey, James Remar, Rae Dawn Chong

Co-Starring: Matthew Lawrence, Robert Sedgwick, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore

and Robert Klein

Cast of Characters:

"The Wraparound Story": Deborah Harry (Betty), David Forrester (Priest), Matthew Lawrence (Timmy)

"Lot 249": Christian Slater (Andy), Robert Sedgwick (Lee), Steve Buscemi (Bellingham), Donald Van Horn (Moving Man), Michael Deak (Mummy), Julianne Moore (Susan), George Guidall (Museum Director), Kathleen Chalfant (Dean), Ralph Marrero (Cabbie)

"Cat from Hell": David Johansen (Halston), Paul Greeno (Cabbie), William Hickey (Drogan), Alice Drummond (Carolyn), Dolores Sutton (Amanda), Mark Margolis (Gage)

"Lover's Vow": James Remar (Preston), Ashton Wise (Jer), Philip Lenkowsky (Maddox), Robert Klein (Wyatt), Rae Dawn Chong (Carola), Joe Dabenigno (Cop #1), Larry Silvestri (Cop #2), Donna Davidge (Gallery Patron), Nicole Leach (Margaret), Daniel Harrison (John)

Plot Overview

A young boy is being prepared for a meal and to stall he tells three stories from his captor's favourite book: Tales from the Darkside

• A graduate student cheated out of a scholarship gets revenge by unleashing a cursed mummy.

• A hitman is hired to kill a cat.

• A starving artist witnesses a friend killed by a gargoyle and is spared on the condition he never speaks of it, not even to the woman he soon falls in love with.

Trivia

The Show

• Three of the stars also appeared in episodes of the series: Christian Slater ("A Case of the Stubborns"), William Hickey ("The Circus"), and Deborah Harry ("The Moth").

• The film's opening and closing musical notes are the theme to the series.

• Tom Savini has stated that he considers the film to be the real Creepshow 3. This is appropriate since Tales from the Darkside was made as a television version of the Creepshow films. It's of note that there is an actual Creepshow 3, but no one from Tales from the Darkside or the previous Creepshow films had any involvement with it and is widely panned.

Behind the Scenes

• "Cat from Hell" was originally to appear in Creepshow 2, but was scrapped for budgetary reasons.

• Laurel Productions planned a sequel. A screenplay was written by Michael McDowell and George Romero, along with Gahan Wilson. Segments that were planned for inclusion were an adaptation of Robert Bloch's "Almost Human", as well as adaptations of Stephen King's short stories "Pinfall" (which was originally planned for Creepshow 2) and "Rainy Season". However, for whatever reasons, it never went into production.

Allusions and References

• In "Cat from Hell", Halston watches Martin, a film made by George A. Romero who wrote the screenplay for the story.

• In "Lot 249" Lee falls asleep with another of Romero's films, Dawn of the Dead, playing on the television. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's during a scene where a zombie played by an uncredited John Harrison attacks one of the characters.