Deborah Harry, Matthew Lawrence, Christian Slater

This is really three shorter movies, bound together by a fourth tale in which the other three stories are read. The first segment features an animated mummy stalking selected student victims; the seco...( read more  read more... )nd tale tells the story of a "cat from hell" who cannot be killed and leaves a trail of victims behind it; the third story is about a man who witnesses a bizarre killing and promises never to tell what he saw and the "in-between" bit is the story of a woman preparing to cook her newspaper boy for supper.

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50% liked it

7,777 ratings

R, 93 min.

Directed by: John Harrison

Release Date: May 4, 1990

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DVD Release Date: September 25, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (250)


  • August 15, 2009
    Tales from the Darkside: The Movie starts with an ordinary looking woman named Betty (Deborah Harry) driving home, once there it is revealed that she is keeping a young boy named Timmy (Matthew Lawrence) locked in a cage in her kitchen & intends to kill, cook & eat him. To try & ...( read more)stall for time Timmy offers to read some stories from a book called 'Tales from the Darkside', Betty reveals that they have plenty of time & tells him to go ahead. Timmy's first story is called 'Lot 249'...

    Andy (Christian Slater) & Lee (Robert Sedgwick) are university students & best friends. They discover another student named Edward Bellingham (Steve Buscemi) has won an auction for 'Lot 249' which happens to be an Egyptian sarcophagus with it's Mummy still inside. Edward finds an ancient scroll stuffed inside the Mummy which when recited is able to bring the Mummy back to life...

    Betty liked 'Lot 247' so lets Timmy tell another one, this time called 'Cat from Hell'...

    A hit-man named Halsten (David Johansen) arrives at the large mansion owned by the billionaire owner of a pharmaceuticals company named Drogan (William Hickey) who offers to pay Halsten $100,000 to kill a mysterious black cat which he believes has been sent to kill him. Drogan thinks the cat has already killed three people & thinks he is next. Halsten thinks Drogan is crazy but accepts nevertheless, however he soon discovers that killing this particular cat isn't as easy as it first would appear...

    Betty also liked 'Cat from Hell' & says that Timmy can tell one more story, Timmy chooses 'Lover's Vow'...

    Preston (James Remar) is a failed New York artist whose apartment is overlooked by a stone Gargoyle. One night after he is told by his agent Wyatt (Robert Klein) that he is being dumped Preston gets so drunk the bartender Jer (Ashton Wise) has to take him home. While walking down some back alleyway Jer is decapitated by a large creature with wings & sharp claws, the creature goes up to Preston & says that it will spare his life if he never tells anyone about it. Not having much choice Preston agrees & the creature disappears in the New York night. Shortly after this unnerving encounter Preston meets & falls in love with a woman named Carola (Rae Dawn Chong) whom after being together for 10 years have two children, Margaret (Nicole Leach) & John (Daniel Harrison) but Preston is finding it harder to keep his secret but surely after all this time it wouldn't matter if he told his wife, would it...?

    Betty now decides enough is enough, there will be no more stories & it's time for Timmy to become dinner...

    Directed by John Harrison who also composed the score for the 'Lover's Vow' Segment, I thought Tales from the Darkside: The Movie was a good horror anthology that isn't the best this sub-genre has to offer but it is by no means the worst either. I like anthology films & I look for quick fast paced stories with a nice twist at they're end. Unfortunately Tales from the Darkside: The Movie didn't quite manage to surprise me with two of it's twists which were actually pretty obvious while the story that has the strongest ending is the slowest to sit through. 'Lot 247' was written by Micheal McDowell based on a story by Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle & is a good opening story featuring the familiar faces of Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi & Julianne Moore but I found the ending of this segment weak & predictable which spoilt what had gone on before. The second story 'Cat from Hell' written by George A. Romero based on a short story by Stephen King (his name just had to be here somewhere didn't it?) is the weakest of the three stories but is the most stylishly filmed with some cool fades & transitions between shots, blue tinted flashbacks & the spacious, spooky darkly lit mansion provides some real atmosphere which is wasted on this segment as it's ending didn't do anything for me as it turned out exactly as I expected with the cat appearing to succeed in it's quest for revenge. The third story written by Micheal McDowall is generally considered the best & for good reason, although it's slower than the previous two it has impact & a good ending twist which I didn't actually see coming. I'm not saying the other two stories are bad, far from it but I was maybe hoping for a few more surprises. I won't bother commenting on the wraparound story as I found it very poor. The film as whole moves along nicely & since each story only runs 20 odd minutes none of them outstay their welcome. It's well made throughout with nice production values especially during the 'Cat from Hell' segment which looks very nice. The acting is good too with some familiar faces. One thing Tales from the Darkside: The Movie does have going for it are some wonderful special make-up effects by K.N.B effects with Dick Smith credited as a consultant. Each story seems to have it's own little special effects showpiece, 'Lot 249' has the Mummy being chopped up with an electric carving knife, 'Cat from Hell' has a cat bloodily enter someones body through their mouth & then exit the same way & 'Lover's Vow' has the excellent & totally cool looking Gargoyle transformation & just about any shot that it's in really. It's a little light on the actual blood & gore front though, we do get a gorily realistic cool looking severed hand & decapitation. Overall I liked Tales from the Darkside: The Movie but I can't help but feel the endings of both 'Lot 247' & 'Cat from Hell' let those segments down somewhat. Still the film as a whole is a great watch & is good all round entertainment.
  • March 22, 2009
    I saw this a very very long time ago and totally forgot how much I liked these stories. You just can't go wrong with King, Romero, Doyle and McDowell. In my opinion, absolute geniuses!!! Simple stories with very little FX but so well done. I love they way they tell it and show it...( read more). Wish there were like them out there!!
  • June 24, 2007
    The best of the three tales is Conan Doyle's "Lot 249" but all three are entertaining enough though not overly scary.
  • June 9, 2007
    Three enjoyable tales. Sometimes thought of as "The un-official Creepshow 3", it had three quality stories, or four if you count the framing story with Deborah Harry and the little boy. The Mummy story was fun, original and suspenseful. The cat one I really liked. The Gargoyle on...( read more)e seemed a bit too long, but had a great payoff. Top notch horror anthology with good special effects.
  • September 8, 2006
    Think this is the one with gargoyle decapitation scene, great for late nights and alchohol
  • November 15, 2009
    Pretty average horror stories but together with some cool looking monsters but really nothing else. The last story probably was the best but still could have been better. Cool seeing a young Christian Slater and Julianne moore/
  • October 26, 2009
    Has a King story in it so it get 5 stars!
  • October 25, 2009
    Haha! How cute! I think one of these legends was taken from Japanese folklore, no? The one about the artist? *shrug* This was a good movie :)
  • September 14, 2009
    A horror film... because of how bad it is.

    36/100
  • August 11, 2009
    I didn't even realize that Ive seen this before at first because all i remember is the Rae Dawn Chong portion of this movie( i think),and so all this time i thought it was just an episode of a mini series not a whole movie...cool

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