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80's ironic horror anthology show appreciation (Tales From the...)

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Grifter

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I'm referring to:

Tales From the Crypt
Tales From the Darkside
The Twilight Zone (80's version)
Friday the 13th (no Jason, just people collecting cursed artifacts)


What else am I forgetting? You can count stuff like Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

I'm sure a bunch of us grew up on these, I used to watch them as a kid since my family always left me alone at home, and I'd often end up terrified. I think the Sci Fi Channel has the rights to all of these, anyone know if they're shown somewhat regularly?
 

White Man

Member
Some episodes of Tales from the Darkside are the bomb-diggity. Others are crap. It's high water marks top the other 80s anthology horror series, but it's also definitely the most uneven.

The 80s Twilight Zone was all ass.
 

border

Member
I really don't remember too much about Tales from the Dark Side, other than being really scared by its opening credit sequence. If it was really that good, maybe I should pick up the show on DVD....assuming that they've released any of the old episodes.

Tales from the Crypt began in 1989 but run all the way through 1996, I don't think you can really classify it as an 80's show.

"Monsters" (1988-1990) was another short-lived horror anthology that I remember being really scary, though probably just because I was young. I remember it having a really twisted, dark sense of humor and an obsession with the grotesque of the family. A lot of episodes played out like the dinner scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

"Freddy's Nightmares" (1988-1990) is a show I don't remember very much about. I loved Freddy Krueger at the time but it was rare that I got to stay up late enough to watch the show since it ran in some 2 AM dead hour. I remember the earliest episodes actually had plots that somehow involved Freddy, but very quickly they settled into the more traditional style where Freddy plays "host" and just introduces a bunch of macabre tales that had absolutely nothing to do with the Elm Street mythos. In that sense it was really disappointing, but not as lame as Friday the 13th, which had absolutely nothing to do with the films on which it was based.
 

hobbitx

Member
I loved the intro of Tales from the Darkside, it was just so damn creepy and those sound effects still blow my mind. Remember the collector cards for this show? I remember I had a whole pack of them, after I flipped through them al,l at night it felt like all those monsters from those cards were at my window watching me. Even worse, we had a creepy tree that looked kinda like the ones from the intro in our yard.

God bless night-lights and sleep timers on tvs! :)

Tales from the Crypt was the best bomb of all though, my all time favorite ep now is the one with the ice-cream truck guy, I loved those two moron brothers.

Will anyone argue when I say the episode that featured Morton Downey Jr. as the news reporter in that haunted house was the single scariest episode ever? I'm still freaked out by that creepy piano music. If not, what's an even scarier episode?
 

Grifter

Member
border said:
"Monsters" (1988-1990) was another short-lived horror anthology that I remember being really scary, though probably just because I was young. I remember it having a really twisted, dark sense of humor and an obsession with the grotesque of the family. A lot of episodes played out like the dinner scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

"Freddy's Nightmares" (1988-1990) is a show I don't remember very much about. I loved Freddy Krueger at the time but it was rare that I got to stay up late enough to watch the show since it ran in some 2 AM dead hour. I remember the earliest episodes actually had plots that somehow involved Freddy, but very quickly they settled into the more traditional style where Freddy plays "host" and just introduces a bunch of macabre tales that had absolutely nothing to do with the Elm Street mythos. In that sense it was really disappointing, but not as lame as Friday the 13th, which had absolutely nothing to do with the films on which it was based.

Thanks, never heard of Monsters. I heard of the Elm Street show but don't recall ever seeing it, but I may have been too scared to turn that one on back then. :)

I read a while back that some episode of the Friday the 13th show actually vaguely acknowledged Jason, in that it mentioned his mask or something as one of the cursed items.
 
They need to release Tales From the Crypt on dvd. I've only seen a few and remember even fewer but I love those kind of shows. And yea I know about the Robert Zemeckas collection. I'll go search for some torrents or something.
 

Odoul

Member
I distinctly remember the Dark Sides music but I don't remeber anything about any episodes(too scared from the theme to watch). Movie was funny though. Everyone knows Tales From the Crypt rocked.

Monster was also cool as hell.
Pillow Talk - The episode with the guy who owned a bed that ate women. A creature in this broads fridge got his ass. This episode fucked me up.

Sleeping Dragon - About a dinosaur loose in a lab. I wasn't able to watch this one all the way through. I'm not sure but there was some scene i couldn't get through.

Glim Glim - I cried like a bitch at this episode. Caught a rerun a few years later and did the same thing, looked over at my brother and saw him bawling.

I can't remember the title but it was about a family of werewolves. The father was upset his daughter wanted to marry a were-jackal. Funny and sick as hell.
 

border

Member
Hmmmm, looks like there are six volumes of Tales from the Darkside on VHS. All of 'em are pretty readily purchased on amazon, from independent sellers. At ten bucks a pop it's not so bad, except that I'm sure as soon as I buy them they would bring out a full-on DVD set that's a much better value.
 
I remember quite enjoying Tales From the Darkside. About the creepiest things I really enjoyed until falling in love with zombies a couple years back. Looking back a lot of it would seem more silly than creepy to me now, but time changes everything.
 

ckohler

Member
I seem to remember an episode of one of these shows that featured this guy finding out what the meaning of life was and whenever he told someone the info (never on camera) the people would scream and immediately go insane. Some dude figures out what is going on and tries to stop the guy from telling anyone else the meaning of life but at the end of the episode the crazy guy ends up calling into a live radio talk show and saying it over the air.

Anybody remember that? It might have been a Tales from the Darkside episode but I've never been able to figure it out. I'd like to know.
 
didn't A nightmare on elmstreet have a sreies too no freddy just horro stories. Actually IIRC didn't freddy introduce the tales....I think I'm way off on that one....just read what border posted so I guess there was.

I remeber Friday the 13th being like the X-files 2 cops sloving strange myesteries...I remebr one about a typewriter...I dunno why but that sticks in my head
 
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