Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But there is, unseen by most, an underworld. A place just as real, but not as brightly lit. A darkside.

A film that was released a little more than a year after “Tales from the Darkside” had been cancelled. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
features three separate scary stories told to the audience via a wrap-around storyline that was surprisingly original, the movie choosing to bypass the “Cryptkeeper” approach and instead telling the stories thru a modern day “Hansel & Gretel” tale. It seems a young boy named Timmy (Matthew Lawrence) has been abducted by a modern day witch who has him chained-up inside a jail cell, and plans on cooking him for supper. To stall for time, Timmy reads stories from a book titled “Tales from the Darkside”.

The first tale, “Lot 249”, was taken from a story originally written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A the tale of a college student (Steve Buscemi) whose roommate’s (Christian Slater) friends cheat him out of a scholarship to an exclusive European school. Buscemi happens to be a collector of antiques, and by happenstance, acquires the corpse of a centuries-old mummy labeled “Lot 249”. While examining the mummy, Buscemi discovers a scroll which contains an incantation to bring the mummy to life. Buscemi then uses the mummy to carry-out a horrible revenge on his roommate’s pals.

Perhaps not the most original story of the bunch, but good if you’re a fan of mummies. The kills in the story, however, are absolutely brutal. A guy getting his brains yanked out through his nose and dumped in a fruit bowl, or a chick getting her back slit open and having carnations stuffed inside her flesh (Ouch!). Some good star-power, too. I mean, really, Steve Buscemi is just such a creepy-looking guy. and his performance was perfect !!

The second story, “The Cat from Hell”, is a story written by Stephen King and adapted by George A. Romero. An elderly man (William Hickey) hires a hitman to assassinate a mysterious black cat lurking around his mansion. He claims the cat has killed everyone else in his household and is now planning on killing him. The hitman stays true to his word and attempts to kill the cat, but finds the cat isn’t easy prey.

One of the best stories, the cat is truly is an evil little creature !!  and the way the cat does the hitman in. I really don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but lets just say, it’s over the topand especially gruesome.

The final tale, They usually save the best for last-correct ???   “Lover’s Vow”. A down-on-his-luck artist is washing away his sorrows at a bar one night when he’s attacked by a hideous gargoyle which slaughters the bartender. The artist begs for his life, and the gargoyle agrees to grant him his wish, so long as he never tells anyone what happened or what he saw. The artist agrees and runs away. On his way home he runs across a beautiful woman. Fearing for her safety, he takes her back home to protect her from the gargoyle. They fall in love and eventually marry. However, some things are too good to be true.

Some of the best special effects and one of the better stories, too. The gargoyle is extremely nasty-looking. You can, of course, guess how the tale ends, and it’s brutal and sad and of course foreseen by most viewers.