Tales From The Darkside – The Final Season (1987 – 88/CBS DVD Set)
Picture: C- Sound:
C Extras:
A- Episodes: B+
The show Tales from the Darkside ran in
syndication from 1984 to 1988, and then morphed into the program Monsters
which debuted later that same year. Reviewed here is the fourth, and sadly,
final season of Darkside.
Notable moments in this season include episodes written by Clive Barker (The
Yattering and Jack) and Stephen King (Sorry, Right Number). King’s episode was originally written to be a
part of Steven Spielberg’s failed anthology series, Amazing Stories, but
went unused.
Another of this season’s highlights is found in the episode The Cutty Black
Sow - a rather bleak episode concerning the efforts a boy takes to protect him
and his family’s souls from an evil creature after the death of his
grandmother.
Actual special features such as commentaries and the like are sadly absent from
this set. However, more than making up
for that loss is the inclusion of two largely unseen episodes from what would
have been Tales from the Darkside Presents. These are titled Akhbar’s Daughter and Attic
Suite, respectively. Attic Suite
was aired only once, but as part of the regular series, rather than being given
its own distinction. In light of the
inclusion of these impossibly rare episodes, listed here as special features, I
have graded the extra content accordingly.
The picture is presented in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Image quality is below par for a DVD release,
and in many cases is worse than that of the prints which are currently being
run on the SyFy network. There is a lot
of grain, and the show looks rather murky, although some of this can be
ascribed to often being shot in low light conditions to enhance the mood of the
show. The sound quality fares slightly
better than the video, and was recorded quite well for a show of this vintage. All episodes are presented in Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono.
Hopefully there will soon be a day when this series will get the treatment it
deserves, with better transfers from better prints, if they’re out there. In spite of some less than stellar video
presentation and a lack of real extras, this set is an essential addition to
any horror collector’s shelf.
- David Milchick
