Back in my early days of junior high, when I was obsessed with the movie CREEPSHOW – a clamshell VHS of which I rented over and over from Sound Warehouse – I eagerly awaited the premiere of George Romero’s syndicated anthology series, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE.
I distinctly remember the weekend night of its premiere; the opening credits scared me. “This is gonna be good,” I thought. Thirty minutes later: “Eh.” That tone seemed to sum up the series over its four seasons, with episodes ranging from great to awful. My interest quickly waned, and I stopped watching — which may account for me not knowing of the existence of a tie-in book until this past year. Released in 1988 by Berkely, TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: VOLUME ONE proclaimed itself on the cover as being born from “America’s Most Frightening TV Show!” and boasted contributions from Romero, Stephen King and Robert Bloch.
Edited by Mitchell Galin and Tom Allen, the paperback includes 16 stories that either served as the basis for the show’s episodes or were adapted from the teleplays expressly for this edition. Comprising that latter category are five stories, all adapted by Michael McDowell. Their range in quality mirrors the unevenness of the series.
First up from McDowell is “The Devil’s Advocate.” Based upon Romero’s script about a doomed talk-radio host named Mandrake, it’s pretty blah. But then McDowell hits a couple of home runs with “Inside the Closet” and “Halloween Candy”; despite their generic titles, the stories excite and disturb, involving strange creatures.
King’s contribution is “The Word Processor of the Gods,” about a writer who finds that what he types comes true. For King – hell, for anybody – it’s merely average. And its theme is transported into other stories here, like Carl Jacobi’s “The Satanic Piano,” although having been printed originally in a 1934 issue of WEIRD TALES, it can claim precedence. Another creative type gets in way over his head in Ron Goulart’s “Printer’s Devil,” when he makes a pact with ol’ Scratch in order to gain success.
But so many other stories go nowhere, and in more pages than humanly necessary, which makes you appreciate something as concise and direct as “Levitation.” Written by Joseph Payne Brennan in 1958, it gets things over and done with in a mere, mischievous four pages. The impact of its gag may be lessened from so many rip-offs over the years, but Brennan tells it so quickly, you can’t help but admire it. (How DARKSIDE managed to wring 23 minutes out of it with boring the audience, I’ll never know … until it hits DVD.)
Understandably, there never was a VOLUME TWO. Perhaps that had something to do with the series closing shop the same time this book hit stores. DARKSIDE lived on — and, in my opinion, hit its high point — in 1990′s underrated TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, which actually came closest to resembling CREEPSHOW than the series ever did. Your time is best spent there. –Rod Lott
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OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS:
• CELL by Stephen King
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