Spend Halloween Night on George A. Romero’s Darkside
There are a ton of Halloween specials to view from the shows of the past. Some of my favorites are from horror anthologies. While most people will go to “Tales from the Crypt,” my favorite has always been George A. Romero and Rubenstein’s “Tales from the Darkside.” I love the creepy atmospheric simple tune in the opening credits accompanied by the voice over: “Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But there is unseen by most an underworld, a place that is just as real but not as brightly lit. A darkside.” It sends chills down my back every time.
“Crypt” was grandiose with its big Hollywood player production team and unrated sensibilities being on HBO, but that left Romero and his usual no budget crew to have to try harder and be cleverer with the constraints of their budget and censorship since “Darkside”was syndicated. The very first episode of the series debuted on October 29th with a Halloween-centric episode that perfectly captures the atmosphere of Halloween.
Episode 1 is written by George A Romero himself and directed by Bob Balaban of Close Encounters of the Third Kind fame, who also directed the little known horror comedy, My Boyfriend’s Back. This episode is entitled “Trick or Treat” and is to Halloween what A Christmas Carol is to Christmas. It’s about an old, snobbish rich man who has a lien on every single farm and family in the town as they all owe him money. Every Halloween, his favorite holiday, he takes the IOU’s of every family and hides them in his house among a slew of horrors that he controls in a master operations room. Each family sends a child to his house in a Halloween costume to try and find the IOU’s so their family can be debt free. No one has ever found the IOU’s as the old man always scares the children out of their minds with his house of horrors before they can find them.
The set up for the episode is totally Romero. The old man, Gideon Hackles, has his colleagues come to help him count his money and check his investments at three in the morning so as to not deter his ability to make money during the day. Hackles obsesses over every penny and trusts no one to handle his money without him there which is why he hates banks. The only thing this mean ass old man loves more than money is scaring the shit out of children. We watch the children go into the house and lose their shit, but there is one kid whose family doesn’t want him to compete. Little Timmy Muldoon wants so desperately to help his family out of debt, but his family refuse.
In the end, Gideon is haunted by true spirits from hell that begin throwing his money everywhere, but he doesn’t fear the spirits as much as he fears losing his money. He literally crawls down to hell to retrieve his cash! Little Timmy Muldoon comes to the door of the house and is greeted by a cackling witch, but is unafraid. The witch rides off on her broom throwing down the IOUs, money, jewels and all kinds of riches at Timmy, who just catches them, smiling. In that instant, with that giant grin on his face, Timmy Muldoon represents all of us horror fans that see these monsters as their friends and the holiday of Halloween as something to revere. The FX are a little hokey but this episode bursts with that low-budget Romero spirit and is a really fun and interesting idea that’s great for the Halloween season.
The second Halloween centric episode is from Season 2 and was directed by the Gore Master himself, Tom Savini! This episode also aired on October 27th and was written by Michael McDowell, who wrote Beetlejuice! The episode is entitled “Halloween Candy” and it’s a great little atmospheric one location thriller that showcased a lot of Savini’s and Mcdowell’s talents and inspirations.
Old Man Killup is the nastiest and meanest old man on the block with only his son to begrudgingly take care of him. Every year after Halloween, Killup’s son has to clean the outside of the house from all the kids trashing it because Killup refuses to give the kids candy. Killup’s son leaves a bunch of candy for him to give out, but the mean old man instead spends the night telling the kids to go to hell until finally he’s had it and throws together a hodgepodge of different slimy things to throw in a kid’s trick or treat basket. Just like Jason gets pissed off at pre-marital sex, a little goblin-like creature that seems like the precursor to Sam from Trick ‘r Treat gets pissed off when you mess with trick or treaters. He begins taunting and horrifying the old man well into the Halloween night.
The creature itself is, of course, done by Savini and seems like an evolution of Fluffy from Creepshow. Its movements are a lot of fun as it moves around like a demonic acrobat and uses that to freak out Killup. The Goblin even haunts his dreams with imagery and foreshadowing of his fate. It’s a heavily underrated Savini creation and even more interesting that he gets to bring this creature to life from idea to screen as the director himself.
The passage of time and decay plays a big role in this episode. Killup is constantly hungry, stating that in his old age there’s nothing to do but eat. At one point the little goblin tears off Killup’s watch and Killup accidentally steps on it. This is a point where Killup continuously tries to fall asleep in hopes of passing through Halloween without any more kids or surprises, but as he keeps on starving, the night does not change and he is trapped, frozen in time. Even as he tries to eat the food he has in his fridge, it goes bad and decays with roaches erupting from it. It’s a really cool device that juxtaposes the passage of time in his house with his own internal clock of life. One cannot simply pass through Halloween night without honoring tradition.
It’s a great tension builder and the night is so perfectly emphasized by the blue lighting representing the moonlight. Savini’s directing skills are really showcased with how minimalistic the setup is, but still manages to build so much tension.
When you’re checking out all the Halloween offerings for the season be sure to give these episodes a revisit or a first time watch as they are fun as hell! If you’ve got Shudder they’re streaming on there or go out and buy the new home video releases!
Categorized:Editorials
