Tales from the Darkside S04 E03&04 (The Spirit Photographer, The Moth)

Way wait. A sad. Welcome back to midnight Viewing, where this season we're taking a look at George Romero's nineteen eighties television series Tales from the Dark Side. Sharing the midnight view with me. Are the projection Booths Mike White see cheese?

And the culture Cast Chris Statue. Yeah, how you've reached Rai's occult books. You're race speaking. Tonight, we are taking a look at two episodes from season four to the final season of Tails from the Dark Side. Those are The Spirit Photographer and The Moth.

The Spirit Photographer Season four, episode three, originally aired on October the eleventh, nineteen eighty seven. Written by Mark Patrick Carducci and Brian Thomas and Jones, and directed by Bill Travis. It stars Frank Hamilton, Richard Clark, and Terris Unsold. An aging paranormal investigator creates a device to help him photograph the dead and a house notorious for its haunting. Which you think of this one, Mike.

You know the two episodes that we watch for this tonight, Both of them just flew by, And I think, for me, that's one of the best compliments I can give to one of these because we've talked about certain episodes. They're twenty two minutes and they feel like a friggin' slog. And both of these Spirit Photographer and The Moth spoilers for the Moth they enjoyed. I had a great time watching them and they just clicked along. Spirit Photographer was for me pretty interesting, this whole idea of you know, the twist that comes.

I was like, Okay, that kind of works for me, and the rest of it works for me. Yeah. I just I had a nice time with this episode. I was curious as far as when it was set because the two old men, I wasn't sure if they were modern day, and some of the camera equipment seemed old. But then you've got this invention in there, and I'm just like, okay, I'm not exactly sure when this thing is supposed to be because then you've got the ghost and you're like, okay, what era is she from?

Is she like a Victorian ghosts? But those are minor quibbles. I'm sure that they actually said that, and I just don't remember because I watched it about a week ago. But yeah, I just had a really good time with this one. What'd you think, Chris?

Yeah, this was a fun episode. I will say I like where it went at the end. I would say it was maybe a little predictable, but not in a bad way. It's always the oh no, I'm dead. I love the trope of like, how does a character in a piece of fiction find out that they're in fact dead?

Often trying to interact with a family member or picking up a phone. Also, going and looking in a mirror is another good one unless you're a vampire. So I love that little twist at the end. I like the performances Father Malone. This story reminds me of that woman at the Zach megan'shun A Museum, the totally real story of the woman who died in the locked room with the demon machine.

You're talking about Lee Sober Shapiro, which. Totally exists outside of the museum and is a real thing. Listen, it did exist, you know, honestly that it did exist. She was a person that was were her belongings. And the problem is that her story, while paranormally speaking, is very very scary.

I think ultimately we were dealing with a woman who had undiagnosed schizophrenia. And so this story is in my mind, what if that what if we take that premise of a person who creates a machine that can attract ghosts or demons or whatever and just actually have it work, and I find that to be compelling, and clearly I think Mike does as well. Father Malone, I'm curious your thoughts, but I am, like Mike said, I immensely enjoyed this. This episode is what I honestly think, this might be one of the better ones that I've seen in a while, And this is in the running now for the best of this season so far. It felt like a definite throwback to Night Gallery and all those early American authors.

Two gentlemen coming together to discuss a haunting or over brandy their paranormal theories. That love those type of stories. Yeah. So look, the twist obviously at the end is that our lead character dead and does not realize it, and then he's the one now being photographed. But as you said, Mike, the interesting idea here was that they combined the notion of the spirit photographer, of the notion that the camera steals someone's soul, and that when spirits are photographed, it effectively kills the spirit.

So that's why they are loathed to be photographed, so he's designed a device that will somehow rejuvenate them so that they can stick around and be photographed properly. And the thing looks like a steampunk R two D two. I like both of you. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It is very fleet of foot.

It's so economical. It didn't feel like it was a blink and it was gone thing. It's dark Sign since the beginning has trafficked in these gentler episodes, which I really enjoyed because when they do it, it's usually a character study and they've taken the time to give us characters, and that's certainly the case here. I like both of these characters, like both of the actors playing it. It feels like a short film.

That's the other thing I love about Townsman Dark Side, when they're getting when everything is clicking correctly. This one doesn't feel like it's on a set, and I know it is. I know this is a New York episode, which means they're on a sound stage and everything looks really good. And I liked his wija board that had a plant chat on stilts, so crazy looking. Also, it could anyone in any piece of entertainment.

I guess it's still the eighties. But married men could never figure out their bachelor friend's lifestyle, could they ever? If you'd only get married instead of this nonsense. You can't read your friend at all, can you. He's just eccentric, Yeah, exactly.

He's thirties single, he's neat. Yeah, tidy, what a tidy guy. Just a bit flamboyant at times, but yeah. A little light light of foot. Maybe a loafer lightner.

I like the I think we've maybe gone a step too far. His name is Algernon to Alterernat Colesbury. Which, by the way, the nickname for it is Algae, which just kept making me think of Algae the creature. Nevertheless, it was like, well else would you call somebody named an algae? And I you call him Alsie, right.

Gurnon, Yeah, that's a weird one. You would call him al No problem, you can call me. You could call him Jerry too, but like algae is fun. Yeah, I could call him Betty. Yeah.

What you were saying about the more like a night gallery almost remaining I don't remember if it was a night gallery, if it was one of the Twilight Zone episodes where it was basically like, oh, it was a bunch of gentlemen in a study kind of thing, and oh, yes, I'm going I'm going to die and I'll be back in twenty years. We'll all come together. And yeah, no, nothing. That was. That was a Twilight eighty five all cra the hell Fire Club.

Yeah yeah, were you talking about the Tontine the episode of Barney Miller that we watched with the two guests? Man, right, I thought we had a tontine on this show, though Father Malone notes something and he wasn't on that party Miller episode. Yeah, so much overlap here, my god. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, we'll definitely talk a little bit more about that with our next episode. But yeah, yeah, this was a lot of fun, and just I was very taken aback.

And here we are in the fourth season of Tales from the Dark Side and I'm like, okay, yeah, a couple solid episodes here, And like we've said in the past many times, these things usually take a nosedive in season maybe season one, if not season three, And yeah, usually if there's a season four, you're like, hold your nose, here we go. Yeah, that's the case. Bounding back here a bit, which thank god. And isn't this This is also, I'm assuming based on Arthur Conan Doyle and his I'm trying to remember who the other it was Conan Doyle and one other author that went back and forth, because Conan Doyle was obviously very much a believer in the paranormal and the supernatural. And then I forget it's one of you make clue me inner, correct.

I don't think this is based on that relationship anybody. This is based on every fucking short story. It just feeds off of those idea, which I appreciate because again I don't know, it's always interesting to hear people that are well known that have these kinds of beliefs as well, because again, it makes it easier for people who are scared of having those beliefs to be a little bit more open with them. So again I appreciate what this episode is going for. And I think, you know, like like Richard Adam, just like Richard Adam, even.

I will say the only other thing. The ghost finally shows up Leonor. Leonor is the most speaking of flamboyant, the most flamboyant ghost I've ever seen. She is The word vamping was coined for her just like I would have a heart attack too. Yeah, she's not falling around, And of course I was laughing.

As soon as they grabbed that Ouiji board and asked what the woman's name was and they hit the L. I was like, Oh, it's Leonora, isn't it. This is going to be Leonora. It's a great name. Poe knew it.

I know it. Do the American people know it? I'm not sure now they do? I'm sure you did. Oh yeah, gotta say this is a definite recommendation.

This is a step in the right direction. Fingers crossed. Maybe it'll carry over to the next episode that season four episode. It aired originally on October the eighteenth, nineteen eighty seven. This is written by Michael McDowell, directed by a friend of the podcast, Jeffrey Wolf, and starring Debbie Harry and Jane Manning.

This is about a rural mother who asked to decide whether or not to aid her dying daughter and her attempts to return from the dead. What did you think of this one, Chris? I like seeing Debbie Harry in something other than video drome. So I could just watch her in video drome all day. All day.

There is also that, but to see her writhing on the bed in this episode doing her best at Linda Blair via The Exorcist was pretty great. She was having a good time. Another economical episode of this show, very much inside of a set, very clearly on a set. It's fine, though, because I think that Debbie Harry's performance is good enough. I think she's doing something fun.

I think it's a fun episode. I'm not sure how and enthralling the story is, but I don't know. I think it was perfectly fine. What about you, Mike, Yeah, I really enjoyed this one as well. It's funny that this was kind of like the last one how there was just the two guys and the ghost.

This time you have the two women in the moth. And I like that moth just beating its wings and being so loud in that jar. Just it was a little telltale heart for me, where it was like, Okay, I've only got so much time here, and this moth is trapped, and yeah, I like this whole because being a fan of Supernatural, I was like, oh, she's pouring the salt and doing this thing and all this stuff to like defeat demons. So all of these different traps that she's doing. And then when you find the twist that, oh no, Debbie Harry basically faked all of that stuff in her magic book and is still coming on strong that she's this witch and knows all of these different tricks, and it's just pretty much all set to not necessarily go back into her own body, but take over her mother's body.

I was just like, oh, that's a nice twist, and that wasn't necessarily one that I saw coming. And most of the time when they have a twist like that, you can see it within five minutes. But again, this one just blazed through to the point where I actually paused it and looked and said, wow, this was twenty two minutes. It did not seem like it took that long. It just cruised through.

And I am glad that we're watching these without commercials, because I think a commercial break might have upset the rhythm of it. It just needed to be that fast for me, and I didn't need time to think about how trying to poke holes in this one at all. Didn't need to It just felt like a very tight story. How about you fought them alone. I'm going to put a link in the notes to our interview with Jeffrey Wolf, the director of this episode.

He was mainly an editor on the series, still an editor to do this day, and he but directed a few episodes, as being one of them. He is not a director of first and foremost. So I'm going to forgive the look whatever sort of stage bound even though that you can see the seams here, it's still crafted and thoughtful in the direction I thought. Boy Michael McDowell loves his dirt poor protagonists, man, Like I'm surprised Beetlejuice didn't take place in Appalachia, although McDowell does consistently. He's one of the best at laying out rules and then fucking adhering to them, like that, there's a reason that that what the book of the recently Deceased, we would see that again, like we basically we get that here in a way.

And I like that he likes those rules and will set them up for us. And I think he does that here. Obviously he did that when we got to Beetlejuice, but never you don't really see many stories start with your one of your lead characters sporting a fresh knife wound with the knife sticking out of them that that was an interesting choice, and that also exposed it. As much as I love looking at Debbie Harry, and she is obviously Tails from the Dark Side Royalty. She's in the wrap around segment of Tails from the Dark Side, the movie that we're going to be taking a look at once we wrap up this series here.

But I'll say that her Brooklyn dialect never ever goes away no matter what role she's playing, and here it's like battling Jane Manning's like corn pone accent. So I don't know really where we're supposed to be or how or what. Let's say Pennsylvania, just to be split in the difference there. Also you mentioned Debbie Harry writhing on the bed. All I could think was all that's missing is a rubber octopus.

It was so fucking over the top. I love this episode, don't get me wrong, guys, but Debbie Harry is the poor actress. I love her, you know, obviously we love her. But she's not good. And if her part had been silent, maybe it could have been something.

But she's the bad part of this episode. I don't know. I just like to look at her so much. Of course, lots of close ups of her lips too, which are, oh my gosh, the amazing lips. Oh yeah, I know it's I'm giving her past just based on looks, which is pretty unfair.

But I'm like, yeah, that works. This all works for me. I got myself wondering would you do it? Would you help your loved one return from the dead if they asked, particularly knowing that they've not been the nicest of people out there in the world, like that, she got stabbed for a very specific reason, and now you're helping her overcome death and come back and potentially be worse than before. Would you do that for a relative?

I wonder? Yeah. I kind of like that mom's trying to fuck her over, which I was very happy about because at first I was like, oh, she helping. No, she's definitely not helping, Okay, And yeah, I did appreciate that she didn't want her daughter coming back because she does see that she's trouble. Yeah, and then I really liked the idea that in speaking of giving us the rule, he gives us the rule after the fact.

But she decides I'm not going to go through with this. I'm going to destroy this jar and get rid of this moth and can't and I really like that, And then she says that aloud. We don't really need to hear her say it, but she's, oh, yeah, I can't. You're the only one who can open it now, which just great. Yeah, that was my favorite part of the episode, was her chasing that moth in the jar around trying to smash it.

You didn't like water turning into milk. Not as much as that jar attempting to look like it's moving. Oh. I enjoyed that. Her having that, like the jar rolling around on the ground and her trying to smash it with stuff and whacking it with things, like there's some good physical comedy in this episode unintentionally maybe, I don't know.

Yeah, I thoroughly dug the whole thing. Like you said, Mike, it was shocking how fast it went by. If this were a clunker of an episode, oh my, we would have felt every minute of the twenty two just like praying for death somehow, And this it was like, Wow, that was over that amazing. It never felt flabby at all. And that's and I guess that might be Michael McDowell.

He's been doing that sort of since the first episode. Even at episodes that we didn't like of his, it never felt we were wasting any time. He at least knows to keep things moving in a forward direction. All right. On the next episode of Midnight Viewing, we're taking a look at the next two episodes of season four.

Those are No Strings and The Grave Robber. Midnight Viewing The Horror Anthology Podcast is a proud member of weirding Way Media Group. Our theme song was composed by HP with an assist by Donald Rubinstein. Until next time? What are you working on?

Where can people find it? Mike White? Everything that I'll work on is also on this network wheredowamedia dot com, with the exception of one thing that Chris and I work on with our friend Richard had him as well as occasionally Father Malone where we talk about James Bond films, and that's available at Chris's Patreon which is patreon dot com slash culture cast or Mind which is patreon dot com slash Projection Booth, and don't forget to go to patreon dot com slash Father Malone and be chipping in towards this fine program. All the other things that Fello them alone works on. How about you, Chris diddod it is Yeah.

I mean, like Mike, Mike said, pretty much everything. The Patreon's been plugged, the website's been plugged. You guys did a good job. You don't leave me for anything left to do what you have. Left go to all those places obviously, but also tune in every other week here on our Friday edition of the show.

It's either Tales from the Dark Side we're looking at with these two fellas here, or we're looking at an anthology movie with co host Antonio Lapour, or more often than not, you're gonna find one of our fests going on HP from Night. Mister Walters and I are currently involved in Fusco Fest. We're looking at the works of screenwriter John Fusco. We've just started Predator Fest that we're in the midst of that. We're looking at all the works of the Predator.

He did, all those movies that he directed. He didn't necessarily make them. It was a bit of poor wording on my. Part, but I honestly, if they made a movie from the Predator's perspective, as if he had made that movie, you would both watch you do it. Yeah, So those two fasts we're looking at Rick Moranis, We're looking at all of his stuff.

We're going down that road too, So ada't I'll just keep tuning in here at midnight viewing. We're here every week. We'll keep the light on for you. Oh oh what light. Try to enjoy the daylight.

That's what you gotta do.