Tales from the Darkside S04E15&16 (Do Not Open This Box, Family Reunion)

Weary Way. Welcome back to Midnight, a horror anthology podcast, where this season we're taking a look at George Romero's nineteen eighties series Tales from the Dark Side. Sharing the Midnight view with me are the projection Boots Mike White. Dad, I Am Not a Werewolf? And the culture cast Chris Statue.

Daddy, I Am Aware Bear. Tonight, we are taking a look at the next two episodes of season four, the final season of Tales from the Dark Side. Those are do not Open this box and Family Reunion. Do not Open this box. Season four, episode fifteen originally aired on May the fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight.

That's my ex wife's birthday, not nineteen eighty eight, but May fifteenth, anyway, Written by Franco a'muri and Bob Balaban. Franco a'murray father of Eva Amuri Matt He was married to Susan Sarandon. Their daughter, Eva Muria quite a good actress on a round directed by Jody Foster, inexplicably starring Aileen Heckhart, William Lamasina, and a Richard B. Shull. This is about an elderly inventor in his nagging wife who receive a mysterious package that may prove priceless if they don't open it.

That's the title after all. Mike, what'd you think of this one? First off? I was just kind of confused because I was looking up Stephen King's Golden Tails. Apparently took a bunch of Tales from the Dark Side that were based on Stephen King things and stuck them all together.

I believe that's a UK video cassette. Interesting. This one was just kind of frustrating for me. We've talked about deal with the Devil episodes. I mean, Richard Bischel can play a great devil.

I love him so much. I really liked the inventor guy, who kind of reminded me a little bit of Oh gosh, I think he was already I think he was the very first Tales from the Dark Side, the guy who was getting he was scaring all the trick or treaters. Bernard Hughes, thank you, speaking of Tron, the Master of Control Unit himself. Yes, he reminded me of him. I know it wasn't him.

I love Bob Bellaman, but god damn that Eileen Heckrick character. This one just it just went on for way too long, and she was just such a jerk, which I understand. That's the purpose, that's her role, that's what she's supposed to be doing. I just wanted her come up and to come a lot sooner, and I wanted it to be even worse because honestly, and I'm hoping you guys can tell me, I don't understand that contraption at the end that they put in the box. Is her soul in that locked up in the contraption that he makes because it sounds like she's in the box itself.

No, the mechanical device that is going to benefit all mankind locks from within, means meaning that box can never be opened and her soul can never be free. Oh okay, thank you, all right. I was not catching that. Yeah. The whole thing of like just I mean, the whole movie, the whole piece is them stalling, or her stalling the mailman, who is basically I don't think he is the devil, he is a devil, And just this whole thing of her stalling stalling, I was just like, okay, enough, just pull the plug, just let's rip the band aid off and get this thing going here.

So yeah, I was just frustrated. With this, I really wanted to like it a lot more. How about you, Chris. This reminds me of that Sean Aston episode with his nagging. What John as where John Aston?

Oh? John Gallery, Yeah. That's what this reminds me of that same Well, but the wife's obnoxious and he's annoyed, but he's less annoyed here, but it's still she's a nag, she's obnoxious, she's kind of terrible, not kind of pretty terrible, And so you know where this is headed. It's again, it's one of those you know where this is going, like the writing is on the wall, the moment you realize that his wife is just an overbearing, obnoxious just takes advantage of him at every turn, like the worst example of this. Like I'm not I mean there are people like this, you know, but you if you really want to make sure that the antagonist of the piece is terrible, make them a nagging wife, I guess, especially in the late eighties in this show's approximate.

So the outcome of the episode I thought was kind of this is like obvious, she's gonna get locked away at some point and he's gonna have somebody show up in the you know the waning moments of the episode to take care of him, and there you go, and that's pretty much what happened. So other than kind of the more or less obvious nature of this because and again I don't know how obvious it would be to someone who hasn't sat and watched all these fucking shows like we have. We've sat and watched so much of it that we are inundated with and have been exposed to these tropes so much that it's hard to not address them when we see them. But other than that, I thought it was fine. It's a little long in the tooth, like Mike said, but other than that, you know, there have been much worse episodes of this show, and there have been much worse episodes of things we've watched together for midnight viewing.

As it is. Yeah, yeah, it's hard to be mad at the episode. It's so gentle, and it is a gentle episode of Tampson the Dark Side. Didn't They traffic in them frequently and I never have a problem with that. However, it is, as you said, Mike, the main problem for me with the story is I can deal with the devil good, The setup great.

I like the actors. I dig a nagging wife story. Sure this is just word processor of the gods by the way remade, Oh totally, but in a lesser way. What offends me in the episode is that she keeps delaying it day after day and getting more and more stuff. Whereas this wants to be a bottle episode and should have been a bottle episode.

It should have been one evening with this guy, what can you get? What? Oh, look of this amazing thing I've given you? In a back and forth and then finally I don't know why there was a span of time at all, because the second day he comes back, he's going to say, now, give me the box like this. It was just silly that he was being so nice for so long.

But I do love Richard Schill. I thought the inventor guy actually, and maybe this is because he was behind a work bench for most of it reminded me of the guy on Fraggle Rock whose name I can't remember, the Canadian actor. Thank you, thank you. I didn't know if that was a apropos reference to make or not, but I was expecting a giant puppet dog to run in from stage right and the little Fraggles the fregles were in the wall, weren't they. There was a hole in the wall and you go through the tunnels in there, in there and it leads down to Fraggle Rock.

Yes, laugh your cares away. Oh man, I thought, shirt is it? His shirt? Is that what it is? It could be.

I think the guy on Fraggle Rock always wore like a red plaid shirt, So I think that's well. This guy, you know, is has the all the tools sort of hanging out of his pockets, and his hair combed over and he's wearing glasses and he's kind of harried while you know, simultaneously nebishy. So that's that's the same dude. But this the entire time, speaking to its gentle nature. It felt like we talk about blackout sketches all the time.

Being from like a New Yorker cartoon, this feels like a short story you would find in Playboy. It's it's enough supernatural to qualify, but really it's just an intellectual, you know, exercise, and you know, you know, look, I actually think it was very well directed. I thought it was very well shot, but camera was constantly moving in interesting ways in places, and that for some reason I missed the credits. Maybe I passed skip credits once when I was watching it but didn't notice it was Jodie Foster, but took note of the direction, so I thought she did a really good job. It's just that the script is so poor and yeah, just the setup just goes nowhere.

And oh and the production designed, by the way, the box was ridiculous. The ace hardware press on letters do not open this box, Like, yeah, exactly, that's the best week, and. The three of us could have made something that looked way spookier or at least like more foreboding, at least like the item just kind of I would say, goofy. If they're trying to say that the fires of hell are equal to that of the most mundane thing on earth, and I get it, but really I think it was just laziness on their part. You're saying that, I don't know, when you have the episode that much credit, I think you're saying that this time.

Boyt. There's been a spate of inventor episodes on Tails from the Dark, and we're going to see some in future episodes too. What's going on? Man? Did everyone have an uncle or a father that was in the basement inventing or is that just a trope everyone like seizes on because it allows them a quick and easy out.

But you know, we had Randall Peltzer running around with Gremlins at this time as a protagonist. Well, it was being irresponsibly touted on TV commercials. Do you have an invention? You? Yes, but during the daily d like middle of the afternoon TV, do you have an invention that could be?

I think it's now moved into Shark Tank, So all those weirdo inventors are there, like the bat you know, like I can see here's the bathroom buddy, you know all those things on that show. Hey, holy shit, though, you know what good for them because some of those people make a ton of money. Yeah, they're probably making more money than they ever would have sending their widget into fucking whoever's just going to steal it and remake it, then send it back to you and say it's not a good idea. Yeah, this is a overall you know, it's light enough, and you know, I don't hold anything against it considering we've seen some aggressively poor episodes this year. Oh yeah that you know, it ultimately is just fine, not going to recommend it out there.

The inventor of it all is weird to your point, what it We didn't see that in the nineties. In the nineties it was like kids being invented, like mccullay Culkin and you know, and I think back. That Night Gallery. Night Gallery had Ozzie and Harriet drop it in that one episode where he was an inventor like we had the earlier. This year we had the guy opening portals to other dimensions we were George went yeah on Twilight Zone eighty five.

It's just like, yeah, just a standard trope to plug in right the inventor. That way we can get to the sciencey, get the science bullshit out of the way, and get to our fantasy that we're actually trying to express. The wackies they're into speaking wacky things like okay, sure, why. Not at casting your leader as an inventor is the equivalent of mystery science theaters. You should really just relax, right all right?

Our next episode is Family Reunion. This is season four, episode sixteen, aired originally on May the twenty second, nineteen eighty eight. Written by Tales of the Dark Side Stalwart Edith Swinson and directed by Tells some the Dark Side stalwart Tom Savigni. This one stars Stephen McCatty. This one stars Stephen McCatty, which made me question if this was shot in Canada, Daniel Terrence Kelly, Patricia Tolman, and Marilyn Rockefello not Rockefeller rocke Fellow.

I think it also stars the Creep Show poster. It stars not only the Creep Show poster, but the moon. The several versions of the moon from Creep Show directly lifted. This is the story of a mother pursuing a son's kidnapper, her husband as he claims this as he claims his boy is sick and only he can cure him. What did you think of this one, Chris.

Don't go into the moors at night. What this is? We were on a trip in Europe and something happened and now it's oh my god. Fine, Yeah, he's a werewolf. She's a werewolf.

They're all fucking werewolves, all right? Fine. This seems like something Stephen King, you know, and not this specifically, like this idea of a family that goes and be you know, and gets attacked by vampires, but then the family starts breaking apart because they're all becoming like were wolves, I mean, not vampires, were wolves like that feels so Stephen King like families and were wolves and stuff. Maybe I'm thinking of silver Pool why maybe? I mean every horror author has a were wolves story in them.

So I don't know why Stephen King, you're singling him out, but you know it could. Because I think of family stuff with Stephen King, and this is like a family centric story. Stephen King's always talking about families, like the Mist is kind of a family thing as well. So I don't know. I fuck it was.

This is fine. The lead character would need to be an author for it, that's true. Not a crazy dad, but like a crazy author dad. This is fine. The werewolf makeup is it's makeup.

It's fine. The kid with werewolf makeup is funny. The the mom with werewolf makeup is fine. I love the amount of slow motion used in this episode, A lot of it, like like a lot. I don't know owls to describe it.

There's a ton in this episode and it's used for no discerning reason either, So I don't know. Other than that, it's fine. You know, you can kind of see where it's going with the reveal. I guess is a little again obvious when she says, well, it was me and my son were attacked, and it's okay, maybe leave that out. But other than that, you know, I think it's more tolerable than in some of these kinds of episodes we've seen with like children monsters.

This is definitely a little bit more tall. I liked the child actor as well. He's not as kind of all over the place as some of the child actors we've seen in some of these, so overall was fine. How about you, Mike, I think I liked this a little bit more than Chris. I.

I really liked the makeup effects. But what I liked more than the makeup effects were when they weren't using the makeup effects and shooting a lot of silhouettes or shadows and things. Yeah, I guess the slow mo. It's funny because I noted that too, and I noted that especially like during a fight, and I was like, oh, that's the whole you know, Bionic Man thing, like they're really fighting very quickly, but we have to slow it down or however that logic worked with the Bionic Man. But yeah, I really kind of liked it.

Reminded me of like older or you know, just hamp Fire Tales type of thing where oh, yeah, the guy went out and shooting like there was a werewolf terrorizing his sheep and he shot the sheep and he shot the werewolf. Sorry, And he came home and his wife, you know, was bloody all over the place because she was the actual werewolf. And I was like, oh, okay, so this idea. I kind of liked the twist that she was a werewolf as well, and that you know, she I don't know why she necessarily would have brought that other woman along with her, other than food for her and her cub maybe, but I dug it. And I'd love Stephen mccattye.

And he, I mean, he's just so good. He can be in some really terrible movies, but he usually plays a really interesting character. So I dig that guy. And yeah, I was also thinking, oh, have we moved to Canada house with this one? But yeah, it was great, great to see him, and yeah, I didn't mind the kid at all, thought that he did a pretty decent job.

And yeah, I just thought there was a nice, tight story. This one didn't overstates welcome. For all of the negative things about and then they and then the postman came back two days later, and then he came back the next day. This feels like it moves very quickly, and all the commercial breaks came at logical places. Just yeah, this one I really enjoyed.

Where do you fall on this one? From them alone? Well, I always find it curious that Tom Savini, who is the Wizard of Gore, the splatter King, when left to his own devices, is one of the more restrained filmmakers of horror, even when Gore is involved. To your point, Mike, the transformation sequences sort of hearkening back to earlier Hollywood versions of werewolf transformations, when by now we had all been dazzled by the howling and an American werewolf in London, we had all seen it happen on screen in front of us. Nothing was going to top that, certainly not on a television budget.

So he did what every filmmaker has ever done and turned it into an artistic transition, and I loved all of that. The ultimate makeups themselves are just okay, weirdly shot poorly. I think like over lit or something. Maybe it's the trendansfer that we're looking at, you know, I've never really considered that these DVDs that I'm watching, I don't know, they're not exactly director's cuts, you know, they're not. I don't know if they've been color timed.

But this one is the most reminded me of an EC Comics creep show, Like this could have been Creep Show Volume two or something. And I, you know, I like all the performances here. Patricia Tallman is like a Vermero family regular. She was in Night Riders and Savini Castor and the Night of the Living Dead remake, and she was on Babylon five. Yeah, she was Barbara and she was great in it.

Actually, I once shared an elevator with her before the Night of the Living Day came out, but I knew who she was because of Night Riders. Anyway, she's beautiful. They give away the fact that she's the werewolf by my son and I were both attacked every day. Now we get it, which is they shouldn't have done first of all. Second of all, I don't know why they have if the mom is a were wolf, why they have the social service character at all?

Like you said, is it just for food? But they go multiple times and she engages her with her multiple times, and it's just it feels like it's just there to get the plot going, which is unfortunate because this could have been a character study between these three people, the mom and the son, and the and the father and them dealing with shit because she's a werewolf. Just go at night, turn into a werewolf, knock the door down, slap the fuck out of him, grab the kid in the leave. Why is there any drama here at all? Why is there any human interaction at all?

I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah, what wow wolf, no pun intended, But my god, what was stopping her? No reason? What's the issue? If he had been calling her like you know, and she didn't know where he was, like that would be one thing.

Then that could have been some drama going on, like the fact that she knew where they was. If it's ridiculous, that's very true. That's never that's not a plot hole, that's a plot cover less. I liked Tom Savini has always been clearly more influenced by Italian filmmakers than anybody, and I like Bobby's His Nightmare, where Savigni has appropriated his bust of lawn Cheney as the Phantom of the Opera as this sort of as this avatar of the spirit of Werewolf of them or something. It just keeps appearing to the child.

It's very unusual. Nevertheless, it's odd enough that felt off kilter, So Bravo. That was my favorite part of the episode was that weird Lawn Cheney face. What Yeah, the Tom Savini flex nineteen eighty eight Tom Savini flex. Well, you know he did name his son Lawn, right.

I probably named their sons Tom after Tom Sevini. Probably more than zero. Oh, I imagine a lot of Actually. Yeah, Tom Savini is the man. I love the use of shadows and silhouettes in this Nobody else has been doing it as much in this show.

But this episode, I think it's trafficking in it more than I've seen a to this point in the show. Really, there's a lot of it feels almost like no sarratu it. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's but I think it is hamstrung by the plot. I don't know what anything is going on. I don't know why anyone's doing what they're doing, and they're doing it for too long, and clearly that kid was raised in Brooklyn.

Yeah, I picked up a little accent there as well. Yeah. I was wondering at the outset because it's so sort of skillfully made. Oh this must be a California episode. No, the kid opened his mouth.

Okay, gotcha. We're in New York definitely. Oh yeah, you know, why are you so madam Ma? Why are you talking about dead? I like to being aware Wolf.

I might tuning into a monster. I'm telling you, I might be a little too Boston. I'm a monster. I'm a monster. I'm a monster.

Hey, kid, I didn't realize that Patricia Telman was also the Hag in the pit with Ash in Medieval Dead Army at Darkness. Yeah, she's a stunt gall as well. Yeah, yo, she bitch. Yeah. Now the next day, on our next episode of Midnight Viewing, will be taking a look at the next two episodes of season four.

Those are Going Native and Hush. Midnight Viewing Horror Anthology Podcast is a proud member of a Weirdingway media group, and our theme song was composed by HP with an assist by Donald or Rubinstein. Until next time, what are you working on? Where can people find it? Mike White?

Everything that I do pretty much is available over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. You can find all the shows that I work on there, with the exception of one that Chris and I do with Richard HadAM and occasionally follow alone stops by, and that's called Rinking on Bond where every month on our Patreon feed we talk about James Bond films. That is available at patriot dot com, slash culturecast and patreon dot com slash Projection booth. How about Chris. As for me, Weirdingwaymedia dot com as well as where you can find me and all the things that I work on, like rate and review this show on Spotify and iTunes though, because that's the most important place to do anything with any content for Weirdingway Media.

That's what I would add because at this point I feel like a broken record everywhere and I will continue to be a broken record here. So that's all I can say is weirding Way Media and please like, rate, and review whatever you're engaging with. If you're engaging, yeah, let me go ahead and echo that there call to action, I haven't said it, and for fucking ever, please subscribe and share the goddamn thing and press five stars and leave a review a positive review. It actually fucking helps. This show has doubled in listenership in the past year after doubling previously, so thank you all for doing that.

As for me, head over to Patreon dot com slash follow them alone. You're gonna get episodes early in commercial free, and you're gonna get bonus shows that are not available in the regular feed. But if money is tight, and I know it is, you can do all that other shit I talked about now. Thank you for joining us here at midnight viewing. Until next time, try to enjoy the.

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