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TFTDS Vol. 5--A True Part of the 80s Culture
A fixture...a "must have" for the 80's Cult-TV offbeat enthusiasts. This was the first TFTDS video I came to own, and my favorite of the six I have so far. It was interesting to see the "lighter side of hell" in the form of Clive Barker's earlier writing, which I found both amusing and clever. The series is a veritable who's who cornucopia of classic TV/movie actors as well the up-and-comers; i.e., Robert Forster (Jackie Brown), Anthony Heald (The Silence of the Lambs, TV's Boston Public), Seth Green (Stephen King's "It", and later, Austin Powers' comedies, etc.) only to name a few ...The writers, directors and actors all bring something special and personal to the series and specifically to this video. It captures some of the nuances of the Twilight Zone series, but peppered with an 80s attitude and new directions in writing and overall treatment of the genre. For both the nostalgic and the first-time viewers, a treat. To me, TFTDS helped define the feel, mood and sympatico that was the 80s...Hey, I was there! ... Read more

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Happy 20th Anniversary, Tales from the Darkside
It's hard to believe it's been 20 years or more since co-producer George Romero's TV series first traversed the ozone highway into our living rooms. And this particular volume 6 is no exception to the creative benchmark the series set forth. Conceptually, TFTDS is a compilation of a myriad of short story writers, screen writers, etc., of this genre, put into a TV format. Team this with an eclectic mix of actors and actresses including classical, up-and-coming, Vaudevillian, oldies but goodies (golden age of TV), even Broadway, and throw in well metered direction and interesting special effects (for this era), and you have a winner, with an 80s feel. My kudos to the casting crew! In this particular tape, five episodes are taken from the series, featuring the writing skills of Robert Bloch (Psycho) and Michael McDowell (Beetlejuice). Since the writers in the series are so numerous and varied in style, the mood and feel of each are totally different from one another, and represent an albeit edgy, 80s representation of television programming. My personal favorite on this tape was "Baker's Dozen", where a greedy advertizer (Larry Manetti from Magnum PI) gets his just "desserts" by a voodoo woman who just happens to bake one "mean" cookie (Mabel King from The Wiz). Then, when the cookie lady becomes a little too powerful for her own good, she's thwarted by the elderly but crafty Aloysious who proves once again that good things come in small (kitchen rat-sized) packages. Great viewing for 8-14 year olds especially, but fun for all. In short: Clever, creepy, but not overly gory. Great for Halloween party sleepovers! A series of some of the best horror short story writers of the 80s era, put to film. P.S.--Check out the companion paperback and episodes 1-7. I have them all, and my teenage daughter and her friends are really into them. ... Read more

Reviews (120)

Good Remake!
"Their coming to get you Barbara", but this time Barbara is ready for them. A remake of the original classic "Night of the Living Dead". A modern retelling based on a updated scripted by George Romero and directed by Tom Savini.

This is pretty much the same story as NOTLD '68, but with better effects and a few new twists. The recent dead have returned to life and now seek the flesh of the living. Seven strangers are trapped in an isolated farmhouse struggling with the horror that awaits them on the outside and the tension that will eventually destroy them on the inside. Romero re-introduces all our favorite character: Ben (Tony Todd), Cooper (Tom Towles), etc. There are even striking reminiscences between the cast in 68 and 90, and that wasn't a coincidence. Barbara (Patricia Tallmen) has been miraculously been transformed from a comatose broad into a female Rambo. She seemingly being the only one with any grasp of the situation and this time she's not waiting for Johnny.

Not overly gory, but the zombie make-up was fantastic. The twists breath new life into this classic movie. Tom Savini did an exceptional job in his big screen directorial debut and maybe someday we'll be lucky enough to see his director's cut of this modern classic.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - TONY TODD
DEFINITELY A GOOD ZOMBIE MOVIE AND VERY WELL DONE,BUT NOT A GOOD REMAKE OF THE ORIGINAL.THE BARBARA CHARACTER WAS A BIT ANNOYING, AND NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL,THE STORYLINE WENT OFF SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY. ASIDE FROM THAT, THIS IS A REALLY GOOD ZOMBIE FILM AND IS WORTH A WATCH.

Excellent remake!
I felt compelled to comment on this flick. I loved the first one. And, I love the remake. The addition of color and a bolder, sexier Barbara only adds to the film. They didn't change the original theme of the movie. Just enhanced it! I own the Millenium edition of the first film. And I own the 1979 remake. Lov'em both, but prefer the remake!!!

A Fairly Pointless Remake
It's been said before but, just for the record, I'm gonna say it again: If it ain't broke, don't bother fixing it. In other words, if you've already got a movie that's widely regarded as a classic of the genre it can safely be said there is little point in trying to improve upon it. So quite why anyone thought Night of the Living Dead needed a remake is beyond me, especially when you consider the iron clad rule that applies to remakes as much as it does to movies with a '2' in the title: nine times out of ten, it's gonna suck.
However, to its credit, NOTLD remake is at least done with the support and input of those assosciated with the original film (including Romero), unlike the recent spate of Hollywood remakes, which seem to almost take perverse glee in undermining the original film without any consultation to, or recognition of, the original film makers (stand up Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Yet, despite Romero's input, the film is still just not terribly good.
The main problem with this remake, in my opinion, is the new portrayal of the characters. In the first film, you could sympathise with, to some degree, all these people trapped in the farmhouse, you felt sorry for them, and understood their actions because of the predicament that was facing them. In the remake, they're all a bunch of whiny bitchers, and any remaining sympathy is gone; every single one of them is shown to have a mean or annoying streak a mile wide and it comes as something of a releif when one of them gets killed. Also gone is any semblance of intelligence: what kills the characters in this remake is, more often than not, their own stupidity. Maybe that's the point, but still, it makes you feel as if they deserved to die, not something good for character empathy, which is a nesscessary ingredient of a horror movie.
The ending, too was a dissapointment, especially compared to the extremely downbeat, depressing ending of the original. That ending left you with a feeling of hopelessness and a question mark over the fate of humanity. The new ending leaves you with little doubt over how humanity will fair in the struggle against the undead: We'll win, no question.
My final major gripe with this movie is with the zombies themselves. In the original, they were terrifying and mysterious, unstoppable killing machines. In the remake, they seem comically weak and monumentally useless. As Barbara says at one point (an intensely annoying version of the original character, by the way, i spent the entire movie hoping her fate would be the same as that of the original): "they're so slow... we could just walk past them, we wouldn't even have to run.". You see the problem? how are you meant to be afraid of something that couldn't pose a serious threat to a three year old on a trike?
However, despite all the above, and the monotony of some of the zombie attacks (how many times can you watch the undead come smashing through a window the heroes were JUST about to board up? Well, if you want to watch this movie through, make sure it's at least four) Night of the Living Dead the remake is still a watchable film, a much shallower version of the first, that requires much less attention or thought. As a popcorn zombie movie, it works very well, and, it goes without saying, the special effects are quite fantastic for this version, though perhaps not used to their full potential.
Overall, this film is one to watch if your looking for a quick splatter-horror film and is reasonably entertaining. However, if your looking for a horror film with some depth, or one that creates a genuine feeling of unease and tension, then watch the original. There is a reason, afterall, why that is considered a horror classic and this isn't.

Night of the living remake
Ok, this is a rather pointless remake of the original classic. What makes it so bad is that it was directed by Tom Savini, who collaberated with George Romero on "Dawn of the Dead" and Day of the Dead". Savini, a noted make-up artist specializing in gore and blood, left this movie pretty dry. The plot is the same, a group of strangers are wholed up in a farm house that is besieged by zombies. There are no big stars here, except Tony Todd, who went on to be the Candyman. He is obviously the hero, or so you'd think. The end is different, and not for the better. The acting is pretty wooden, but you were expecting that, weren't you? The gore is graphic, but like I said, I was expecting more from Savini. The moral of the story is pounded home too hard. But it's fair, and not too long, so it's barable. It is a good movie, just not great. I only wish that they would stop remaking the classics and give Romero the money to do the fourth 'Dead' movie. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Best Volume of All
I believe this is the best volume of this series out of them all. It includes my favorite episode of all time, "Trouble With Mary Jane." In which a yound girl becomes possessed by a demon and her grandmother hires a pair of occultists to perform an exorcism on the little girl. Although they do succeed in the exorcism, the result is something very unexpected. Other episodes on this volume include, "The Devil's Advocate", "Ring Around the Redhead", "The Satanic Piano" (another one of my favorites), and "A Choice of Dreams". If you like twisted, strange, and unusual stories, I highly recommend this product to you.

Join the Darkside!
In the second volume, I lovingly discovered that my second all-time favorite episode was included: The Devil's Advocate. My all-time favorite episode, Seasons of Belief, is on the first volume. Anyway, The Devil's Advocate stars Jerry Stiller as a smart-alec radio talk show host who neglects to see how his life is worse than those he constantly puts down over the airways. He realizes it eventually, but not before it's too late. The remaining four episodes are good, but don't exactly compare to The Devil's Advocate. These episodes include Ring Around The Redhead (starring Home Alone's John Heard), The Trouble with Mary Jane (starring Phyllis Diller), The Satanic Piano (starring Michael Warren from Hill Street Blues), and A Choice of Dreams (starring The Godfather's Abe Vigoda). Buy it for Stiller if nothing else! ... Read more