Tales From the Darkside
Season 2/Episode 5 - Halloween Candy
Starring: Roy Poole, Tim Choate, David Varnay
Writer: Michael McDowell
Director: Tom Savini
Synopsis:
Michael Killup drops off some candy to his Dad to pass out to the little kiddies for Halloween. Mr. Killup hates kids and Halloween and pretty much says “Fuck all that noise”. Well, the doorbell rings and rings and he just keeps opening the door long enough to be a dick and then sends the kids on their way. Finally, he gets fed up and brews up a dish of goblin candy --a mix of mayonnaise, rotten eggs and some other shit, poured over the bowl of goodies that his son left for him to pass out-- and oozes this gross concoction into a child's bag. I'd be pissed and that house would be gettin' egged for fucking infinity. Anyhoo, Mr. Killup dozes off and wakes up much later to his annoying as shit doorbell --it's no wonder that he hates Halloween. Gah, that fucking doorbell is the pits! Only this time, it aint no kid lookin' for candy...
Rant:
Ahhhh, good ole Tales From the Darkside. Many a night in my dark, unfinished basement did I watch you until oh, 4 a.m. Many a morning did I wake up pissed to discover I was too tired and had passed out before you and Monsters even came on. But hey, that's what VCRs were for.
Tom Savini's direction here is what you'd expect from a show that came on in the wee hours of the morning. Just basically grab a cam and go with it type shit. For visual style, we do get one cool angling shot that shows a flash of the goblin and the ****spoilers→soon to be fate of Mr. Killup←spoilers****, interwined with a shot of his ass passed out in a recliner. Other than that, just basic stuff. Who cares, though? People who stayed up to watch Tales From the Darkside weren't looking for flashy... anything. I sure as hell wasn't, especially considering that I was about 10 at the time. I was basically just looking for a chilling little horror story, and the show usually delivered that in full. This episode is no exception.
Acting, about the same deal. Nothing groundbreaking, but the late Roy Poole did a fine enough job at portraying a grumpy, kid hating, Halloween hating, hell... everything hating asshole. Tim Choate played his son, Tim, who has the "shoot me now" task of watching over his Dad. Choate gives a good enough performance to get the ball rolling. He only has about 5 minutes of screen time so, whatever. David Varnay plays a medical examiner, and dude is like a fucking robot. I can't say it's not enjoyable on a humorous level, though. John Edward Allen made for a good goblin and Gary Pratt played the multiple trick or treaters adequately. But, who really cares about acting here? It's fuckin' Tales From the Darkside!
Tom Savini, Howard Berger, Greg Nicotero and Ed French handle SFX makeup, so it's really a given that this is the show's strong point. The goblin looks fucking awesome, ****spoilers→as does look of the dead old man←spoilers****. Quite ghastly, actually.
Edit: This is not in fact the only Halloween themed episode of this show, which I had previously written here, because I am a dumbass. Anyhow, it's a 22 minute ride of creepy Trick or Treating fun, straight from the darkside!
