History Film / TalesFromTheDarksideTheMovie

* AdultFear: There's little other way to characterize a story where the main character is a barely-employed entrepreneur on the verge of starvation who meets the woman of his dreams who is able to get his art in a place where each piece sells for thousands of dollars. Not only do they marry, but ten years later they have two beautiful children. Preston tells Carola about the gargoyle, wanting to be 100% honest with her. [[spoiler: Turns out that she was the gargoyle all along as breaking this vow causes her to transform back into the gargoyles, her human body being ripped to shreds from the metamorphosis. The children turn into gargoyles too and once fully transformed, all those years of happiness and memories of living the perfect life are ripped away from him and completely undone. The only thing Preston can do beg and plead for her to stop, especially when the children begin changing too. She can't. All they can do is declare their love one last time before she tears his throat out and lays him on the floor as he dies... all because he wanted to do the "right" thing.]]

* CruelTwistEnding: As the above listing for AdultFear shows, this story's ending is about as far from happy as you could get. You know an ending is tragic when Preston [[spoiler:being killed at the end is the best outcome for him at that point.]]

* BlackComedy: As with its home series and spiritual predecessor ''Film/{{Creepshow}''}, there's a campy, gory sense of humour beneath all of the horror stories (including the framing device) except "Lover's Vow".

* DarkerAndEdgier: It's the saddest and most tragic story of the film by some distance, having none of the {{Camp}} comedy the others possess. All of its violence is played for straighth orror or tragedy.

* AdultFear: There's little other way to characterize a story where the main character is a barely-employed entrepreneur on the verge of starvation who meets the woman of his dreams who is able to get his art in a place where each piece sells for thousands of dollars. Not only do they marry, but ten years later they have two beautiful children. Preston tells Carola about the gargoyle, wanting to be 100% honest with her. [spoiler: Turns out that she was the gargoyle all along as breaking this vow causes her to transform back into the gargoyles, her human body being ripped to shreds from the metamorphosis. The children turn into gargoyles too and once fully transformed, all those years of happiness and memories of living the perfect life are ripped away from him and completely undone. The only thing Preston can do beg and plead for her to stop, especially when the children begin changing too. She can't. All they can do is declare their love one last time before she tears his throat out and lays him on the floor as he dies... all because he wanted to do the "right" thing.]]
* BigNo: [[spoiler:As Carola's metamorphosis continues, Preston hears shouting coming from his kids room. Soon after, he attempts to run to check on them only to immediately trip. He looks up, only to see that both their children have turned into gargoyles. Cue BigNo.

* OffWithHisHead: The gargoyle kills Jer by slicing his head off after slashing his face open.

* AdultFear: There's little other way to characterize a story where the main character is a barely-employed entrepreneur on the verge of starvation who meets the woman of his dreams who is able to get his art in a place where each piece sells for thousands of dollars. Not only do they marry, but ten years later they have two beautiful children. Preston tells Carola about the gargoyle, wanting to be 100% honest with her. [spoiler:Turns out that she was the gargoyle all along as breaking this vow causes her to transform back into the gargoyles, her human body being ripped to shreds from the metamorphosis. The children turn into gargoyles too and once fully transformed, all those years of happiness and memories of living the perfect life are ripped away from him and completely undone. The only thing Preston can do beg and plead for her to stop, especially when the children begin changing too. She can't. All they can do is declare their love one last time before she tears his throat out and lays him on the floor as he dies... all because he wanted to do the "right" thing.]]

* AdultFear: There's little other way to characterize a story where the main character is a barely-employed entrepreneur on the verge of starvation who meets the woman of his dreams who is able to get his art in a place where each piece sells for thousands of dollars. Not only do they marry, but ten years later they have two beautiful children. Preston tells Carola about the gargoyle, wanting to be 100% honest with her. [spoiler:Turns out that she was the gargoyle all along as breaking this vow causes her to transform back into the gargoyles, her human body being ripped to shreds from the metamorphosis. The children turn into gargoyles too and once fully transformed, all those years of happiness and memories of living the perfect life are ripped away from him and completely undone. The only thing Preston can do beg and plead for her to stop, especially when the children begin changing too. She can't. All they can do is declare their love one last time before she tears his throat out and lays him on the floor as he dies... all because he wante to do the "right" thing.]]

* CruelTwistEnding: As the above listing for AdultFear shows, this story's ending is about as far from happy as you could get. You know an ending is tragic when Preston [[spoiler:being killed at the end had become the best

* AdultFear: There's little other way to characterize a story where the main character is a barely-employed entrepreneur on the verge of starvation. Or where the protagonist's wife leaves him and takes their children with her, [[spoiler:even if in this case it's for supernatural reasons rather than divorce.]]
** Considering the manner in which she "divorces" him, he'd probably have preferred the legal way.

In the film's FramingDevice, Betty, a modern day witch, has captured a little boy named Timmy in order to [[IAmAHumanitarian cook him and serve him at a dinner party for her fellow witches]]. Timmy [[ScheherezadeGambit stalls her by reading three tales]] from the favourite book of her childhood: ''Tales from the Darkside''.

* NotUsingTheZWord: Astute viewers may notice that neither Betty nor Timmy use the word "witch" in their conversation. Of course, it is strongly implied by the broomstick leaning against the wall in the first scene and the fact that Betty is planning to throw Timmy in her oven.

* RealityEnsues: The mummy being thousands of years old means that its body is widely open for vulnerability. Andy takes full advantage of this during the final portion of the segment, dismembering the mummy with a battery-powered carving knife.

* TheBadGuyWins: Bellingham ultimately gets the last laugh, an AdaptationalAlternateEnding of the original story where he was defeated.

# ''Cat from Hell'': Drogan (Creator/WilliamHickey), a wealthy pharmaceutical magnate, hires a hitman, Halston (Music/DavidJohansen), to kill a rather bizarre target: a black cat. Drogan tells Halston that he believes this particular cat is murderously evil. He explains that for the past few nights, at midnight, the cat had previously murdered the other occupants of his house: his sister Amanda (who the cat caused to trip and fall down the stairs) her friend Carolyn (who the cat ended up smothering in bed), and his butler Dick (the cat having slashed his face and causing him to crash his car). Drogan now believes that the cat is to kill him next, theorizing it has been sent to exact revenge after his company previously tested an experimental medication on 5,000 cats, all of them having died. Despite finding his story ridiculous, Halston agrees to murder the cat when Drogan offers him $100,000. Soon after, Halston goes hunting for the cat, which manages to evade and/or attack him at every turn. Eventually, he discovers that the cat is no ordinary feline, leading to the downfall of both him and Drogan. Based on a short story by Creator/StephenKing; with script by Creator/GeorgeARomero.

# ''Lot 249'': Nerdy college student Edward Bellingham (Creator/SteveBuscemi) is a collector and seller of antiques and artifacts. Bellingham was also recently cheated out of a chance to win a spot in a fellowship by a duo of students. The winner, Lee Monckton, ended up winning when his girlfriend Susan wrote his essay for him and left an anonymous tip framing Bellingham for stealing a precious artifact from the campus museum. He also discovers one of his latest purchases, the eponymous Lot 249, is actually an ancient Egyptian mummy. Edward also discovers a scroll hidden inside an incision in the mummy's body that, contains has a spell to reanimate the dead. Using this knowledge to his disposal, Edward brings the mummy to life and commands it to enact vengeance on those who have wronged him. Eventually, Andy (Creator/ChristianSlater), Susan's brother and Lee's best friend, discovers what's happened to the others and attempts to put a stop to it. Based on a short story by Creator/ArthurConanDoyle.

# ''Lot 249'': Nerdy college student Edward Bellingham (Creator/SteveBuscemi) is a collector and seller of antiques and artifacts. Bellingham was also recently cheated out of a chance to win a spot in a fellowship by a duo of students. The winner, Lee, ended up winning when his girlfriend Susan wrote his essay for him and left an anonymous tip framing Bellingham for stealing a precious artifact from the campus museum. He also discovers one of his latest purchases, the eponymous Lot 249, is actually an ancient Egyptian mummy. Edward also discovers a scroll hidden inside the mummy's body that has a spell written on it to reanimate the dead. Using this knowledge to his disposal, Edward brings the mummy to life and commands it to enact vengeance on those who have wronged him. Eventually, Susan's brother and Lee's best friend Andy (Creator/ChristianSlater) discovers what's happening and attempts to put a stop to it. Based on a short story by Creator/ArthurConanDoyle.
# ''Cat from Hell'': Drogan (Creator/WilliamHickey), a wealthy pharmaceutical magnate, hires a hitman, Halston (Music/DavidJohansen), to kill a bizarre target: a black cat. Drogan tells Halston that he believes this particular cat is pure evil. He explains that for the past few nights, at midnight, the cat has previously murdered the other occupants of his house: his sister Amanda (who the cat caused to trip and fall down the stairs) his sister's friend Carolyn (who the cat ended up smothering in bed), and his butler Dick (the cat having slashed his face and causing him to crash his car). Drogan believes that the cat is to kill him next. He also believes the cat has been sent to exact revenge after his company previously tested an experimental medication on 5,000 cats, all of them having died. Despite finding his story ridiculous, Halston agrees to murder the cat when Drogan offers him $100,000. Soon after, Halston goes after the cat, but he soon discovers that there is more to the cat than it seems, hinting that Drogan was right about the cat being no ordinary feline and leading to the downfall of both men. Based on a short story by Creator/StephenKing; with script by Creator/GeorgeARomero.
# ''Lover's Vow'': In New York, a struggling artist named Preston (Creator/JamesRemar) meets his agent Wyatt at a bar. Wyatt tells him that his art isn't selling and cuts him loose. After watching Preston drown his sorrows, Jer, a friend of his, offers to walk him home. In the process, Preston witnesses Jer being decapitated by a monstrous gargoyle. When the gargoyle corners Preston, it agrees to spare him as long as he vows never to tell anyone what he has witnessed. Shortly after the encounter, Preston encounters a beautiful woman named Carola (Creator/RaeDawnChong). Still fearing for his life, he brings Carola to his apartment, and the two begin to form a relationship. Several years later, Preston and Carola have started a family, and Preston's artwork has become wildly successful thanks to his inspiration from the gargoyle and Carola's connections in the art world. But despite all of his success, Preston's vow still weighs heavily upon him, and Preston himself doesn't know how much longer he'll be able to keep it. Based on the legend of {{Yukionna}} from Lafcadio Hearn's ''Film/{{Kwaidan}}''.

# ''Cat from Hell'': Drogan (Creator/WilliamHickey), a wealthy pharmaceutical magnate, hires a hitman, Halston (Creator/DavidJohansen), to kill a bizarre target: a black cat. Drogan tells Halston that he believes this particular cat is pure evil. He explains that for the past few nights, at midnight, the cat has previously murdered the other occupants of his house: his sister Amanda (who the cat caused to trip and fall down the stairs) his sister's friend Carolyn (who the cat ended up smothering in bed), and his butler Dick (the cat having slashed his face and causing him to crash his car). Drogan believes that the cat is to kill him next. He also believes the cat has been sent to exact revenge after his company previously tested an experimental medication on 5,000 cats, all of them having died. Despite finding his story ridiculous, Halston agrees to murder the cat when Drogan offers him $100,000. Soon after, Halston goes after the cat, but he soon discovers that there is more to the cat than it seems, hinting that Drogan was right about the cat being no ordinary feline and leading to the downfall of both men. Based on a short story by Creator/StephenKing; with script by Creator/GeorgeARomero.

* RealityEnsues: With the mummy being thousands of years old it leaves its body open for vulnerability. Which Andy takes full advantage of during the final portion of the act.

* NotUsingTheZWord: Astute viewers may notice that neither Betty nor Timmy use the word "witch" in their conversation; this is implied by the broomstick leaning against the wall in the first scene and Betty's actions.

* LodedBladeRecycling: Susan stabs the mummy with a pair of scissors. The mummy then pulls the scissors out and uses them to rip open Susan's back.

* OurGargoylesRock: [[spoiler:Not just a stony beast, it can also turn into a human]].

* LoopholeAbuse: Inverted: as it turns out, [[spoiler:telling ''the gargoyle'' about the gargoyle still counts as telling ''anyone'' about the gargoyle]].

* MagicallyBindingContract: [[spoiler:The way the gargoyle acts implies that her deal with Preston was this trope: she doesn't ''want'' to kill him, but because he broke his promise, she ''has'' to.]]

# ''Cat from Hell'': Drogan (Creator/WilliamHickey), a wealthy pharmaceutical magnate, hires a hitman, Halston (Creator/DavidJohansen), to kill a bizarre target: a black cat. Drogan tells Halston that he believes this particular cat is pure evil. He explains that for the past few nights, at midnight, the cat has previously murdered the other occupants of his house: his sister Amanda (who the cat caused to trip and fall down the stairs) his sister's friend Carolyn (who the cat ended up smothered by the cat), and his butler Dick (the cat having slashed his face and causing him to crash his car). Drogan believes that the cat is to kill him next. He also believes the cat has been sent to exact revenge after his company previously tested an experimental medication on 5,000 cats, all of them having died. Despite finding his story ridiculous, Halston agrees to murder the cat when Drogan offers him $100,000. Soon after, Halston goes after the cat, but he soon discovers that there is more to the cat than it seems, hinting that Drogan was right about the cat being no ordinary feline and leading to the downfall of both men. Based on a short story by Creator/StephenKing; with script by Creator/GeorgeARomero.