Tales from the Darkside is an anthology TV series from The Eighties produced by George A. Romero. Similar to The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery, The Outer Limits and Tales from the Crypt, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot twist. Unlike these other series, Tales from the Darkside centered mostly on horror stories. However, some episodes would more likely be considered science fiction or fantasy-based, and other episodes were more comical and lighthearted in tone. It's also known for its Cruel Twist Endings.In 1990, a movie based on the show was released.
The Alleged Computer: Subverted in "The Word Processor of the Gods". Writer Richard Hagstrom receives a homemade word processor from his nephew Jonathan. The machine struggles with mundane text processing, but when it's commanded to rewrite Richard's life, the results are astounding.
The end of "Levitation". Just imagine... having the levitation trick done on you... only for the magician to have a heart attack, and can't bring you down... and prevent you from floating into the sky...
Back from the Dead: An interesting case in "Let the Games Begin": in order to settle who gets Harry's soul, the angel (in the form of Harry's best friend) and the devil (in the form of Harry's sister-in-law) resurrect his corpse in order to have him choose.
Be Careful What You Wish For: The episode "The Milkman Cometh" features a mysterious figure whose silhouette is shaped like a milkman granting wishes of anyone who leaves a note for him. The main character of the episode, a struggling father, begins to take advantage of the wishes despite his family and others who had their wishes backfire begging him to stop. At the end of the episode, he begs to the silhouetted figure to grant him a second child. While his face isn't shown to the viewer it's revealed that the Milkman isn't human and that the second child was conceived because the Milkman raped the wife.
Deal with the Devil: "I'll Give You A Million", "Printer's Devil", "The Deal."
Does Not Like Men: Florence Bravo, from the episode of the same name.
Disproportionate Retribution: A hallmark of various supernatural beings on the series, but more so with a certain episode. "Halloween Candy" is a story about a rather grumpy old man who refuses to give out candy on Halloween. He is frightened to death by a malevolent being that he refused to give candy to. I know he wasn't exactly the nicest guy, but wow, killing someone for not giving candy?
Or how about the episode "Season Of Belief?" A couple have an extended Jerk Ass moment where they terrify their young children with a scary story on Christmas Eve, even getting another family member to play along with the joke. At the end they smile, say they were only joking...and out of nowhere, the very monster they were talking about appears and crushes their skulls. Okay, sure, the parents weren't being very nice, and told their six-year-old daughter there was no Santa, but did that really make them deserve to die?
Or how about the first episode "Trick or Treat"? An old man who holds the debts of pretty much every family in town offers to forgive everyone if their children can find their debts inside his haunted house on Halloween. The twist? He winds up in Hell for being greedy. Come on, he lived during The Great Depression, a time where everyone learned the value of a dollar. He just never dropped the habit of being very frugal with his money.
On the other hand, the jerk was having a lot of laughs scaring and taunting those poor kids half to death with his haunted house.
Expy: "Barter" centers around a small family obviously themed after the family from I Love Lucy.
Going Native: In fact, the episode was called Going Native, about an alien disguised as a human doing research on earth culture but finding herself experiencing more emotions uncommon to her people.
Laser-Guided Karma: A staple in most episodes, with such examples as Trick or Treat, but the most flagrant examples being Baker's Dozen and Seasons of Belief.
Mama Bear: From "Ursa Minor." The mother, learning that her daughter's teddy bear is terrorizing the house, stabs the bear to death. The trope repeats, however, when the bear's mother attacks.
Title Drop: Let's see... there's "The Geezenstacks", "Let the Games Begin", "I Can't Help Saying Goodbye", "Levitation", "The Cutty Black Sow", "Basher Malone"... really, I could go on for a while.
Together in Death: Episode "Miss May Dusa", although way more cruel.
Your Mind Makes It Real: Possibly the case in "Seasons of Belief," though it's pretty hard to tell if it's this trope at work, or if the creature always existed and the parents didn't know.
"The Darkside is always there—waiting for us to enter, waiting to enter us. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight."
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