The '80s was a magical time for TV shows to be short horror tales (Tales from the Crypt, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone re-boot, Tales from the Darkside, and Monsters, to name a few). They serve as excellent study pieces, because limited budgets and very short shooting schedules led to stories that had to be told with minimal characters in a minimal amount of locations. The two we watched in class were created by the same writing team - "Trick or Treat" (Tales from the Darkside) and "The Match Game" (Monsters). Tales from the Darkside was first, had a bigger budget, and had the infamous George A. Romero, father of the modern day Zombie movie, attached to it. Monsters had a lower budget, but it had a handful of the same passionate writers who, after Darkside's demise, kept fighting to tell creative tales, and although they had more restrictions budget wise, the show has a lot of charm and heart. Sometimes creative solutions to restraints cause for creative results. I love both shows, and feel like they both had creative teams that cared about their work deeply. What are your thoughts on each show? Which one do you like better? Why?
If you missed them, or would simply like to watch them again because they are stinkin' rad, the links are here: Tales from the Darkside. And, Monsters part 1 and part 2.
My favorite out of the two TV shows was Monsters. I liked how briskly they told the story, as well as the creative aspects of it. For instance, how each character would light a match and tell part of the story. I really enjoyed that. I think I liked this show better because I could relate to the teenage in it rather then the plot from Tales from the Darkside.
ReplyDeleteThey were both incredible. My favorite was also Monsters. It was so intriguing and creative, which was surprising since its fairly old and the filmmakers didnt have a lot to work with. I also really loved the practical effects, i really appreciate films with no CGI.
ReplyDeleteI really like these shows. My favorite was Monsters. I enjoyed it more because of how interesting and intriguing it was and it's use of practical effects. I liked Tales from the Darkside but I didn't find it as great as the other show. Despite it's much larger budget.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree.
DeleteI really appreciate films with low budgets that seem to shine over movies with larger budgets. Maybe the low budget forces the film makers/actors/writers to be a lot more creative and work harder.
My favorite was definitely monsters. The short seemed a lot like something our school could totally pull off. (With some costumes, effects excluded.) I was intrigued from start to finish, I also enjoyed the style the film had. Although by the end the film seemed kind of just thrown together, it was surely a good film/story to me.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Monsters because it's such a cool way to tell stories, little vignettes. Its a great way to tell a lot of interesting stories and have a good collection of shorts. It seems really conducive to creative thought, and it made me personally start on a brain-tangent of "what story would I make?", "How would I tell that story", "How could I make it that good, within the time constraint?"
ReplyDeleteI liked them a lot.
I liked how Tales from the Darkside, stuck with a traditional concept of Halloween with witches and all the good stuff ha. Monsters was pretty good too, the oozing eyes was definitely a gag piece no matter what its from. Both are good.
ReplyDeletemonsters didnt make much sense but i enjoyed it. i didnt like tales from the dark side
ReplyDeleteI really liked Tales of the dark side. it was so cheesy and Halloweeny and it had such a child like feel. i felt like i was watching disney channel during october when i was in 6th grade.
ReplyDeleteBetween the two i felt that Monsters was my favorite of the two, i thought that the idea behind the episode was pretty cool. I really like that Monsters was able to have such a great tv show with such a low budget and still managed to keep an awesome tone to it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Tales From The Darkside a little bit more... I think the only reason I liked it more though is because the series is familiar to me. I’ve grown up watching it and I enjoy it a lot. Also, I’m a big fan of both George Romero and Tom Savini so… Yeah. I didn’t really know about Monsters before we watched it in class but I thought it was great. I really wanted to watch more because the story was interesting and the show seems to have a cool sense of humor to it as well. It’s a lot of fun to watch. It needs a DVD release…
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