SYNOPSIS

A longtime favorite among fans of small-screen terror, the first season of the syndicated anthology series Tales from the Darkside (1983-1988) finally arrives on DVD to bring a new generation of viewers into its murky domain. The brainchild of producing partners George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) and Richard Rubinstein (Dawn of the Dead '78 and '04), Darkside's stories hewed closer to such straight-ahead fright fare as Night Gallery than the speculative fiction of The Twilight Zone or Amazing Stories (Darkside's chief competitor for viewers in its early season). Episodes revolved around deals with the Devil ("I'll Give You a Million," "Pain Killer"), paranormal phenomena and black magic ("Levitation," "Snip, Snip"), the unquiet dead (Robert Bloch's "A Case of the Stubborns," starring a young Christian Slater) and monsters both human ("The Anniversary") and otherwise ("In the Closet," directed by effects legend Tom Savini). Budgetary restraints blunted some of the show's special effects, and while those haven't improved with time, the best of the first-season episodes--"Closet," "Stubborns," and the Romero-penned pilot "Trick or Treat"--still retain the power to raise hairs in their brief running time. Other technical aspects remain solid, with scripts written by or based on stories by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison and Michael McDowell and stars like Danny Aiello, Victor Garber and Justine Bateman. The entire first season is compiled edit-free on the three-disc set; Romero's commentary on "Trick or Treat" covers the show's conception and his influences.