Season 4 Episode 20
A religious wrestler and his mother contend against a crooked fight manager, played by Vic Tayback, who holds ties to a devilish opponent. Written by Peter O’Keefe.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, July 24, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” final episode “Basher Malone” premiered”Season 4 Episode 19
A parody of I Love Lucy, an alien comes to a family’s door asking for ammonia and hilarity ensues. Written by Jule Selbo
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, July 17, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Barter” premiered”A young security guard must track down diminutive aliens who kill people even as they make their fantasies come true.
Read more “Horror History: Thursday, July 14, 1988: Hobgoblins was released in theaters”Season 4 Episode 18
A child innocently builds a device that eats sound in order to make his mother happy, but soon loses control of the creepy machine (which silences things by sucking out their energy and killing them).
Based on a story by Zenna Henderson, adapted by John Harrison (under the name John Sutherland).
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, July 10, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Hush” premiered”The ultimate evil – the Tall Man of Phantasm – returns in this terrifying horror film about the relentless and unstoppable mortician on an even more sinister murderous rampage.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, July 8, 1988: Phantasm II was released in theaters”Season 4 Episode 17
An alien visitor studies human nature as a photographer.
Written and directed by Ted Gershuny (who, the following year, collaborated with Tommy Lee Wallace on the script for Drew Barrymore’s movie Far From Home)
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, June 19, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Going Native” premiered”In this horror film, an evil magician creates a wax display of famous monsters and murderers and invites a group of unsuspecting young college students to view the collection. However, when the kids are trapped in the deadly displays, one-by-one they soon discover that the wax models are more than they appear to be.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, June 17, 1988: Waxwork was released in theaters”In the climactic finale to the Poltergeist trilogy, those elusive demons are more frightening than ever as they follow Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) to Chicago and inhabit an entire skyscraper.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, June 10, 1988: Poltergeist III was released in theaters”Welcome to Camp Hurrah, where a psycho killer is slaughtering high school cheerleaders on the eve of the all-state finals. Drive-in goddesses Betsy Russell (Private School, Avenging Angel) and Lucinda Dickey (Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo) star with former teen idol Leif Garrett in this bouncing, bleeding bonanza of B-movie goodness featuring graphic violence, gratuitous nudity, bad rapping and more from the glory days of late ā80s splatter. This is Cheerleader Camp!
Read more “Horror History: Wednesday, June 1, 1988: Cheerleader Camp was released in theaters”One-of-a-kind alien invasion sci-fi featuring blood drinking alien clowns harvesting human victims in a small city.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 27, 1988: Killer Klowns from Outer Space was released in theaters”Season 4 Episode 16
A man guards his sick son closely and has sole custody, while the boy’s worried mother desperately wants to be reunited with her child. Its later revealed the mother is a werewolf, and their son inherited her lycanthropy; she kills the father to reunite with her son, who has been unable to control his changes.
Written by Edithe Swensen, directed by Tom Savini, and guest-starring Patricia Tallman.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 22, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Family Reunion” premiered”A new tale of terror from the director of The Legend of Hell House and The Incubus.
When six young friends fly off on a weekend getaway and suddenly find themselves with engine trouble, they have no choice but to land on a remote Pacific island. Looking for shelter, they are grateful when they meet Ma and Pa and their children: an eccentric family still living in the backwoods as if itās still the 1920s. But what begins as simple old-school hospitality becomes a terrifying race for survival when one by one, the friends start disappearing and dying horrible deaths. Fleeing the outside world many years ago, the family has created an island domain, where all strangers are sinners: and the killing has never stopped.
American Gothic features an all-star cast including Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night), Yvonne De Carlo (The Munsters), Michael J. Pollard (Bonnie and Clyde) and William Hootkins (Raiders of the Lost Ark).
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 20, 1988: American Gothic was released in theaters”Remake of the Corman classic of a mysterious alien sent to earth to replenish his world’s blood supply by feeding on human blood. It takes the unstoppable determination of a nurse and her boyfriend cop to stop this vampire alien.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 20, 1988: Not of This Earth was released in theaters”Season 4 Episode 15
Charlie is a sweet-natured but unsuccessful inventor. His wife Ruth (an acid-tongued opportunist who sorely regrets her choice of spouse, and who is openly jealous of their well-to-do neighbor) takes advantage of a deliveryman’s generosity, after the latter expresses his need for a mistakenly delivered item with the title warning inscribed on it. When it becomes evident that Ruth has no intention of returning the box, our deliveryman reveals his true identity. It doesn’t help that Ruth has already opened the apparently empty box…or that the box in fact contained something which, literally, money cannot buy.
Written by Franco Amurri and directed by Jodie Foster and guest-starring Eileen Heckart.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 15, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Do Not Open This Box” premiered”Ever since homicidal maniac Jason Voorhees got trapped in chains at the bottom of Crystal Lake, the nearby summer camp has operated without a hitch… without a murder. But one of this season’s happy campers has brought along a deadly secret.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 13, 1988: Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood was released in theaters”The undead killer cop returns in this gory sequel, which sees maniac Officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar) team up with a NYC serial killer to hunt down the criminals who murdered him in prison.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 13, 1988: Maniac Cop was released in theaters”Horrifying shocker as a biological experiment goes haywire when meat-eating mutant roaches invade an island community, terrorizing a peaceful New England fishing village and hideously butchering its citizens.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 13, 1988: The Nest was released in theaters”Season 4 Episode 14
On Halloween, a boy is warned by his dying great-grandmother about the Cutty Black Sow, a Celtic demon that steals the souls of those who die on All Hallow’s Eve, and tries to prevent it from getting hers.
Based on a story by Thomas F. Monteleone, adapted by Michael McDowell and guest-starring Paula Trueman.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 8, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “The Cutty Black Sow” premiered”Alex and his girlfriend Lori move into a New York City apartment, where they fall victim to the restless spirits of an occultist named Zachary and his fanatical followers who had committed mass suicide years before.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 6, 1988: Slime City was released in theaters”This ’80s teen comedy involves a youth (Robert Leonard), who is seduced by a sexy schoolgirl and then transforms into a blood-sucking vampire. Instead of fighting his affliction, he tries to cope with the change.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 6, 1988: My Best Friend Is a Vampire was released in theaters”A serial killer in Los Angeles celebrates Jack the Ripper’s 100th birthday by committing similar murders and only one has a chance of stopping him.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 6, 1988: Jack’s Back was released in theaters”Maverick L.A.P.D. officer Roger Mortis is a good cop who will do anything to nail the bad guys. Investigating some frightening goings-on, Mortis and his partner, Doug Bigelow pay a visit to Dante Laboratories. It is here that they discover the high-tech Resurrection Room churning out a weird band of recycled and indestructible criminals. And it is here that Mortis meets his untimely death.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, May 6, 1988: Dead Heat was released in theaters”Season 4 Episode 13
A woman goes to work for a museum and is transported to the past and forced to work as a near-slave.
Written by Ellen Sandhaus. Guest-starring Haviland Morris and Wayne Tippit.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 1, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “The Apprentice” premiered”Archbishop Mosley assigns Father Michael to a church in New Orleans which was the site of throat-slashing murders of two priests two years earlier.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, April 22, 1988: The Unholy was released in theaters”Meet Elmer. He’s your local, friendly parasite with the ability to induce euphoric hallucinations in his hosts.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, April 15, 1988: Brain Damage was released in theaters”From The Director Of The Craft, The Screenwriter Of Die Hard, & The Producer Of The Terminator In the mid-70s, the members of the love cult Unity Fields sought Āthe ultimate joiningĀ by dousing themselves with gasoline and committing mass suicide. A young girl blown clear of the fiery explosion was the only survivor. Thirteen years later, Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin of A Nightmare On Elm Street 3) awakens from a coma inside a psychiatric hospital with only buried memories of that horrific day. But now, her fellow patients are each being driven to their own violent suicides. Has the sectās hideously burned leader (Richard Lynch) returned to claim his final child, or is something even more depraved lurking within her Bad Dreams? Bruce Abbott (Re-Animator), Harris Yulin (Scarface), E.G. Daily (The Devilās Rejects) and Dean Cameron (Summer School) co-star in this intense horror shocker directed by Andrew Fleming (The Craft, Dick), co-written by Steven de Souza (Die Hard, 48 HRS) and produced by Gale Anne Hurd (Armageddon, T2).
Read more “Horror History: Friday, April 8, 1988: Bad Dreams was released in theaters”An intelligent pulse of electricity travels from house to house taking control of appliances and terrorizing occupants. Starring Cliff De Young, Roxanne Hart, Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence and Charles Tyner.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, March 4, 1988: Pulse was released in theaters”Creedmore Prison becomes a supernatural battleground when the specter of Charlie Forsythe, a man executed for murder, returns seeking vengeance from the brutal guard, Ethan Sharpe, who was aware of his innocence. The lives of the inmates hang in the balance as Forsythe and Sharpe lock in demonic combat.
Read more “Horror History: Friday, March 4, 1988: Prison was released in US theaters”Season 4 Episode 12
A screenwriter makes a deal with Satan.
Written by Granville Burgess and Allen Coulter. Guest-starring Bradley Whitford.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, February 28, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “The Deal” premiered”Season 4 Episode 11
An overweight woman goes to drastic measures to lose weight, but finds herself even more attached to her food than ever before.
Based on the short story “Food for Thought” by Roberts Gannaway. Written and directed by John Strysik, co-written by Jule Selbo.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, February 21, 1988: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Love Hungry” premiered”
