Tales from the Darkside: The Movie

The film opens with Betty, an affluent suburban housewife and modern-day witch (Deborah Harry), planning a dinner party. The main dish is to be Timmy (Matthew Lawrence), a young boy whom she has captured and chained up in her pantry. To stall her from stuffing and roasting him, the boy tells her three horror stories from a book she gave him, titled Tales from the Darkside.

In the first segment, Michael McDowell adapts Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "Lot No. 249". A graduate student, Edward Bellingham (played by Steve Buscemi), has been cheated by two classmates, Susan (Julianne Moore), and Lee (Robert Sedgwick), who framed him for theft to ruin his chances of winning a scholarship for which they were competing. As revenge, Bellingham reanimates a mummy and uses it to murder them both. Susan's brother Andy (Christian Slater) kidnaps Bellingham, forces him to summon the mummy, then destroys it and burns its remains and what he believes to be the reanimation parchment. He considers killing Bellingham, but in the end cannot bring himself to commit real murder. However, Bellingham brings Susan and Lee back from the dead (having switched the reanimation parchment with a similar one) and dispatches them to Andy's dorm, where they greet the terrified Andy by saying that Bellingham sends his regards.

In the second tale, George A. Romero adapts a Stephen King short story "The Cat from Hell". Drogan is a wealthy, wheelchair-bound old man (William Hickey) who brings in a hitman named Halston (David Johansen) for a bizarre hire: kill a black cat, which Drogan believes is murderously evil. Drogan explains that there were three other occupants of his house before the cat arrived: his sister, Amanda (Dolores Sutton), her friend Carolyn (Alice Drummond), and the family's butler, Richard Gage (Mark Margolis). Drogan claims that one by one, the cat killed the other three, and that he is next. Drogan's pharmaceutical company killed 5,000 cats while testing a new drug, and he is convinced that this black cat is here to exact cosmic revenge.

Halston doesn't believe the story, but is more than willing to eliminate the cat since Drogan is offering $100,000. But when Drogan returns to the house to see if the deed is done, he finds that the cat has killed Halston by climbing down his throat. The cat emerges from the hitman's corpse and jumps at Drogan, giving him a fatal heart attack.

The third and final segment is written by Michael McDowell and based on the Yuki-onna, a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore or more specifically Lafcadio Hearn's version in Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.

Preston (James Remar) is a struggling artist. He lives in a studio with a skylight, through which a large stone gargoyle statue on the neighboring building peers down on his work table. Preston's agent calls, asking to meet with him at a bar a few blocks away. The agent tells Preston that his art work is unpopular and not selling. Dejected, Preston drinks heavily and becomes inebriated. The bar owner, also a friend, offers to walk him home.

Along the way, Preston stops to relieve himself in the back alley. While there, his friend sees and then shoots at a gargoyle-like monster, but it brutally attacks and decapitates him. Preston witnesses the horrific scene. Terrified, he tries running away, but the creature corners him. It spares Preston's life when he swears never to reveal what he saw or describe its appearance to anyone. The monster then scratches Preston's chest saying, "Cross Your Heart,"[3] then vanishes. Preston is traumatized and confused, but bound by his oath, can say nothing about what happened. It is revealed that the creature is the gargoyle statue that has been watching Preston in his studio. It became alive when seeing Preston and his friend leaving the bar.

The horrified Preston runs into another alley where he sees a beautiful woman (Rae Dawn Chong) passing by. After grabbing her, he assures the woman she will not be harmed. The woman, Carola claimed she became lost while going to meet friends and was searching for a taxi. Preston convinces her to call a taxi from his apartment. While there, Carola cleans the gargoyle-inflicted wound on Preston's chest, then they make love.

Preston's life soon improves and his struggling art career becomes wildly successful, mostly thanks to Carola's connections. They eventually marry and have two children. However, Preston is tormented by memories of the gargoyle, and his vow of silence weighs heavily on him. On the 10th anniversary of his and Carola's first meeting, as well as his friend's death, Preston breaks down and tells her about the monster. Carola appears uncomfortable by Preston's revelation and demands to know why he is confessing this. Preston says he loves her and she is the most important person in his life and felt she needed to know the truth on what happened the night they met for the first time. She then emits a heartbroken wail, saying he had promised never to tell anyone.

Carola reveals herself as the creature that killed his friend.[4] With Preston's vow broken, Carola can no longer remain human and begins transforming back into a gargoyle. Their children, now awake, are terrified as Carola writhes in pain as hideous-looking arms and legs burst from beneath her human flesh. Carola screams at Preston for breaking his promise never to tell anyone about the gargoyle. Preston is terrified and pleads for her to change back, but Carola cannot assume a human form again. Their children are screaming in their bedroom as they also transform into gargoyles.[5] Carola, now fully transformed back into a gargoyle, wraps her wings around Preston. Preston proclaims his love for her, and she says she loves him, but because he broke his vow, he has sealed their fate; she then kills him by biting his neck. Heartbroken, Carola flies away with her gargoyle children. The final scene shows the three gargoyles now turned to stone and sitting upon the building ledge, staring down at Preston's body with sorrowful expressions.

Betty remarks that Timmy saved the best story ("Lover's Vow") for last, but he says that the next one is best, and has a happy ending. She replies that it's too late as she has to start cooking him, and that none of the stories in the book have happy endings. As Betty advances on Timmy, he narrates his own actions: throwing some marbles on the floor, causing her to slip and fall on her butcher's block and impaling her on her own tools. Timmy releases himself and pushes her into her own oven. The film ends with Timmy helping himself to a cookie and breaking the fourth wall by saying "Don't you just love happy endings?"