HAPPY HORROR DAYS: Tales From the Darkside S3 Ep11: Seasons of Belief
Tales From the Darkside is a horror anthology series from the mid 80’s that was created by the late, great writer/director George Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Other Living Deads). Essentially picking up where his and Stephen King’s Creepshow feature film left off, the show was also inspired by EC horror comics from the 50’s. Each story involving some sort of morality tale or monster or spooky something or other (with the occasional misguided attempt at a humorous episode).
It is also highly regarded for being my favorite television show of all time as well as an obvious inspiration for this little website here.
Before going into syndication and running for a one hour block each weeknight on the sci-fi channel in the 90’s, I used to catch this one on channel 58 in Stockton, CA every Saturday night. I believe it used to play right after FRIGHTNITE Theater (shout out to my boy Whitey Gleason) and before reruns of The Twilight Zone.
Look Familiar?
Talk about a night to look forward to, those evenings clearly created a mood dragon that I have been chasing after my entire life. And like any self respecting long running series, TFtDS of course had it’s very own Christmas themed episode and it is a good one.
Titled Seasons of Belief, our story takes place on Christmas Eve and opens with classic holiday imagery like carol songbooks on the piano and a little train rolling around below the tree. The whole look of the thing is highly reminiscent of other seasonal films of the era like A Christmas Story and Christmas Evil, drenched in a haze with an oddly paced tone that just feels…off.
After being allowed to open one present each, two siblings become bored and demand to be told a story. A you guessed it, scary story. The Father, who I could have sworn was their Grandfather due to the clearly massive age difference between he and his wife, begins to spin his creepy yarn. The tale goes on throughout the night and centers on a horrifying creature known only as “The Grither.”
The Grither apparently hates sound and especially hates hearing himself being spoken about. The Father goes on to say that the more they speak his name throughout the night the larger his ears become and that because they’ve already started talking about him, The Grither is now heading in their direction. The only way to ensure that he never arrives is to finish the story and this is where the primary source of tension in the episode comes from.
Constant misdirections and distractions from finishing the tale is where the fun lies with this one and it just so happens that the child acting is welcomely excellent; Their desperate cries for the old man to just wrap it up already being highly convincing. It’s also a nice touch that the parents revel in peppering in live updates, providing the Grither’s progress and whereabouts just to further torture these poor tots.
Being a horror series, it’s pretty clear where this one is going but it truly is the getting there that delivers a great time. It’s kinda like a live action adaptation of something that could be found within the pages of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and comes highly recommended from yours truly if you happen to be into that sorta thing.
Unfortunately, the good old days where you could easily find full episodes of the this show on YouTube seem to be long behind us. But you can at least check out the intro below for free.
