Tales from the Darkside: The Movie

A boy named Timmy has been captured by a woman named Betty, who is preparing a dinner party with him as the main course. While she waits for the oven to reach the right temperature, Timmy keeps her occupied by telling three horror stories, hoping to delay his fate. The film is an anthology built around this framing tale, with each segment drawn from a different source: a story by Arthur Conan Doyle about a student menaced by a mummy, a Stephen King tale about a wealthy man who hires a killer to dispose of his cat, and a Michael McDowell story about an artist whose life changes after an encounter with a winged creature. The cast includes Debbie Harry and Matthew Lawrence in the framing story, and Christian Slater and Steve Buscemi in the mummy segment.

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie was released in 1990 and was the first feature directed by John Harrison, who went on to make Supernova, Blank Slate and Book of Blood. George A. Romero and Michael McDowell wrote the screenplay, and Richard P. Rubinstein and Mitchell Galin produced. Made for about 4 million dollars, it took in roughly 16 million worldwide. It carries a rating of 6.2 on IMDb from nearly 19,000 votes and the same figure on TMDB, while a critics' score of 4.9 from 24 reviews is noticeably lower.