Hey! It has come to my attention (Thanks to our old pal Amanda By Night of Made For TV Mayhem fame) that the excellent short-lived horror anthology series DARKROOM is available to watch for FREE (you don't even have to sign up!)! DARKROOM is hosted by the great JAMES COBURN and it came out right at the height of the early eighties horror boom. A few episodes that were too intense for broadcasting were strung together to make the cult favorite theatrical flick NIGHTMARES (1983). Fuzzy home-recorded episodes of DARKROOM have been bouncing around the internet for years but this is your big chance to see the show all crisp and clear as it was meant to be seen. I have a
I especially recommend the second episode's first segment "The Boogeyman Will get You" starring a young Helen Hunt and Quinn Cummings. It's really got the eighties teen horror feel and reminds me a bit of SMOOTH TALK (1985) with Laura Dern (Which is based on the great Joyce Carol Oates short story "Where are you going, where have you been?")
I kind of can't believe that this is on the NBC site. I thought that there was a law against the major networks doing anything cool (for free).
Chuckles72,
Yeah, it's really weird! They must not realize how cool it is. Nobody tell them!
OMG, thank you so much for posting this!
In December of 1981 I was 10 years old. I must have caught episode two of this series at that time. I don't remember seeing any of the others. My biggest memory of it was the "Uncle George" story ending with a freeze frame of (spoiler alert!) Claude Atkins (Sheriff Lobo, himself!) weilding a chainsaw!
Rewatching it in 2019, I remembered very little about the first story of the episode "Bogeyman" – until they reached the boathouse! Then it all came flooding back to me. Spoiler alert! He's not actually a vampire, he's a werewolf! While this reveal is pretty silly to my jaded late-40-something self, I can tell you it was a BIG source of discussion in school the next day. But while that story drummed up the water-fountain converstation, it was the "Uncle George" story that REALLY freaked me out. Spoiler alert! It turns out my memory was A BIT wrong (it's a circular saw, not a chainsaw) but the thought of Claude Atkins sawing off the legs of (the still consious) Dub Taylor just completely horrified me!
Wow! What a great memory! Thanks for bringing that memory back, Unk!
Dr Nick,
Another episode that got the playground talking back in the day was the one with the army men that come to life "Siege of 31 August"- kinda every kid's fantasy in a way. I also strongly remember the Billy Crystal episode for some reason. I can't believe it lasted only 7 episodes! It made such a big impact on my mind.
I spent last night and this morning binge watching the entire run. Loved it! I missed it back in the day, but glad I got to watch now. Love old shows like these with so many familiar faces from my youth.
So much fun, and pretty well made, directed and acted. Decent series, should have gone on longer. Thanks for the heads up!