If it's one thing I love Darlings, I love to watch a good anthology series. I usually go for the classic Twilight Zone but others prefer the modern dark comedic satire of Black Mirror. (I haven't seen it but have been debating it but was interested when I heard of an episode where people are rated all the time constantly especially when it comes to my job so it's relatable.) So aren't there some horror related anthology series other than the two I mentioned. Well, you gotta look hard enough. Lucky for you here are 4 I suggest watching whether I found episodes or you can enjoy yourself.
1) Rod Sterling's The Night Gallery: I've been trying to find full episodes of this series on YouTube but it's only clips. However, The Night Gallery offers a lot though shortlived for 3 seasons and not as popular as his Sibling series The Twilight Zone. The Stories focused on Horror, Supernatural, Fantasy, and Psychological Drama in contrast to some of the more Science Fiction Oriented episodes and that some episodes could not just only hit you hard, but some would offer comfort and understand in making us better people. Night Gallery on the other hand is pure fun and even features stories from Harlan Ellison, H. P. Lovecraft and minor authors who allowed adaptations of these stories. Rod still was able to write and direct stories in the anthology despite not having full rights and involvement as given with his creative freedom but it didn't mean he had nothing. Robert Bloch, writer of Psycho, wrote a couple of episodes and mutliple famous names, (Roddy McDowell, Joan Crawford, Steven Spielberg, Adam West, Leonard Nimoy, Burgess Meredith, and others) were involved in creating this anthology . It's a heavily underrated series but has gained the Cult status and a joy to find when you watch. You can find it at Walmart and Amazon and buy the full series.
2) Masters of Horror: This Showtime Exclusive Anthology only lasted two season but has many famous names directing the one hour episodes in this anthology series as if each was their own individual movie. In fact these episodes had featued many horror film directors which was its main marketing ploy. You got Joe Dante, John Carpenter, John Landis, Dario Argento, and Takashi Miike to name a few. Most of the episodes, like in Night Gallery, are usually adapted but some are original and at times feature some really black comedy especially with Dante and Landis directing some episodes. There were only 26 episodes featured in this anthology but there are many hits and some misses depending as most anthologies go. A few very popular names are involved with acting like Meat Loaf, Ron Pearlman, and George Wendt but mostly everyone else is mainly C list or you've never heard of them before until you dig but maybe that's what makes it good because we can focus on story and direction but you do want good actors to tell your tale. But the weird thing is these episodes could be bought individually on DVD as if they were movies though all were part of this anthology.
3) George A. Romero's Tales from the Darkside: I've seen a couple of the episodes of this anthology and they weren't bloody and gory like most of today's horror, but psychological and tormenting with dread. George A. Romero's anthology series had 90 episodes but the two I saw were "Sorry, Right Number" with Stephen King writing about a wife who receives a mysterious phone call and deals with the loss of her husband. The second had a more whimsical fantasy approach with "Do Not Open This Box" with Jodie Foster directing this episode about a couple (with a very unhappy husband and an overbearing wife) who receive a mysterious Pandora's Box and the mailman who is insistent on making sure it never opens and he gets it back. These two episodes did linger in my psyche a little and it's nice to revisit them. The series even had a film with the same anthology style as the series too. You can find episodes on YouTube
4) Tales from the Crypt: What kind of list would this be without a reference to Tales from the Crypt. This series featured all sorts of A and B listers before or after they achieved their full fame featured in spooky, scary, and often Campy stories but that's what makes it charming too. I've seen a couple of episodes Like the one with Morton Downey Jr., the shock jockey, visiting a Haunted House, a man who marries widows and kills them off for their fortunes, one story written by Teller, of Penn and Teller, with an escaped convict who visits a witches house, do you know about "The Secret", and even had 2 feature films inspired by the series and at one time there was supposed to be a new series but it didn't work out well due to the issue production rights. And let's not forget our punny master of scareemonies, The Cryptkeeper. Voiced by John Kassir, this guy got us ready for our new flavor of the month stories.
Enjoy and Happy Halloween Darlings!
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