DeadtimeStories

Deadtime Stories (1986)

This movie is actually a series of shorter films with a wrap around story about an uncle telling his young nephew some bedtime stories that are a bit twisted! The first involves a pair of witches that are trying to resurrect their dead sister to complete their coven. This is the best known of the stories because it stars Scott Valentine who managed to have a small career in the 80s and early 90s. Then we get a more modern look at the Little Red Riding Hood legend only this time with drug dealers, more sex, and a werewolf! Finally the last story is about the Bear family who are homicidal maniacs and their encounter with Goldi Lox who has Carrie like powers. Then we go back to the wrap around story for a very predictable “twist” ending.

There are some movies from the 80s that need DVD releases (Crimewave anyone?) and then there are some movies that I’m okay with never see a DVD release. Deadtime Stories is one of those movies that I think benefits from people not being able to see it! Of the stories here the middle one with the werewolf is the most interesting and I’m kind of being generous about that. Really none of them are that interesting and I was bored pretty much the whole way thru. The story with the witches trying to resurrect their sister is kind of pointless, suffers from really bad set design and didn’t do anything for me. Then you have this strange story with the Bear family and the telekinetic Goldi Lox that doesn’t fit in tone with either of the other stories. While the other 2 are trying to be serious, this third story is clearly played for laughs, but isn’t really funny at all. Then the movie goes back to being kind of serious with the finale of the wrap around story. As if the stories themselves weren’t bad enough this sudden shift in tone just killed the movie for me.

The acting is bad all the way thru. This is community theater level performance from beginning to end. Since the stories aren’t that great to begin with they really needed to have a better group of actors to at least make the proceedings bearable to sit thru. But that isn’t’ the case here. They even manage to botch the simple task of putting a decent looking old school werewolf on the screen. It looks terrible and was terribly disappointing. I also wanted to mention the less then stellar production values. In addition to the bad set design, but the camera work and lighting are just as bad. There are so many static scenes with extended dialogue being delivered while the camera sits still and the cast just stands there. This makes for a visually boring movie, which only adds to the overall sleep-inducing atmosphere of Deadtime Stories.

Okay I’m done. This is a terrible movie that isn’t out on DVD because is sucks. But then while researching this review I read that Deadtime Stories is coming out on DVD… Well isn’t that just a kick in the pants?

½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer