Darkroom
Darkroom
| 27 November 1981 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    man_on_phyr

    I remember watching this show as a kid, and I loved it! LOL. All my friends would talk about the latest episode the next day at school.Of course, I've always been a fan of horror anthologies (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Amicus films). I can still remember many of the stories from this series, most or all of which seem to have been written by one of my favorite horror writers, Robert Bloch (author of Psycho and original creator of virtually every twist ending ever seen in such tales).It's possible I'd watch Darkroom today and not find it as "cool" as I did when I was a kid, but I'd certainly watch if for no other reason then to see just how well I remember the stories. I'd love to have this series on DVD.Some memorable moments:The toy soldiers coming to life... The voodoo doll that doubled as a chew toy... Claude Akins with a circular saw... Talking flowers and the secrets they tell... The thing under the fun-house (that enjoyed a slice of pie for dessert)... A double-cross involving murder and that guy from Eight Is Enough (Grant Goodeve)...I could probably recall more, but that's not too bad considering I haven't seen this show since I was 10.Hopefully, someone will decide that this series deserves a rebirth on DVD.

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    blenderhead-1

    An episode of Darkroom featured a ham radio operator who contacted the past and altered the events leading up to his father's death....particularly, his dad being killed in a liberty ship taking him across the Atlantic during WWII (it was sunk by a U-boat). He sets these wheels in motion one night and wakes up the following morning to find his world changed: his father is certainly alive, but that's not the only thing that's different. The streets are lined with Mercedes Benzes and German Army soldiers. The Allies didn't win the war in this new altered history. Of course the story ends here and leaves the audience hanging, in fashion typical of this genre.

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    Theo Robertson

    If you love films like TALES FROM THE CRYPT or shows like THE NIGHT GALLERY you`ll like DARKROOM . But if you hate these types of shows then there`s unfortunately nothing here that will endear DARKROOM to you , the only real difference between this and its predecessors in the anthology series is that it stars James Coburn , well stars maybe isn`t the word because he`s only used as a links man to introduce the stories . As for the stories themselves they`re not at all different to anything THE TWILIGHT ZONE or NIGHT GALLERY had already done , and you do get the feeling the idea was well past its sell by date by 1981

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    Mister-6

    What hath Rod Serling wrought?You can tell a network's in trouble when it has to drag the same musty ideas out of the closet over and over and OVER again. Here's a prime example of going to the well way too often."Darkroom" was an anthology series in the same vein as "The Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits", "Night Gallery" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" - so what's the big diff this time? Well, remember the artistry, talent and well-written stories in those prior series? None of that's in evidence here.James Coburn hosts here much in the same vein as he played the bad guy in "Looker", which ain't saying much. The stories aren't much, either - every single one of them is downbeat, ugly, nasty and defeatist. I mean, COME ON! Even Serling had the good sense to have a comic episode of the "Zone" once in a while.Even though there are a few familiar faces in the stories (Robert Webber, Claude Akins, Rue McClanahan, Billy Crystal, Michael Constantine, etc.), nothing they do here will ever come up on their A&E Biographies. At least, they hope so.No wonder it didn't last a full season. Who, in their right mind, would subject themselves to a whole season of under-developed defeatist sludge? Of course, this is the same decade that brought us "Twilight Zone: The Movie"....No stars for "Darkroom"; the buck f-stops here.TIDBIT - "Darkroom" premiered on Thursdays on ABC right before the Robert Stack police drama "Strike Force", another Cop series that was as dark and mean-spirited as "Darkroom".Maybe if Stack and Coburn switched places and had their shows produced by the ZAZ guys (whom Stack worked with on "Airplane!")...?

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