Oh my goodness, where to begin.
I saw this at the video store the other day and, after looking at the back of it thought it might be a good black comedy. There were some kooky looking characters that reminded me somewhat of characters from "Meet The Feebles" so I decided to take a chance. As so many will say when they are tearing something down, I am an avid horror fan. I've been reading horror for more than 40 years, and I grew up on horror films, and haunted houses. I've even written horror, and written, produced, and directed several horror shorts over the years. So, it's safe to say I do know my way around a chainsaw, machete, or graveyard.
That brings us to this film. I'm almost at a loss for words here. Yes it is an anthology style film, with another story running through the whole thing to hold it together. The back of the DVD cover looks pretty neat, and the title is kinda catchy. Here ends the nice comments.
This was a film that couldn't make up it's mind what it wanted to be. At times it took itself way to seriously, at other times it tried to throw itself headlong in to a dark comedy genre it just couldn't quite reach. "Tales From The Darkside:The Movie" was able to blend suspense, comedy, gore, and horror into one cohesive story with a good backing through line. "Terror Tract" starring the late great John Ritter, took the "hard to sell house because of tragedy" to a hilarious, and tension filled, level, succeeding in giving us multiple stories with a cohesive backing story. Dead on Appraisal", fails at all levels to attain anything even remotely close to these other films. At least one of the stories has a plot device that really challenges your ability to suspend belief, and leaves you with more questions than answers. The acting is wooden, the special effects, with a few exceptions, could have reached amazing heights, but they just fell short, and the demon, the less said the better. My 6 year old thought it was pretty awesome, but he loves excessive gore, and things that explode. This is a kid that normally can't sit through a horror film, and he loved it. Watch this film at your own risk, that's all I can say. I'm just glad I didn't pay more than $1.80 to rent it, and I might still ask for my money back.
