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The Best Episodes of Tales from the Darkside Season 4

Every episode of Tales from the Darkside Season 4 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Tales from the Darkside Season 4!

Tales from the Darkside is an anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot twist. The series' episodes spanned the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and some episodes featured elements of black comedy or more lighthearted themes.

Genres:DramaSci-Fi & Fantasy
Network:Syndication

Season 4 Ratings Summary

The best episode of "Tales from the Darkside" season 4 is "Beetles", rated 5.8/10 from 225 user votes. It was directed by Frank De Palma and written by Robert Bloch. "Beetles" aired on 9/27/1987 and is rated 0.5 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "Mary, Mary".

  • Beetles
    5.8/10 225 votes

    #1 - Beetles

    Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/1987

    An Egyptologist working on a sarcophogus ignores a curse and meets a horrific fate when he ignores it.

    Director: Frank De Palma

    Writer: Robert Bloch

  • Mary, Mary
    5.3/10 223 votes

    #2 - Mary, Mary

    Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 10/4/1987

    A woman who lives with mannequins because she is unable to deal with real people gets a rude awakening.

    Director: Katarina Wittich

    Writer: Jule Selbo

  • The Spirit Photographer
    5.7/10 208 votes

    #3 - The Spirit Photographer

    Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 10/11/1987

    Despite the discouragement of his friend, a middle-aged photographer, Algernon, tries to captures spirits on film.

    Director: Bill Travis

    Writer: Mark Patrick Carducci, Brian Thomas Jones

  • The Moth
    6.5/10 239 votes

    #4 - The Moth

    Season 4 Episode 4 - Aired 10/18/1987

    Sybil, a woman on the verge of death, is obsessed with the thought that after she dies her soul will dwell within a moth, and she begs her mother to hold the moth until she can be restored to life.

    Director: Jeffrey Wolf

    Writer: Michael McDowell

  • No Strings
    6.6/10 225 votes

    #5 - No Strings

    Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 10/25/1987

    A mobster who has finally defeated his old rival hires a reluctant puppeteer to string up his rival and make it dance for him. The mobster is unaware that puppet and puppeteer both have agendas of their own...

    Director: David Odell

    Writer: David Odell

  • The Grave Robber
    5.8/10 221 votes

    #6 - The Grave Robber

    Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/1987

    In this comedic episode, two treasure hunters discover a lost Egyptian tomb and accidentally revive a mummy. The mummy, Tapok, doesn't try to strangle them, but rather challenges the male explorer to a game of strip poker. The explorer loses, and with each piece of clothing he loses he takes on more of Tapok's wrappings until finally Tapok transfers his curse and leaves with the other explorer.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Yattering and Jack
    6.3/10 253 votes

    #7 - The Yattering and Jack

    Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 11/8/1987

    A normal, everyday, plain-as-day man, Jack Polo, lives a normal, everyday life...despite the fact that strange poltergeist-like events occur around him. He seems oblivious to everything bad around him. We soon realize that a small demon, a Yattering, has been sent to torment him because his mother was a witch. The Yattering's boss tells him he can do anything he wants as long as he doesn't touch Jack. Jack's daughter comes to visit, and she is surprised at both the host of strange occurrences (including an animated Christmas turkey) that occur, and her father's increasingly strident attempts to deny anything amiss. His motto: ""Que Sara Sara"". Finally, driven out of its mind with desperation, the Yattering touches Jack...which makes him his willing servant. Jack knew of the demon's plans all along, and that he hoped to trick it into touching him. Now he is safe from Hell's revenge, and has a new servant in the process.

    Director: David Odell

    Writer: Clive Barker

  • Seymourlama
    4.6/10 217 votes

    #8 - Seymourlama

    Season 4 Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/1987

    Much to his parents' frustration, a spoiled young boy, Seymour, is declared the High Lama by a group of monks.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Sorry, Right Number
    7.0/10 331 votes

    #9 - Sorry, Right Number

    Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 11/22/1987

    Katie receives a mysterious phone call from a woman warning about her husband's death...but he isn't dead yet. Katie ignores the phone call, and her husband dies. At the funeral, a despairing Katie calls up herself...and finds herself talking to...herself. She tries to warn her past self, despite knowing that it won't do any good, then collapses in despair.

    Director: John Harrison

    Writer: Stephen King

  • Payment Overdue
    5.9/10 202 votes

    #10 - Payment Overdue

    Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 2/14/1988

    Michael, a heartless collection agent, finds out that Jeanette doesn't quite understand the rules of going into debt, and has some unpleasant problems as a result.

    Director: John Drury

    Writer: Richard Benner

  • Love Hungry
    6.6/10 248 votes

    #11 - Love Hungry

    Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 2/21/1988

    Betsy, an overweight woman, receives an anonymous package with an earpiece that will supposedly help her diet. It transmits the ""voices"" of her food as is being eaten, but Betsy still has problems and the next gift is a pair of glasses that let her ""see"" her food as well...

    Director: John Strysik

    Writer: Jule Selbo

  • The Deal
    5.6/10 195 votes

    #12 - The Deal

    Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 2/28/1988

    Screenwriter Tom Dash unwittingly makes a deal with the Devil and finds he must get out of it by finding a new victim or offer up his soul.

    Director: T.J. Castronovo

    Writer: Granville Burgess, Allen Coulter

  • The Apprentice
    6.4/10 211 votes

    #13 - The Apprentice

    Season 4 Episode 13 - Aired 5/1/1988

    Jane is hired by a Puritan museum but ends up mysteriously going back in time where she is forced to work as a near slave in the past.

    Director: Eleanor Gaver

    Writer: Ellen Sandhaus

  • The Cutty Black Sow
    7.4/10 291 votes

    #14 - The Cutty Black Sow

    Season 4 Episode 14 - Aired 5/8/1988

    On her deathbed, Jamie's great grandmother tells him the tale of a Celtic demon, the Cutty Black Sow, that comes to claim the soul of anyone dying that night, and Jamie vows to protect her soul from the beast.

    Director: Richard Glass

    Writer: Michael McDowell

  • Do Not Open This Box
    7.0/10 267 votes

    #15 - Do Not Open This Box

    Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 5/15/1988

    An aged inventor and his wife come into possession of a box marked ""Do not open this box."" The wife opens it and finds it empty. The next day a man comes to claim the box and the lady makes up a story about losing the box. The man begins giving them nice things in exchange for eventually getting the box back. The couple begin living the sweet life thanks to the stranger but when they finally give the box back, the man tells them that it contained a human soul - since the box was opened the soul has escaped and now the man needs a replacement.

    Director: Jodie Foster

    Writer: Franco Amurri, Bob Balaban

  • Family Reunion
    7.3/10 267 votes

    #16 - Family Reunion

    Season 4 Episode 16 - Aired 5/22/1988

    Janice, a young mother, swears to a social worker, Trudy, that her husband Robert kidnapped their son Bobby six months ago and she hasn't seen either of them since. Trudy agrees to find the father and son, but discovers that everything isn't what she was led to believe.

    Director: Tom Savini

    Writer: Edithe Swensen

  • Going Native
    5.1/10 210 votes

    #17 - Going Native

    Season 4 Episode 17 - Aired 6/19/1988

    An alien is sent to Earth to study the nature and behavior of human beings. The alien, who resembles a normal Earth female, meticulously studies photographs of still life from large cities, simultaneously fascinated with and disgusted by the disarray and degeneration depicted in the pictures. The alien joins a therapeutic support group in an effort to better understand the seemingly contradictory humans. As she develops personal relationships with each group member, she begins to further understand the origin of and reasons for the behavior of humans, albeit from an outside observer's vantage point. The other members of the group see the alien as distant and detached, a condition that they assume is rooted in a self-denial complex. As the alien speaks at one of the group meetings, she suddenly realizes that she has been experiencing the exact same feelings as the humans that she has been studying. She has become human-like through assimilation, trapped within the emotional shell of ano

    Director: Andrew Weiner

    Writer: N/A

  • Hush
    6.6/10 246 votes

    #18 - Hush

    Season 4 Episode 18 - Aired 7/10/1988

    A babysitter is called in to take care of a sick boy. As a game, the two make up a pretend creature out of household parts, one that eats sounds. The creature comes to life, sucking the sound and the life out of everything in the house. The two try to evade it, but the boy's uncontrollable coughing gives him away. The creature then becomes sensitive enough to the girl's heartbeat to find and kill her too, then goes out into the world for more ""food"".

    Director: Allen Coulter

    Writer: John Harrison

  • Barter
    3.6/10 217 votes

    #19 - Barter

    Season 4 Episode 19 - Aired 7/17/1988

    A mother tries to get a reprieve from her noisy drums-practicing son by making a deal with an ammonia-seeking alien.

    Director: Christopher T. Welch

    Writer: Jule Selbo

  • Basher Malone
    4.2/10 212 votes

    #20 - Basher Malone

    Season 4 Episode 20 - Aired 7/23/1988

    A wrestler seeking one great opponent finds himself tricked into fighting a demon from Hell.

    Director: Anthony Santa Croce

    Writer: Peter O'Keefe