Tales from the Darkside: The Movie

Betty, an affluent suburban housewife and modern-day witch, plans a dinner party for her fellow witches. The main dish is to be Timmy, a young boy whom she has captured and chained up in her pantry. To stall her from cooking him, the boy tells her three stories from a book she gave him, titled ''Tales from the Darkside''.

Graduate student, Edward Bellingham has been cheated by two classmates, Susan and Lee, who framed him for theft to ruin his chances of winning a scholarship for which they were competing. As revenge, Bellingham reanimates a mummy and uses it to murder them.

Susan's brother Andy kidnaps Bellingham, forces him to summon the mummy, then destroys it and burns its remains. He also burns what he believes to be the reanimation parchment. He considers killing Bellingham, but in the end cannot bring himself to commit real murder.

However, Bellingham resurrects Susan and Lee (having switched the reanimation parchment with a similar one) and dispatches them to Andy's dorm. They greet the terrified Andy by saying that Bellingham sends his regards.

Drogan, a wealthy old man who uses a wheelchair, brings in a hitman named Halston for a bizarre hire: kill a black cat, which Drogan believes is murderously evil. Drogan explains that there were three other occupants of his house before the cat arrived: his sister, Amanda, her friend Carolyn, and the family's butler, Richard Gage. Drogan claims that one by one, the cat killed the other three, and that he is next. Drogan's pharmaceutical company killed 5,000 cats while testing a new drug, and he is convinced that this black cat is here to exact cosmic revenge.

Halston does not believe the story, but is more than willing to eliminate the cat since Drogan is offering $100,000. But when Drogan returns to the house to see if the deed is done, he finds that the cat has killed Halston by climbing down his throat. The cat emerges from the hitman's corpse and jumps at Drogan, giving him a fatal heart attack.

Preston is a struggling artist. He lives in a studio with a skylight, through which a large stone gargoyle on the neighboring building, peers down. Preston's agent calls, asking to meet with him at a bar a few blocks away. The agent tells Preston that his artwork is unpopular and not selling. Dejected, Preston drinks heavily and at the end of the night, the bar owner who is a friend of his, offers to walk him home.

Along the way, Preston stops to relieve himself in a back alley, when his friend sees and shoots at a gargoyle monster. The creature attacks, severing his hand and then decapitating him. Terrified, Preston tries to run away, but the creature corners him and speaks, agreeing to spare his life if he swears never to reveal what he has seen. The monster scratches Preston's chest, saying "Cross your heart?", then vanishes.

Preston runs into another alley where he bumps into a lone woman named Carola. She claims to have become lost while going to meet friends and was searching for a taxi. Preston convinces her to call a taxi from his apartment, where Carola cleans the gargoyle-inflicted wound on his chest, and they have sex with each other.

Preston's life soon improves, and his struggling art career becomes wildly successful, mostly thanks to Carola's connections. They eventually marry and have two children. Preston is still tormented by memories of the gargoyle though, and his vow of silence weighs heavily on him. On the tenth anniversary of him first meeting Carola, Preston breaks down and tells her about the monster. Carola appears uncomfortable by his revelation and then emits a heartbroken wail, "You promised you'd never tell!", revealing herself as the creature that killed his friend.

With Preston's vow broken, Carola can no longer remain human and begins transforming back into a gargoyle. Their children are screaming in the bedroom as they also transform into gargoyles. Carola, now fully transformed, wraps her wings around Preston and the couple proclaim their love for each other, but with the vow broken, Carola is still reluctantly forced to kill him by biting his neck, before flying away with her gargoyle children. The final scene shows the three gargoyles now turned to stone and sitting upon the building ledge, staring down at the city with sorrowful expressions.

Betty remarks that Timmy saved the best story for last, but he says that the next one is best, and has a happy ending. She replies that none of the stories in the book have happy endings and it is too late as she has to start cooking him. As Betty advances on Timmy, he narrates his own actions: throwing some marbles on the floor, causing her to slip and fall on her butcher's block and impaling her on her own tools. Timmy releases himself and pushes her into her own oven. The film ends with Timmy helping himself to a cookie and breaking the fourth wall by saying "Don't you just love happy endings?"