From MadCap's Couch - Tales from the Darkside: "The Circus"

"Hey, who turned on the lights?!"

Who doesn't love the circus? The jugglers...the elephants...the lion tamer...the traipse artists...the peanuts which are nothing like those disgusting orange abominations that candy corporations try to pass off and are infinitely better than. It's all part of the magic of them.

You might have realized I didn't mention clowns.

Yeah, no. There's no wonder about clowns. Unless it's "I wonder how far this clown will go if we tie him to a rocket and fire it off". There are no clowns in this circus, thankfully. After all, we're here for the scares...but we (and I mean, by that, me) are only willing to go so far here at the Mouth of the Munchkin.


Our story, this week, is another George A. Romero script and details a jaded, cynical news reporter who comes to the "Exhibition of Wonder" provided by a Dr. Nis. It promises a vampire, a living mummy, wild dogs, and even a fully-grown werewolf! It seems that the reporter, Bragg, has come to expose Dr. Nis and his circus as a fraud, having made his reputation out of disproving hucksters. He believes that Nis is no different. People will throw away their money so easily, he says, and he seeks to see just how much Dr. Nis asks them to invest in their "sense of wonder".

I actually had a hard time with Season 3, picking an episode that really resonated with me. I'll likely do a list of runners up or even the cream of the crop for the whole series later this month or, perhaps, next year.  But, for the record, I'd also recommend "Everybody Needs A Little Love" and "Heretic" as pretty decent episodes. However, we're here for "The Circus" and it's a damn good one.

"Frau Bulcher!" [horses whiny]

Renowned character actor William Hickey basically plays Bragg as Scully...if she were an alcoholic and an asshole as well as a skeptic.  When he meets the affable Dr. Nis, his demand to see the highlights of the show...are met with absolute joy from the good doctor, who gleefully wheels out the first of his attractions - the vampire, who is then fed a lamb in what is one of the gorier moments of the show. Even Bragg, jaded as he is, is disgusted by it.

Although, Doctor Nis insists that they would never use a lamb...for the general audiences.

But Nis does continue to show the other attractions, explaining a little about how they keep a hold of such beasts (namely the wild dogs who cow the supernatural). However, while crediting him on his showmanship, Bragg does not believe that any of it is real, trying to find the rational explanations for everything.

So, Nis shows him more. The vampire in its cage...a werewolf in transformation...and some dismemberments, all of which leave Bragg horrified and saying that he will do everything in his power to see the Circus ended. In the end, Nis can only say that he has been trying to keep alive the faith in the mystery of nature. He says that a man who sees a ghost is frightened...but a man who disbelieves...and is forced to come face to face with it, may just die of fright.

And the children? Well, perhaps it's better that they develop a sense of fear and wonder at a young age...before it is too late...and they become old, jaded, and cynical.

Not unlike our poor Mr. Bragg.

"Hey, have I got something on my face?"

This episode is magnificent and really reminds me of the old Hammer Horror films in both tone and feeling. All the horror classics are here. The vampire...the werewolf...the Mummy...and the zombie, as our ending shows. It even has a character with a not at all discernible Eastern European accent and hokey acting! It's just an all around good episode with excellent make up effects on the actors playing the monsters.

Next week, for the final episode of Tales from the Darkside I'll be covering, as well as our Halloween episode, we're going to be ending on a high note. A wind blows from the east...all the way from the Emerald Isle. A creature stalks in from the Darkside...one who is the center point of what is considered by many to be the scariest episode of the series by far.

What a perfect way to end Horror Month, huh?

Tales from the Darkside: The Complete Series is available on DVD from CBS.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.