Lee Eisenberg If you've come of age in the 21st century, then you know Melissa Leo for her roles as tough-as-nails women. She played a down-on-her-luck woman transporting illegal immigrants in "Frozen River", the hardboiled matriarch of a boxing family in "The Fighter" (for which she won an Academy Award), and Laura Poitras - who filmed Glenn Greenwald's interview with Edward Snowden, resulting in the Academy Award-winning documentary "Citizenfour" - in "Snowden".Some of these future roles get hinted at in the horror flick "Deadtime Stories". The movie features unusual twists on stories told to children. The first two vignettes are authentic horror stories, but the third one is a comic spin on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, with the bears depicted as a human family that escapes an institution (Melissa Leo plays the mom). The family reminded me of the Three Bears from Chuck Jones's cartoons (which themselves sort of predicted "All in the Family").Anyway, it's nice brainless fun. I suspect that they had fun filming it. I wonder if any of Melissa Leo's co-stars (Sean Penn, Tommy Lee Jones, Amy Adams, Bryan Cranston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt) from her more famous movies have ever seen it.

Michael_Elliott Deadtime Stories (1986) ** (out of 4)Brian is staying at his Uncle Mike's (Michael Mesmer) house and wants to hear some bedtime stories. Mike agrees to tell him some as long as he goes to sleep after. The first story has a couple witches using a boy to lure a woman into their home so that they can kill her in exchange for their long dead sister. The second story deals with a Little Red Riding Hood theme as Rachel (Nicole Picard) is taking grandma some medicine but she's sidetracked and soon a wolf show up. Finally, Goldi Lox (Cathryn de Prume) escapes from a mental hospital when she ends up at the Baer's home and they too have just recently escaped.After the success of George A. Romero's CREEPSHOW several anthology films popped up with this one here being one of the weaker ones. It's really too bad that this film isn't better but there are all sorts of problems throughout the three movies. It should also be stated that it appears the MPAA got their hands on the picture because a lot of the death scenes have weird jumps, which is usually a clear sign that something had to be cut.As far as the three stories go, each of them deal with a familiar subject but writer-director Jeffrey Delman was obviously wanting to do something different with them. As is the case with any anthology, the quality varies from story to story but I'd say the first two are the best but even they are flawed. Both the tale with the witch and the werewolf have great conclusions but sadly everything leading up to the endings are pretty bland and boring. It's really too bad because the first story has some terrific special effects and especially during the sequence where the dead sister is coming back to life.The third story is a complete misfire as they're going for some camp and it just doesn't work. The idea for the spin on the story is a good one but the execution just isn't there, although you've got a young Melissa Leo playing Mama Baer. The performances throughout are above average and as I said there are some good special effects but it's too bad some of them were trimmed. Still, DEADTIME STORIES tried to do something different but the end result isn't as good as you would have hoped for.

Jonny_Numb "Dead of Night"..."Trilogy of Terror"..."Creepshow"..."Twilight Zone: The Movie"..."Cat's Eye"...yessir, the horror genre has had its share of fine anthology films; films that crawl up your sleeve and slide down your spine to produce commendable shivers. "Deadtime Stories," however, is a horror anthology like no other, basically because it's utter CRAP. Via a lame, low-budget framing device, a 'randy' uncle tells his restless nephew fairy tales in an attempt to get the brat to go to sleep (I, however, had no trouble falling into a somnambulant state while watching this). The silly script takes a darkly farcical view of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears,' 'Little Red Riding Hood,' and some story about two witches looking to resurrect their dead sister. While obviously low-budget, we do get some fairly impressive, "Hellraiser"-style FX work...but that's about all "Deadtime Stories" has to offer. The soundtrack, the fashions, and the hairstyles, combined with a script that's obnoxious when it wants to be funny, and eye-rollingly stupid when it wants to be scary, sends "Deadtime Stories" to a watery grave in the latrine of '80s nostalgia.

zombina To truly enjoy horror films I think you have to set other movie criteria aside. Let's face it horror wasn't created to win any Oscars, it is in a league of its own. Deadtime Stories is fun for what it is a b-horror movie with a cheesy, yet lovable twist. The whole idea of twisted fairy tales is intriguing and some of them are actually quite good re-telling in particular Little Red Riding Hood. Deadtime Stories is definitely not for the more serious movie watcher but if you enjoy gore with only the slightest bit of substance then buy it, you won't be sorry.