Don't let the bedbugs bite.

Today is story time in the Land of Screaming Streaming. A little bedtime story with all the flair you'd expect from 1980s horror.

It's DEADTIME STORIES from 1986.

Here, the movie I just mentioned. Just a second ago.

A comically obnoxious uncle babysits his equally annoying nephew and treats him to a trio of fairy tales with a decidedly terrifying spin to them. To be fair, the cool opening credits already point out that those old stories were pretty horrific to begin with and point out how curious it is that we tell these stories to kids.

The first story stars Scott Valentine of FAMILY TIES in a story about about an evil witch.

Ooh, scary! There's not a whole much going on with this particular story so we'll move on to the second story. It's Little Red Riding Hood reimagined. Deja vu! No, it is not THE COMPANY OF WOLVES again. This time the wolf is a werewolf stalking a bubblehead cheerleader.

The third story is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This time around, the bears are actually a family of escaped psychopaths. Baby Bear is the stupid twenty-something son. Goldilocks just so happens to also be a serial killer herself. When she runs into the Bear family it's silly comedic horror gold.

Here we see baby Bear playing "she loves me, she loves me not" using a severed arm as the flower. How adorable! Story number 3 is the goofiest entry but all around this film is littered with zaniness. Don't confuse this with the recent George Romero film or Ron Ford's DEADTIME TALES. I know. It's confusing. This one comes from that period of the late 1980s where all cheaply made horror films found a place on the VHS shelves of the rental stores. It also got repeated air time on cable TV which is where I first saw it. It's a howlingly wacky ride.