Monsters In My Room (Tales From the Darkside, 1985)

One of my favorite Tales From the Darkside episodes just happens to be a Christmas episode. It's Monsters In My Room, which first aired in December, 1985.

Third-grader Timmy (Seth Green) is a sensitive child who is more interested in playing piano and looking at his bug collection than watching the big game with his new stepfather, macho jerk Biff.

It's Christmas Eve, and Timmy blesses everyone (even Biff) in his prayers, but what he's really hoping for is that Santa will bring him... a "Cuddle-stuff" panda bear.

Okay, in fairness to Biff, maybe this kid could use a little toughening up.

But Timmy has other issues beside his obnoxious stepdad throwing footballs at his head. His room is infested with monsters. There's a boogeyman in the closet...

...a glowing-eyed octopus under the bed that can reach out its horrible tentacles...

...and a giant spinning circular saw-blade.

These night terrors pop out of their hiding places to menace little Timmy just long enough to cause him to cry out for "Mommy!" (and reinforce Biff's feeling that he's inherited a sissy-boy.)

Christmas morning, Timmy gets his coveted Cuddle-stuff panda...

...but propped up in the bedside rocking chair that night, it seems more creepy than cuddly.

But the scariest moment of this episode doesn't involve the rocking panda, the bedroom monsters, or even this hideous cackling witch that pops up out of the bathroom later that evening.

The scariest moment is when Mom has to take presents to a neighbor, leaving a nervous Timmy home alone for a few minutes with a drunk and surly Biff. We listen with Timmy as we hear Mom get in her car, watch as her headlights beam through his bedroom window...

...and slowly pass along the wall as her car pulls away...

...only to reveal, wait for it...

... BIFF, standing over Timmy's bed, determined to teach Timmy a few lessons in manhood before Mom returns.

Monsters In My Room can be found on Tales From the Darkside: The Complete Second Season.