This is the darkest tale of all Mystery Theater, in my opinion, because of the victims and family, and because it is played straight up. Of course, Horror Story may be darker but it's not played straight, there is a macabre comedic fantasy note to it. On second thought, The Deadly Hour, the White Wolf, may be equally dark, and to somewhat lesser degree, The Fall of Gentryville and Speak of the Devil. These are dark because true evil befalls characters we care about. When we are detached from the evil a bit, it isn't as dark. I find that Mystery Theater did not have very many episodes where terrible things happen to a nice character, but there are a quite a few.