ABC Horror Movie of the Week

From the late 60's through most of the 70's, the ABC Network's Movie of the Week dominated Monday nights. These usually inexpensive made-for-TV movies were sometimes quite good, though more often really dreadful. And let's not forget that they provided the jumping ground for the most successful film director of all time.

The first ABC Movie of the Week aired in September of 1969 and was called Seven in Darkness. It involved a group of blind passengers on a plane that crash lands in a remote wilderness. I really don't know if I saw this movie or not. The first Movie of the Week I can remember seeing was Dr. Cook's Garden, starring that lovable child-abuser Bing Crosby as a kindly small-town doctor who kills people he thinks are immoral., though I don't remember much about it. The one's I really remember are the Horror Movies of the Week. The first that really grabbed my attention was Steven Speilberg's directorial debut, Duel; starring Dennis Weaver as man caught in a deadly game of Cat-and-Mouse with a never-seen trucker. Written by Richard Matheson (Psycho), it was a huge hit for ABC:

The following year, ABC gave us The Night Stalker, about a schleppy reporter working for a Los Vegas tabloid who stumbles across a series of murders which appear to be the work of a real vampire. Starring Darren McGavin (A Christmas Story) as the reporter, Karl Kolchak (a role he'd repeat in both a sequel and a short-lived series); Carol Lynley (The Poseidon Adventure) and Simon Oakland as the crotchety editor, The Night Stalker garnered the highest ratings ever for a made-for-TV movie:

January of 1973 saw two Horror movies, two nights in a row. First, a ridiculous thriller starring Shelley Winters; Belinda J. Montgomery, Robert Foxworth and Barnabas Collins himself, Jonathan Frid. The Devil's Daughter was lurid and weird and actually not very good.

The very next night, we were treated to The Night Strangler, the lesser sequel to The Night Stalker. Kolchak and company have now moved to Seattle where Kolchak finds another apparently immortal killer, this time an endocrinologist who lives in the old, underground Seattle and uses human glands to prolong his life. Match-Game regular JoAnn Pflug starred as 'belly-dancer.' It also featured a cameo by Horror's B-List Top-Dog, John Carradine:

In October of 1973, two days after my sister's birthday, ABC aired one of their most infamously disturbing Movies of the Week, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Kim Darby (Better Off Dead) and the late Jim Hutton ("Ellery Queen") starred as a young couple who move into the house Darby has inherited. The only problem -- tiny demons who live in the bricked-up fireplace in the basement:

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is scheduled for a theatrical remake in 2011, according to IMDb.

And now is as a good a time as ever for this story... Don't Be Afraid of the Dark really freaked out my sister. As with any good older brother with a mind toward torturing his younger sister (whom he adored and would have killed anyone else for doing the same things to her), I locked the information away for later use. A long time later (perhaps as much as two years), I took advantage of said info. She was in the bathroom and I took my trusty cassette recorder, pre-wound a tape by a good ten minutes, and then recorded myself whispering "Barbara... we want you... we want you, Barbara... We want you! We want you! We want you!" about a dozen times. I rewound the tape, hid the player under her bed and pressed 'Play.' She came out of the bathroom and went into her bedroom, closing the door. Ten minutes later, I was rewarded with her bursting from her room screaming in terror as I laughed my ass off. And I must take this opportunity to officially apologize to her. I know she forgave me a long time ago, but still...

Anyway, there were two other great Horror Movies of the Week.

1974's Bad Ronald starring Scott Jacoby as a delusional boy living the walls of a house:

And perhaps most infamous of all, 1975's Trilogy of Terror, starring Karen Black as three different characters in three short horror stories from Matheson. And the one everyone remembers (another MOTW that scared the hell out of my sister) concerns a certain 'Zuni Fetish Warrior Doll' that comes to life and terrorizes Black in her apartment. Oh, so creepy:

I never understood why she just didn't get out of that apartment, instead of opening the stupid oven door.

I have vague memories about a few others that were at least a little scary. How about you? Do you have a favorite ABC Movie of the Week Horror movie?

Samhaim draws nigh... More terrors, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

Review: "Trick 'r Treat" (Finally)

This delightful little chap in the poster is Sam, aka Peeping Tommy. Sam is the most important of the many threads running through Michael Dougherty's long-delayed and much anticipated Trick 'r Treat. I say most important because ultimately Sam is both figuratively and literally the Spirit of Halloween, teaching horrible lessons to the non-believers, as much as any spirit that tormented Scrooge. Happily, none of the four interwoven stories in Trick 'r Treat end on a happy note (this is a horror movie, after all).

Never released theatrically in the U.S., the 2007 festival fave was finally released on DVD two weeks ago, and I am ashamed to be just now getting to review it. And I am also happy to admit that it was worth the wait. Dougherty's script is clever; ironic; surprising; hilarious and original, all while being quite gory; gruesome; creepy. and completly fun. The cast of familiar faces - Dylan Baker (Spider-Man; Fido); Anna Paquin ("True Blood"); Tamoh Penniket ("Dollhouse"); Bryan Cox (the original Hannibal Lecter) - are uniformly excellent (even the youngest of cast members). Baker is particularly good as a particularly bad elementary school principal; as are Paquin as a sweet young thing on the prowl and Cox as a nasty old man who painfully learns why it's best to be generous with the sugar on Halloween. All four tales take place on the same Halloween night in a small Ohio town obsessed with the traditions of the holiday.

The creepiest of the four stories involves a group of kids collecting jack-o-lanterns (purportedly as part of a "UNICEF scavenger hunt") and an urban legend about a school bus full of "special children" which led to an unfortunate incident. The young actors in this segment are just terrific and creepiness of the "special kids" in their exceptionally weird Halloween costumes is off the charts. And of course, there's 10 year-old Quinn Lord as Sam/Tommy. An essentially silent role, Sam is Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Jack Skellington, and the 'Zuni fetish Warrior' from "Trilogy of Terror" all rolled into one creepy little hydrocephalic creature. And while much of the work is done by stunt people and CGI, Lord's physicality in what couldn't have been a very comfortable or easy-to-wear costume is surprisingly effective and spooky. The SFX are kept to a minimum, but the ones employed are quite good (and include a particularly interesting version of the werewolf transformation). The jokes are truly funny and the surprises are mostly really surprising. The movie looks gorgeous, thanks to Cinematographer Glen MacPherson, Production Designer Mark Freeborn and Costume Designer Trish Keating. Every penny of the film's budget is one the screen and Dougherty's love of 70's Horror Comics is evident. Trick 'r Treat deserved a wide-release, big-screen run and it's a damned shame it didn't get one.

Fun, smart, original and great-looking, Trick 'r Treat is truly a Horror fan's treat. Let's hope Dougherty gets to make a sequel, because i can't wait to see what he has in store for us, next.
**** (Four out of Four Stars).

And of course, the evening was topped off by seeing Sam Raimi's brilliant Drag Me to Hell for the first time since I saw it on teh big screen and I enjoyed every single moment of it again, and this time really got to take note of Raimi's use of seamless transition from scene-to-scene. The movie never drags, never bores. The shocks are still shocking, the gross-outs are still disgusting and the shocks are still shocking (which may be thanks to the passing of five months since my first viewing) and the movie is every bit as fun and effective as it was the first time I saw it. If you haven't seen it (and once I again I shame for not having done so), do yourself a favor and see both of these movies before (or better yet, on) next Saturday!

And on a completely bizarre and unrelated note, a childhood hero of mine has passed and I'd just like to say "Thanks for the laughs, Soupy. There's more laughter in Heaven, tonight."



More terrors, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

Drinkin' a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's

"Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers at night/Becomes a wolf when the Wolf's-bane blooms and the moon is full and bright."



Nearly as iconic as the vampire, the werewolf legend is part of most cultures. A cursed human (usually because of the bite of another cursed human), becomes a bloodthirsty beast by the light of the full moon, transforming into a hairy monster intent on murdering everyone with whom it comes into contact.



One of the earliest film incarnations of this classic monster is the 1935 Werewolf of London, starring Henry Hull as a doctor who can only be cured of lycanthropy with the help of a rare Tibetan flower:

Six years later, Universal Studios would produce their own werewolf movie, The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot, the son of a wealthy Englishman (Claude Rains) who returns home for his brother's funeral, only to be attacked by a gypsy (Bela Lugosi) in wolf's clothing. Character actress Maria Ouspenskaya is the old gypsy who first spouts that little bit of doggerel at the top of this post. Chaney went on to make a career out of playing The Wolf Man in dozens of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. But it's this film that most folks remember him for:

Using "Replacement Photography" effects to show Talbot's transformation, Universal's makeup artist Jack Pierce set the standard for many years to come.

There were plenty of cheesy werewolf movies in the 50's and 60's, including Michael Landon's infamous debut in I Was a Teenage Werewolf in which a young teen was hypnotized by a mad scientist into becoming a wolf at the sound of bell (calling Dr. Pavlov). 50's homo-eroticism at its best:

It wasn't until 1981 that Director Joe Dante (Gremlins) upped the ante on werewolf movies with The Howling, in which he and makeup FX wizards Rick Baker and Rob Bottin used modern physical makeup effects to depict a painful lycanthropic transformation on screen, that werewolf movies got interesting (and scary) again:

Later that same year, director John Landis would make the definitive 80's werewolf movie, An American Werewolf in London. Former Dr. Pepper spokesman David Naughten stars as David Kessler, an American student backpacking across Great Britain with his best friend (Griffin Dunne) who is attacked on the moors by a monster. Despite the ministrations of a cute British nurse (Logan's Run star Jenny Agutter), David soon finds himself killing random folks by the light of the full moon, transforming painfully in one of cinema's most memorable werewolf transformation scenes:

Sadly, the "official" 1997 sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris uses a bad script and lame CGI for its werewolves:

Even the presence of the beautiful Julie Delpy couldn't save that mess.



There were several terrible werewolf movies since, including the godawful Werewolf Vs. Vampire piece of crap Underworld and it's two (so far) sequels:

And I can barely bring myself to mention the atrocious werewolf comedy starring Michael J. Fox, Teen Wolf:

In 2000, Canadian director John Fawcett gave us the hilarious and chilling adolescent werewolf flick, Ginger Snaps:

Then, in 2002, director Neil Marshall gave us Dog Soldiers, about a group of British soldiers on a training mission who find themselves in the midst of a werewolf family conflict:

100 Years of Great Horror Performances

Over at Stale Popcorn, blogger Glenn Dunks posted his picks for the Ten Best Horror Performances of the Decade. At first, I misread it, and thought he was talking about the 10 Best Horror performances in general and berated him for not including some classics. Then I re-read it and apologized to him. Of course, that led to this post.

Horror movies have been around since movies first began. Indeed, one of the first ever movies was Thomas Edison's 1910 version of Frankenstein. Sadly, only stills remain (and rather silly-looking ones at, that), though I did find a YouTube post that purports to be the "full movie."

Still, there were some terrific Horror performances in the Silent era, and perhaps none more memorable than the great Lon Chaney as Eric in the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera. Odd that a silent film should be about opera, but then, it's really about the monster living beneath the Paris Opera House, more than opera, itself. I saw the film about 10 years ago in the Princeton University Chapel (which is really more like a small cathedral) with a live organist, and believe me when I tell you that Rupert Julian's film still has the power to create tension and shock after all these years. And Chaney was at the height of his powers as the disfigured genius:

Only six years later, movies had begun to talk and director Tod Browning gave us Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Reprising the stage role that made him a star, Lugosi gives the performance of a lifetime in a role that would both haunt him and eventually drive him to ruin. Tame by today's standards, Lugosi's charismatic performance had women fainting in the aisles in 1931:

That same year, director James Whale gave us Boris Karloff as the Monster in Frankenstein, a role the vain Lugosi foolishly turned down (but would later assume in the far inferior sequel Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman). Karloff, wearing heavy prosthetics, still manages to convey a sense of pathos in his performance, making the Monster all the more human:

In 1941, Victor Fleming (the same man responsible for The Wizard of Oz), directed Spencer Tracy in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Frederick March had been nominated for an Academy Award in the same role 10 years earlier, but it is Tracy's performance (opposite the magnificent Ingrid Bergman) that everyone remembers:

In the 50's, Horror was eclipsed for most part by bad Sci-Fi movies featuring irradiated insects and giant lizards. Still, there were some great performances, including the great Vincent Price as a disfigured wax sculptor in Andre de Toth's 3-D thriller, House of Wax:

Interestingly, Charles Bronson made his film debut in House of Wax as Price's servant, Igor.

Then in 1960, genius Alfred Hitchcock changed movie-going habits with the infamous Psycho. Refusing entry to anyone after the first ten minutes, Hitchcock ensured that audiences would arrive on time for a movie ever after. Of course, it was Anthony Perkins brilliant and disturbing performance as Norman Bates that cemented the film's place in cinematic history:

Who else but Hitch would kill off his leading lady in the first act?

The 70's saw a resurgence of Horror movies, and perhaps none more horrifying than William Friedkin's overrated (though still brilliant) version of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. Audiences lined up for blocks; people fainted and ran screaming from theaters and actress Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Chris McNeil, a mother at the end of her rope in dealing with a daughter who is apparently possessed by a demon:

When I finally was old enough to see The Exorcist, my first thought after seeing it was "Really? That's what people were so worked up about?" I suppose the film's effectiveness depends on your personal religious beliefs. But Burstyn gives an amazing performance as desperate mother willing to try anything to save her daughter's life.

Later that same decade, Director John Carpenter re-invented the horror movie with a relatively cheap indie movie called Halloween, starring an unknown actress who just happened to be the daughter of Hollywood legends Tony Curtis and Psycho's Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis. Not only did Halloween start the "slasher" trend of the 1980's, but it rocketed its young star into the annals of Horror History. Her performance is somehow both subtle and over-the-top in a movie that manages to terrify without actually showing a single drop of blood:

In 1982, Carpenter returned with his version of the John Campbell story The Thing, in which hottie Curt Russell gives one his best badass performances as MacCready, the only character we're sure is human (or is he?). Using then state-of-the-art physical FX (courtesy of makeup FX genius Rob Bottin), Carpenter fashioned a film of unparalleled paranoia and gross-out horror, while providing Russell with one of the defining performances of his career:

Some would argue that The Thing is really a Sci-Fi movie, but it's got monsters, gore and loads of tension, everything that makes a great Horror movie great.

Of course, those you who are regular readers will know that for my money, the best performances in a Horror Movie from the 80's belong to Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in David Cronenberg's excruciatingly emotional 1986 version of The Fly:

In 1990, director Rob Reiner directed one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King novel, Misery. Kathy Bates deservedly won the Oscar for her performance as deranged fan Annie Wilkes in this story about every celebrity's nightmare:

And now we come to the current decade (which I can't believe is already coming to a close). There ere plenty of Horror movies in the past decade, but none that made so much of an impression as director Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell. It features some terrififc performances from several members of its cast, but based solely on the last shot (and I won't spoil it for those who have yet to see it), the best Horror Performance of this decade has to belong to Justin Long as the disbelieving boyfriend of Allison Lohman's cursed Christine. Warning: If you have not seen the movie, do not watch this clip. MAJOR Spoiler:

So. these are my picks. What about yours? You know I love hearing from you.

More terrors, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

Somethin's Wrong With Me!

I was watching ABC's "Castle" tonight on my DVR and thinking about how Nathan Fillion should be a bigger star than he is. He's good-looking, built like a brick you-know-what and very, very funny. Sadly, he's been bounced around in so many TV shows, he's often hard to keep track of. He was in the terrible sitcom "Two Guys and a Girl" (which didn't hurt Ryan Reynolds' career); "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (a show I enjoyed when I saw it, but never got into); "Firefly" (a show I never got the chance to get into); the regrettable "Miss Match" (a show I never saw); "Drive" (a show that aired once) and "Desperate Housewives" (as a character with very little air-time). He's also the hero in Joss Whedon's amazing and hilarious web-series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." But I think the first time I really noticed him was in the disgusting and hysterically funny Horror/Comedy, Slither.

Written and directed by James Gunn (Dawn of the Dead), Slither concerns a small town over-run by alien slugs who turn folks into zombies and the richest guy in town into a tentacled beastie intent on taking over the planet. Fillion is Sheriff Bill Pardy, still in love with his High School Sweetheart, Starla (Elizabeth Banks). Starla is married to Grant Grant (Michael Rooker), an obnoxious creep who stumbles upon a meteorite in the woods (never a good thing). The creature in the meteor attacks and invades Grant, transforming him into something other than human. Grant, of course, is cheating on Starla with the town pump, and soon after he's infected, he impregnates said slag with a million alien slugs. Hiding in a barn and eating live animals, the slut finally bursts open (in one of the movie's funniest and grossest scenes), setting her progeny loose on the town. It's up to Bill, Jack Mac Ready (character actor Gregg Henry) and young Margaret (Jennifer Copping) to save the town - and the world - from the invading monsters.

Eventually, they track Grant down to a field and confront him, only to have this happen:

Gooey; icky; creepy and a whole lotta fun, Slither is one of those movies best enjoyed with a whole group of friends who will scream and cringe and carry-on in the way that all good Horror movies can make a group of friends react. Add a cameo by "The Office" star Jenna Fischer as bubble-brained dispatcher and a voice-over by Rob Zombie, and you have 95 minutes of pure Horror movie fun. Note: If, like my dear friend K, you have an aversion to snails, slugs and other goopey creatures, you may want to avoid this one.

And just because I love Fillion, here's an hilarious little short film he did with Gunn not too long ago, PG Porn: Nailing Your Wife:

BTW, if you haven't seen "Castle," I highly recommend it. Fillion and Co-Star Stana Katic (The Quantum of Solace) have terrific on-screen chemistry and TV legend Susan Sullivan is a hoot as Castle's actress mom.

More terrors, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

What's the Gimmick?

Oh, William Castle... your kind is not likely to be seen again. Castle was a producer/director who in the 50's and 60's became known as "The King of the Gimmicks."William Castle started his film career making cheap exploitation films in the 40's like Black Marketing and When Strangers Marry.

Then, in 1958, he made a strange little movie called Macabre, in which a doctor had 48 hours to find his kidnapped daughter who had buried alive. Castle offered every ticket buyer a $1000.00 Lloyd's of London Life Insurance policy should they die of fright while watching the movie. I have no idea if anyone ever collected (though I doubt they did), but the gimmick worked and Macabre was a hit with audiences.

Soon after, Castle was using all sorts of weird and wacky gimmicks to get audiences to attend his films.

Next came the Vincent Price thriller House on Haunted Hill, which featured Castle's patented "Emergo" technology. Emergo simply consisted of a plastic skeleton on a wire, which swooped down over the audience just as a skeleton emerged from a vat of acid in the movie. Cheesy? Without a doubt. Effective? Just ask the audiences who attended the 1959 fright fest.

That same year and starring Vincent Price again, Castle made a delightful little picture called The Tingler. It was about a scientist (Price) looking for the thing that caused fear. He discovered that a creature he dubbed the 'Tingler" was responsible for our fearful reactions to fearful situations and that only by screaming could the Tingler be killed. So, what better way to find the Tingler than by terrorizing a mute woman who was unable to scream, so that he might remove the creature from her spine and study it further? Of course, the monster escapes and makes its way to a movie theater where Price encourages the patrons to scream in order to save their lives. And this is where the gimmick came in. Certain seats in the actual theatre were rigged with a mild electrical shock, so that patrons could experience the effects of the Tingler for themselves. Castle dubbed this gimmick "Percepto."

In 1960, Castle jumped on the 3D bandwagon with a movie called 13 Ghosts, about a young man who inherited a haunted house from his uncle. Using special glasses invented by his uncle, the ghosts could be seen by anyone wearing them. He called this process 'Illusion-O.'

Next came 1961' Homicidal, a rip-off of Hitchcock's Psycho, in which audiences were given a "Fright Break" during which they might leave the theater before 'dying of fear.'

I just want to know where the bullet hit Warren/Emily, to kill him/her so quickly.

By the early 60's, gimmicks had lost their appeal and castle was making films like The Old Dark House, a comedy based on the novel by J.B. Priestly:

Recently, some of Castle's films have bee remade, with his daughter as Producer. I particularly liked 1999's House on Haunted Hill starring Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs and "Heroes" star Ali Larter, despite its rather silly ending:

Of course, the 2001 version of Thir13en Ghosts, starring the usually brilliant Tony Shaloub, leaves much to be desired. The presence of Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth and Academy-Award Winner F. Murray Abraham do nothing to elevate this schlockfest to a movie worth seeing:

I am looking forward to the planned remakes of The Tingler and The Old Dark House (I appeared in Priestly's "An Inspector Calls" not too long ago), though I fear they may recieve the same treatment as Thir13en Ghosts, which does not bode well.

Still, Castle produced (Rosemary's Baby) and directed (I Saw What You Did) some seminal Horror movies from which modern producers and directors can take many a lesson.

Gimmicks still abound in Horror. Most recently, those gimmicks have been relegated to the Internet (Paranormal Activity), but they still make us want to see those movies. If Castle was alive today, I think he'd be most pleased with the state of modern Horror movies.

More terrors, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

The Gayest Thing You'll See This Week

See, I knew it was going to be more than 31 posts, this month. I just have to make sure there are 31 Horror Movie posts, and I'm good.

Anyway, I am steali... er, borrowing this delightful little clip from the fabulous Stephen Rader. Ladies and germs, the Gay Bear version of "Say a Little Prayer:"

So cute! God Bless Burt Bacharach. Thanks, Stephen! Love ya!

More, anon.
Prospero

Read More......