Horror on TV: Twilight Zone — “The Howling Man”

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s offering of Horror on TV is another episode of The Twilight Zone.

In The Howling Man, H.M. Wynant plays a rational man who, during a walk across Europe, finds himself in an isolated monastery. Wynant discovers a bearded prisoner (played by Robin Hughes) who explains that he’s being held prisoner because he was caught kissing his girlfriend in public. However, Brother Jerome (played by the legendary John Carradine) claims that Hughes is the devil himself! It’s left up to Wynant whether to set the man free or to leave him imprisoned…

Written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Douglas Heyes, The Howling Man is a favorite of mine. Not only does the show establish and maintain an atmosphere of palpable menace but it also features a brilliant ending.

Enjoy The Howling Man.

Horror Songs of the Day: Hellraiser Theme (Christopher Young and Coil)

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Arleigh

For the first horror “Song of the Day” I couldn’t decide on which theme from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser I should use.

Fans of the film should know well the original theme composed by Christopher Young for the film. It’s a more orchestral theme that gives the film a sort of grand guignol grandeur. It’s an epic piece that would get used time and time again for each successive sequel. There might be some minute changes to the theme with each new film, but the basic composition remains. It’s a theme that helps one visualize forbidden texts and grimoires laying in wait for the ones brave or foolish enough to turn the page.

Then there’s the unreleased and unused theme that Barker had originally wanted to use from the industrial band Coil. This theme for the film was more about discordant melodies that harkens back to the more disturbing musical composition used for The Exorcist. It’s a theme that brings up images of the sublime and exquisite pain that Pinhead promises to those solve the Lament Configuration.

Some fans prefer the original Christopher Young suite while others have grown to love and prefer the more disturbing piece from Coil. I, for one, think both could’ve been used in the film though if I had to pick one to use as the main theme then I would go with Christopher Young’s composition.

Christopher Young Hellraiser theme

Coil Hellraiser theme

Horror On The Lens: The Sadist (dir by James Landis)

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As scary as all the stories of zombies and vampires may be, the most frightening monsters in the world are the ones that walk among us. I may look away when a monster shows up halfway through a movie but what truly scares me is what my fellow human beings have proven themselves capable of doing.

Today’s movie is all about man-made horror. Released in 1963, The Sadist is a dark and rather brutal film about what happens when three teachers have car trouble and find themselves wandering around a seemingly deserted junkyard. They quickly discover that they’re not alone. Watching them and eventually terrorizing them is Charlie (Arch Hall, Jr.), an inartciulate sociopath who quickly proves himself to be a lot more clever than his smugly complacent hostages. This bleak film is memorable for both its starkly effective cinematography and Hall’s disturbingly plausible portrayal of the title character.