On tonight’s episode of Baywatch Nights, David Hasselhoff and Angie Harmon get zapped into a parallel universe, one where lifeguards regularly battle the denzieins of Hell. Oh wait a minutes …. that’s this universe!
This episode originally aired on March 2nd, 1997!
Warlock-turned-attorney William Spanner is back in the sixth installment of the strangely long-running Witchcraft franchise.
Previously, William was a defense attorney and then he was an insurance attorney and now, he’s apparently a divorce attorney who occasionally consults with the police on cases involving the occult. In this film, William is played by an actor named Jerry Spicer. This would be the only film in which Spicer would play Spanner. He doesn’t do a bad job in the role. He’s not as memorable as Charles Solomon was in parts two, three, and four but he’s not as boring as Marklen Kennedy was in part five.
When a serial killer starts targeting women who wear cross necklaces, Detectives Lutz (Kurt Alan) and Garner (John E. Holiday) consult with William. Though William is still reluctant to acknowledge his warlock ancestry, it doesn’t take him long to realize that the women are being sacrificed to Satan. Mr. Savatini (Bryan Nutter) has to find a virgin to sacrifice at the next solar eclipse but virgins are hard to find in Los Angeles. So, Savatini has ordered his followers to target any woman wearing a cross, on the chance that she might be religious instead of just fashionable.
Witchcraft VI not only tells us that there aren’t any virgins left in Los Angeles, it also shows us why that is. If nothing else, the success of the Witchcraft series was proof that people, especially people in the 90s, would sit through anything if there was a chance that they would get to see some breasts. Everyone’s getting it on in Witchcraft VI, except for William’s secretary, which means that she’s destined to be the next victim. Unless, of course, William can call upon his powers once again.
Witchcraft VI is dumb, poorly acted, and sloppily directed but it was still a major turning point in the Witchcraft franchise. It introduced the characters of Lutz and Garner and established the idea of William being the police department’s unofficial police consultant. It’s not a bad idea. If not for all of the softcore sex, the Witchcraft films could pass for a TV show. Of course, it wouldn’t be a very good show. Witchcraft VI was another direct-to-video hit so, of course, it was followed by Witchcraft VII.
Desolation is an entrant in the 2020 Interactive Fiction Competition. All of the entries can be played here.
In this piece of horror-themed Interactive Fiction, you have just escaped from a mansion and a blood-thirsty cult and now, suddenly, you’re in the desert. You have no food. You have no water. Your phone isn’t going to save you and the sun isn’t going to stop beating down on you. You’ve got a flashlight but that won’t help if you die of thirst and there’s a good chance of that happening since you’re stranded in the desert.
Or are you?
Desolation does a good job of keeping you guessing as to what’s really going on. After a few turns of wandering around in the desert, the game took an unexpected turn and then, a few turns later, it took another unexpected turn. I can’t go into the details without spoiling the game but I will say the Desolation kept me on my toes. I’m terrible at IF games that require you to figure out how to survive in a desolate location. I always go the wrong direction or pick up the wrong object. That happened to me a few times while playing Desolation but I still enjoyed the game. It’s a real challenge and requires more than a little thought. If you’ve never played an IF game before, this is probably not the one to start with. But people who know the format should enjoy the challenge of Desolation.
One final note: Desolation is actually a sequel to an earlier game, Two Braids Girl. I haven’t play the earlier game but that didn’t stop me from enjoying Desolation.
“Meanwhile….”
I’ll see you again in 25 years.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, we’ve been using 4 Shots From 4 Films to pay tribute to some of our favorite horror directors! Today, we recognize the one and only Jesus “Jesse” Franco!
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962, dir by Jess Franco)
Vampyros Lesbos (1970, dir by Jess Franco)
Female Vampire (1973, dir by Jess Franco)
Faceless (1988, dir by Jess Franco)
I hate to say it but it’s getting more and more difficult to find public domain horror films on YouTube that we have yet to share on this site. I mean, the fact of the matter is that we’ve been doing these horrorthons for ten years now and there’s definitely a limited supply of films to choose from. (For the most part, I try to pick films that I know aren’t going to get yanked down because of a copyright claim. For instance, you might be able to find something like Hereditary or Midsommar on YouTube but I can guarantee you that it won’t be there long.)
Last night, I was really happy when I came across The Brain That Wouldn’t Die on YouTube. “Finally!” I said, “A film were haven’t used yet!” Then I did some research and I discovered that we did share it, way back in 2011.
Well, guess what. We’re sharing it again. After all, it’s always a good time to watch a movie about a disembodied head, a monster in a closet, and a man losing his arm in a scene that’s surprisingly graphic for 1962. To me, the best thing about this film is just how pissed off that head is at being brought back to life.
So, for a second time, enjoy The Brain That Wouldn’t Die!
It’s a pretty cool thing, when you think about it : making comics like nobody else is making. And it’s especially cool to do it within a framework that’s about as tried and true as it gets.
All of which is me letting you know that the (extremely) short-form stories presented in Johan Broadley’s 2016 Le Dernier Cri book, Wild For Adventure, are both deliciously weird — and strangely mundane. We know this world he portrays — we’ve just never had it shown to us like this before. So yes, at first glance these are every bit the vaguely traditional gag strips they appear to be — until they’re not. And there’s always one or two off-kilter things in each that are guaranteed to shake your perceptions just a bit. I’m reminded, crazy as this may sound, of the so-called “creepy crawls” the Manson family used to engage in…
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Artist Unknown
Aside from Gary Panter, no artist from the first wave of Raw has been more influential to the generations that came in his wake that Mark Beyer — and, like Panter, he’s never been content to simply rest on his laurels and let his reputation (to say nothing of his back catalogue) do the talking for him. Indeed, although he’s mainly moved into the world of “fine” art that he had one foot in from the outset, his work continues to both challenge and transfix, ever in pursuit of new statements to make and ideas to explore within a stylistic framework that’s immediately recognizable as his own and no one else’s.
Which brings us to the latest Beyer item to make its way into my hands, the Le Dernier Cri-published Mark Beyer : Sketchbook 2016-17, which eschews pretty much anything by way of titles or branding and just plunges…
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As many of our readers will probably have already noticed, the majority of the clips in this video come from the film Jason and the Argonauts.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 