What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable or streaming? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!
If you were having trouble getting to sleep last night, you could have gone over to YouTube and watched 1978’s Once Upon A Midnight Scary.
Made for CBS and featuring Vincent Price as the sardonic, cape-wearing host, Once Upon A Midnight Scary was a special designed to encourage young viewers to pick up a book and read. Price introduced three different stories, each centering around ghosts and each based on a book. In the first story, based on the book The Ghost Belonged To Me, a young farmboy discovers a ghost hiding in a barn and becomes a hero when the ghost warns him about an impending disaster. The second story is an adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and it features Rene Auberjonois as a rather neurotic Ichabod Crane, who finds himself being pursued by the headless horsemen. The third and longest story is an adaptation of The House With A Clock In Its Walls, featuring Severn Darden and a rather annoying child actor.
One thing you immediately notice about this show is that the special doesn’t actually reveal how any of the stories end. Instead, each story is basically a recreation of the most exciting or interesting parts of the larger story but, whenever it appears that we’re heading for a conclusion, Vincent Price suddenly appears and says, “What happened next, you ask? Read the book!” This special basically casts Vincent Price as the world’s most devilish book salesman and while that might be annoying if you’re watching the special because you want to see how the stories turn out, it’s a lot of fun if you’re just watching the show to watch Vincent Price act like Vincent Price. Vincent is not in the special as much as you might want but he still shows off his unique charm. It’s impossible to be in a bad mood while watching Vincent Price.
Previous Insomnia Files:
- Story of Mankind
- Stag
- Love Is A Gun
- Nina Takes A Lover
- Black Ice
- Frogs For Snakes
- Fair Game
- From The Hip
- Born Killers
- Eye For An Eye
- Summer Catch
- Beyond the Law
- Spring Broke
- Promise
- George Wallace
- Kill The Messenger
- The Suburbans
- Only The Strong
- Great Expectations
- Casual Sex?
- Truth
- Insomina
- Death Do Us Part
- A Star is Born
- The Winning Season
- Rabbit Run
- Remember My Name
- The Arrangement
- Day of the Animals
- Still of The Night
- Arsenal
- Smooth Talk
- The Comedian
- The Minus Man
- Donnie Brasco
- Punchline
- Evita
- Six: The Mark Unleashed
- Disclosure
- The Spanish Prisoner
- Elektra
- Revenge
- Legend
- Cat Run
- The Pyramid
- Enter the Ninja
- Downhill
- Malice
- Mystery Date
- Zola
- Ira & Abby
- The Next Karate Kid
- A Nightmare on Drug Street
- Jud
- FTA
- Exterminators of the Year 3000
- Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster
- The Haunting of Helen Walker
- True Spirit
- Project Kill
- Replica
- Rollergator
- Hillbillys In A Haunted House
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