Sometimes They Come Back (1991, directed by Tom McLoughlin)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

In 1963, nine year-old Jim Norman witnessed a group of juvenile delinquents murder his older brother Wayne in a tunnel before getting killed themselves when a train came barreling down the tracks. Twenty-seven yeas later, Jim (Tim Matheson) is a history teacher and he has returned to his hometown to take a job at his old high school. He is haunted by memories of what happened in the tunnel and then he is haunted for real as, one by one, all of the dead delinquents returns to life and enroll in his class. They want revenge on the man that they blame for their fiery deaths.

Based on a Stephen King short story, Sometimes They Come Back was actually produced for television. It originally aired on CBS, complete with a warning that viewer discretion was advised. Though the ghost greasers are too ridiculous to really be scary (one of them laughs like a hyena), the movie was still more graphic than anything else that played in primetime that year. I wonder how television audiences, in those pre-American Horror Story days, reacted to one of Jim’s students being dismembered in the backseat of a car and the ghost greasers then tossing pieces of his body over the bridge?

Tim Matheson takes the material seriously and gives an intelligent performance as Jim Norman. Fans of Newhart might enjoy seeing William Sanderson (a.k.a. Larry of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl) playing a serious role as the one greaser who wasn’t killed by the train. Most of the other characters, including Jim’s wife and his students, are forgettable. The movie’s glaring weakness is the ghost greasers themselves. Even with their Satanic car and their threatening ways, they’re too cartoonish to be frightening. Sometimes They Come Back has its strengths but ultimately, it’s a middling Stephen King adaptation.

Great Moments In Television History #26: Siskel & Ebert Discuss Horror

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

This may not actually be a great moment in television history but it is an important one because it framed not only how horror films were discussed by many critics but it also is a big reason why many horror fans were not fans of this iconic duo. Despite Roger Ebert being one of the only critics to defend Wes Craven’s Last House On The Left when it was initially released, both he and Gene Siskel had a reputation for being anti-Horror. That reputation is largely due to a 1980 episode of Sneak Previews, in which they condemned what they called the “Women in Danger” horror films.

This originally aired on September 18th, 1980.

In Siskel & Ebert’s defense, they’re problem is more with slasher films than horror films. Do you agree with them? Siskel & Ebert criticized the way that audiences reacted to the films but is that the fault of the films or of the audience? Is it really fair to compare films like Don’t Answer The Phone and I Spit On Your Grave to films like Friday the 13th or When A Stranger Calls? It’s interesting to note that they defend Halloween as being an exception to the trend but Halloween was also a film that popularized showing scenes from the POV of the killer.

For a counter-point to this episode, check out a later episode in which Gene and Roger recommended horror films that they felt had been overlooked.

Previous Moments In Television History:

Horror Game Review: Zombie Blast 2023 (2022, Sam Ursu)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

The year is 2023 and the zombie apocalypse has begun. First, you parents were killed. Then, your spouse was killed. All you have left is your baby and you are going to do whatever you need to do to protect the last remaining member of your family.

Zombie Blast 2023 starts out simply enough. You are in a house with four room. The baby is in one of the rooms. (The room changes each time that you play.) You have an axe. You have a shotgun that carries a limited amount of shells. You have a limited amount of energy and, if you don’t stop to rest occasionally, you’ll weaken and maybe even find yourself incapable of moving. You also have to find time to eat. Your number one objective is to protect the baby from the zombie horde that is approaching the house. Whenever a zombie gets in the house, you have to kill it before it reaches the baby’s room. As the game progresses, you can level up and become a better zombie killer but, at the same time, the number of zombies will also increase.

Zombie Blast 2023 is an addictive work of interactive fiction. I played it several times, trying out different strategies and seeing how long I could last before I was “overwhelmed.” As you level up and as the zombies become more aggressive it becomes a real challenge to try to make sure that you’re in the right place to kill them before they manage to get into whichever room the baby is in. Can you make it through to the morning? It’s not as easy you might think.

Play Zombie Blast 2023.

Horror Game Review: A Shift In The Night (2022, Muulk)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

You have a job working the graveyard shift at a gas station in the desert. Because you have been hearing things coming from the backroom, you go to see a doctor. He tells you that hallucinations are an occupational hazzard for people who work overnight. He gives you some pills to control them. He says that you must take them every hour.

Feeling better about things, you go to work and discover that you left your pills at home. Can you survive the night?

A Shift In the Night is a work simulator where you attempt to get through your shift without dying. It’s not just the weird buzzing coming from the stockroom that’s a threat. There are also customers to deal with. Some of them are harmless. Some of them are crazy. One of them is definitely very dangerous. Good luck guessing which is which.

You would think that surviving an 8-hour night shift wouldn’t be that difficult but I have so far managed to die in four different ways while playing A Shift In The Night and absolutely none of those deaths were pleasant. The game uses graphics and sound effects to put you right in that gas station. When I was 18 and fresh out of high school, I worked nights part-time to help pay my college tuition and this game captures the atmosphere of the night shift. I always enjoyed the freedom of not having to deal with salaried management but I also knew that I had a greater chance of getting shot at night than during the day. This game brought back memories.

Play A Shift In The Night.

Music Video of the Day: The Garden by Guns N’ Roses (1993, directed by Del James)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

This was one of the few Guns N’ Roses’s videos to not get heavy play on MTV, perhaps because all of the members of the band appear to be either depressed or under the influence. Black-and-white shots of the sleaziest parts of New York are mixed with color footage of strippers. The video makes 1993 New York look so dangerous that it could almost be a Rudy Guiliani campaign commercial.

(Of course, we all know that it wasn’t New Yorkers fear of crime that elected Guiliani. It was their anger over Yogurt that falsely claimed to be low fat.)

Alice Cooper and the late Shannon Hoon can be heard providing background vocals on this song.

Enjoy!

Remember When The Burger King Was Your Trainer?

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

The bad news is that work has been really busy this week.

The good news is that, a few weekends ago, I got my old Xbox out of storage and I discovered that it still works! I’ve been blowing off steam by playing Fight Night Round 3, which I still think is the best boxing game that I’ve ever played. From the creation of your boxer to the training to the path to becoming champion, Fight Night Round 3 is one addicting fight game. I do think that the game cheats by letting your opponent take more punishment than I think any other boxer could handle but that’s what games do.

After all these years, I had forgotten that you could pick the Burger King to be your trainer.

Back when this game first came out, how many of you were like me and automatically picked The Burger King because you thought he’d give you some sort of special skill in the ring that none of the other, non-mascot trainers could provide? I always went with The Burger King as my trainer until I realized he wasn’t any good. All he did was dance around the stage and probably steal my prize money when I wasn’t looking. Back in the day, I actually got sick of seeing him listed as even being an option. I wanted to fire him and bring in a real trainer, like Jack from Jack in the Box or maybe the Grimace.

This weekend, when I played the game for the first time in years, I used the Burger King as my trainer for old times sake. Oscar de la Hoya knocked me out in three rounds. I’m done with the Burger King but I look forward to playing Fight Night until my Xbox finally gives up the ghost.

Music Video of the Day: West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys (1984, directed by Eric Watson and Andy Morohan)

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Is Chris Lowe a ghost in this video?

He better be, just so I can justify picking this video during our annual Shattered Lens Horrorthon.

Neil Tennant and his ghost friend go for walk through London. Among the sights that we see: Waterloo Station, Tower Bridge, West Minster, the South Bank, Leicester Square, and a protest outside the South African Embassy. (This video was filmed at a time when South Africa was still ruled by Apartheid.) Both Fletch and Desperately Seeking Susan are playing at a cinema.

This was the video that first introduced the US to the Pet Shop Boys. Watching it makes me nostalgic for London.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: CantSpeak by Danzig (1994, directed by Fred Stuhr)

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

This song is from Danzig 4.

The guitar tracks in CantSpeak are actually the guitar tracks for another song, Let It Be Captured, played backwards. This was inspired by the frequent accusations that Danzig hid Satanic messages in their songs that could only be heard if you played the song backwards. I don’t hear any secret messages in CantSpeak but the guitar tracks sound good.

In this video, Glenn and the band appear to be trapped in a cast-iron stomach. It’s just another day for Danzig. Real-life monsters, like Charles Manson and Saddam Hussein, also makes cameo appearances as Danzig performs.

Enjoy!

Who Is The Black Dahlia? (1975, directed by Joseph Pevney)

Posted on October 20, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

In 1947 Los Angeles, the body of 22 year-old Elizabeth Short is discovered in an empty lot. Short, who was nicknamed The Black Dahlia because she always wore black, was an aspiring actress who was violently tortured before being chopped in half. Her murder remains one of Hollywood’s most infamous unsolved crimes.

In this made-for-television movie, Ronny Cox and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. play the two detectives who are assigned to investigate Short’s murder. Though they struggle to find any clues identifying who could have killed Short, they do learn about her life and how she went from being a naïve innocent who came to Hollywood with stars in her eyes to being a hardened and cynical woman who may have been supporting herself through sex work when she was murdered. The film makes use of frequent flashbacks, in which Elizabeth Short is played by Lucie Arnaz. Her friends and acquaintances are played by familiar television faces like Henry Jones, Mercedes McCambridge, June Lockhart, Brooke Adams, Donna Mills, and Tom Bosley. Also be sure to keep an eye out for Sid Haig, playing a tattoo artist.

What Elizabeth Short went through over the course of her short time in Hollywood was probably too graphic to be put on television in the 70s but this movie still does a good job of recounting the basic facts of her life and murder. Because the film is based on fact, no one is ever arrested for Short’s murder. The only suspect is a doctor who turns out to have an alibi. The movie instead focuses on Short trying make it in Hollywood and discovering that it’s a cruel town. Lucie Arnaz was far better than I was expecting in the role of Elizabeth and brought a lot of vulnerability to the role. The film ended with a title card, asking anyone who had information about the murder of Elizabeth Short to call the LAPD. The case remains open to this day.

Horror Game Review: Kiss of Beth (2021, Charm Cochran)

Posted on October 20, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Cordero has just knocked on the door of your home. He’s here to take your roommate Beth on a date. While Beth gets ready, your job is to check Cordero out. Have a conversation with him. Find out what he’s planning to do on the date. Maybe ask him about his family or his plans for school. You could even ask to see pictures of his dog if you want. Find out all that you feel you need to know about Cordero because, towards the end of the game, you’re going to have to make a big decision. And that decision will effect not only how Cordero views you but also your relationship with Beth.

With the exception of the final few moments of the game, Kiss of Beth is a conversation simulator. At the start of the game, it seems like you are just being an overprotective friend but, as things progress, it becomes obvious that there is more to your relationship with Beth than just friendship. There are two potential endings, a good one and a bad one. I’ve discovered that it’s a lot easier to get the bad one than the good one.

Kiss of Beth can be played in less than 15 minutes and, because of the number of choices and the multiple endings, it’s a game that can be replayed several times. After you finish the game the first time and learn the true nature of your relationship with Beth, you’ll be surprised when you play the game a second time and see that all the clues were right there for you to see.

Play Kiss of Beth.