Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 10/24/22 — 10/30/22

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy Halloween!

Films I Watched:

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Angel Heart (1987)
Baron Blood (1972)
Brother Enemy (1981)
Burnt Offerings (1976)
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Cyborg Cop 2 (1994)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Face In The Mirror (1978)
The Falling (1987)
Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)
Full Moon High (1981)
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
The Good Nurse (2022)
The Healing (1983)
House of Dracula (1945)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
Jack the Ripper (1976)
Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry (2008)
Son of Dracula (1943)
Thin Ice (1988)
The Werewolf and the Yeti (1975)
The Wolf Man (1941)

Television Shows I Watched:

Abbott Elementary
The Amazing Race
Atlanta
Hell’s Kitchen
Highway to Heaven
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Law & Order
Law & Order: SVU
The New Wave Theater
Night Flight
Real Love Boat
Survivor
Toy Story of Terror

Books I Read:

Music To Which I Listened:

Adi Ulmansky
Bauhaus
Blondie
Britney Spears
The Chemical Brothers
David Bowie
Dexys Midnight Runners
Duran Duan
ELO
Goblin
The Heavy
The Human League
Imagine Dragons
INXS
John Carpenter
Kid Rock
Kim Wilde
Lynard Skynard
Madness
Moby
Nina Simone
Nine Inch Nails
Peter Schilling
Phil Collins
Rita Coolidge
Saint Motel
Talking Heads
Taylor Swift
The Vampire Sound Incorporation
Yvonne Elliman

Trailers:

Live Tweets:

Horror on the Lens:

Horror on TV:

4 Shots From Horror History:

Horror Scenes That I Love:

Erin’s Count Down To Halloween:

Awards Season:

News From Last Week:

Links From Last Week:

Links From The Site:

Doc shared a Halloween message!
Leonard shared the trailer for the new Ant-Man and Wasp movie!
Erin shared Bats, House of the Wolfman, Werewolf, Lovecraft’s Nightmare, Witch, Darkness Falls, and Skull!
Erin shared the Pulp Covers of Boris Vallejo, Pulp Witchery, and the Covers of True Weird!
Erin on baseball: The Phillies Win Game One and The Astros Win Game Two!
Jeff shared music videos from Alice Cooper, Brother Cane, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Danzig, Pet Shop Boys, and Guns N Roses!
Jeff played The Twine Fishing Simulator, Power MT, and Europop Vampire!
Jeff took a look at presidential elections involving The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Dracula!
Jeff reviewed Iceman, Jack-O, LA AIDS Jabber, Rush Week, Claws, and The Falling!
Jeff wrote about Dark Shadows and Tomb of Dracula!
I reviewed Another Perfect Stranger, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Baron Blood, The Day Time Ended, Nikki and the Perfect Stranger, Queen of Outer Space, Flesh Feast, Face in the Mirror, Prophecy, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, How To Make A Monster, The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry, The Lawnmower Man, The Good Nurse, Brother Enemy, The Healing, Thin Ice, House of Dark Shadows, Night of Dark Shadows, Jack the Ripper, Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster, The Haunting of Helen Walker, The Mermaid, Teen Wolf, Attack of the Puppet People, The Werewolf and the Yeti, Teenage Caveman, Angel Heart, Anna To The Infinite Power, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Planet Dune, Invitation to Hell, and Sinister Squad!
I reviewed Laird Cregar, The Confession, The Scandalous History of the Roman Emperors, Night Games, Spooky Texas, Truth or Dare, The Fire Game, and Runaway!
I reviewed Hang Time, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, City Guys, One World, and California Dreams!
I shared my week in television and an AMV of the Day!

More From Us:

At her photography site, Erin shared Limbs, Ghostly Vintage, Point of View, Shadow, Hanging Around, Dark Place At Sunset, and fog!
Jeff wrote about the UK, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Twitter, New York, and the Marvel Universe!
I reviewed The Amazing Race and Survivor!
For Horror Critic, I reviewed Dracula’s Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, and Son of Dracula!
At my music site, I shared Bauhaus, John Carpenter, The Heavy, Nina Simone, Nine Inch Nails, Goblin, and Harry Manfredini!
At my online dream journal, I shared Last Night’s Comedy Club Dream, Last Night’s Drug Shipment Dream, Last Night’s Library Dream, Last Night’s Trying To Leave For Work Dream, Last Night’s Snow Dream, Last Night’s Shopping Dream, and Last Night’s Mr. Sandman Dream!

Want to see what I did last week? Click here!

Bonus Horror on TV: Highway to Heaven 4.5 “I Was A Middle-Aged Werewolf” (dir by Michael Landon)

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Because it’s nearly Halloween, here’s a special bonus television episode!

After I reviewed I Was A Teenage Werewolf, this episode was recommended to me by Mark, one of our regular readers in Australia. Highway to Heaven was a TV show about an angel and a human who traveled across the country and helped people out. It aired for 5 seasons in the 80s and it’s pretty much achieved immortality via syndication and streaming. It starred Michael Landon who also starred in I Was A Teenage Werewolf. As you call from this episode, he obviously had sense of humor about his early film career.

This originally aired on October 28th, 1987. The series was a bit silly but this episode is kind of fun.

Happy Halloween!

Horror On TV: The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t (dir by Bruce Bilson)

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh no! Halloween might be canceled because people just aren’t scared of the old monsters! Dracula (Judd Hirsch) calls all of the classic creatures to a meeting in his castle (where they all happen to be freeloading) and give them an ultimatum. Be more scary! It turns out to be easier said than done.

This originally aired in 1979 but, for people of a certain age, it achieved a certain immortality thanks to regular airings on the Disney Channel. It’s a cute show. It might seem a little bit corny today but that’s a large part of its appeal. It’s a reminder of a more innocent time.

Warren the Werewolf, by the way, was named after Warren “Werewolves of London” Zevon.

TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Sinister Squad (dir by Jeremy Inman)

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

A group of cultists who worship Death are threatening to destroy the world so a mysterious operative named Alice (Christina Licciardi) assembles a group of fairy tale villains and heroes to help defeat them. Unfortunately, getting The Big Bad Wolf, Goldilocks, the Mad Hatter, Bluebeard, and a host of others to work together isn’t as easy as it should be. Complicating things is the evil Rumpelstiltskin (Johnny Rey Diaz), who is imprisoned with a mask over his face to keep him from convincing anyone to say his name. Just as he is responsible for smashing the magic mirror that unleashed Death and his evil followers on the world, he also might be the only one who can stop the cult. But at what price?

I watched the 2016 film, Sinister Squad, last night. I have to admit that I had a pretty difficult time following the plot. Produced by the Asylum, Sinister Squad is a sequel to Avengers Grimm. Avengers Grimm was a mockbuster of The Avengers, in which all of the heroes were fairly tale characters. Sinister Squad is a mockbuster of Suicide Squad, in which a group of fairy tale villains are recruited to save the world. Avengers Grimm was a surprisingly fun movie but Sinister Squad gets bogged down by its own low budget, with nearly the entire film taking place in one location. It’s kind of hard to make an epic action film when you can’t afford more than one set.

That set is a warehouse, where the members of the Sinister Squad are imprisoned. It’s also where Alice is storing Death’s scythe. Death wants his scythe back so he sends his followers to retrieve it and it leads to a bit of a one-sided battle. Indeed, none of the members of the Sinister Squad seem to be that effective when it comes to defending the world and it’s hard not to feel that Alice should have made more of an effort to recruit some of Death’s followers. Probably the most impressive of Death’s acolytes is Bluebeard (Trae Ireland), who can throw knives in slow motion and steal the souls of those he kills. (He calls them his “wives” because he’s Bluebeard.) Still, as impressive a bad guy as Bluebeard might be, it’s hard not to wonder why he’s there because it’s not as if Bluebeard is a fairy tale character. It seems like a waste to have Goldilocks face off against Bluebeard as opposed to three bears.

As I said, the plot of this one is not always easy to follow. If you haven’t seen Avengers Grimm, you’ll be totally lost. I have seen Avengers Grimm and I still wasn’t always sure what everyone in Sinister Squad was going on about. On the plus side, some of the costumes are nicely done. Bluebeard was properly intimidating. I sympathized with the Big Bad Wolf, who was apparently just misunderstood. I respected Alice and her refusal to surrender. For the most part, though, Sinister Squad was more underwhelming than sinister.

Retro Television Reviews: Invitation to Hell (dir by Wes Craven)

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1984’s Invitation to Hell. It can be viewed on YouTube!

There’s one rule in life that should never be forgotten.

Any movie that opens with Susan Lucci casting a hex that causes a man’s head to explode is going to be worth watching.

That’s certainly the case with Invitation to Hell, a 1984 made-for-TV movie that casts Lucci as Jessica Jones, an insurance agent who lives and works in an upper class suburb in Southern California. Jessica not only sells insurance but she also runs the ultra-exclusive Steaming Springs Country Club! Anyone who is anyone in town is a member of Steaming Springs! Of course, joining Steaming Springs requires going through a strange ceremony in which you walk into a mist-filled room. Jessica says that the room is called “the Spring” and that it contains everything that someone would need to be happy. However, one need only consider that the film is called Invitation to Hell to guess that Jessica might not be completely honest.

Matt Winslow (Robert Urich) and his family have just moved into the suburbs. Matt’s an engineer whose job involves designing a state-of-the-art space suit. Matt is a little bit annoyed when Jessica starts pressuring him and his family to join the country club. He’s even more perturbed when his wife (Joanna Cassidy), upon returning from the mist-filled room, starts acting and dressing just like Jessica. Matt soon comes to suspect that something strange might be happening, especially after his own daughter attacks him! Fortunately, Matt’s spacesuit comes with a flame thrower, a laser, and a built-in computer that can determine whether or not someone is actually a human being. (Wearing the space helmet means viewing the world like you’re the Terminator.) Soon, it’s science vs. magic as Matt dons the suit and tries to rescue his family from country club living!

Invitation to Hell is totally ludicrous but also a lot of fun. Robert Urich is properly stolid as the hero while the film itself is, not surprisingly, stolen by Susan Lucci. Lucci is totally and wonderfully over-the-top as Jessica, playing the role with the same cheerfully unapologetic intensity that made her a daytime television star. This is a film that has a little bit for everyone — familiar television actors, flamethrowers, space suits, demonic possession, exploding cars, and even a little bit of social satire as the film suggests that living in the suburbs is a terror even without weird country clubs and chic spell casters.

Interestingly enough, this made-for-television film was directed by none other than Wes Craven! The same year that this film was broadcast, Craven directed a little film called A Nightmare on Elm Street. While Invitation to Hell might not be in the same league as that classic shocker, it’s still an enjoyably campy horror flick.

Horror Scenes That I Love: Bill Murray and Adam Driver Battle The Undead In The Dead Don’t Die

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The world may be ending but Bill Murray and Adam Driver are not going to go out without a somewhat laid back fight.

From 2019’s The Dead Don’t Die:

Book Review: Runaway by R.L. Stine

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tired of being used as a test subject by a mad scientist and feeling guilty about an accident that caused the death of two of her friends, telekinetic Felicia Fletcher has run away! After using her powers to escape from the pervy dude who gave her a ride, Felecia ends up in Shadyside. She not only get a job as a house sitter on Fear Street but she also enrolls in high school and gets a job at the Burger Basket…

Wait, what?

Now, the whole telekinetic thing is pretty cool and I cheered a little when she caused the pervy guy’s car to crash. I mean, if you’ve got the power to do that, why not? But who runs away from home just so they can enroll in high school and get a job working at a fast food restaurant? I mean, it just seems like there’s more that she could do, especially considering that she has super powers. Along with going to school and finding a low-paying job, Felecia also develops a crush on her classmate and co-worker, Nick. Unfortunately, Nick is dating Zan. Zan doesn’t appreciate the new girl trying to move in on her man. Felecia’s main concern, though, is making sure that no one discovers that she’s a runaway. SO WHY DID YOU ENROLL IN HIGH SCHOOL AND GET A JOB UNDER YOUR REAL NAME, FELECIA!?

Seriously, Felecia might have telekinesis but she obviously has no common sense.

Soo, Felecia is getting strange letters from someone who claims to know who she is. Someone also breaks into her house, a crime that Felecia can’t report without running the risk of being discovered. Felecia tries to control her powers while also discovering who is stalking her.

Even by the standards of R.L. Stine, the plot is fairly incoherent but the fact that Felecia has psychic powers (and, with the exception of Nick, pretty much zero friends) adds a new wrinkle to all of the usual Stine melodrama. Felecia has a lot to deal with, from avoiding the police to avoiding her crush’s girlfriend to avoiding the people searching for her to avoiding her Fear Street stalker. In fact, Felecia has so much to deal with that it’s impossible not to like and root for her. I might not have telekinesis but I could still relate to Felecia’s desire to just have one normal, relaxing day in her life. I liked that Felecia was trying to regain control of her life and there’s a pretty cool scene where The Burger Basket basically explodes. This was definitely one of the better Stine books that I’ve read this month.

Book Review: The Fire Game by R.L. Stine

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Jill, Andrea, Diane, Max, and Nick want get out of taking a superhard Geography test. What can they possibly do, since apparently into not an option to study or to track down someone who has a copy of the test from last year?

If you said accidentally start a fire in the school library so that the test gets cancelled, congratulations! You could be the star of an R.L. Stine novel!

The day after the fire, school is still a bore. Our group of friends, who are all gymnasts for some reason, want to get out of class so that they can hang out with Gabe, the supercool new kid who has an odd fascination with burning things. What’s the best way to get out of school? How about blowing up the boy’s bathroom? Not only does that cause classes to get canceled but everyone now gets to hang out on Fear Island!

R.L. Stine’s 1991 book, The Fire Game, is all about people like to set fires. Admittedly, the book doesn’t really go into the reasons why these people are so obsessed with fire. For the most part, it’s just something that they do because they’re not imaginative to come up with any other way to skip school. (Has no one ever heard of faking not feeling well? When I was in high school, all I had to do was say the word “cramps” and the gym teacher would practically escort me off campus and tell me not to come back for a week. It’s not that difficult.) Anyway, eventually a house burns down on Fear Street and all the members of the Fire Club are like, “Wait! We didn’t do that!” It looks like someone is trying to frame the arsonists!

The main problem with this book is found in the last sentence of this paragraph. Yes, the Fire Club is, more or less, innocent of burning down that house and killing the homeless man who was living inside. But, they’re still a group of people who DELIBERATELY SET FIRES! It’s like, “Okay, it sucks you’re being framed for that one fire but how about all the ones you actually started?” Not a single lesson is learned and usually, I’m in favor of that but in this case, our heroes are actually doing something that could kill someone or something.

Still, even if there’s absolutely no one to really root for in this book, it’s hard not to be a little impressed by the fact that R.L. Stine felt that gymnastics and pyromania would be a natural combination. Though the majority of the book is Stine on autopilot, arsonist gymnasts is at least an interesting concept. Plus, Arsonist Gymnasts sounds like it would be a great band name.

Insomnia File #58: The Haunting of Helen Walker (dir by Tom McLoughlin)

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 Netflix? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If you were having trouble getting to sleep last night, you could have gotten on YouTube and watched 1995’s The Haunting of Helen Walker!

What’s it about? Read on but stop me if this sounds familiar.

In Victorian-era England, a somewhat neurotic young woman is hired to serve as the governess for two children who live in a foreboding estate. Once the governess arrives, she discovers that the children — especially little Miles — can be a handful. She also discovers that there was a governess hired before her, a governess who died under mysterious circumstances. At night, the new governess hears strange noises and soon, she becomes convinced that she’s seen the ghosts of both her predecessor and the old governess’s lover, Peter Quint. Everyone else may think that the new governess has allowed the isolation of the estate to get to her but she’s convinced that the ghosts have possessed the children! She becomes determined to save the children, even at the risk of their own lives….

If that sounds familiar, then you’ve either read Henry James’ Turn of the Screw or you’ve seen one of the several movies that were based on his novella. The Haunting of Helen Walker, which was made-for-television and initially broadcast in 1995, reimagines James’s unnamed governess as Helen Walker, an American woman played by Valerie Bertinelli. The Haunting of Helen Walker also differs from its source material in that it leaves little doubt about the fact that the ghosts are real and the children have been possessed. While the novella is deliberately unclear about whether the governess is correct or if she’s just hallucinating, The Haunting of Helen Walker has little use for such ambiguity.

Still, if you can accept the changes to the source material, The Haunting of Helen Walker is an entertaining and atmospheric ghost story. Director Tom McLoughlin doesn’t waste any time getting to the action and Christopher Guard makes for an appropriately brooding and dangerous Peter Quint. At first, it’s a bit jarring to hear Valerie Bertenelli’s American accent in what is essentially the epitome of a British ghost story but she gets better as the film progresses and she does an especially good job during the film’s dramatic climax. Finally, Diana Rigg does a great job playing the estate’s intimidating housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. She’s skeptical of Helen from the minute she arrives and the fact that Helen says she can see ghosts doesn’t do much to improve Mrs. Grose’s opinion.

In the end, this is an entertaining, if hardly definitive, take on Henry James’s novella. Having been made for 90s television, it actually has to be rather restrained in its shocks but that actually works to the film’s advantage, forcing the movie to rely on atmosphere over jump scares. The Haunting of Helen Walker is currently on YouTube and it’s fine viewing for a rainy night.

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

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: 2019

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.

Today, we take a look at 2019!

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: 2019