As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, #ScarySocial presents Hellraiser II!
If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Hellraiser II is available on Prime! See you there!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!
This week, a mansion is full of …. well, one surprise.
Episode 2.18 “Funhouse”
(Dir by Gilbert Adler, originally aired on February 11th, 1990)
Turk (Todd Allen), the moving man, is busy this week.
In our first story, Turk helps a young married couple, Emma (Robin Greer) and Robert Palmer (Clayton Landey), move into an old mansion. Turk talks about how the previous owners came to a bad end. Emma finds herself having dreams in which both Turk and her former lover, Colin (Joseph Brutsman), come aftter her. She comes to realize that the house is not haunted by a ghost but instead by a man looking for revenge. As is often the case with these type of stories, it all ends with a booby trap involving a bed of nails. Yikes!
In our second story, Turk helps another couple move into the house, Evelyn (Valerie Wildman) and her much older husband, Victor Hall (Robert Dowdell). This time, it’s Turk who ends up getting seduced by both Evelyn and the maid, Jillian (Laura Austin). However, it all turns out to be an elaborate game tht Evelyn, Victor, and Jillian enjoy playing. The bed of spikes booby trap makes yet another appearance and it’s so cool that it doesn’t even matter that Freddy’s Nightmares basically just repeated the twist from the first story in the second story.
This episode was fun. There really wasn’t anything supernatural going on but the cast of both stories seemed to enjoy playing up the noirsh aspects of their characters and Todd Allen was amusing as the cocky but stupid Turk. The bed of nails was an enjoyable macabre little twist.
Even at its best, Freddy’s Nightmares tended to be incredibly uneven but this was actually an enjoyable little episode.
Today, the Shattered Lens wish a happy birthday to the one and only Bruce Campbell! And what better way to celebrate and to get the day started than with an iconic scene from 1987’s Evil Dead II?
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1983’s Frightmare!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime and Tubi! I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!
This week, a loft sees a lot of action!
Episode 2.17 “Interior Loft Later”
(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on February 4th, 1990)
The loft is now home to sculptor Alex McFain (Robert F. Lyons). Alex spends most of his time sitting and sleeping in a bath tub and complaining about the fact that his work doesn’t make him much money. When his wife, Fabina (Fabiana Udenio) accidentally kills one of Alex’s models, Alex comes up with a brilliant plan. He’ll fake his own death so his work will become valuable!
At first, the plan works. The only problem is that Alex can no longer leave the loft. With Fabina constantly going outside to sell his work, Alex starts to worry that she’s having an affair with another man. It tuns out that he’s half-right. Fabina is having an affair but it’s with another woman. Alex is shocked but he’s then killed by decorative sword that falls off of the ceiling. Now, his work will be really valuable!
Months later, Fabina’s former boy toy, Art (Dean Fortunato), shows up at the apartment and discovers that it is now occupied by Stacy (Leslie Bega) and Gina (Tory Polone). Art moves in with them and proceeds to seduce both of them. He tells one that he’s an environmental activist being pursued by a cartel of fishermen. He tells the other that he’s being chased by the mob. When Stacy and Gina compare notes, it’s bad news for both Art.
Freddy doesn’t do anything in either one of these stories, other than introduce them. Both stories follow the familiar pattern where anything overly dramatic that happens is ultimately revealed to be a dream. Neither story is all that interesting but Robert F. Lyons does his best to bring some life to his role of the sculptor pretending to be dead. As has so often been the case with the second season, this episode isn’t great or even memorable but it’s still a hundred times better than the majority of the first season.
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!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Steve Miner. It’s time for….
4 Shots from 4 Steve Miner Films
Friday the 13th Part II (1981, dir by Steve Miner)
Zombi 2 (1979, dir. Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)
For today’s song of the day, we celebrate the birthday of Lucio Fulci with Fabio Frizzi’s main theme from 1979’s Zombi 2. If you’ve ever seen the film, it’s impossible to hear this piece of music without imagining hundreds of zombies walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
The scene below comes from the 1979 Lucio Fulci masterpiece, Zombi 2.
In this scene, a mysterious boat is floating towards New York City. Two cops are sent to check the boat out and, as they eventually discover, the boat isn’t quite as deserted as they thought it was.
Now, there’s a few reasons why this scene is important. Number one, Zombi 2 is an Italian film that was designed to pass for an American film. (Technically, it was sold as being a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, which was released under the title Zombi in much of Europe.) In order to maintain the illusion, Italian filmmakers would often spend a day or two shooting on location in a recognizable American city. More often than not, that city would turn out to be New York.
Number two, since Zombi 2 was promoted as being a bit of a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, one could argue that this scene shows how the whole zombie apocalypse began in the United States. It wasn’t radiation from space or Hell running out of room. No, instead, it was juts a boat floating from an island in the Caribbean all the way to New York.
This scene is also memorable because of the “boat zombie,” who is one of the best-known of the movie zombies. Even people who have never heard of Lucio Fulci will probably recognize the boat zombie. He’s an icon of the undead!
Finally, this scene sets up one of the greatest closing shots in the history of zombie cinema. New York beware!
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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
Today, on what would have been his birthday, the Shattered Lens remembers director Herschell Gordon Lewis. It’s time for…..
4 Shots From 4 Herschell Gordon Lewis Films
Blood Feast (1963, dir by Herschell Gordon Lewis, DP: Herschell Gordon Lewis)
Color Me Blood Red (1965, dir by Herschell Gordon Lewis, DP: Herschell Gordon Lewis)
Something Weird (1967, dir by Herschell Gordon Lewis, DP: Andy Romanoff)
The Wizard of Gore (1970, dir by Herschell Gordon Lewis, DP: Alex Ameri and Daniel Krogh)
Through the Shattered Lens 