During a flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers fall asleep and then wake up to discover the plane is otherwise deserted. Conveniently, one of the passengers (David Morse) is also a pilot and he’s able to fly the plane to Bangor airport, which is as deserted as Graham Platner’s campaign office. As the other passengers try to figure out where they are and what’s going on, bond trader Craig (Bronson Pinchot) worries about the Langoliers, monsters that chase lazy people. Craig’s father told him about the Langoliers and sure enough, it turns out that they’re real and they’re eating time.
There have been a lot of really bad movies made out of the work of Stephen King and this might be the worst. It was actually made for television and it aired over two nights in May of 1995. I can remember everyone watching it and, even among the generally easy-to-please crowd that I went to school with, everyone agreed it was pretty bad. Do you have a friend who claims that Stephen King can do no wrong? Show them all three hours of The Langoliers, which sticks pretty closely to King’s original novella.
The premise isn’t really that bad. It’s the type of thing that shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits used to work wonders with. The problem is that the movie drags on for a punishing 180 minutes and Bronson Pinchot is the only member of the cast who really shows much energy. In fact, Pinchot shows almost too much energy. I get that Pinchot was trying to show everyone that he wasn’t Serge and he wasn’t Cousin Balki, but his performance as Craig is so Type A that it’s tiring to watch. The movie also suffers because eventually the Langoliers show up and they look like a bunch of demonic Pac-Men.
Sometimes, a picture says a thousand words:
I know that some people now say that The Langoliers is underrated or it’s “so bad that it’s good.” Don’t buy it. Instead, watch one of Tom Holland’s genuinely good horror films, like the original Child’s Play or Fright Night. Don’t subject yourself to this.
Today’s Blast from the Past comes from a 1978 episode of SCTV.
Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty) is excited because he believes that he finally has a scary movie to show everyone, Blood-Sucking Monkeys From West Miffin, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the film hasn’t shown up in time to be featured on the show so Floyd does his best to let the viewers know what they would have seen if the movie had shown up.
Kurt Russell is one of those actors that I always remember liking. When I was coming into my own as a lover of movies in the mid-80s, it seemed that he was everywhere in my life. Fox 16 out of Little Rock played THE MEAN SEASON constantly, my brother and I loved to rent BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, and my mom’s favorite movie was OVERBOARD. In some ways, he was like an extended member of the family! Even though he’s now 75 years old, if Russell is in a film or TV show, there’s a good chance I’m watching it. Well back in 1997, I went to see his BREAKDOWN in the theater, and I still find myself watching it just about every year to this day. I just enjoy it no matter how many times I watch it. Most people call it a suspense thriller, but this story is a genuine horror show for me.
Russell plays Jeff Taylor, a man traveling cross-country with his wife, Amy (Kathleen Quinlan). When their vehicle breaks down in the middle of the desert, it seems that they’re almost forced to take the help of a passing truck driver. Amy agrees to go with him to get assistance while Jeff stays behind with their vehicle. It’s the kind of situation any couple could find themselves in. The problem here is that when Jeff is able to get his vehicle running again and makes his way to the roadside diner where Amy’s supposed to be, she’s nowhere to be found. Even worse, everyone acts like they’ve never heard of her or seen her before. From that point on, the movie focuses on Jeff’s desperate search for his wife, and the more he learns about the people who took her, the more dangerous things become.
Here’s the thing about BREAKDOWN that has always made it work so well for me. The idea of a wife being taken from her husband, out in the middle of nowhere, with no explanation and no clear way to get her back, is terrifying. When I think of some of the long, lonesome stretches of interstate my wife and I have driven through in rural Wyoming, I’m not exactly sure what I’d do if our vehicle just stopped working. And one thing about Kurt Russell’s character here, he’s not some tough guy like Snake Plissken or Jack Burton. This character is named Jeff, and he’s preppy looking in his sunglasses, khakis and polo shirt. He kind of reminds me of myself at first, which means I know he’s in trouble! The brilliance of the film’s setup is that it takes an ordinary situation involving ordinary people and then turns it into the sort of nightmare that I wouldn’t wish on anybody.
Russell excels as the normal husband completely driven by the desperation to find his wife. He makes us feel what Jeff is going through, and that’s a huge part of why the movie works as well as it does. When he gets angry, we understand why. When he takes risks, we understand what’s driving him. I find myself completely invested in his predicament and want him to find Amy just as badly as he does. And then there’s J.T. Walsh, who’s particularly chilling as the truck driver, Red Barr. He seems like such a nice guy when he offers help but then seems like a despicable guy when he tells the police later that he’s never met Jeff or Amy before. The thing is, he’s basically playing the character the same in both scenes, which makes the whole thing quite unsettling. It’s an incredible performance and serves as a reminder of what a shame it was that J.T. Walsh would pass away the next year at just 54 years of age.
Another thing that works well is Kathleen Quinlan’s performance as Amy. She doesn’t get a lot of screen time, as we hang out with her and Jeff on the road for a little while before she gets kidnapped, but she gives off such an appealing vibe that helps establish a solid, likable relationship with her husband. To me that short time is vital as it helped me stay invested in Jeff’s search. I mean, who wouldn’t want her back?! Finally, I also want to give a shout-out to M.C. Gainey and Jack Noseworthy, who play a couple of really bad guys helping Red. This movie has some damn good villains.
Watching BREAKDOWN yet again, I still think it’s a near perfect thriller. Kurt Russell is terrific, the suspense holds up, and the story still resonates with me, maybe now more than ever. After all these years, I still find myself getting caught up in Jeff’s desperate search for Amy, and thinking about what I’d do if something like this ever happened to my lovely wife, Sierra. That thought remains every bit as scary as it did the first time I saw the film. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I love the 1959 film, Attack of the Giant Leeches.
The set up is a classic one. In the humid bayous, a sweaty and unappealing store owner (Bruno VeSota) discovers that his much younger wife (the great Yvette Vickers) has been cheating on him. In one scene, he forces his wife and her lover to enter the swamp. It’s terrifying because the swamp is full of …. GIANT LEECHES! I’m a Southern girl. I’ve spent some time in the bayous. Let me tell you, swamps are creepy enough without the addition of giant leeches.
Full of sultry melodrama and bayou atmosphere, Attack of the Giant Leeches is one of the best of the giant monster films of the 50s. It’s amazing was radiation can do!
1963’s Dementia13 is a significant film for another reasons.
For one, it’s the mainstream feature film debut of Francis Ford Coppola. (Coppola has said that he directed two softcore films before Dementia13 but they’ve been lost to history.) Both Coppola’s screenplay and his direction were heavily influenced by the early giallo films that were coming out of Italy. One could argue that this is the first American film to pay homage to Mario Bava.
Dementia13 is also the first film on which Coppola ever went overbudget. This film is literally the start of an era.
Coppola himself has been critical of Dementia13. Producer Roger Corman was not happy with the first cut of the film and added a few scenes that took away from Coppola’s pacing. That said, it’s still an atmospheric and creepy forerunner to the American slasher film. The scene in which Launa Anders goes for a swim has been duplicated in numerous other films and it’s still effective in the way that it chops away at the audience’s sense of security. It certainly freaks me out. Of course, I’m not much of a swimmer. I’m a good drowner, though.
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 1963’s TheRaven!
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.
For today’s scene that I love, here is a classic scene from 1980’s Inferno, Dario Argento’s follow-up to Suspiria. In this scene, Irene Miracle takes a fateful swim. I’ve seen this film several times and this sequence still creeps me out! Not only does it remind me of my own very strong fear of drowning but I also wish someone had been there to say, “Don’t do that, you’re going to ruin that pretty dress!”
This scene is Argento at his most dream-like and frightening.
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.
4 Shots From 4 Horror Films
Frankenstein (1931, dir by James Whale, DP: Arthur Edeson)
The Old Dark House (1932, dir by James Whale, DP: Arthur Edeson)
The Invisible Man (1933, dir by James Whale, DP: Arthur Edeson)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935, dir James Whale, DP: John J. Mescall)
During a flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers fall asleep and then wake up to discover the plane is otherwise deserted. Conveniently, one of the passengers (David Morse) is also a pilot and he’s able to fly the plane to Bangor airport, which is as deserted as Graham Platner’s campaign office. As the other passengers try to figure out where they are and what’s going on, bond trader Craig (Bronson Pinchot) worries about the Langoliers, monsters that chase lazy people. Craig’s father told him about the Langoliers and sure enough, it turns out that they’re real and they’re eating time.
