Category Archives: TV

Horror on TV: The Curse of Degrassi (dir by Stefan Brogren)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is a special episode of my favorite TV show of all, Degrassi!  Originally airing on October 28th, 2008, The Curse of Degrassi features Degrassi’s main mean girl, Holy J Sinclair (Charlotte Arnold), getting possessed by the vengeful spirit of deceased school shooter, Rick Murray (Ephraim Ellis).  Chaos follows!  Fortunately, Spinner (Shane Kippel) is around to save the day.  As any true Degrassi fan can tell you, only Spinner has a chance against the forces of the undead.

What I like about this episode is that, in the best tradition of Degrassi, it goes there.  Holly J does get possessed.  Just about the entire cast end up dying horribly.  Spinner has to battle the undead spirit of Rick Murray and he has to do it without the help of Drake.  And, as far as we know, this episode is canon.  So, yes, Rick Murray’s ghost actually does haunt Degrassi Community School and yes, only Spinner can save us all.

Go Spinner!

Enjoy!

The Rangers Win Game 4 Of The World Series!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Way to go, Rangers!  Even with both Adolis Garcia and Max Scherzer out due to injuries, the Rangers still came together won Game 5 of the World Series!  Even though the final score was 11-7, the Diamondbacks still put up a good fight.  They scared me in both the 8th and 9th innings.  The Diamondbacks are a good team and if they were playing against anyone other than the Rangers, I’d probably cheer for them.  This has been a great World Series, with two underdog teams showing up everyone who doubted them.

The Rangers are just one game away from winning their first World Series!  I’m so excited!  Tomorrow’s game is in Arizona.  At first, there was a part of me that does wish that the Rangers could win the championship in Arlington so the DFW metroplex can prove that it is a baseball town, but now I realize that I’ll be happy wherever they win it.

Go Rangers!

Horror on TV: The Hitchhiker 6.20 “New Blood” (dir by Joel Farges)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, on the final episode of The Hitchhiker, Rae Dawn Chong plays an aspiring actress who wants to join the hottest theatrical troupe.  Unfortunately, there’s a price for everything and sometimes, that price is your soul!

This episode originally aired on February 22nd, 1991.

Vincent Price Recites The Tell-Tale Heart!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today, I featured Christopher Lee reading The Fall of the House of Usher.

Here to continue to spread the Halloween spirit is Vincent Price, performing The Tell-Tale Heart.  This is from 1970 and was a part of a PBS special called An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe.

Retro Television Reviews: Fantasy Island 3.21 “Jungle Man/Mary Ann and Miss Sophisticate”

Posted on 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 Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1986.  Almost entire show is currently streaming is on Youtube!

This week, Fantasy Island is invaded by jungle men and ventriloquists!

Episode 3.21 “Jungle Man/Mary Ann and Miss Sophisticate”

(Dir by Michael Vejar, originally aired on March 8th, 1980)

For years, David Farley (Dennis Cole) starred as Jungle Man on television.  When the show was canceled, David made a living by doing public appearances as Jungle Man but then the producers of the show filed a lawsuit.  As a result, David is no longer allowed to ever dress up in a loin cloth.  David comes to Fantasy Island, hoping for one last chance to be Jungle Man.

(This fantasy, by the way, had its roots in what happened to the original Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore.  Moore was told that he could no longer wear the mask in public because a new Lone Ranger movie was coming out.  The producers also took Moore to court.  Moore reacts by ditching the mask and wearing wrap-around sunglasses instead.)

Mr. Roarke explains to David that his fantasy will make Jungle Man a reality.  There will be no stunt doubles and the bad guys might not be as easy to defeat as on television.  David says he doesn’t care.  He finds himself again in the jungle, transformed into Jungle Man!  He also discovers that all of his friends are upset with him because they haven’t seen him for two years.  They think that Jungle Man just abandoned them and, of course, Jungle Man can’t explain that the show was canceled.

In Jungle Man’s absence, Queen Mara (France Nuyen) has agreed to surrender the jungle to the evil hunter, Derrick Haskell (Dick Butkus, who between Half-Nelson, Hang Time, and this show, is becoming a bit of a regular on this site).  Can Jungle Man prevent Mara from signing over her land?  And can he save Rima (Barbara Luna), the woman he loves?  And, even more importantly, can he convince Roarke to to let him live forever in the jungle?

Of course, he can.  This was a bit of silly fantasy but it still worked because of how earnest Dennis Cole was in the role of Jungle Man.  Plus, I enjoyed that life in the jungle had continued even after the Jungle Man television show was canceled.  It captured the way that a lot of us feel when our favorite TV show is cancelled and we wonder what happened to all the characters after the finale.

The other fantasy was …. well, it was weird and creepy and surprisingly dark.  Annette Funicello played Mary Ann Carlin (Annette Funicello), a world famous ventriloquist.  Mary Ann is worried that she can no longer tell where her personality ends and where the personality of her dummy, Valerie, begins.  Is there anything creepier than a ventriloquist with a personality conflict?

Mary Ann’s fantasy is to separate her personality from Valerie’s for a weekend so that she can decide what to do with her career.  (This sounds like something that would be better handled by a therapist than a resort owner but whatever.)  Mr. Roarke’s solution is to turn Valerie into a living human being.  Unfortunately, it turns out that Valerie has a man streak and she not only seduces Mary Ann’s boyfriend (Don Galloway) but she also gives a surreal performance in which, somehow, Mary Ann is transformed into the dummy.

Fortunately for Mary Ann. everything works out.  She finally snaps out of whatever spell she was under and she tossed Valerie, who is now suddenly a doll once again, in a fire.  Mary Ann and her boyfriend leave the Island, planning on getting married and settling down.  Apparently, Mary Ann doesn’t have a problem with the fact that her boyfriend had sex with a ventriloquist’s dummy but I still imagine that it’s something she’ll bring up whenever they have a disagreement about something.  “You think I’m spending too much money!?  Remember that time you screwed a block of wood?”

It really doesn’t make much sense at all but it’s so surreal and weird that it’s fun to watch.  This fantasy was the Island at its most nightmarish and certainly, that makes it an appropriate fantasy to close out October with!

A Smiling Woman Halloween, Dir. Alex Magana, Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

So, this is how it ends. This has been a very challenging October. Midterms, illness, and despair…at least two of those things were caused by Alex Magana. I still don’t fully grasp his motivation to make terrible things. Is it money? No, I checked his revenue from YouTube. Alex Magana makes these terrible terrible things for the love of the game and that game is pain. I wonder if he edits his films cosplaying as Pinhead?

The premise is just so strange! A lady soon to be victim is seeing people cosplaying as the Smiling Woman. I don’t get it; cosplaying as the Smiling Woman is like cosplaying as Sam, my neighbor, who is a fine man in his own right, but doesn’t warrant any fanboys or fangirls. Although Sam is a bit edgy, I mean he does wait until Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday afternoon to bring his garbage cans back from the curb and we all know what that does…..a stern letter/reminder from the HOA….take that society!!! I’ll be seeing a number of Sam trick or treaters tonight with his signature polo shirt and jeans.

The soon to be new smiling woman starts getting the texts!!! Yes, that’s the life cycle of the creature. She slides into your DMs, breakdances, consumes you, and you …. yes you are the next Smiling Woman. Never mind that it violates the First Law of Thermodynamics – Conservation of Mass! You can read about that here and yes poop is discussed!

Smiling Woman 2, Review by Case Wright

Look, we’ve all done something that we’re not proud of and we must perform some sort of act of contrition. Yes, you deserve this….you know you do…yeah….that’s right….maybe watch it two times…Feel that SHAME!!!!

If a meme no one know falls in the woods…something something…I whimper alone on the floor.

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Nightmare Café 1.5 “Sanctuary For A Child”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Nightmare Café, which ran on NBC from January to April of 1992.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, the café goes country!

Episode 1.5 “Sanctuary For A Child”

(Dir by Armand Mastroianni, originally aired on March 27th, 1992)

On tonight’s episode of Nightmare Café, we learn a few things about the café.  Apparently, the café is not just located in Los Angeles.  It can materialize anywhere on the planet but it apparently does so on its own.  Though Blackie (played by Robert Englund) claims to be the proprietor of the café, this episode suggests that he actually has no control over it.  While Blackie apparently does know why the Nightmare Café does the things that it does, it would appear that the café still has a mind of its own.  It decides where it is going and it decides when it is time to leave.

This episode, for instance, begins with the Nightmare Café materializing on a street in a small, country town.  Soon after it materializes, both Frank and Fay also materialize inside the café.  I’ve often wondered where Frank and Fay go whenever the café is closed for business.  Frank and Fay, after all, are essentially ghosts.  Do they need to eat or sleep?  This episode suggests that they do, as Fay complains about having to get up early because “the café” has decided to open up the crack of dawn.

Soon enough, a young boy named Luke Wall (Brandon Quintin Adams) comes walking into the café.  He and Frank immediately bond, with Frank realizing that Luke is trying to run away from home.  What Frank discovers upon following Luke out of the café is that Luke’s home is in a hospital.  Luke is in a coma and has been for quite some time.  Frank also discovers that the café has materialized in his home town, the place that he left when he joined the Navy and to which he thought he would never return.  Luke is the son of Frank’s former best friend, Tom (Vondie Curtis-Hall), and his ex-girlfriend, Evelyn (Angela Bassett).  Frank explains to Fay that Evelyn was the love of his life but his racist father demanded that they break up.  That was one of the main reasons why Frank left town and has never returned.

So, the Nightmare Cafe wants two things to happen.  It wants Tom and Evelyn to make peace with Luke’s impending death and also with each other.  And it wants Frank to deal with his past and his feelings towards his late father.

And that’s exactly what happens.  It’s a sweet episode, even if it’s a bit predictable and heavy-handed enough to end with “The Living Years” playing on the soundtrack.  In many ways, this felt more like an episode of Highway to Heaven than an episode of Nightmare Café but, as was so often the case with this show, the strong performances of the cast carried the narrative over any rough spots.  In the end, Frank made his peace with the past, Luke moved on to the afterlife, and the Nightmare Café moved on to a new town.

Next week: the final episode of Nightmare Café!

Horror on TV: Baywatch Nights 2.11 “Possession” (dir by David W. Hagar)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s bonus episode of televised horror is an episode of Baywatch Nights that deals with something that every lifeguard eventually has to deal with: demonic possession.

Well, actually, it’s not so much demonic possession as its dead serial killer possession but it’s still definitely not a good thing.  That’s especially true when it’s a friend and/or co-worker getting possessed.  I mean, it’s never fun to end a relationship but having to end it because someone managed to get possessed …. I just don’t see how you live that down.

And, before anyone gets the wrong idea, Hasselhoff is not the one who gets possessed.  It would have been fun if he had been but no.  Sorry.

This episode originally aired on February 2nd, 1997.

Horror on TV: The Hitchhiker 6.19 “Secrets” (dir by Jacques Richard)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On tonight’s episode of The Hitchhiker, a woman and her lover attempt to collect her husband’s health insurance after his death.  Unfortunately, for them, her husband might have something to say about that.

This episode originally aired on February 15th, 1991.