Horror Song of the Day: Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (by Krzysztof Penderecki)

Posted on by Arleigh

Have you ever heard Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima? It’s definitely not your typical kind of music. When I first listened to it, I wasn’t really sure what was happening—it’s loud, chaotic, and incredibly intense. There’s no melody or rhythm that you can follow; instead, it feels like a massive wave of sound crashing over you, full of raw emotion and tension.

One of the things that makes it so striking is that Penderecki wrote it for 52 string instruments. Now, usually, when you think of that many strings playing together, you imagine something rich, smooth, and harmonious. But this is completely different. Those violins, violas, cellos, and basses don’t blend into a melody; instead, they create layers of dissonant sounds—like dozens of voices crying out all at once. It’s less about making “music” in the traditional sense and more about creating an intense atmosphere you can almost feel physically.


What’s really interesting is that Penderecki wasn’t initially trying to compose a tribute. The piece was simply titled 8 minutes and 37 seconds, just the length of the piece. But when he heard it performed, he realized something powerful was happening. The sound conveyed devastation and sorrow in a way words couldn’t. That’s when he dedicated it to the victims of Hiroshima, giving all that chaotic noise a heartbreaking context.

Listening to Threnody is like being caught in a storm made of sound. It opens with a blast of high-pitched, almost screaming tones, then moves between moments of total chaos and eerie silence. Instead of a neat ending, the piece slowly fades away, leaving you with a heavy, unsettling quiet—like the echo of a tragedy that never really ends.

What’s especially notable is how much this piece challenges what we usually expect from music. It doesn’t have melodies, harmonies, or rhythms in the way most music does. Penderecki broke all those rules to focus purely on emotion through sound itself. That approach not only made Threnody groundbreaking in classical music but also opened the door for its huge influence on horror film music. Filmmakers recognized how those sharp, dissonant strings create tension and fear on a gut level. You can hear Penderecki’s influence in iconic horror scores like those in Kubrick’s The Shining or Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Those creepy, screeching string sounds that make your skin crawl? That’s Penderecki’s legacy.

For me, what makes Threnody unforgettable is how honest it feels. It doesn’t try to comfort or please the listener. Instead, it’s a raw cry of grief made real through fifty-two instruments playing together but refusing to blend smoothly. It’s a reminder that music doesn’t always have to be beautiful to be powerful and that sometimes the most intense emotions are best expressed through sound that challenges everything we think music should be. Once you’ve listened, it sticks with you—an echo of sorrow that doesn’t fade.

October Positivity: One Cop’s Journey (dir by Jason Campbell)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2022’s One Cop’s Journey, Keith Knotek (Tim Perez-Ross) is involved in a traffic accident.  Because Keith is clearly intoxicated, he’s taken to jail.  Because it’s the start of the weekend, Keith is going to have to spend three days in jail before the Magistrate will see him and determine the amount of money that it will take to get him out.

Keith sits in a jail cell for three days.  Because he’s a cop, the other police officers treat him with perhaps a bit more sympathy than they would give the usual inmate.  You need a private cell?  Here you go.  You want us to call your wife?  No problem!  You want to get changed for court in the officer’s locker room?  Sure, why not?  Here’s a phone, go ahead and call your minister.

That minister is played by Dean Cain.  The cop calls the minister and admits to getting a DUI and maybe hurting some people in the car accident.

“We all make mistakes,” Dean Cain replies.

And isn’t that the truth!  One Cop’s Journey attempts to show the stress that would lead a cop to start drinking.  His partner and best friend is gunned down while pursuing a suspect.  Keith, himself, is nearly killed while conducting a routine traffic stop.  No one wants to hear the details of what a cop has to deal with on daily basis.  His wife has grown tired of him being depressed and emotionally withdrawn all the time and, when she discovers that he never told her about one traumatic incident that happened shortly before they were married, she considers it to be the same as telling her a lie.  Worst of all, his teenage daughter decides to attend an anti-police rally, holding a sign that reads “No Justice No Peace,” while her friends all hold signs that read, “Defund the Police.”

Since this is a faith-based film, Keith eventually finds redemption and hope through prayer and he goes on to write a book about the pressures of being a cop.  That’s to be expected and, to its credit, the film doesn’t get particularly preachy when it comes to the religious angle.  I imagine that most people who would regularly get offended by the religious subtext will be too busy getting upset over the film’s political subtext to really notice.

One Cop’s Journey is thoroughly and unapologetically pro-cop and that’s never more obvious than in the protest scene when the blue collar, salt-of-the-earth policemen find themselves being yelled at by a bunch of bitter geriatrics and a few smirking college students.  There’s nothing subtle about it but, then again, there’s nothing subtle about most left-wing movies either.  As is so often the case when it comes to political movies, how you react will depend on how you felt about the issue before the movie started.  (My own personal opinion is that police reform is something that needs to be considered, especially when it comes to the militarization of the police.  At the same time, the “abolish the police” folks were and are living in a fantasy world.)

One Cop’s Journey is only 63 minutes long and there is an effective dream sequence in which Keith finds himself looking at the headshots of everyone who he feels he has left down.  That said, the film still had far too many slow spots for so short of a production.  Putting Keith in the jail cell really did make the whole thing feel pretty stagey.  Still, the film did find the time to share some information about Post Traumatic Stress amongst first responders.  It’s heart was in the right place.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.12 “Clubs and Cliques”

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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, Miss Bliss takes over the school.

Episode 1.12 “Clubs and Cliques”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on March 11th, 1989)

Mr. Belding is teaching Miss Bliss’s class!

Why?

Well, the answer doesn’t make much sense but here it is.  The School Board has ordered Belding to name one of the teachers as an “assistant principal” who can be in charge whenever he’s out of the building.  Most schools just hire an assistant principal but whatever.  Maybe this is an Indiana thing.  Since there are only three teachers to choose from and one of them is the mad scientist who wanted to force Nikki to dissect a frog, Mr. Belding goes with Miss Bliss.  But, before Miss Bliss can officially have the job, she has to serve as a principal for a week.  Belding covers her class.

At first, Mr. Belding is nervous.  But, by the end of the class period, he’s thrilled.  He tells Miss Bliss that he thinks he did a wonderful job and that the kids really got something out of it.

“Mr. Belding,” Miss Bliss replies, “it’s only homeroom.”

Okay, I’m just going to say it …. WHAT A BITCH!  Seriously, how condescending can one person be?  This is who you want to make principal?  Is this how you motivate people?  Again, this is why I cannot stand Miss Bliss.  Seriously, if anyone ever said that to her — “It’s only homeroom,” — she would have rightly been offended.

(Then again, I have to wonder whether or not Mr. Belding’s ever taught a class before.  This episode seems to imply that he hasn’t.  Was that a common thing with principals back in the 80s?)

Miss Bliss has a lot to deal with because it’s pledge week.  Apparently, the coolest club at JFK Middle School is the Rigma club and Zach has been told by Rick (J. Trevor Edmond) and Trevor (Christopher Carter) that he can wear a Rigma jacket if he’s mean to all of his friends.  Zach calls Lisa’s parents and let them know that she wears makeup in school.  He throws ice cream at Nikki’s sweater.  He reveals that Mikey has a crush.  He calls Screech a “nothing.”  He loses all of his friends and then he finds out that he wasn’t even being considered for Rigma membership.  Instead, it was all a big joke on the part of Rick and Trevor.

Now, to give credit where credit is due, Mark-Paul Gosselaar did a pretty good job playing up Zach’s regret after he realized he had lost all of his friends for nothing.  The episode is interesting because it shows a side of Zach that would totally disappear over the course of Saved By The Bell.  In this episode, Zach is insecure and desperate to belong.  By the time Saved By The Bell really got going, it had been established that Zach had no insecurities and was automatically loved by everyone he met.  Insecure Zach is infinitely more compelling but a bit less fun than confident Zach.  Watching this episode, it’s hard to believe we’re watching the same Zach Morris who will eventually lie about a being a descendant of Chief Joseph.

Things work out in the end.  His friends forgive Zach.  Even more importantly, Miss Bliss gets in trouble for not calling and asking for permission from the Board of Education before giving everyone everything they wanted.  “She’s not perfect,” Belding chuckles.  You got that right, Mr. Belding!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 9/28/25 — 10/4/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

For the most part, I’ve spent this week watching horror movies and reviewing them.  That said, I did get caught up with a handful of shows.  Here are a few thoughts:

Abbott Elementary (Wednesday Night, ABC)

I got pretty bored with Abbott last season but I still caught the season five premiere this week.  I laughed quite a bit so I guess I’m going to give the latest season a chance.  The show got a bit heavy-handed last season and I got bored with all of the golf course nonsense.  Hopefully, this season will put the focus back on teaching.

Big Brother 27 (Sunday Night, CBS)

Big Brother ended on Sunday and I’ve already forgotten all about it.  That’s the way things should be.

Hell’s Kitchen (Thursday Night, Fox)

I got caught up with the latest two episodes of Hell’s Kitchen.  The men seem to be especially incompetent this season.  I know that every season seems to start out with the men weak and the women strong before reversing things later on but seriously, this season, I wouldn’t want any of these people cooking for me.

Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)

I decided to give Law & Order another try this season.  (Last season, I stopped watching about halfway through.)  Of course, when I watched the first two episodes of the current season, the first thing I saw was Price on the verge of tears.  Is there ever a time when Nolan Price isn’t on the verge of tears?  Just as with the previous season, I preferred the Law to the Order part of the show.  If Maroun and Price are always miserable about having to do this jobs, why are they even working for the District Attorney’s office to begin with?  Ever since this show was revived, we’ve had a steady stream of new detectives and yet Price and Maroun are still the same colorless characters that they were when they first appeared.

The Prisoner (Night Flight Plus)

I watched two episodes of this cult classic on Friday.  My favorite character is Rover.

Seinfeld (Netflix)

Kramer starts a talk show in his living room.  It made me laugh!

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (Thursday Night, Fox)

Yet another group of celebrities have gathered to see if they can pass Special Forces training.  I watched the first two episodes this week.  I laughed when one of the instructors yelled, “How badly do you want this!?”  They probably just want their paycheck.  I also laughed at Jussie Smollett, trying to make a comeback as one of the celebs.  What if Smollett wins this season and is sent to Afghanistan with orders to take down the Taliban?  That would be a hell of a redemption arc!

The Young and the Restless (Weekday Morning, CBS)

I watched an episode on Monday, largely to see if Victor was still around.  He was.

Horror On TV: Hammer House Of Horror Episode #3: Rude Awakening (dir by Peter Sasdy)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the third episode of Hammer House of Horror, Denholm Elliott plays an estate agent who finds himself having a series of nightmares about his wife (Pat Heywood) and his secretary (Lucy Gutteridge) and a murder that may or may not have happened on Friday the 13th.  This episode is an enjoyably surreal trip into the subconscious.

In the UK, Rude Awakening originally aired on September 27th, 1980.

October Hacks: Grim Reaper (dir by James Ian Mair)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2021’s Grim Reaper, escaped mental patient Victor Cunningham (Deron Cunningham) is wandering around a small country town and killing people.

That’s pretty much the entire plot.  Grim Reaper is only a 70-minute film and the majority of those minutes are made up of either Cunningham wandering around in his grim reaper mask, Cunningham’s victims being stalked, and the police being ineffective.  (The main detective wears a baseball cap that read: POLICE.  It’s a good thing that the guy was wearing that baseball cap because, otherwise, I would have just mistaken him for a local bartender.)  Our final girl has a big bruise on her face and is trying to escape an abusive relationship, which adds a level of poignance to her story.

There’s a tendency amongst many to be automatically dismissive of DIY slasher films like Grim Reaper.  It’s true that Grim Reaper has its amateurish moments and that the soundtrack leans a bit too heavy on the metal and it’s also obvious that most of the actors were not professionals but I have to admit that I kind of enjoyed the movie and not just in an ironic sense.  It helps that the film was obviously made by people who appreciate the genre and, watching the film, one gets the feeling that it was a fun set.  It may seem like a backhanded compliment to say that the film is comfortable with being what it is but you need only compare it to some of the current big budget horror films to see the difference between a horror film made be fans of the genre and people who think that they’re somehow better than the horror label.  Even shot on video, the film still had somewhat effective shots.  Director James Ian Mair appears to have a good eye and he even manages to make good use of natural light.  That’s the same thing that got Chloe Zhao an Oscar and a Marvel movie.

Sometimes, you just have to be willing to appreciate a film for what it is.

Charles Bronson interviews the slasher in 10 TO MIDNIGHT (1983)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Charles Bronson played a cop a bunch of times in the 1980’s, but my personal favorite is Leo Kessler from 10 TO MIDNIGHT. Kessler wants to be a better dad to his daughter Lori (Lisa Eilbacher), but first he needs to catch a psychotic killer who’s murdering beautiful young women. One of the most interesting things about 10 TO MIDNIGHT is the way it tries to fuse a badass cop film with the popular slasher films of the 1980’s. It’s arguably Bronson’s best Cannon film, and Gene Davis is a certifiable creep as the slasher, Warren Stacy. Enjoy this infamous scene where Kessler confronts Stacy about his, ummm… private sexual activities!

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: The Toolbox Murders (dir by Dennis Donnelly)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1979’s The Toolbox Murders, someone is murdering the female tenants of a building in Los Angeles.  The killer, who wears a mask and a leather jacket, uses tools.  One woman is killed by a hammer to the head.  Another is skewered by a power drill.  One is stabbed with a screwdriver.  Another is shot with a nail gun.  The identity of the killer would be a total mystery if not for the fact that we’ve already seen Cameron Mitchell’s name in the cast list.

Indeed, it’s a bit pointless to cast Cameron Mitchell in any sort of whodunit-type of film.  Nine times out of ten, Mitchell being in a movie means that that Mitchell (who, in the early days of his career, originated the role of Death of a Salesman‘s Happy Loman on Broadway) is going to be revealed as the murderer.  In this case, Mitchell plays Vance Kingsley, the owner of the building.  Vance has never recovered from the death of his daughter so he’s punishing women who he considered to be sinful.

The actual toolbox murders are pretty much finished after the first twenty minutes of the film.  The rest of the movie deals with Laurie (Pamelyn Ferdin), a 15 year-old girl who is kidnapped by Vance and his nephew, Kent (Wesley Eure).  Joey (Nicholas Beauvy), who is Laurie’s brother, attempts to find and then rescue his sister and turns out to very much not up to the task.  The film itself ends on a rather sick note, one that is followed by a title card that informs us that the film is based on a true story.  Yeah, sure, it was.

The Toolbox Murders has somehow earned a reputation for being a gory and shocking grindhouse film.  It was among the films that was banned in the UK for several years.  It’s actually not that gory and the use of tools to commit the murders is not quite as clever as the film seems to think it is.  Even the nail gun murder (which is the film’s best known moment) feels rather awkward as the victim (Kelly Nichols) never really makes a run for it despite the fact that Vance has to stop to reload after every nail that he fires.

The scenes with Laurie being held hostage are far more disturbing and weird, largely due to Mitchell’s characteristically over-the-top portrayal of Vance’s psychosis.  When you watch a movie called The Toolbox Murders, you’re probably not expecting a lengthy scene where Laurie — pretending to be Vance’s dead daughter — tells a long story about what it’s like in the afterlife.  In the role of Vance’s nephew, Wesley Eure is even more disturbing than Mitchell.  As opposed to the sinister-looking Mitchell, Eure actually has the look of a nice, young community college student and that makes his actions at the end of the film all the more icky to watch.

The Toolbox Murders doesn’t quite live up to its bloody reputation but it’s still a disturbing film nonetheless.  Did you know that Heaven smells like lollipops?  After this film, you’ll never forget.