Horror On The Lens: Satan’s School For Girls (dir by David Lowell Rich)

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s horror on the lens, we have a 1973 made-for-TV movie called Satan’s School For Girls.

After her sister turns up dead, Elizabeth (Pamela Franklin) refuses to accept that official conclusion that it was a suicide. Instead, Elizabeth is convinced that it was murder and that it has something to do with the exclusive school that her sister attended, the Salem Academy for Women.

Well, honestly, the Salem part is a dead giveaway. I think we can all agree on that.

Anyway, this movie features a Satanic cult, an old school clique, and plenty of early of 70s fashion choices. It may be silly but it’s also definitely entertaining.

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix for Tremors!

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties. On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday. On Mastodon, 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, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? 1990’s Tremors!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find Tremors on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there happily tweeting. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

See you there!

Artwork of the Day: Tales From The Crypt (Artist Unknown)

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

Artist Unknown

Be careful who you pick up!

Music Video of the Day: All We Are by Warlock (1987, directed by Mark Rezyka)

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Warlock literally stops traffic in today’s music video of the day!

Mark Rezyka also directed videos for KISS, RATT, Spinal Tap, Testament, Nelson, Firehouse, Winger, Vixen, and just about everyone who was anyone in the 80s.

Enjoy!

October Positivity: Me Again (dir by David A.R. White)

Posted on October 23, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2011’s Me Again, David A.R. White stars as Rich.

Rich is a typical David A.R. White character. He’s a preacher with a young family and he has lost his ability to excite his congregation. His sermons are dry and boring and show little connection with the concerns or lives of those listening. Rich is burned out and his wife, April (Ali Landry), is tired of listening to him complain. When they were children, April promised Rich that they were meant to be together. Now that they are adults and married, April and Rich are separated and April wants to make the divorce final.

Poor Rich! No one respects him and he’s about to lose his family. His one friend, Tony (Tommy Blaze), tries to offer some good advice but Rich doesn’t want to hear it. Rich just wants to feel sorry for himself and watch an odd infomercial hosted by Big Earl (Bruce McGill). Big Earl says that if you call his number, he can change your life. Rich doesn’t call the number but his life gets changed anyways.

Rich finds himself being transported from one body to another. When he wakes up, he’s a wealthy man who has no friends and who has a heart condition. Just as quickly, he finds himself in the body of Chloe (Andrea White Logan), an insecure super model with an eating disorder. Then, suddenly, he’s in the body of a fish floating in a fish tank in Tony’s restaurant. Then he’s his daughter’s teen boyfriend, who is pressuring her to start taking birth control. (AGCK!) Then he’s in his wife’s body. Briefly, he takes control of Della Reese. He even spends some time in jail, talking to Big Earl.

And I guess the idea is that, from going to body to body, Rich learns why he needs to stop feeling sorry for himself and actually make the effort to make his marriage work. He also comes to understand the problems of a few other people. The rich man needs to go to church. The model needs to do something about all the disparaging post-it notes that she has hanging around her house. Her daughter’s boyfriend needs to be handcuffed with a sock in his mouth. The fish need as new home. You get the idea.

This movie …. well, let’s give credit where credit is due. David A.R. White is not a bad actor and his comedic timing is adequate. There were a few moments when he did make me smile. I laughed out loud when he suddenly became a fish. As a director, though, White goes a bit overboard. The whole thing with Rich becoming a model starts out as relatively humorous but then it just goes on and on. As well, I appreciated the message of taking care of other people but I’m not sure that the best way to communicate that message was for the very white Rich to briefly inhabit the body of a black housekeeper. The intentions may have been good but the execution often left me cringing.

Me Again is like a lot of faith-based comedies. There are a few humorous moments but, in the end, it’s just too uneven to really work.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 4.19 “The Correspondent”

Posted on October 23, 2025 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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Jonathan is a dream warrior.

Episode 4.19 “The Correspondent”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on February 24th, 1988)

Journalist Hale Stoddard (Darren McGavin) sits in a South American prison cell and waits to be executed. One-by-one, the other prisoners are dragged out of the cell and shot by the country’s new government. Hale passes the time by writing a letter that he knows no one will ever read.

Suddenly, Hale is no longer in the cell. Instead, he’s in the basement of his house. And there’s Jonathan. Jonathan explains that time has stopped and now, Hale is in his wife’s dream. Martha (Patricia Smith) dreams of Hale never being at home. She dreams of their son having both arms, even though he lost those arms in an accident when he was younger. (She also dreams of their now-adult son as always being a child.) Martha dreams about Hale’s former mistress, Eleanor (Eileen Barnett), standing around the house. (Hale argues that Eleanor was never in the house but Jonathan explains that, in Martha’s dreams, she is.) Hale comes to realize how often he deserted Martha because he couldn’t deal with settling down and raising a family. And now, while Martha dreams of him, Hale is about to be shot and killed….

Except, he’s not. It turns out that the South American prison was Hale’s dream. When Hale wakes up, he’s still at home. He tells Martha that he won’t be going to South American after all.

Awwww! How sweet.

This was a bit of a weird episode but I liked it. I appreciated how the show created Martha’s dream world by adding randomly weird details (like an oversized chair at the breakfast table, which was meant to represent Hale’s absence). Darren McGavin gave a good performance as Hale and resisted the temptation to overact. With the episode, the show tried to do something different and, for the most part, it succeeded.

Horror on TV: The Night Stalker (dir by John Llewelyn Moxey)

Posted on October 23, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Long before he achieved holiday immortality by playing the father in A Christmas Story, Darren McGavin played journalist Carl Kolchak in the 1972 made-for-TV movie, The Night Stalker. Kolchak is investigating a series of murders in Las Vegas, all of which involve victims being drained of their blood. Kolchak thinks that the murderer might be a vampire. Everyone else thinks that he’s crazy.

When this movie first aired, it was the highest rated made-for-TV movie of all time. Eventually, it led to a weekly TV series in which Kolchak investigated various paranormal happenings. Though the TV series did not last long, it’s still regularly cited as one of the most influential shows ever made.

The Night Stalker is an effective little vampire movie and Darren McGavin gives an entertaining performance as the rather nervous Carl Kolchak.

Enjoy!

Brad’s Scene of the Day – Dwight Yoakam being a world class jerk in SLING BLADE (1996)!

Posted on October 23, 2025 by Bradley Crain

I’ll sing the praises of the movie SLING BLADE to any person who will listen. I love the movie, mainly because of Billy Bob Thornton’s outstanding performance as Karl Childers, a character that he created from scratch. I also love the movie because it was filmed in Saline County, Arkansas, the county I live in. I love to eat at Garry’s Diner, if nothing else because Billy Bob and John Ritter did in the movie. They make great burgers and shakes!

One of the best things about SLING BLADE is Dwight Yoakam’s performance as Doyle Hargraves, one of the most disgusting characters you’ll ever see on screen. Dwight Yoakam slays the role, and you can’t help but hate him. On a side note, I have been told that Dwight’s not one of the nicest guys around, but that’s neither here nor there. A lot of people have said they didn’t like Charles Bronson, but I don’t care because I love him and that’s all that matters. I love Dwight Yoakam too. I love his song “Fast as you,” and I love his performance in SLING BLADE!

In celebration of Dwight’s 69th birthday, I present a scene from SLING BLADE where Dwight plays the epitome of domestic, blue collar evil! (I would say enjoy, but if you’re not somewhat repulsed, you may need help! 😉)

Made-For-TV Horror: The Initiation of Sarah (dir by Robert Day)

Posted on October 23, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh, poor Sarah.

Sarah (Kay Lenz) is attending college with her sister, Patty (Morgan Brittany). Patty is pretty and popular and everyone wants to be her friend. Sarah is withdrawn and a bit moody and people seem to go out of their way to avoid her. Sarah, however, has a secret. She can move and break things with her mind. When a guy on the beach tries to force himself on Patty, Sarah uses her powers to push him away. Later, when Sarah’s upset, she stares at a mirror until it cracks.

When Patty and Sarah visit their mother’s old sorority, Patty is a hit but Sarah is less popular. The bitchy president of the Sorority, Jennifer Lawrence (Morgan Fairchild), is happy to invite Patty to join but she doesn’t want Sarah to be anywhere near her. Sarah ends up joining the outcast PDE sorority. Jennifer, however, remains obsessed with humiliating and destroying Sarah. And Sarah, when she gets angry, has a tendency to cause things to happen….

This film, which aired in 1978, probably sounds like a rip-off of Carrie and, in many ways, it is. For whatever reason, Sarah’s bullies seem to be obsessed with making her as miserable as possible. In Carrie, one reason you hated the bullies was because Sissy Spacek gave such a heart-breaking, vulnerable and empathetic performance as Carrie White. The bullies were terrible to begin with but then to pick on someone as fragile as Carrie? It sucked William Katt had to die but there’s still a reason why the prom inferno makes as many people applaud as scream. In The Initiation of Sarah, Kay Lenz is not particularly sympathetic as Sarah. Even before the bullies start picking on her, Sarah comes across as being angry and bitter about …. well, everything. Patty goes out of her way to take care of her sister but Sarah never seems to appreciate it. Bullies still suck, of course. There’s no excuse for being a bully and Jennifer really does go overboard when it comes to going after Sarah. But Sarah herself still doesn’t necessarily come across as being someone you would want to join your sorority.

What sets The Initiation of Sarah apart from other Carrie rip-offs is the character of Mrs. Hunter (Shelley Winters). Mrs. Hunter founded PDE when she was a student and now, as the school’s resident expert on paganism, she’s the housemother of PDE. As soon as Sarah joins, Mrs. Hunter starts to talk about how Sarah is destined to lead PDE to glory. When another member of PDE, Mouse (Tisa Farrow), takes a look in Mrs. Hunter’s room, she discovers a Satanic altar that is guarded by a fierce looking dog….

That’s right! This isn’t just a rip-off of Carrie. It’s a rip-off of The Omen as well!

Kay Lenz might be a bit on the dull side as Sarah but this film is worth watching for the performance of Morgan Fairchild and, especially, Shelley Winters. As played by Fairchild, Jennifer is more than just a bitch. She’s a sociopath with great hair. Meanwhile, Shelley Winters — especially once the 70s started — was never a particularly low-key or subtle actress. When you cast her as an overbearing housemother who happens to be the high priestess of a cult, you know that you’re going to get something worth watching. Winters attacks the role with a ferocity that is occasionally over-the-top and almost funny but always entertaining.

The Initiation of Sarah is an enjoyable made-for-TV movie. Watch it the next time you’re feeling nostalgic for college life.

Great Moments In Comic Book History #42: Tomb of Dracula #27

Posted on October 23, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Of all the Marvel horror comics that were published in the 70s, Tomb of Dracula was the best. Not only did it have the best stories, the best villain, and the best supporting cast (Blade, Hannibal King, Rachel van Helsing, Doctor Sun, and many others) but it also had the best covers.

Tomb of Dracula #27 (first released on September 3rd, 1974) is one of my favorites. Gil Kane’s cover features Dracula, fire, a beautiful woman, a beast in the moon, and a melodramatic tag line. What more could a comic boom reader ask for?