Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 10/7/24 — 10/13/24


Week two of Horrorthon is in the books!  200+ posts and we’re not even halfway done yet.  I am exhausted but it’s the good type of exhaustion.

Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week:

Films I Watched:

  1. Army of Darkness (1992)
  2. Baffled (1973)
  3. Before It Happened (2023)
  4. Black Cadillac (2003)
  5. Blood Feast (1963)
  6. Bride of the Monster (1958)
  7. The Cloning of Clifford Swimmer (1974)
  8. Coogan’s Bluff (1968)
  9. Cult Killer (2024)
  10. Dark Flower (2011)
  11. Dark Intruder (1965)
  12. Dreamaniac (1986)
  13. Evil Laugh (1986)
  14. Final Curtain (1957)
  15. The Friend (2023)
  16. Glen or Glenda (1953)
  17. Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991)
  18. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2 (1993)
  19. Hope (2024)
  20. House of Dark Shadows (1970)
  21. Jail Bait (1954)
  22. Keeping Clean and Neat (1956)
  23. Last Man On Earth (1964)
  24. The Lost Missile (1958)
  25. Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)
  26. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
  27. The Naked Gun (1988)
  28. The New Kids (1985)
  29. Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
  30. Night of the Ghouls (1959)
  31. The Norliss Tapes (1973)
  32. Pardoned By Grace (2022)
  33. Past Shadows (2021)
  34. The Ripper (1986)
  35. Robot Monster (1953)
  36. Safe (2012)
  37. The She Creature (1958)
  38. The Sin (2017)
  39. The Sinister Urge (1960)
  40. Snow White: A Deadly Summer (2012)
  41. Two Steps From Hope (2017)
  42. VHYes (2019)
  43. The Violent Years (1956)
  44. Whitcomb’s War (1980)
  45. The Wizard of Gore (1970)
  46. Zombie Nightmare (1986)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. Abbott Elementary
  2. Accused
  3. American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez
  4. Dr. Phil
  5. Hell’s Kitchen
  6. Homicide: Life On The Street
  7. Law & Order
  8. The Love Boat
  9. Miami Vice
  10. Night Flight
  11. One Step Beyond

Books I Read:

  1. Aftershock (1987) by Robert M. Walker
  2. The Mall (1983) by Steve Kahn

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Alice Charter
  2. Barry Adamson
  3. Big Data
  4. Britney Spears
  5. The Chemical Brothers
  6. Daemonia
  7. Goblin
  8. Howard Shore
  9. John Carpenter
  10. Syamali
  11. Saint Motel
  12. Teagan and Sara
  13. UPSAHL
  14. voyeur
  15. Warren Zevon
  16. X

Live Tweets:

  1. Safe
  2. The Naked Gun
  3. Coogan’s Bluff
  4. Army of Darkness

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1956, dir by Edward D. Wood, JR., DP: William Thompson)

Trailers:

  1. 6 Ed Wood Trailers For Horrorthon

Horror On The Lens:

  1. Baffled
  2. Last Man On Earth
  3. Bride of the Monster
  4. Night of the Ghouls
  5. Robot Monster
  6. Manos: The Hands of Fate
  7. The Norliss Tapes

Horror On TV:

  1. One Step Beyond 1.6 “The Burning Girl”
  2. One Step Beyond 1.19 “The Captain’s Guests”
  3. One Step Beyond 2.1 “Delusion”
  4. One Step Beyond 2.4 “Doomsday”
  5. One Step Beyond 2.5 “Night of the Kill”
  6. One Step Beyond 2.6 “The Inheritance”
  7. One Step Beyond 2.7 “The Open Window”

Horror Scenes That I Love:

  1. Wishmaster 2
  2. Bride of Frankenstein
  3. Damien: Omen II
  4. Plan 9 From Outer Space
  5. The Wizard of Gore
  6. Murder By Decree
  7. Trilogy of Terror

4 Shots From 4 Films Tributes:

  1. Tod Browning
  2. Roy Ward Baker
  3. Jess Franco
  4. Edward D. Wood
  5. Herschell Gordon Lewis
  6. Bob Clark
  7. Dan Curtis

Films That I Reviewed:

  1. Final Curtain
  2. The Sin
  3. Before It Happened
  4. The Wizard of Gore
  5. The She Creature
  6. Dialtone
  7. The Sinister Urge
  8. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2
  9. The Day The World Ended
  10. Glen or Glenda
  11. Past Shadows
  12. The Friend
  13. Evil Laugh
  14. Dreamaniac
  15. the Ripper
  16. Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
  17. Cult Killer
  18. Dark Intruder
  19. Whitcomb’s War
  20. Party Night
  21. The New Kids
  22. The Grim Sleeper
  23. Godzilla vs Biollante
  24. The Bride and the Beast
  25. The Climb

Television Shows I Reviewed:

  1. Degrassi Junior High
  2. Miami Vice
  3. CHiPs
  4. Fantasy island
  5. Baywatch Nights
  6. The Love Boat
  7. Monsters
  8. Malibu CA
  9. Highway to Heaven
  10. T and T
  11. Friday the 13th
  12. Welcome Back Kotter
  13. Check It Out!
  14. Homicide: Life on the Street

Books I Reviewed:

  1. The Mall
  2. Aftershock
  3. Revolution In The Head

Films That Case Reviewed:

  1. The Life of Death
  2. Ring

Films That Jeff Reviewed:

  1. Ghost Box
  2. Black Cadillac
  3. Alarmed
  4. Hider In The House
  5. Flight of the Living Dead
  6. Dark Flower
  7. Party Line

Films That Erin Reviewed:

  1. Kill Shot

News From Last Week:

  1. Character Actor Nicholas Pryor Dies At 89
  2. Jackmaster Dies At 38

Links From Last Week:

  1. Have You Seen “The Witches House” Of Beverly Hills? Welcome To “The Spadena House “– Where It’s Halloween All Year Long!
  2. Tater’s Week in Review 10/11/24
  3. Playing the Victim Is A Drug

Links From The Site:

  1. Erin wrote about baseball!
  2. Erin shared Fantastic Adventure, Weird Tales, Science Fiction Adventures, Hollywood Detective, Detective Fiction, Argosy, and Clues!
  3. Erin shared the covers of Science Fiction Adventures!
  4. Jeff shared music videos from Rosalie Cunningham, Slaughterhouse, Ghost Cop, and voyeur!
  5. I shared music videos from Alice Chater, X, and Syamali!
  6. I shared my week in television and an AMV of the Day!  I shared a song of the day, as well!

More From Us:

  1. Erin posted pictures at her photography site!
  2. I shared a selection of songs at my music site!

Click here to check out last week!

Horror on TV: One Step Beyond 2.7 “The Open Window” (dir by John Newland)


If tonight’s episode of One Step Beyond seems familiar, that’s because it’s a remake of a story that was originally filmed as an episode of The Veil. 

This time, instead of witnessing a murder occurring in another apartment, it’s a suicide that is witnessed by artist Anthony March (Michael Higgins).  Of course, when he investigates, he discovers that the apartment in empty.  Is Anthony hallucinating or has he gone one step beyond and is he seeing the future?  Watch to find out!

By the way, that’s future Oscar winner Louise Fletcher playing Anthony’s model.

This originally aired on November 3rd, 1959.

Enjoy!

AMV of the Day: Lullaby (Corpse Party)


How about ending the week with an AMV of the Day?

Song: Lullaby by Receptor feat. K.I.R.A.

Anime: Corpse Party

Creator: AnimeAMVnightcore  (As always, if you enjoyed this video, we encourage you to subscribe to the creator’s channel and give them lots of likes and nice comments)

Past AMVs of the Day

Ghost Box (2015, directed by Mike O’Mahony)


A man is living every writer’s dream.  He has quit his day job and is now working on his book that he thinks will prove the existence of the paranormal.  However, while doing research, the man summons an actual ghost that appears to be determined to make his life a living Hell.

Ghostbox, which I watched on Pluto earlier today, was obviously made for a very low-budget and it’s cast is full of unknowns.  The story unfolds slowly and those looking for sudden shocks and expensive horror effects will want to look elsewhere.  Ghostbox attempts to be more of a mood piece than a typical scream-out-loud horror movie.  When taken on its own terms, though, Ghostbox isn’t bad.  It does a good job of setting the mood and the film’s plot actually does pay off at the end.  It’s a simple ghost story that is barely over an hour long.  Though it takes some getting used to, I liked the DIY feel of the film and even the slow pace felt appropriate for the story that the movie was telling.  Your mileage may vary.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life on the Street 1.2 “Ghost of a Chance”


Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, the search for Adeena Watson’s murderer begins.

Episode 1.2 “Ghost of a Chance”

(Dir by Martin Campbell, originally aired on February 3rd, 1993)

There’s been a murder in Baltimore.  That, in itself, is not news.  The pilot firmly established that murder is a fact of life in Baltimore.  But, the victim of this crime is an 11 year-old girl named Adeena Watson, who left her home to go to the library and who never returned.  The press is covering every detail.  The police brass want an arrest and they want an arrest quickly.  And the primary detective on the case is rookie Tim Bayliss, who has never even worked a murder case on his own before.  Giardello refuses to replace Bayliss but he also makes it clear that he needs Bayliss to bring him something.

As for Bayliss, he spends most of this episode struggling.  Not only does he not have the respect of his fellow detective but he also, as a rookie, doesn’t even have a desk until Giardello, in a fit of anger, knocks everything off an unoccupied desk and awards it to Bayliss.  (So, was that desk just sitting there the whole time?  I thought they didn’t have any available desks.)  Because this crime is what is known as a “red ball,” (i.e., a murder that has attracted the attention of the media and the public), every detective is looking for Adeena’s murderer.  While Bayliss obsesses on who Adeena was before she was killed, the rest of the squad does the practical things, like talking to neighbors and bringing in all of the city’s sex offenders for interrogation.

My heart broke for Bayliss while watching this episode.  Kyle Secor did a good job of capturing both Bayliss’s outrage over the crime and his fear of failing to solve his first case as a primary.  While Bayliss stared at Adeena’s body in the alley, Munch, Lewis, and Crosetti debated sports.  And while their attitude may have seemed callous, this episode established that disconnecting is the only way to handle working Homicide.  Bayliss, having not learned how to disconnect, grows more and more obsessed with Adeena.  I cheered a little when Bayliss finally stood up for himself and even won the grudging respect of Frank Pembleton.  That said, the change in Bayliss happened almost too quickly to be credible.  Apparently, all it took was for Giardello to give him a desk for Bayliss to go from being meek and overwhelmed to being a confident and take-charge detective.

While Bayliss searched for Adeena’s killer, Much and Bolander dealt with a murder that happened in a wealthy neighborhood.  The killer (Gwen Verdon) was a wife who snapped after 60 years of marriage.  As she explained to Bolander and Munch, she and her husband had earlier promised each other that they wouldn’t get a divorce until the children died.  Bolander has a crush on the coroner, Dr. Blythe (Wendy Hughes), but he’s worried about getting back in the dating game after his own divorce.  When Munch asks Bolander how old he is, Bolander replies, “48.”  Ned Beatty was a great actor and I’ve never seen a bad Ned Beatty performance.  That said, it’s also hard for me to think of any film where he looked a day under 50.

Meanwhile, Kay tries to get a confession from a guy who is about to go on trial for murder.  Felton laughs when Kay says that she was visited by the ghost of the guy’s victim.  However, Felton makes up for being a jerk by helping Kay find the murder weapon.  This whole subplot was odd to me, largely because Kay really doesn’t come across as the type to believe in ghosts.  But whatever works, I guess!  Melissa Leo and Daniel Baldwin did a good job in this episode, selling a storyline that had the potential to be a little bit too cute for its own good.

As the episode ended, the killer of Adeena Watson had yet to be captured.  While the other detective drank at a wharf bar, Bayliss went to Adeena’s memorial service and stared at her coffin, haunted.  It was a powerful moment but one that left the viewer worried about Bayliss’s sanity.  Earlier in this episode, Pembleton said that a murder that goes 72 hours without being solved will never be solved.  Bayliss is running out of time.

 

Horror Scenes I Love: The Doll Attacks In Trilogy of Terror


Today’s horror scene that I love comes from 1975’s Trilogy of Terror, directed by Dan Curtis and starring Karen Black.

In this scene, Karen Black discovers that the doll she recently received in the mail has a mind of its own.

So, I Watched Kill Shot (1995, Dir. by Nelson McCormick)


A group of college students all live in a California apartment complex that’s owned by Jake Mondello (Gianni Russo), who also owns a restaurant and sponsors a beach volleyball team.  From the description that I read of the movie’s plot, I thought there would be a lot more beach volleyball and, from the title, I thought there would be a lot more thrills.  Turns out I was wrong on both counts.

It’s pretty obvious that this was a pilot for a tv show that was inspired by Melrose Place.  A lot of characters are introduced and they’re all shallow but pretty.  Just like with Melrose Place, everyone has a drama and everyone has someone that they like but who they can’t tell about their feelings.  Casper Van Dein is the most recognizable person in the cast.  He plays a rich boy who likes to play volleyball and who falls for a poor girl.  Other characters include Jacqueline Collen as a former volleyball star who is going back to college and who is being stalked by her ex (Jack Scalia), Catherine Lazo as the med student who loses her scholarship, and Ria Pavia as an abrasive science student who falls in love with her new roommate (Mushond Lee), even though he’s gay.  Ernie Reyes, Jr. plays Koji, who is a computer nerd who says stuff like, “I just got a new CD-rom game.”  He’s so good with computers that the police turn to him to help track phone calls and match finger prints.  Denise Richards appears for two seconds and smiles at Casper.  Gianni Russo is the worst actor in the movie but everyone loves Jake because Russo also wrote the script.

This was largely plotless and pointless.  Casper was nice to look at but I didn’t care about any of the characters.  There is a big beach volleyball game at the end but it only lasts for a few minutes and it was impossible to tell who was winning.  One important character is taken out by a kill shot but no one notices.  Watching the movie made me hate both the beach and volleyball.

 

A Blast From The Past: Final Curtain (dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr.)


1957’s Final Curtain is a short, 22-minute film in which a mysterious man (Duke Moore) wanders around a creepy and seemingly abandoned theater.  While Dudley Manlove (who played Eros the Alien in Plan Nine From Outer Space) provides narration, the man sees many strange things in the theater.  What is real and what is merely a hallucination?  Watch to find out!

Final Curtain was envisioned, by director Edward D. Wood, as being the pilot for a horror anthology series.  Though none of the networks were interested in buying Wood’s proposed series, Wood considered Final Curtain to be his finest film and it certainly is a bit more atmospheric than the typical Wood film.  The role of the mysterious man was written for Bela Lugosi but, after Lugosi passed away, Duke Moore was cast in the role instead.

From 1957, here is Final Curtain.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Dan Curtis Edition


4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today’s edition of 4 Shots from 4 Films is dedicated to one of the most underrated horror directors around, Dan Curtis!

It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Dan Curtis Films

House of Dark Shadows (1970, dir by Dan Curtis, DP: Arthur Ornitz)

The Norliss Tapes (1973, dir by Dan Curtis, DP: Ben Colman)

Trilogy of Terror (1975, dir by Dan Curtis. DP: Paul Lohmann)

Burnt Offerings (1976, dir by Dan Curtis, DP: Jacques R. Marquette)

And Then There Were Four


For the first time in years, I don’t have a team in the MLB post-season.

My beloved Rangers won their first World Series last year but they didn’t even make the playoffs this year.  I wasn’t happy about having to support the Astros but, since they were the only Texas team left, I cheered for them until they were eliminated in the Wild Card.

With the League Championships starting later today, there are four teams left.  Playing in the ALCS will be the Yankees and the Indians Guardians.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers and the Mets will be competing for the National League Championship and the right to move on to the World Series.

I’ve given it a lot of thought and, out of those four, I’ll be cheering for the Guardians.  I thought it was a largely performative and dumb move for Cleveland to change their team’s name but, of all four teams left, the Indians-turned-Guardians have gone the longest without a World Series win.  The last time Cleveland won the World Series was in 1948!  For Cleveland to finally win another World Series after a 76-year draught would be a great baseball story.  Who knows?  If the Guardians win, maybe it will cause all the other teams that have struggled to make it to or win the post-season to change their names too.

Good luck to all four teams in the Championship Series!

Go Guardians!