Congratulations to the Yankees, the American League champions!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Start spreading the news, the New York Yankees are going to their first World Series since 2009!  They clinched the American League championship tonight, defeating the Guardians in Game 5 of the ALCS!

As for who the Yankees will be facing, the Dodgers have a chance to clinch the NLCS tomorrow and the Mets have a chacne to tie things up and keep the series going.  I’m hoping the Mets do just that because a World Series featuring the Yankees and the Mets just feels like a baseball dream come true!

Congratulations to the Yankees!  Good luck in the World Series!

Horror on TV: One Step Beyond 3.3 “The Death Waltz” (dir by John Newland)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s episode of One Step Beyond is called The Death Waltz.  It’s about what happens when, in 1860, two calvary officers fall in love with the same young woman, Lillie (Elizabeth Montgomery).  Lillie has a great time playing the two men against each other but, when one of them is killed by Apaches, she rather heartlessly goes to a dance with the surviving suitor.

Unfortunately, for her, the dead man’s ghost decides to go to the dance as well….

The episode originally aired on October 4th, 1960.

Enjoy!

The Stone Tape (1972, directed by Peter Sasdy)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Peter Brock (Michael Bryant) is the leader of a team of researchers who work for an electronics company that is trying to come up with a new recording technique to keep up with their Japanese competitors.  Peter and his team move into an old Victorian mansion that is said to be haunted.  After Jill Greeley (Jane Asher) thinks that she’s seen a ghost, Peter theorizes that the stone walls of the mansion have actually recorded everything that has happened at the location over the years, like a security tape.  Some people, like Jill, are sensitive enough to pick up on the images of the past.  Other people, like Peter, are so determined to use what he calls The Stone Tape to his own advantage that it leads to tragedy.

The script for The Stone Tape was written by Nigel Kneale, who was also responsible for creating Quatermass.  As he did with his Quatermass stories, Kneale took an otherwise standard horror story and added an interesting scientific twist.  Peter is a classic villain who makes the mistake of thinking that he can control that which he does not understand.  Ghosts and spirits may just be recordings of past events but that doesn’t mean they can’t hurt you.  There’s a lot of screaming in The Stone Tape but there’s also some very interesting ideas, good acting, and intelligent directing from Peter Sasdy.  First broadcast by the BBC in 1972, The Stone Tape is a classic ghost story, creepy and clever with a killer ending.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.4 “Once Upon A Ledge”

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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC  from 1975 to 1979.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Arnold Horshack gets to be a hero!

Episode 4.4 “Once Upon A Ledge”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on October 2nd, 1978)

Seriously, what is going on at Buchanan High?

Gabe is vice principal but he’s away at a teacher’s conference.  Horshack and Washington are once again running the student store.  Epstien is once again working for the audio visual department.  Barbarino is nowhere to be seen.  This new Sweathog, Beau, is apparently the most popular guy in school, even though this is only his second episode.  Perhaps the strangest development is that Julie is now working as Mr. Woodman’s administrative assistant.  When did this happen?  I can’t even remember what Julie’s previous profession was but I don’t think it had anything to do with education in general or Buchanan High in specific.

Mary Johnson (Irene Arranga) is a shy student who feels that she doesn’t have any sort of identity in the school.  She’s one of three Mary Johnsons at Buchanan High.  She’s not Mary Johnson the Jock.  She’s not Mary Johnson the Cheerleader.  She’s Mary Johnson, the one with the perfect teeth.  When she tells Woodman that she wants to transfer into the remedial classes so that she can be a Sweathog, Woodman tells her that her C-average makes her ineligible.  She can’t even succeed at being a bad student.

Feeling lost, Mary climbs out on a ledge and threatens to jump.  Woodman, Julie, and each of the Sweathogs tries to talk her in but it’s only Horshack who is able to get through to her.  Horshack actually walks out onto the ledge himself so that he can talk to Mary about what’s it’s like to feel like an outsider.  Horshack gets Mary to come in, though he nearly falls off the ledge himself.

While binging and reviewing this show, it’s occasionally been easy to criticize Ron Pallilo’s performance as Arnold Horshack, though I think the real culprits were the show’s writers, who tended to make Horshack into such a strange character that I don’t think anyone could play him without being annoying.  But, to give credit where credit is due, Pallilo gives a really good performance in this episode.  Indeed, in some ways, this episode feels like a throw back to season one, when the Sweathogs still had a bit of grit and angst to them.

This was a simple but effective episode, even if the absences of both Gabe Kaplan and John Travolta were definitely felt.  (Nothing against Stephen Shortridge — who I’ve seen give good performances on The Love Boat and Fantasy island — but Beau was no substitute for Vinnie Barbarino.)  Still, it was nice to see Pallilo get a chance to once again play Horshack as a human being as opposed to a walking punchline.  And, for once, Woodman got to show his nice side, as he tried to help Mary feel better about her place in the school.  This was a surprisingly well-done episode.

Bonus Horror Song of the Day: Do It To Me by Riz Ortolani

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Since I earlier shared the theme song from The New York Ripper, it only seems appropriate to share another 70s-style Italian horror theme song.  From the infamous House On The Edge of the Park, here is Riz Ortolani’s Do It To Me.

Seriously, this is a song that gets stuck in my head every time that I hear it.

Horror Scenes That I Love: “You left the bodies!” from Poltergeist

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Admittedly, this is a pretty short scene.  It’s only 16 seconds, taking from the much longer climax of 1982’s Poltergeist.

That said, this is one of the greatest over-the-top moments in cinematic history.  I defy anyone to watch Poltergiest without shouting “YOU LEFT THE BODIES!” afterwards.  As an actor, Craig T. Nelson has never been one to worry about subtlety so, when you give him an excuse to yell about headstones and bodies….

(Also, give some praise to the great James Karen, heroically matching Nelson’s intensity throughout the scene.)

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: Special Tobe Hooper Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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, I am proud to pay homage to a director from my home state, a man who changed the face of horror and the movies but who was treated terribly by a jealous film industry.  I am talking, of course, about Texas’s own Tobe Hooper.  Hooper redefined horror with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Though his later films were never quite as critically or financially successful as that classic, many of them have since been rediscovered by audiences who now better appreciate Hooper’s quirky sensibility.  Hollywood may not have known how to handle Tobe Hooper but horror fans like me will always appreciate him.

It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Tobe Hooper Films

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for Wrong Turn!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  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 9 pm et, Deanna Dawn will be hosting #ScarySocial!  The movie?  2003’s Wrong Turn!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  I’ll be there tweeting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Wrong Turn is available on Prime!

See you there!

Horror on the Lens: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (dir by John S. Robertson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

394px-Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde_1920_poster

Ever since the birth of film, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been a popular subject for adaptation.  Not only does the classic story of a good doctor who unleashes his evil instinct via potion serve as a potent metaphor for everything from sexual repression to drug addiction, but the dual role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has provides an excellent opportunity for an actor to show off.

The first film adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is believed to have been made in 1908.  Two more version followed in 1912 and 1913 and then, suddenly, 1920 saw three different film versions.

The best known of the 1920 version is our film for today.  This version is best remembered for John Barrymore’s powerful performance in the title role but it also holds up remarkably well as a work of cinematic horror.

Horror Song Of The Day: New York One More Day by Francesco De Masi

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s horror song of the day is perhaps not as well-known as some of the other songs that I’ve shared.  It appeared in Lucio Fulci’s controversial (to put it mildly) giallo, The New York Ripper.   That film is so infamous for its violence, nihilism, and killer who quacks like a duck that it is something overlooked that it features a great score from Francesco De Masi.

This is the main theme from The New York Ripper and it captures the movie’s mix of horror and police procedural.  It’s the 70s cop show theme from Hell.