Norman Bates, now there’s someone who probably made a big deal out of every Mother’s Day. Today’s scene that I love comes from 1960’s Psycho and features Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, and Anthony Perkins at their absolute best.
Tag Archives: Horror
Live Tweet Alert: Watch Reptilicus With #ScarySocial!
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, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1961’s Reptilicus!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime! I’ll be there co-hosting 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!
Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.12 “It’s My Party And You’ll Die If I Want You To”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!
Guess who is making trouble …. again.
Episode 2.12 “It’s My Party And You’ll Die If I Want You To”
(Dir by Tom DeSimone, originally aired on December 24th, 1989)
This aired when?
Wow! Happy Christmas Eve!
Freddy takes center stage in this week’s episode. First, he possesses a phony psychic (Gwen Banta) and uses her to kill a bunch of people because …. well, why not? He’s Freddy. It’s kind of what he does. The second story features Freddy seeking revenge on the woman who stood him up for prom and it features an occasionally clever subplot about a man attempting to write a film about Freddy’s life. Freddy complains that the script doesn’t have a heart. That’s because Freddy ripped it out of the screenwriter.
This was not a bad episode. Director Tom DeSimone does a good job of keeping the action moving and he allows Freddy to be genuinely menacing. This entire season has pretty much been a reminder of the fact that Freddy isn’t just an undead spirit who makes joke He’s also very scary. If the first season treated Freddy like a quip machine, the second season has gone out of its way to show that Freddy is pure evil and you’re better off not being in his presence.
This week’s stories were tied together by the presence of Oliver Michaels (Richard Speight), a spacey young man who previously appeared in Photo Finish. Oliver does his best to warn people in this episode but no one’s willing to listen until it’s too late.
That’s life in Springwood.
Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for The Amityville Horror!
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? The Amityville Horror!
If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
The film is available on Prime!
Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.11 “Dreams that Kill”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!
This week, Springwood Confidential struggles to keep a host.
Episode 2.11 “Dreams That Kill”
(Dir by Tom DeSimone, originally aired on December 17th, 1989)
In this follow-up to Dream Come True, Dick Gautier plays Charlies Nickels, the new host of Springwood Confidential. When he announced that his next show will be a discussion about whether or not a nightmare can kill you, he soon finds that his dreams are being haunted by Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund, hamming it up and apparently enjoying the opportunity to do more than just host for once). Freddy is worried that the show will cause people to stop sleeping. I’m not really sure that I follow Freddy’s logic — sleep is unavoidable, no matter how much you want to stay up for days at a time — but whatever. Eventually, Freddy torments Charlie to the point that Charlie ends up in a coma, where Freddy can torture him 24/7.
At the hospital, a doctor (Nicholas Cascone) removes some of Charlie’s brain fluid and injects it into a comatose teenager named Mark Lindstrom (Christian Borcher). Mark comes out of his coma but now he has Charlie’s personality and he desperately wants to be the next host of Springwood Confidential. Mark gets the job but soon, he’s having nightmares involving Freddy.
“This is supposed to be Charlie Nickels’s dream!” Freddy says, spying Mark. “Two for the price of one!”
As you probably already guessed, this episode ends with a vengeful Mark injecting his brain fluid into the doctor. So now, it’s three for the price of one….
I kind of liked the idea of Freddy being passed from one victim to another. And Robert Englund was entertaining as Freddy. That said, this episode basically felt like the same story told twice. Freddy haunted Charlie. Freddy haunts Mark in the exact same way. It was better than anything the first season had to offer but this episode still ultimately felt a bit redundant.
Live Tweet Alert: Watch Carrie With #ScarySocial!
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, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1976s Carrie!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime! I’ll be there co-hosting 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!
Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.10 “Do You Know Where Your Kids Are?”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!
This week, we get a sequel to a previous episode.
Episode 2.10 “Do You Know Where Your Kids Are?”
(Dir by Bill Froehlich, originally aired on December 10th, 1989)
In this sequel to Bloodlines, an episode that I didn’t particularly care for, Patty Burton (Courtney Gebhart) is still locked up in the basement of the Burton home. When college student Lisa Wax (Suzanne Tara) comes over to babysit little Will Burton (Christopher Finefrok), she is not happy to learn that there is apparently a crazy woman in the basement. Lisa keeps falling asleep and having nightmares about being dragged into the basement. Then, she actually is dragged into the basement and Patty, who now looks like Lisa, escapes. By an amazing coincidence, Patty ends up at Lisa’s house, where Lisa’s mom (Sharon Farrell) assumes that Patty is Lisa. When the real Lisa manages to escape from the basement, she shows up at home and is shot and killed by her own mother. Patty then returns to her home and exiles her parents (Chris Nash and Jeannine Lewis) to the basement. The episode ends with Patty approaching Will.
Yikes!
This was a dark episode. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was scary. The scenes where Lisa (hey, that’s my name!) hears Patty in the basement are so overdone that they inspired more laughter than chills. But the idea of someone stealing your identity and then getting your own mother to shoot you because she doesn’t recognize you? That’s definitely creepy!
As for the ending …. I never liked the Burtons. I didn’t like them in Bloodlines and I didn’t like them here. I feel bad for Will but the parents? They got what they deserved.
Live Tweet Alert: Watch Cutting Class With #ScarySocial!
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, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1989’s Cutting Class!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime and Tubi! I’ll be there co-hosting 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!
Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.9 “Monkey Dreams”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!
This week, Freddy has a message!
Episode 2.9 “Monkey Dreams”
(Dir by Robert Englund, originally aired on December 3rd, 1989)
At a college science lab, Joe (Joseph Cali) tries to communicate with aliens. Next door, Jeannie (Sharon Mahoney) tries to teach her monkey to speak. When Joe starts getting strange messages on his computer, he thinks that it’s an alien code. Then it turns out that it’s actually just the monkey trying to type out its name on its own computer. Joe is then murdered by his bookie.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lynch (Sherman Howard) is using the monkey for some experiments to see how much pain a living creature can take. Dr. Lynch seems to change his mind when he hears the monkey speak. But it turns out that we were just seeing the monkey’s dream.
“Think about it!” Freddy tells us.
Freddy Krueger, animal rights activist? I guess it makes sense when you consider that Robert Englund directed this episode. The episode’s message was heartfelt but it seemed a bit out-of-place on a show about a undead child molester. Whatever message you want to deliver, Freddy Krueger probably isn’t the best one to do it.
Scenes That I Love: Philip Stone In The Shining
The Shining (1980, dir by Stanley Kubrick)
Today would have been the 102nd birthday of character actor Philip Stone. While Stone appeared in a lot of films, he’ll probably always be best-remembered for his subtly menacing turn as the ghostly Grady in 1980’s The Shining. Here he is, having a conversation with Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) and letting him know that he’s always been caretaker.
Through the Shattered Lens 