Rest in peace to the great Reggie Bannister. After years of ill health, Bannister passed away on August 9th at the age of 80.
Reggie Bannister will always be remembered for his role as the same-named Reggie, the ice cream man in the Phantasm franchise. For all the attention that was given to how scary Angus Grimm was, Reggie was the heart of the film. Today’s scene that I love comes from 1979’s Phantasm.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. 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 10 pm et, #ScarySocial presents Sleepaway Camp 2!
If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Sleepaway Camp 2 is available on Prime! See you there!
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 finish up Freddy’s Nightmares.
Episode 2.22 “Life Sentence”
(Dir by Anita W. Addison, originally aired on March 11th, 1990)
The final episode of Freddy’s Nightmares is also one of the most boring.
Just as with last week’s snoozefest, this episode takes place at the local prison. Andy (George De La Pena) is due to be released. Everyone knows that he killed a guard during an armored truck robbery but Andy blamed his accomplice Bruno (Ron Troncatty) and got away with a plea bargain. Andy can’t wait to get out of jail. He brags to the guy in the next cell about how he knows where all the money is hidden.
Uh-oh, it looks like the prison’s psychiatrist, Elaine Alamo (Penny Johnson Jerald), is trying to keep Andy imprisoned. What does Andy care? Sure, everyone hates him but Bruno’s in another prison and Andy’s got all that money waiting for him. However, when Andy finds out that Bruno has escaped, Andy no longer feels safe on the outside. However, Elaine has changed her mind about keeping Andy in jail because she wants Bruno to kill Andy because the guard the Andy killed was her father. So, Andy kills Elaine so he can stay in prison. But then Bruno gets captured and becomes Andy’s new cellmate. That’s the first story.
The second story features the prison’s warden, Hendler (John Milford), running for sheriff. He’s behind in the polls so he uses an experimental truth serum on Andy. Andy hallucinates that the Warden is Bruno and Andy tells him where the money is hidden. Then Andy dies from a heart attack. The Warden calls a press conference to announce that he’s found the money but Dr. Redman (Glynn Turman), the inventor of the serum, spikes the Warden’s drink and the Warden confesses to killing Andy.
Freddy doesn’t do anything in either one of these stories, other than appear in three host segments and tell a joke about dropping the soap.
This episode was incredibly dull. The low-budget was extremely obvious. (The Warden holds his press conference in the prison, presumably because the show couldn’t afford to dress another set.) Penny Johnson Jerald does a good job with her role but otherwise, this was a poorly acted episode that featured dull characters. Andy was unlikable. The Warden was unlikable. This episode was sad note for this show to go out on.
Of course, it’s not a shock that Freddy’s Nightmares ended with a bad episode. It wasn’t a very good show to begin with, There were a few above average episodes during the second season and the first season features some memorably grotesque moments but otherwise, Freddy’s Nightmares was too constrained by the standards of television to really live up to the legacy of A Nightmare on Elm Street. The best episode were the ones the featured Freddy getting involved in the plot but those were few and far between.
Freddy’s Nightmares did not get a grand finale. Instead, it just got a forgettable final episode. Unlike the Friday the 13th series, Freddy’s Nightmares never found a consistent tone or a compelling reason for existing.
Oh well. Next week, we’ll have a new show in this time slot. See you then!
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, dir by Wes Craven, DP: Jacques Haitkin)
Since today is Wes Craven’s birthday, our scene of the day comes from 1984’s A Nightmare On Elm Street. Along with Scream, this was Wes Craven’s signature film. And also, much like Scream, a series of sequels led to many people forgetting just how effective the first film was. Wes Craven reportedly reached back to his own childhood fears with the character of Freddy and, in Robert Englund, he found the perfect actor to bring the character to life.
(Interestingly, Craven’s initial choice for the role was David Warner.)
In this scene, we see just how scary the original A Nightmare on Elm Street actually was.
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 Wes Craven’s Invitation to Hell, starring Susan Lucci and Robert Urich!
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!
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!
Let’s go to prison! Is Freddy coming?
Episode 2.21 “Prisoner of Love”
(Dir by Richard T. Schor, originally aired on March 4th, 1990)
A flakey Episcopalian named Father Jarvis (Vincent Baggetta) is appointed the new chaplain of Springwood Prison. Jarvis has just returned from Haiti and has a rather liberal outlook towards prison reform. When he falls in love with Death Row prisoner Violet (Maria Richwine), he gives her a Haitian drug that will make it appear as if she’s died. He promises her that he will dig her up from the prison graveyard before she suffocates. Unfortunately, Jarvis oversleeps and Violet suffocates in her coffin.
Still, another prisoner named Brenda (Tara Buckman) overheard Jarvis talking to Violet and she decides that she wants the same drug. Jarvis gives it to her but it turns out that Jarvis is also being haunted by the ghost of Violet. Violet says that she can’t move on until Brenda forgives her for killing Brenda’s boyfriend. Brenda finds herself being held captive by the crazed Father Jarvis.
This episode was the second-to-late for Freddy’s Nightmares and, unfortunately, it’s not very good. Between the histrionic acting and the predictable plot, this story really makes you wish that Freddy was doing something more than just introducing it. As it was, this episode really reminded me of how limiting the show’s format was. Whenever something scary happens, it’s always a given that it will turn out to be a dream. It’s predictable and a little bit dull, unless it’s one of the rare episodes in which Freddy actually played a role in the story.
Next week, we will finish up Freddy’s Nightmares!
If you were walking along the beach and you noticed that several bikinis had washed up on shore, what would you do?
Me, I would probably think to myself, “That’s weird. Maybe I should get off this beach because it seems like there’s something strange happening here.” What I would not do, under any circumstances, would be to pick up a bikini and decide to wear one of them.
I mean, that just seems like common sense. You don’t wear bikinis that randomly show up on the beach for much the same reason you don’t dumpster-dive for new underwear. It’s gross. And seriously, if you’re going to the beach, you should have bought and packed a bikini before you left. It may be cheaper to just wear whatever you find buried in the sand, but sometimes it’s worth spending a little money to look good.
Like I said …. IT’S COMMON SENSE!
Unfortunately, none of the characters in 2025’s Bikini Shark have a shred of common sense. When two women come across some bikinis on the beach, they promptly put them on. Later, when another group of women happens to find some bikinis in an isolated house, they also put them on. Soon they’re breaking out into terrible rashes and, even worse, they’re being pursued by sharks that somehow have the power to live and move on land. For all the time everyone spends talking about how sick they’re feeling, it never seems to occur to anyone to just take the cursed bikinis off. Then again, no one seems to think it’s odd that there are sharks somehow making their way into the kitchen.
The villain here is Truman Sullivan (Tyler Winchcombe), a wealthy man who owns a company that makes bikinis. For reasons that are never really that clear, Truman has lost his mind and is convinced that the only way to save the world from destruction is to sacrifice women to sharks. So Truman designed some bikinis specifically to attract sharks. But why did he also design the bikinis to cause the wearer to break into a terrible rash and start throwing up? How does that fit into saving the world? Truman is one of those villains who insists that the sacrifices have to happen quickly but who, at the same time, kidnaps one potential victim and then spends what seems like an eternity monologuing. Hey, Truman, are you trying to save the world or not?
Bikini Shark is a British shark film. It takes place in Essex and features one of the most depressing beaches that I’ve ever seen. The acting is subpar. In the role of Truman’s mother, Kathi deCuoto often appears as if she’s struggling to deliver her dialogue without laughing. If there is some charm to be found in this film, it’s due to the CGI sharks. They’re cute in their way, and it’s hard not to smile at the sight of them “swimming” over dry land. Otherwise, the best that can be said about this film is that it lives up to its name. There are bikinis and there are sharks.
Seriously, though, don’t wear clothes that you just happen to find on the ground. If there’s any lesson that I hope you take from this review, it’s that.
Today’s scene that I love comes from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Stephen King can whine about this film all that he wants. It’s one of the few adaptations of his novels that can still scare the view even after numerous rewatches.
These two still freak me out.
It’s not always easy to adapt someone else’s work.
Stick too close to the source material, and you end up with Gus Van Sant’s Psycho. Veer just a bit away from it, and you may end up with surprises like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining or Frank Darabont’s The Mist. Tossing out the source material or rushing the story gives you Nikolaj Arcel’s The Dark Tower. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Even Stephen King had a rough time adapting his own work to film with Maximum Overdrive.
So seeing that we have yet another adaptation of King’s first novel, Carrie, I was a little confused and surprised when Mike Flanagan’s name came up. I know I haven’t kept up on everything online these days, but wasn’t he working on an adaptation for The Exorcist? Either way, we have it, and it looks like it has the potential to be pretty great. Flanagan’s no stranger to King’s works, having adapted Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep.
As always, Flanagan’s invited some of this friends to join in on the fun. For me, the standout returning actor is Samantha Sloyan, who previously worked on Hush, Midnight Mass, and The Life of Chuck, among others. Samantha’s playing Margaret White, and while Piper Laurie’s portrayal in Brian DePalma’s 1976 classic still scares me, I’m excited to see how this will turn out. Additionally, we have Midnight Mass‘ Michael Trucco and Rahul Kohli on hand. Of course, Flanagan production would be complete without his Hush lead actress, muse and wife, Actor/Director Kate Siegel. Matthew Lillard (Five Nights at Freddy’s) and Amber Midthunder (Prey, Novocaine) are also featured, with Summer H Howell (Night of the Reaper) as Carrie.
Carrie premieres on Amazon Prime early this October, just in time for Halloween.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. 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 10 pm et, #ScarySocial presents DEMONWARP (1988)!
If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Demonwarp is available on Prime! See you there!
Through the Shattered Lens 