Little Shop…Little Shop of Horrors…Little Shop…Little Shop of Terrors…
Watching the original 1960 Little Shop of Horrors is another Halloween tradition here at the Shattered Lens. And why not? It’s a lot of fun! Everyone always mentions the fact that Jack Nicholson pops up in an early role but, for me, the entire film is stolen by the great Dick Miller.
Incidentally, when I was 19, I was a dancer in a community theater production of Little Shop of Horrors. I really should have been cast as Audrey.
Tonight’s horror on TV is an episode of Night Gallery that was originally broadcast on October 29th, 1972. It’s a ghost story that features dancing so, of course, I like it!
For today’s horror on the lens, we present a film from the legendary Roger Corman. First released in 1956, It Conquered The World tells the tragic story of what happens when it … well, conquers the world. It, by the way, is one of the most iconic of the 1950 sci-fi monsters. It is kind of a crab-like thing but … well, just watch the film. It’s kind of hard to describe.
The film also features future spaghetti western star Lee Van Cleef as the human scientist who foolishly helps It conquer the world. Van Cleef’s wife is played by one of the greatest B-movie actresses of all time, Beverly Garland. Hoping to thwart It is Peter Graves who spends the majority of the film riding around on a bicycle. Also keep an eye out for Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze, who both play soldiers here and who would later co-star in tomorrow’s horror on the lens.
For tonight’s televised horror on the lens, we have another episode of the Night Gallery. In Whisper, a mentally unstable woman played by Sally Field believes that she can talk to ghosts. Her husband, played by Dean Stockwell, spends all of his time driving her to cemeteries and allowing her to commune with the dead. Is he merely humoring her or does he believe as well?
You’ll have to watch to find out!
Whisper was originally broadcast on May 13th, 1973.
To be honest, I really don’t like Burnt Offerings, a 1976 film about what happens when an odd family moves into an even odder house. I find it to be slow and predictable and, to be honest, the only part that really works are the flashback scenes that feature a skeletal Anthony James playing a sinister chauffeur.
However, I’ve discovered that there’s a lot of people online who disagree with me and who consider this to be one of the best haunted house movies ever! So, in the spirit of agreeing to disagree, here is Burnt Offerings…
(If nothing else, the film is worth it for the chance to see Oliver Reed, Karen Black, Bette Davis, Anthony James, and Burgess Meredith all in one film together.)
Up until Friday, I had either never heard of a show called Freakylinks. According to Wikipedia, it aired on the Fox Network back in the year 2000 and it deal with a guy named Derek (Ethan Embry) who took over an occult-themed web site after the death of his twin brother Adam. The name of that website: Freakylinks.com. (Incidentally, the real Freakylinks.com is currently for sale if anyone wants to buy the domain name. To be honest, Freakylinks.com sounds like it should be a cheap porn site instead of a paranormal site.) With the help of his friends, Derek would spend each week investigating paranormal stuff and then I guess posting it to his site. I’m assuming that there was no YouTube back in 2000. (And according to Wikipedia, I am correct! YouTube did not start until 2005.)
Anyway, Friday night, I watched an episode of Freakylinks with my friends Janeen, Holly, Ven, Tammy, Elway, Kurt, Amber, Myrna, and Bec over at SyFyDesigns.com. As you might guess from that list, Freakylinks appears to be one of those shows that works better if you watch it as a part of a group. The episode we watched was called Still I Rise and it had a zombie theme to it. Towards the end of the episode, Ethan Embry goes a little crazy.
Today’s horror on the lens is a short horror comedy from 1942. In The Boogie Man Will Get You, Winnie Slade (Miss Jeff Donnell) buys an old house from Prof. Billings (Boris Karloff) with plans to covert it into a hotel. However, one of the conditions of the sale is that Prof. Billings and his servants be allowed to live on the property. What Winnie doesn’t know is that Prof. Billings had been conducting experiments on traveling salesman. He hopes to turn them into supermen who can then be sent overseas to fight the Nazis. (Kind of like Capt. America, when you think about it…) However, his experiments have yet to be successful and have mostly just resulted into a lot of salesman being buried out in the rose garden…
However, things start to look up for Prof. Billings when he meets Dr. Lorencz (Peter Lorre), who is not only a doctor but also a mayor, sheriff, and dog catcher. Seriously, Dr. Lorencz can do it all….
The Boogie Man Will Get You is a fun little time capsule of the time in which it was made. For horror fans, it is mostly interesting because it features both Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. Both Karloff and Lorre appear to be having a lot of fun parodying their usual screen images.
For today’s horror on the lens, we have a low-budget but undeniably effective film from 1980, The Children. In The Children, a school bus drives through a toxic cloud and, as a result, all of the children on the bus turn into perpetually smiling zombies with black fingernails. Accepting a hug from these children will result in your being burned alive!
I reviewed The Children last year and, when I did, I pointed out that The Children may be low-budget and it may feature some questionable performances but it is still really scary and kind of disturbing.
Here’s your chance to watch it and decide for yourself!
In this episode of The Twilight Zone, the Earth has somehow gotten off of orbit is now being drawn closer and closer to the sun. With humanity on the verge of extinction, two women (Lois Nettleton and Betty Garde) struggle to survive as the heat keeps rising.
Full of haunting images of a deserted and sun-baked city, The Midnight Sun is one of the few episodes of The Twilight Zone that has ever given me nightmares. For some reason, the melting painting always gets to me.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Anton Leader. It was originally broadcast on November 17th, 1961.
For today’s horror on the lens,we have a film from 1977. I recently watched this film very late at night and — OH MY GOD! Seriously, I had nightmares for two nights straight!
Full Circle opens with the horrifying death of Kate (Sophie Ward), the daughter of Julia (Mia Farrow) and Magnus (Keir Dullea). After Kate’s death, Julia and Magnus divorce and Julia moves into a new house. However, she is haunted by visions of a little girl who looks just like Kate. As well, the house is full of odd noises, creepy toys, and appliances that turn on by themselves. Is Julia seeing the ghost of her daughter or something far more dangerous?
Full Circle is a truly haunting and disturbing haunted house film. Mia Farrow gives a great performance as Julia and the entire film is dominated by a palpable atmosphere of dread. And that final scene — AGCK!
Through the Shattered Lens 