Live Tweet Alert: Watch The Funhouse With #ScarySocial!

Posted on July 19, 2025 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, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1981’s The Funhouse!

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: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.20 “The Charnel Pit”

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!

This week, we say goodbye to Friday the 13th.

Episode 3.20 “The Charnel Pit”

(Dir by Armand Mastroianni, originally aired on May 14th, 1990)

All things come to an end and that includes the adventures of Micki, Jack, and Johnny.

Friday the 13th: The Series ends with an episode about a professor (Vlasta Vrana) who owns a two-sided painting that he can use to send people into the past. He sends female victims back to the time of the Marquis de Sade (Neil Munro) and the Marquis sends the professor his unpublished works. If you’ve ever seen an episode of this show, you will not be surprised to learn that eventually Micki is sent back to the Marquis and briefly finds herself fascinated by the man for whom sadism is named. Micki gets to dress up in a cleavage-baring costume and Neil Munro plays another villain. All the bad guys end up dead and the painting is tossed in the Curious Goods vault. It’s Friday the 13th!

It might not seem like much of a finale. Unfortunately, the cast and crew were not informed that the series wouldn’t be returning for a fourth season until they were almost finished filming this episode. As a result, Friday the 13th did not get a proper send-off. The series ended with many of the cursed antiques still out there and Jack, Micki, and Johnny apparently destined to spend the rest of their lives searching for them.

On the one hand, I enjoyed this series and I regret that it didn’t get a proper ending. Micki, Jack, and even Johnny suffered so much that it seemed like they deserved to end things with some sort of triumph. At the same time, it does feel appropriate that — after a season that featured some ill-thought experimentation with the show’s format — Friday the 13th went out with a traditional episode. This show was always at its best when it focused on antiques and creepy villains. That’s certainly the way that I’ll remember the show.

I enjoyed watching and reviewing Friday the 13th. Was it uneven? Sure. It was a low-budget, syndicated show. A certain uneveness is a part of the package. At its best, though, it was a genuinely creepy show that was blessed with some wonderful chemistry between Chris Wiggins, Robey, and John D. LeMay. (The show never really recovered from LeMay’s exit.) On the whole, the good definitely outweighed the bad, even during the final season. And who knows? Perhaps, if there had been a fourth season, the writers would have finally figured out a way to make Johnny into a compelling character.

I’ll miss reviewing this series.

Next week, something new will premiere in this time slot. What will it be? You’ll find out next week!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Is It October Yet?

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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

We’re halfway through July, which means that it’s time for me to get ready for October! (Seriously, who cares about August and September?) Here to inspire are….

4 Shots From 4 Horror Movies

Night of the Living Dead (1968, dir by George Romero)

The Exorcist (1973, dir by William Friedkin, DP: Owen Roizman)

Carrie (1976, dir by Brian De Palma, DP: Mario Tosi)

Suspiria (1977, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Luciano Tovoli)

Scenes That I Love: Jack Meets Lloyd in The Shining

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The scene below is, of course, from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece, The Shining.

In this scene, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) stumbles into the Overlook Hotel’s ballroom, still fuming over having been accused of abusing his son. A recovering alcoholic, Jack sits at the bar and thinks about how he would give up his soul for just one one drink. And, on cue, Lloyd (Joe Turkel) appears.

As I was watching this scene, it occurred to me that, way back in 1980, there probably was some guy named Lloyd who saw this movie in a theater and was probably totally shocked when Jack suddenly stared straight at him and said, “Hey, Lloyd.”

The brilliance of this scene is that we never actually see Lloyd materialize. We see him only after Jack has seen him. So, yes, Lloyd could be a ghost. But he could also just be a figment of Jack’s imagination. Jack very well could just be suffering from cabin fever. Of course, by the end of the movie, we learn the truth.

Everyone always talks about Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack. Some people love it and some people hate it. (I’m in the first camp.) However, let’s take a minute to appreciate just how totally creepy Joe Turkel is in this scene. Turkel was a veteran character actor and had appeared in two previous Kubrick films, The Killing and Paths of Glory. Two years after appearing in The Shining, Turkel played what may be his best-known role, Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner. Today, incidentally, would have been Joe Turkel’s 98th birthday.

From Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, here’s Jack Nicholson and Joe Turkel:

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for Piranha!

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, at 9 pm et, Deanna Dawn will be hosting #ScarySocial! The movie? 1995’s Piranha!

If you want to join us this Friday, 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: Friday the 13th 3.19 “The Tree of Life”

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s Johnny vs the Druids.

Episode 3.19 “The Tree of Life”

(Dir by William Fruet, originally aired on May 7th, 1990)

Johnny randomly runs into a distraught woman who claims that, years ago, her daughter was abducted and her husband murdered by obstetrician Dr. Sybil Oakwood (Gale Garnett). When Jack and Micki doubt the woman’s story, Johnny investigates on his own and discovers that Dr. Oakwood is kidnapping newborn girls and raising them in her fertility clinic. It turns out that Dr. Oakwood is a druid and she’s trying to breed future Druidic priestesses.

(Don’t yell at me, this is the show’s interpretation of druidism.)

This was the next-to-the-last episode of Friday the 13th and it just feels like the writers were tired and uninspired. Suddenly, for the first time in three years, Jack and Micki are skeptical about reports of the paranormal. Johnny is back to being impulsive and, if we’re to be honest, kind of stupid. He tells the distraught mother that her daughter is being held prisoner at the fertility clinic and then is shocked when the mother runs off to the clinic without waiting for Johnny to accompany her. Once again, it all leads to a cult and an underground cavern. This entire episode feels like it was recycled from previous episodes.

I’m not an expert on paganism so I’m not going to get into whether or not this episode accurately portrayed druidic beliefs. I will say that the druids in this episode acted like every other cult that’s ever appeared on this show. They’re just like the Satanic cult that showed up at the end of season 2. Making them druids is probably one of those things that sounded good when the episode was pitched. The word “druid” brings to mind Stonehenge and all the rest of that good stuff. But, narratively, there was nothing gained nor lost by making them druids. The show treated them like any other self-destructive cult.

This episode was a bit dull. It felt like the show was taking one last shot at getting audiences to replace Johnny as Ryan’s replacement. The whole thing just felt uninspired. It certainly left your brave reviewer bereft of inspiration.

Next week, we come to the conclusion of Friday the 13th: The Series.

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” – Train of the Living Dead from TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Bradley Crain

Korean Actor Gong Yoo was born on July 10th, 1979, in Busan, Korea. He stars in one of my favorite South Korean films, TRAIN TO BUSAN, which also happens to be one of my favorite zombie films. I highly recommend it, and for those interested, it’s currently streaming on Netflix. In honor of Gong Yoo’s birthday, enjoy this graphic and intense scene from TRAIN TO BUSAN.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Monsters 3.24 “The Moving Finger”

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on YouTube.

This week, Monsters comes to its conclusion.

Episode 3.24 “The Moving Finger”

(Dir by Kenny Myers, originally aired on April 26th, 1991)

Monsters comes to a close with an adaptation of a Stephen King short story.

Nerdy Howard (Tom Noonan) is shocked to discover that, every time he goes to any of the various drains in his house, a bony finger pokes out. Howard’s wife can’t see the finger but Howard becomes obsessed with it, attacking it with a corrosive liquid and eventually a hedge trimmer. No matter how much damage Howard does to it, the finger comes back, longer and stronger….

Despite the Stephen King pedigree and the presence of the usually reliable Tom Noonan, The Moving Finger makes for a disappointing conclusion to Monsters. King’s style, and this is especially true of his short stories, often doesn’t translate well into visual adaptations. The signature inner monologues and the building sense of dread can be difficult to recreate visually. (One reason why The Shining is the best King adaptation is because Stanley Kubrick made the material his own and didn’t worry about trying to recreate all of King’s trademark ~~bullshit~~ literary flourishes.) Tom Noonan doesn’t have much of a character to play and the finger itself becomes less effective as the episode drags on.

Oh well! Monsters was a generally uneven show so it’s perhaps appropriate that it ended on an unsteady note. It’s the curse of the anthology format. When Monsters was good, it was really, really good. When it was bad, it was kind of boring. There were a lot of good episodes that aired during the final season but, sadly, there were a few bad ones as well. That said, the good Monsters episodes to outweigh the bad and forgettable ones.

That’s it for Monsters! Next week, something new will premiere in this time slot. What will it be? I have no idea but I look forward to finding my next show!

Live Tweet Alert: Watch The Last Man On Earth With #ScarySocial!

Posted on July 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1964’s The Last Man On Earth!

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: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.18 “Spirit of Television”

Posted on July 4, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, people are dying and somehow television is to blame.

Episode 3.18 “Spirit of Television”

(Dir by Jorge Montesi, originally aired on April 30, 1990)

Ilsa (Marj Dusay) claims to be a medium. She uses a television set to summon the spirits of the dead for her rich clients and then, later on, the spirits kill her customers and Ilsa, who has a degenerative disease, gets another ten days added to her life. If she doesn’t continually kill, her skin starts to look like rubber and her fingernails fall off. Agck!

This was largely a Jack episode. Jack is the one who, with his years of experience as a magician, assumes that Ilsa is a fake. He’s also the one who recruits an old friend named Robert Jandini (Paul Bettis) to go undercover and check Ilsa out. And when Robert is inevitably killed as a result, Jack is the one who has to live with the guilt. One thing that I’ve always appreciated about Friday the 13th is that it doesn’t shy away from showing what a lifetime of battling the supernatural would do to someone’s psyche. At the end of this episode, Jack is about as depressed as I’ve ever seen him. The great Chris Wiggins was always Friday the 13th’s not-so secret weapon and he gives another stand-out performance here.

In fact, this episode is so focused on Jack, Jandini, and Ilsa that Micki and Johnny largely feel like bystanders. There’s nothing wrong with that, to be honest. Micki and Johnny just don’t have the same sort of enjoyable chemistry that Micki and Ryan had. Still, watching Johnny in the background, it’s hard not to consider that the third season’s writers never really figured out who the character was meant to be or what they really wanted to do with him. I have sympathy for Steve Monarque because he doesn’t come across as being a bad actor. Instead, he comes across as being an actor who was saddled with an extremely inconsistent character.

As for this episode, it was nice to finally get an episode that was just about a cursed antique and that didn’t feel the need to try to reinvent the show’s format. That said, the television seems likes a really bulky object to curse. How did Ilsa even figure the curse out? What if the television had been purchased by someone who wasn’t terminally ill? Can Ilsa watch regular programming on the television or is it always a portal to Hell? These questions go unanswered.

Still, it’s an atmospheric episode and Chris Wiggins gives a strong performance. For a season 3 episode, this wasn’t bad. It’s also the the third-to-late episode of Friday the 13th. Only two more left to go.

I’m going to miss this show.