Tag Archives: Horror

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.

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 2.14 “Face of Evil”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new 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 show can be found on YouTube!

It’s sequel time!

Episode 2.14 “Face of Evil”

(Dir by William Fruet, originally aired on February 6th, 1989)

In this sequel to the first season episode Vanity’s Mirror, Joanne Mackey (Gwendoline Pacey) returns to Curious Goods for the first time since the death of her younger sister, Helen.  Joanne reveals that she’s the one who stole the cursed gold compact at the end of Vanity’s Mirror, explaining that she simply had to have something that belonged to her sister.  Jack is not amused, telling her that she should have turned it over so that it could be stored in the vault.

Calm down, Jack.  Joanne knows she did something wrong and she’s trying to make amends.  She is especially concerned because the compact is now in the hands of an aging supermodel named Tabitha Robbins (Laura Robinson).  Tabitha is upset that her career is struggling and she’s been told that not even plastic surgery can reverse the fact that she’s just not as young as her competition.  Tabitha has figured out that anyone whose face is caught in the reflection of the mirror will either die or, at the very least, suffer a terrible disfigurement.  Apparently, in this case, the antique’s curse changes depending on who owns it.

I have mixed feelings about this episode.  On the one hand, I could relate to Tabitha’s feelings about aging.  No one wants to age and that’s doubly true when you’re working in an industry where youth is the most valuable commodity.  I also enjoyed the very 80s fashion shoots that were featured in this episode.  On the other hand, there were a lot of rather silly scenes of Tabitha trying to catch Ryan and Micki’s reflection in the mirror while Mick and Ryan ducked around with their hands over their faces.  There’s no other way to put it other than to say it all looked really goofy.

The biggest problem with this episode is that the majority of it was taken up with clips from Vanity’s Mirror.  Every few minutes, Joanne would think about Helen and we would get a flashback.  Unfortunately, a lot of the flashbacks didn’t even feature Joanne so you have to wonder how exactly she was able to remember them.  The constant flashbacks made this episode feel like a clip show and you know how much I hate those.

In the end, Tabitha accidentally catches her own face in the mirror’s reflection and she immediately starts aging.  I guess that’s the risk you take when you try to use a mirror as a weapon.  Micki and Ryan finally retrieve the compact and Jack mentions that Joanne could have saved a lot of lives by not stealing the compact in the first place.  Look, Jack — she feels bad enough already!  I’m sorry everyone isn’t beating down the doors of the antique shop to give you their cursed items.  Get off Joanne’s back!

Oh well.  At least the evil compact will hurt no one else….

Horror on TV: One Step Beyond 2.27 “The Clown” (dir by John Newland)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s episode of One Step Beyond originally aired on March 22nd, 1960.  The title of this episode?

The Clown.

Scared yet?

You should be.  Clowns are creepy!

Watch the episode below and find out just how creepy!

Enjoy!

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Delirium (dir by Peter Maris)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1979’s Delirium takes place on the mean streets of St. Louis and the surrounding countryside.  Crime is out of control and something has to be done about it!  Thanks to Earl Warren and the Carter administration, the police are powerless to stop the criminals.  (“Miranda rights my ass!” you can almost hear the film’s screenwriter shouting.)  So, the wealthier citizens of St. Louis get together and hire a bald Vietnam vet named Eric Stern (Barron Winchester) to lead a paramilitary group of vigilantes.  One of Stern’s men is another vet, Charlie (Nick Panouzis).  Charlie suffers from PTSD and it turn out that being a part of a militia is not the best way to deal with war trauma.  Who would have guessed?

Charlie snaps.  He starts killing people, in both St. Louis and the surrounding farms.  One victim is a hitchhiker who is dumb enough to hitch a ride from him and then to taunt him when he refuses to go skinny dipping with her.  It turns out that Charlie’s been impotent ever since he came home from the war.  He doesn’t respond well to jokes about it.

As Charlie claims more and more victims, both the police and vigilantes search for him.  The police want to stop his rampage,  The vigilantes don’t want Charlie to accidentally reveal their existence.  The whole thing ends in violence, gun fights, and flashbacks in which Vietnam looks a lot like rural Missouri.

Delirium is a film that I first noticed on my list of Tubi recommendations a few months ago.  I finally watched it last night and I have to admit that my first reaction was, “What the Hell was that?”  Delirium is bizarre mix of slasher horror and vigilante thrills, the type of mishmash that one can only really find in a grindhouse film.  That the budget was low is obvious in every shot.  The wealthy conspiracy meets in what appears to be a hut. As I previously mentioned, the Vietnam scenes were clearly filmed in Missouri.  The acting is largely amateurish, with the exceptions of the intense Nick Panouzis and the absolutely insane performance of Barron Winchester.  The film was gory enough to have earned a spot on the infamous Videos Nastys list but, as is so often case, what was shocking in 1979 seems rather tame in 2024.  I did like the conspiracy aspects of the film.  The idea of a group of wealthy people putting together a vigilante squad without actually bothering to do any background checks on the people they recruited actually has a good deal of potential.  The film is a mess but it’s a mess in the oddly fascinating way that many low-budget 70s films were.  The mix of ambition and a low budget often led to watchable oddities like Delirium.

The main thing that really stuck with me about Delirium is just how annoyed and angry almost every single character in the film seemed to be.  Even the cop trying to stop Charlie seems like he was pissed off about having to actually do his job.  I guess St. Louis does that to people.