Horror on TV: The Hitchhiker 5.26 “Pawns” (dir by Leon Marr)

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Poor Eddie!

Eddie (David McIlwraith) used to be a rock star but now he’s a washed up alcoholic without a cent to his name. Needing to pay his bills, Eddie decides to make the ultimate sacrifice. He decides to go down to a pawnshop and sell his trademark guitar. However, a quirky woman named Elisabeth (Jill Hennessy) has another idea. Maybe …. he could just rob the pawn shop!

Did you know that, as a name, Lisa started out as a shortened version of Elisabeth?

This episode originally aired on December 16th, 1989.

The Shadow People (2017, directed by Brian T. Jaynes)

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

On a rainy night and after nearly crashing their car into a ditch, Andrew (Bug Hall) and Megan (Kat Steffens) arrive at their new country home. Andrew is a writer. Megan is a painter. At first, their new home seems like the perfect place for both of them to practice their art and work on starting a family but then Megan starts to see strange people standing around the house. She fears that they could be the Shadow People, evil spirits that her grandfather told her about. After Megan realizes that she’s lost her necklace, her visions start to get more extreme and violent.

The Shadow People starts out as a really good haunted house film with a good performance from Kat Steffens and a lot of effective jump scares. It works up until a scene where Megan suddenly speaks in a demonic voice, as if she’s been possessed. Later, some of the spirits speak in the same voice and it sounds so much like autotune that it takes you right out of the movie. The spirits are much more effective before they start talking but the movie still has a good twist ending and Kat Steffens’s performance is never less than great so The Shadow People is still worth it.

Top-billed on The Shadow People‘s poster is C. Thomas Howell. Howell actually only has a few minutes of screen time, playing a mysterious minster whose role in the story only become apparent in the film’s final moments.

Retro Television Reviews: Cabin By The Lake (dir by Po-Chih Leong)

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 2000’s Cabin By The Lake! It can be viewed on YouTube.

Screenwriter Stanley Caldwell (Judd Nelson) has been hired to write a slasher film and, to the concern of both the film’s director (Bernie Coulson) and Stanley’s agent (Susan Gibney), Stanley is taking his time to write the script. Stanley says that he’s determined to write something more than just a typical “dead teenager” film. His script is about a murderer who kills his victims and then dumps them into a nearby lake. The killer spends his time tending his underwater garden.

What is taking Stanley so long? Stanley is doing research, which means that he’s kidnapping women, holding them prisoner in his cabin, and then dumping their bodies into the lake. Along the way, he’s observing how the victims act and he’s incorporating his research into his script. Though Stanley tells himself that he’s just doing research, it’s obvious that the script is no longer his main concern. Now, Stanley is just enjoying working in his garden.

Stanley’s latest victim is Mallory (Hedy Burress), a young woman who works at the town’s movie theater and who has a long-standing fear of the water. While Stanley is holding Mallory captive and studying both her and her fear of water, Deputy Boone Preston (Michael Weatherly) is searching for Mallory. And, of course, Stanley is running out of time to finish his script.

Cabin In The Lake was produced by and originally aired on the USA Network and, as a result, it has a much darker sense of humor than one might otherwise expect to find in a made-for-tv horror movie from 2000. Most of the humor centers around the pretensions of the film industry, with both Stanley and his film’s director trying to turn their little slasher movie into something more than just another dead teenager film. A good deal of the film centers around a group of special effects and makeup artists, who are recruited to help capture the killer and they’re all likable in their dorky way. The scenes of Stanley’s underwater garden achieve a certain dream-like grandeur and, as someone who has a morbid fear of drowning, I could certainly relate to Mallory’s fear of the water.

That said, this is one of those films where the parts are definitely greater than the whole. I think the film’s biggest problem was that Judd Nelson was a bit bland in the role of Stanley, flatly delivering his lines and barely bothering to show a hint of emotion. If anything, Nelson appears to be a bit bored with the film. Hedy Burress is sympathetic as Mallory and Michael Weatherly is believable as the upstanding deputy but a film like this lives or dies based on its villain and Nelson sleepwalks through the role. As well, for all the humorous moments that do work, it soon becomes obvious that this is a one-joke film and portraying Hollywood as being a place full of shallow people is not creative enough a joke to sustain an entire film. The end result is a film that is ultimately frustratingly uneven.

Horror Scenes That I Love: Jack Nicholson in The Shining

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s actor really needs no introduction. While Jack Nicholson started his career as a part of the Roger Corman stock company and appeared in the original Little Shop of Horrors while also being strongly considered for the role of Guy Woodhouse in Rosemary’s Baby, Nicholson has not appeared in many horror movies.

But the horror movie in which he did appear is such a classic that it’s made Nicholson a horror icon, even if he didn’t appear in as many horror films as a Christopher Lee or a Boris Karloff.

In this scene from 1980’s The Shining, Nicholson’s Jack Torrance has a drink with a ghost. Nicholson does a wonderful job in this scene, especially when he’s playing off the wonderfully sinister Joe Turkel.

October True Crime: The Preppie Murder (dir by John Herzfield)

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1989 film, The Preppie Murder, tells the story of the murder of Jennifer Levin (played by Lara Flynn Boyle), an 18 year-old teenager from an affluent family, who was found dead in Central Park on August 26,1986.

The man who was accused of murdering her was Robert Chambers (played by William Baldwin). Tall, handsome, and popular, Robert Chambers was a former prep school student who had spent one semester at Boston University before being asked to leave because of a series of petty crimes. Though Chambers and Levin were both a part of the same social circle, Chambers did not come from a wealthy family. Instead, his background was working class. (That said, his mother did once serve as a private nurse to John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Robert Chambers even met the presidential scion once.) Chambers supported himself through stealing his girlfriend’s jewelry and selling drugs. At the time that he started dating Jennifer Levin, he had just gotten out of rehab. As shown in the early part of the film, Jennifer’s friends warned her that Chambers had a bad reputation but Jennifer felt that he was just someone who had made mistakes and who was trying to take advantage of his second chance. To be honest, it’s a sentiment to which I could relate. I think every woman has had at least one Robert Chambers in their life, the bad boy who could melt hearts with calculated moments of vulnerability but who, in the end, turned out to be an empty shell of a human being.

In the film, the murder occurs off-screen. We watch as Robert and Jennifer leave a bar together and then we cut to the next morning, with Robert watching from a distance as a homicide detective (Danny Aiello, bringing his trademark, no-nonsense New York style to the role) investigates the scene of Jennifer’s murder. When the police learn that Robert was the last person to see Jennifer alive, Robert is brought in for questioning. The cocky Robert attempts to explain away the scratches on his face and body by saying that his cat scratched him. (“Do you own a tiger?” Aiello’s detective asks him.) When Robert finally confesses to having killed Jennifer, he claims that he Jennifer was assaulting him and that he only struck her in self-defense. It’s a ridiculous and offensive story but it’s one that the press loves. Robert may be the one charged with a crime but it soon becomes clear that, despite not being able to defend herself, Jennifer is the one being put on trial.

It’s an infuriating film, all the more so because it was based on a true story and stuck close to the facts of both the case and the trial. William Baldwin is well-cast as Robert Chambers, playing him as a handsome and superficially charming man who secretly knows that he’s empty on the inside. William Devane plays Chambers’s high-priced attorney, who puts Jennifer on trial and only briefly allows himself any feelings of guilt about his actions. Lara Flynn Boyle wins the viewer’s sympathy in her limited screen time and Danny Aiello is, of course, the perfect New York cop.

What was particularly disturbing about the film was its portrayal of Jennifer and Robert’s friends, many of whom chose to support Robert even though they knew he had murdered Jennifer. The film ends with clips of Robert at a party that was thrown by his friends after he got out on bail. While Robert pretends to twist off a doll’s heads, his friends laugh in the background, either unaware or unconcerned that Robert is recreating his murder of Jennifer while they watch.

The real-life Robert Chambers eventually pled guilty to manslaughter and spent 15 years in prison. He was released in 2003 and promptly returned to his old life of petty crime and drug dealing. He was sent back in prison, convicted of selling $2800 worth of heroin to an undercover cop. He was released in July of this year.

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: Special Tobe Hooper Edition

Posted on October 22, 2023 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

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, dir by Tobe Hooper, DP: Daniel Pearl)

Eaten Alive (1976, dir by Tobe Hooper, DP: Robert Caramico)

Salem’s Lot (1978, dir by Tobe Hooper, DP: Jules Bremmer)

The Funhouse (1981, dir by Tobe Hooper. DP: Andrew Laszlo)

Moments #11: Exploring The Red House

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Dazzling Erin

One day, not too long ago, I was walking around the neighborhood with my camera when I came across a deserted house.

I decided that, since I had my camera with me, I might as well explore.

The window were broken and the backdoor was unlocked.

As I walked through the house, it seemed to be deserted but it soon became obvious that someone else had recently been there. The doors were all open. The ceiling fans in the kitchen were still spinning. There was a chair, like the one pictured above, in almost every room of the house. I started to feel uncomfortable so I decided to leave the house. As I stepped back through the backyard, I noticed a pile of bricks lying in the backyard.

As I walked away from the house, I noticed one last thing — the remains of a bicycle in the front yard.

Eventually, someone bought and refurnished the house, fixing the broken windows and, I assume, the broken door as well. I still wonder who owned that bicycle.

Previous Moments:

Horror on the Lens: Island of the Burning Damned (dir by Terence Fisher)

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s horror on the lens is a British 1967 science fiction film, featuring the team of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and directed by Terence Fisher!

This film is based on a novel that came out in 1959. It was originally meant to be a movie for British television but, after the script was written, it was decided to instead turn it into a theatrical film. The film was originally called Night of the Big Heat but, when it was subsequently released in the United States, the title was changed to Island of the Burning Damned.

It’s not October without Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee!

6 Trailers For The End Of The Third Week Of Horrorthon

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With the third week of Horrorthon coming to a close and the final week about to start, I have to really ask myself, “Where does the time go!?”

Well, as I consider that, why not check out this special Horrorthon edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film trailers!

Ruby (1977)

In this film from 1977, the great Piper Laurie plays Ruby, a former gun moll who owns her own haunted drive-in theater!

2. Drive-In Massacre (1976)

Ruby was not the only 70s horror film to be sent at a drive-in. There was also 1976’s Drive-In Massacre!

3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

And what were they all watching at the drive-in? Depending on the year, they could have very well have been watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre!