For tonight’s televised horror, we have yet another classic episode of the Boris Karloff-hosted anthology series, Thriller!
In the Wig for Miss Devore, Sheila Devore (Patricia Barry) is an actress looking to make a comeback. She’s recently been cast in a film about a real-life witch who was executed centuries ago. Sheila’s so determined to make the part her own that she’s even willing to wear a wig that once belonged to the dead witch.
Needless to say, that proves to be a mistake for her.
Today is the 79th anniversary of Orson Welles’s infamous War of the Worlds broadcast.
In 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater of the Air performed a radio adaptation of H.G. Welles’s War of the World. Presented as a live news program, it was one of the first mockumentaries. It also caused a panic. How big the panic was is open for debate. Some say only a few people took it seriously. Other sources say that it was a nationwide crisis. But, regardless, Welles made history on that night. Not only did he illustrate the power of the media but he also scared the Hell out of a lot of people. All in all, a pretty good night…
Filmed in 1957 for a television program called Westinghouse Studio One, The Night America Trembled is a dramatization of that night. For legal reasons, Orson Welles is not portrayed nor is his name mentioned. Instead, the focus is mostly on the people listening to the broadcast and getting the wrong idea. That may sound like a comedy but The Night America Trembled takes itself fairly seriously. Even pompous old Edward R. Murrow shows up to narrate the film, in between taking drags off a cigarette. (I enjoyed the show but, whenever Murrow showed up, I was reminded of a grumpy old teacher complaining that none of his students cared about the Spanish-American War.)
Clocking in at a brisk 60 minutes, The Night America Trembled is an interesting recreation of that October 30th. Among the people panicking: a group of people in a bar who, before hearing the broadcast, were debating whether or not Hitler was as crazy as people said he was, a babysitter who goes absolutely crazy with fear, and a group of poker-playing college students. If, like me, you’re a frequent viewer of TCM, you may recognize some of the faces in the large cast: Ed Asner, James Coburn, John Astin, Warren Oates, and Warren Beatty all make early appearances.
As I said, it’s an interesting little historical document and you can watch it below!
Zombie Island Massacre has got a massacre but it ain’t got no zombies.
Instead, it has a group of tourists who travel to Zombie Island so they can watch a voodoo ceremony. Afterward, their tour bus breaks down. The driver leaves to get help but never returns. There is a deserted villa nearby so the tourists decide to take shelter there for the night. Whenever anyone stumbles away from the main group, they are killed by someone wearing a costume made of leaves. There ain’t no zombies or surprises in the glacially paced movie. There might not even be an island. It might actually be a peninsula. I’m not sure.
The only reason that Zombie Island Massacre is remembered is because one of the tourists is played by Rita Jenrette. Rita was the wife of John Johnrette, a South Carolina congressman who was taken down as a part of Abscam. Rita got a divorce and wrote a book called My Capital Secrets, where she revealed that she and John had sex on the capital steps while the House was holding an all-night session. Rita was not a bad actress, though the material only required her to scream and take a shower.
The main problem with Zombie Island Massacre is obvious. There ain’t no zombies on that island.
This is a short and clever game about you and your evil twin. You have just pulled an all-nighter and you may want to sleep but you know you can’t. Your evil twin is out there, doing evil things. Not only did he mess up the neighbor’s lawn but he also set up a mind control device in the park. Can you figure out how to enter his secret lair and stop him?
My Evil Twin is based on the They Might Be Giants song. How easy the puzzles are to solve will depend on how much you know about the band’s history. I had to resort to Google to solve one puzzle because it required knowing a certain obscure piece of TMG trivia that was not hidden anywhere in the game. Other than that, I liked My Evil Twin. It was short, to the point, and I enjoyed reading about all the terrible things that my twin did whenever I was not around.
Don’t Go In The Old Greene House is another Twine Choose Your Own Adventure type of game. You have been dared to spend all of Halloween night in the old Greene House, which is said to be haunted. You agree because you know better than to turn down a dare. Exploring the house means running into mysterious spirits. Here’s something that I learned the hard way: Be nice to the little girl at the table. I know that one of the fun things about interactive fiction is that you get to do things that you would never do in real life but, no matter how tempted you may be, do not tell the girl at the table to stop crying and fuck off. Bad things will happen.
Twine games are always a mixed bag for me. I enjoy the simple format but, as opposed to games made with Inform or TADS, they can leave you feeling more like a reader than an active participant in the game. Don’t Go In the Greene House is an example of a good Twine game, well-written and with enough different outcomes that it is actually worth replaying.
Fantastic Adventures was an extremely successful and influential pulp magazine that was published from 1939 to 1953. They published a combination of fantasy, horror, and adventure, all distinguished by a more light-hearted approach than some of the other pulp magazines of the era.
Even better, Fantastic Adventures was one of the few pulp magazines to give proper credit to its cover artists:
Faithful Companion is simply but difficult. You are at the cemetery, visiting the mausoleum. You want to get in the crypt. Opening the doors that lead into the crypt should be easy except you are being followed by a ghost. Any action you take will be duplicated by the ghost two turns later.
That may not sound like a big deal until you learn that, if the ghost touches you, you will pass out. If you take something and are still holding it two turns later, that means the ghost will take it from you. If you have to open a door by pushing three latches so that they open, the ghost will follow behind you, pushing the latches closed. The game’s challenge comes from fooling the ghost into helping you accomplish what you want to do.
I enjoyed this game. It is short, it is not impossibly hard, and it’s rewarding when you actually figure it all out.
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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
This October, I am going to be using our 4 Shots From 4 Films feature to pay tribute to some of my favorite horror directors, in alphabetical order! That’s right, we’re going from Argento to Zombie in one month!
Today’s director: the great Ed Wood!
4 Shots From 4 Films
Bride of the Monster (1955, dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr.)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1956, dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr)
Night of the Ghouls (1958, dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr)
The Sinister Urge (1960, dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr.)
I previously shared Haxan back in October of 2013. A day later, YouTube removed the video and turned my post into a tease.
Well, the video has been uploaded again so I’m sharing Haxan again!
To quote what I wrote the last time that I shared this particular film:
Directed by the Danish director Benjamin Christensen, Haxan is a quasi-documentary that, over the course of four separate sections, documents the history of witchcraft and superstition in Europe. Along with making a potent case that religion and superstition are largely the same thing, Haxan is best known for dramatizing various old folk tales. Though the film was made in 1922, its images of lustful devils and dark magic remain powerful to this day.
Zombie Island Massacre has got a massacre but it ain’t got no zombies.
Through the Shattered Lens 