18 year-old Anne Marie Henderson (Diana Hyland) is being pressured, by her family, to marry Robert, a dull stockbroker (Robert Hogan). However, Anne Marie is still in love with her former fiancee, David (Roger Davis). As the day of her marriage approaches, Anne Marie suddenly finds herself being chased by a woman in black who yells at her not to get married…
This episode of the Twilight Zone was originally broadcast on February 21st, 1964. It was directed by Elliot Silverstein and written by Richard Matheson.
Satanic priest Jonathan Corbis (Ernest Borgnine) has spent decades pursuing the Preston family. The Prestons, it turns out, have a book of powerful Satanic magic in their possession. After Corbis causes the Preston patriarch to melt in the rain, Mark Preston (William Shatner) decides to confront Corbis and his followers…
Released in 1975, the Devil’s Rain was presumably made to capitalize on the success of films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. The film itself is a bit incoherent but it’s worth watching just to see shameless overactors William Shatner and Ernest Borgnine acting opposite each other. The cast also includes Ida Lupino, Keenan Wynn, Tom Skerritt, and Eddie Albert, which means that there’s not a single bit of scenery that doesn’t get chewed at some point.
If watch carefully, you can spot John Travolta making his screen debut towards the end of the film.
As a small community prepares to execute a remorseless killer, the sky above the town turns pitch black. Even as the Sheriff and the town priest try to figure out what’s happening, the town prepares to administer its own version of justice.
Some reviewers have complained that this Twilight Zone episode is a bit too heavy-handed for its own good but it’s actually one of my favorite episodes, (Then again, I’ve always been against the death penalty and, for the most part, critics only consider a show to be heavy-handed when they disagree with the message.) While the writing may not be subtle, this is a well-acted episode and, while watching it, you truly do get the feeling that a community is slowly giving into the darkness of hatred.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Abner Biberman. It was originally broadcast on March 27th, 1964.
A bunch of manly men are building an airstrip on an island off the coast of Africa. Two of them come across an oddly glowing meteorite and they make the mistake of trying to move it with a bulldozer. Needless to say, the bulldozer gets possessed by an alien presence and soon, the men are all being pursued by the … Killdozer!
My boyfriend and I recently sat down and watched this 1974 made-for-TV movie. Jeff enjoyed it while I thought Killdozer was perhaps one of the silliest films I have ever seen in my life. That’s not surprising, however. Killdozer is a guy film all the way, celebrating both the destructive power of machinery and the ability of men to tame that power.
Killdozer may not be a great film but it’s a film that feels rather appropriate for October.
John Newland is back with yet another “true” story designed to take us One Step Beyond. In this episode, a young boy named Dewey goes missing but then shows back up and says that he’s been hanging out with a Bigfoot-like monster.
Today’s movie is Ed Wood’s sequel to Bride of the Monsters. In Night of the Ghouls, con man Dr. Alcula (Kenne Duncan) moves into Bela Lugosi’s old mansion and pretends to talk to the dead. What Alcula doesn’t realize is that the house is actually haunted (by Tor Johnson’s Lobo, among others) and real ghosts don’t appreciate pretend ghosts.
What can you say about a film like of Night of the Ghouls? It’s an Ed Wood film, with all that suggests. However, how can you resist a film that starts with Criswell sitting up in his coffin and providing commentary?
The role of Dr. Alcula was originally written for Bela Lugosi. After Lugosi’s death, veteran actor and longtime Wood friend Kenne Duncan got the role instead. Also of note, Wood appears twice in this film. Not only does his picture appear on a wanted poster in the police station but Wood also plays one of the female ghouls.
Of all of the world’s real-life monsters, Jack the Ripper is one of the most iconic. Whether it’s because he was never actually caught or because he committed his savage crimes during an era that we associate with emotional and sexual repression or maybe just because he has a memorable name, Jack the RIpper continues to both fascinate artists of all genres and haunt the nightmares of viewers and readers like me.
Tonight’s episode of televised horror on the Lens deals with Jack the Ripper. This episode of Thriller was originally broadcast on April 11, 1961 and is based on a short story by Robert Bloch. It was directed by actor Ray Milland.
Without further ado, here is Yours Truly, Jack the RIpper…
Last night, the Snarkalecs and I turned over to SyFy and watched an original horror film entitled Grave Halloween.
Why Were We Watching It?
It was Saturday night and that meant that it was time for another Snarkalec live tweet! We were all pretty excited about watching and live tweeting Grave Halloween, largely because it was directed by the same guy who directed the greatest film to ever premiere on SyFy, End Of The World.
What Was It About?
A group of American exchange students in Japan go into a place known as Suicide Forest to make a movie. Years ago, Maiko’s (Kaitlyn Leeb) mother committed suicide in the forest. Naturally, as soon as Maiko and her friends enter the forest, they end up getting lost, having visions of the dead, and dying in various grotesque ways. It doesn’t help that one of Maiko’s friends finds a discarded watch in the forest and decides to stick it in his pocket. Seriously, ghosts are apparently really attached to their watches.
What Worked?
A lot of people on twitter complained that Grave Halloween moved too slowly. I, however, didn’t find the film to be that slow. It was definitely deliberately paced (especially when compared to some of the other films that have appeared on SyFy) but I thought that was to the film’s advantage. The film took its time to set up its scares and shocks and the end result was a genuinely creepy horror film that rewarded the audience’s patience.
The film was set in Japan but, like most SyFy films, it was actually filmed in Vancouver. Now, I’ve never been to Japan or Vancouver so I can’t really say whether Canada could pass for Japan. But what I do know is that director Stephen R. Monroe got every single bit of atmosphere that he could out of the forests of British Columbia. As filmed by Monroe and cinematographer Michael C. Blundell, the scenery is both beautiful and menacing. By the end of the film, the forest itself feels like an individual character.
Of the cast of victims, my favorite was Brody (played by Jesse Wheeler), mostly because he looked like he could be Greg Grunberg’s younger brother.
What Did Not Work?
As I watched Grave Halloween, it quickly became apparent that the entire situation was pretty much all Maiko’s fault. She’s the one who led her friends into Suicide Forest. She’s the one who, even after everyone started to vanish, refused to leave. Ultimately, she was the one who was responsible for putting her friends in a position where they could all be killed.
And yet, no one in the film seemed to be willing to acknowledge that they would have all been better off if they had never met Maiko. Seriously, I was so waiting for someone to say, “Okay, Maiko — you go do your thing and the rest of us are going to get the fuck outta here before we end up getting ripped into little pieces, ‘kay?”
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments
So, naturally, one of the girls ended up tripping while she was running through the forest. Despite the fact that it didn’t look like that bad of a fall, she ended up with a broken bone literally poking out of her leg.
Since I’m currently recovering from a sprained ankle, you can probably imagine that this was not my favorite scene in the movie. Instead, it made me go, “Agck!” and then hide my face in a pillow because I could relate way too much.
(That said, I’m still amazed at how fragile her bones apparently were…)
Today’s horror film on the lens is Edward D. Wood’s 1955 epic, Bride of the Monster. The film itself doesn’t feature a bride but it does feature a monster, a giant octopus who guards the mansion of the mysterious Dr. Vornoff (Bela Lugosi). Vornoff and his hulking henchman Lobo (Tor Johnson) have been kidnapping men and using nuclear power to try to create a race of super soldiers. Or something like that. The plot has a make-it-up-as-you-go-along feel to it. That’s actually a huge part of the film’s appeal.
Bride of the Monster is regularly described as being one of the worst films ever made but I think that’s rather unfair. Appearing in his last speaking role, Lugosi actually gives a pretty good performance, bringing a wounded dignity to the role of Vornoff. If judged solely against other movies directed by Ed Wood, this is actually one of the best films ever made.
When I first decided to feature episodes of televised horror, I very much wanted to include the classic Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare At 20,000 Feet. However, the full episode wasn’t available on YouTube and that was truly unfortunate. Along with being a scary episode of classic show, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet was all about flying, which is something that scares me.
However, as I was searching through YouTube, I did come across an episode of Ghost Stories entitled Last Flight Out, which also deals with this very primal fear that so many of us have. It’s no Nightmare at 20,000 Feet but it’s effective in its own way.
As for Ghost Stories, it was a horror anthology series that aired from 1996 to 1997 on the Fox Family Channel. As you can probably guess, each episode told a story about ghosts and, in the great anthology tradition, each story ended with a twist. Each episode was narrated by Rip Torn.
