Today is Bela Lugosi’s birthday!
This video was shot at Coachella in 2005.
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: review
October Positivity: Redeemed (dir by David A.R. White)
In 2014’s Redeemed, Ted McGinley plays Paul Tyson.
Paul is married to Beth (Teri Copley) and is a respected businessman who is in charge of a cybersecurity firm. His latest project is Jericho which, if successful, could revolutionize the way that information is protected online. A Brazilian firm is interested in buying Paul’s company, which could make Paul a very wealthy man.
However, Paul has some secrets. Work on Jericho has not gone as smoothly as one might hope and Paul suspects that it might be due to corporate espionage. Paul is several thousand dollars in debt and the bank has been sending him threatening letters. When Paul’s friend David (David A.R. White, who also directed) splits with his wife, Paul starts to wonder whether any marriage can survive the modern age. How do you keep a marriage strong in an increasingly complicated world? Paul and Beth are supposed to be renewing the vows in the near-future but Paul is preoccupied with both his job and what appears to be a massive mid-life crisis.
Temptation arrives in the form of Julia (Ana Ayora), a beautiful woman who has been sent from Brazil to check out the company. Paul finds himself attracted to Julia and they bond over many a night of corporate intrigue. Paul finds himself growing distant from Beth. Is Paul going to cheat and destroy his marriage?
(Actually, David explains that Paul is already cheating just by spending time with a woman other than this wife. David also explains that he’s not the one who cheated in his marriage. Instead, his wife met some guy in an Internet chatroom and she’s been talking to him nonstop. They haven’t even met but it’s enough for David to move out of his house and into a hotel. So, remember — if you’re married and you have any close friends of the opposite sex, you’re just a cheatin’ whore. Sorry, I didn’t make the rules.)
Will Paul remain faithful to Beth? And will he ever discover who is trying to sabotage Jericho?
On the positive side, Redeemed features Ted McGinley in a dramatic lead role and McGinley does a pretty good job with it. There are a few times when Paul is simply too naive to be believable but that’s due to the script and not due to McGinley’s performance. McGinley does the best he can with the material that he’s been given to work with. I will also point out that the stock footage of Brazil was lovely. Finally, David A.R. White is a pleasant-enough actor and his direction here gives the entire film a comfortable Lifetime sort of fell.
On the negative side …. ugh, that plot. The corporate espionage stuff was hokey and Paul’s indecision about whether or not to commit adultery made his character seem more than a little flakey. Paul’s married to a very tolerant and understanding woman and he has a beautiful family. The fact that Paul was so easily tempted to throw all that away makes it difficult to have much sympathy for his character and it also makes his eventual “redemption” a bit difficult to buy. I think most genuinely good husbands would be able to decide not to cheat on their wives without having to fly off to Brazil to think about it. In the end, the film is very forgiving of Paul but it doesn’t convince the audience to feel the same way.
Redeemed is a film that celebrates marriage and leaves one appreciating divorce.
Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi: The Next Generation 1.10 “Rumors and Relationships”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, which aired from 2001 to 2015! The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi.
This week, Emma tries to destroy someone’s life.
Episode 1.10 “Rumors and Relationships”
(Dir by Paul Fox, originally aired on May 20th, 2002)
This episode features Spinner at his best and Emma at her worst.
Let’s get Emma out of the way first. When Emma happens to see Liberty and Coach Armstrong alone in a classroom together, she assumes that Armstrong is hitting on Liberty. She tells Manny about her suspicions. Terri overhears and tells Sean. Sean tells Spinner. Spinner tells Jimmy. Jimmy tells Paige. Paige tells Hazel (Andrea Lewis). Hazel tells Ashley. Ashley tells Liberty. Liberty gets upset. When Emma sees Liberty crying, Emma ask Liberty about her and Armstrong. Liberty swears on her life that Armstrong was not hitting on her. Emma wonders how the rumor got started–
Uhmm, Emma …. YOU STARTED IT!
Emma promises Liberty that she will work her backwards to find the person who started the rumor–
IT WAS YOU, EMMA! YOU STARTED THE RUMOR!
Because Emma is apparently incapable of remember what she said earlier in the day, she goes from Ashley to Hazel to Page to Spinner (she skips Jimmy) to Sean and eventually she confronts Terri. Emma says that the rumor is all over the school and it’s all Terri’s fault.
Terri, quite sensibly, points out that Emma is the one who started the rumor.
Now, in her defense, Emma does feel bad about starting the rumor. When Mr. Raditch calls Coach Armstrong out into the hall to tell him about the rumors, Emma walks up and confesses that it’s her fault. But one thing Emma doesn’t do is really apologize. In fact, when she later talks to Liberty, she instead acts as if it is somehow Liberty’s fault for not telling Emma why she was in a classroom alone with Armstrong in the first place. Liberty finally admits that she had dyscalculia (which is dyslexia but with numbers) and that Armstrong — THE MATH TEACHER — has been tutoring her and helping her not to feel bad about it. Emma again asks why Liberty just didn’t tell her that to begin with.
Hey, Emma — maybe Liberty didn’t tell you because IT’S NONE OF YOUR FREAKING BUSINESS!
The episode ends with Liberty telling Emma that, when it comes to helping people, Emma sucks. And Liberty certainly has a point.
Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Spinner discovers a bug in his food. “Boycott the caf!” he yells, “it has earwigs!” Unfortunately, no one believes Spinner. So, the next day, Spinner collects a bunch of bugs and takes them into the cafeteria. He thinks that if someone else sees a bug and reports it, they will be believed and someone will call an exterminator. Of course, the only thing that anyone sees is Spiner carrying a tub of bugs. The bugs get free and Spinner is sentenced to work in the cafeteria until he’s paid off the $300 that it’s going to cost the school to have the cafeteria exterminated.
“But it needed to be exterminated anyways!” Spinner says.
This was classic Spinner. Even when he cares about Degrassi, no one listens. It’s a little bit gross that he was carrying around a tub of living bugs but his heart was in the right place.
Spinner’s the best!
Horror On TV: The Great Bear Scare (dir by Hal Mason)
I came across this old cartoon on YouTube. Apparently, it aired in October of 1983.
It’s about bears living in Bearbank. Halloween is approaching and they’re worried about getting invaded by the monsters who live on Monster Mountain. Well, that makes sense. My question is why would you buy a house near a location called Monster Mountain? And really, shouldn’t the monsters be in the houses and the bears in the mountains? This cartoon is weird.
Anyway, the bears are getting ready to feel the city but little Ted E. Bear sets out to confront his fears! Woo hoo!
I don’t know. It’s from 1983. That was a strange year, I guess.
Enjoy!
Brad reviews SESSION 9 (2001), starring David Caruso and Peter Mullan!
Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) the owner of a company that removes asbestos from old buildings, makes a bid for the work at the Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts. In a desperate need for cash in his personal life, Gordon promises that his crew can complete the job in only one week, even though a job like this should normally take at least three weeks. His crew… Phil (David Caruso) is Gordon’s right hand man who tries to keep everyone else in line. This isn’t very easy these days considering that another member of the team is Hank (Josh Lucas), who’s currently “dating” (not the word Hank uses) Phil’s ex-girlfriend. The crew is rounded out by Mike (co-writer Stephen Gevedon), a law school dropout who seems to be way too smart to be doing this kind of work, and Jeff (Brendan Sexton III), Gordon’s nephew. As you might expect, once they begin the job, strange things start happening as the crew members find various items in the gigantic mental institution that once housed up to 2,400 people. Mike finds a box of tapes of nine therapy sessions detailing the case of Mary Hobbes, a patient with many personalities who may have murdered someone decades before. Meanwhile, Hank finds a stash of coins and other valuable items in one of the walls. A gambling addict, Hank goes back late that night when no one is around to collect his discovery. Things don’t go well and Hank doesn’t show up for work the next day. We’re led to believe that Hank has headed off to Florida for “casino school,” and this is where things start really getting weird as the pressure of the job and the strange events seem to be getting to the entire crew. When Jeff spots a very oddly acting Hank in the building a couple of days later, the sinister events at the Danvers State Hospital begin to completely unravel!
Director Brad Anderson’s SESSION 9 is a creepy, slow burn that’s best described as a psychological horror film. It’s one of those movies where you can’t trust what you’re seeing on screen because the story is about the disturbed and damaged human mind. In my opinion, this is the most haunting kind of horror film because there are so many examples in the real world of mentally disturbed people committing horrific acts of violence. My wife has spent the last decade of her nursing career in the area of forensic psychology where she takes care of mentally ill individuals who have committed these types of horrible atrocities, often against the very people in their lives who take care of them. This is real world stuff. And the film’s setting, the actual Danvers State Hospital, also known as the Danvers Lunatic Asylum, in Danvers, Massachusetts, which operated from 1878 to 1992, adds a lot to the atmospheric feel of dread in the film. The Neo Gothic architecture of the facility, and the labyrinth of tunnels connecting the various buildings are a perfect setting for the creepy elements of Anderson’s story, and he takes full advantage of the location. The story and the setting set the stage for what feels like true terror, and I have to admit that SESSION 9 has stayed with me after my initial viewing.
The cast of SESSION 9 is very effective. Though David Caruso receives top billing, the story really revolves around Gordon Fleming, portrayed by Peter Mullan. I primarily recognized Mullan from his interesting role as Jacob Snell in the excellent Netflix series OZARK, but he’s had quite a career as both an actor (TRAINSPOTTING, THE VANISHING) and director (THE MAGDALENE SISTERS). His quiet, internal performance is a solid anchor for the strange things going on around his crew. Caruso’s character is experiencing his own share of problems in his personal life, and the actor’s edgy intensity is a nice counterbalance to Mullan’s stillness. His life seems to be getting a little out of control and that dynamic works well for the moody paranoia of the film. Of the remaining performances, Josh Lucas seems to fair the best. His character isn’t really all that likable, but he does bring some humor to the role, and it’s ultimately the revelation of his character’s fate that begins to bring the story’s horrifying events to light.
As I mentioned earlier, SESSION 9 is a slow burn of a film. Brad Anderson takes his sweet time setting the story up by introducing us to the dynamic of the main characters and placing them in the spectacular environment of the institution’s decaying buildings. It takes a bit for the doom and gloom to really start kicking in, so it’s possible that impatient or distracted viewers could lose interest as not much seems to be happening. I also wasn’t very surprised when the revelations of the story finally came to light. If you’re paying attention, the end moments of the movie aren’t as big of a “gotcha” as they could have been. But that’s all okay, because the brilliance of SESSION 9 is ultimately the mood it creates and the impending sense of dread we feel for the final discovery of what some of our characters may be capable of. In those aspects, SESSION 9 is a resounding success.
Retro Television Review: Law and Order 6.13 “Charm City” and Homicide 4.11 “For God And Country”
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 Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC! It can be viewed on Peacock.
This week, Homicide crosses over with Law & Order.
Law & Order 6.13 “Charm City”
(Dir by Ed Sherin, originally aired on February 7th, 1996)
Homicide 4.11 “For God and Country”
(Dir by Ed Sherin, originally aired on February 9th, 1996)
This week, we have a two-part cross-over between Law & Order and Homicide.
On Law & Order, things start in New York City. A chemical attack on a subway train leaves 20 people dead. Because the train was specifically heading into Harlem and all of the victims were black, it is suspected that the attack was racially motivated. In Baltimore, Frank Pembleton and Tim Bayliss hear about the attack and are reminded of a similar attack on a black church, which occurred five years prior. Pembleton was the primary on the church attack. He and Bayliss head to New York City, where they meet and quickly get on the nerves of Detectives Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt).
Pembleton’s investigation uncovers that a man from Baltimore, Brian Egan (Kevin Geer), not only had access to the chemicals used in both attacks but also that’s he currently in New York. When Briscoe and Curtis arrest Egan and fail to get him to confess, Pembleton asks for permission to interrogate him. Pembleton, being Pembleton, rather easily gets Egan to confess to having committed the church bombing. However, before getting the confession, Pembleton pretends not to hear Egan say that he no longer wants to continue talking. In typical Law & Order (if not Homicide) fashion, the confession is tossed out.
Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy) still get their conviction. (And Claire gets an admirer in the form of Tim Bayliss.) However, it’s obvious that Egan was not working alone. Egan says that he will never name names.
That changes when his wife is murdered and his teenage son goes missing. Homicide opens with Bayliss investigating the poisoning of Egan’s wife. He and Pembleton eventually track down Egan’s son and they get him to admit that he saw his uncle, former NSA agent Col. Alexander Rausch (J.K. Simmons), murder his mother. Because Brian Egan has said that he’ll only reveal the truth of the conspiracy if his son is brought to New York, Briscoe and Curtis show up in Baltimore.
While Curtis, Bayliss, and Pembleton track down Colonel Rausch, Briscoe hangs out with Munch. Their friendly banter goes south as soon as Briscoe mentions that he once knew a Gwen Munch in New York. Gwen is John Munch’s ex-wife and John is not happy when he finds out that Briscoe slept with Gwen. John Munch spends the rest of the episode drinking heavily. Stanley Bolander would not approve.
As for Col. Rausch, he is captured and he turns out to be a smug snake. (He’s played by J.K. Simmons, after all.) Pembleton wants to see Rausch prosecuted for the church bombing and he especially wants to see racist Rausch publicly humiliated. New York, however, wants to prosecute him for the subway attack. Claire comes down to Baltimore and gets a judge to agree that Rausch should first be sent to New York.
Rausch doesn’t care. He has a heart condition so he simply stops taking his heart pills and then drops dead while waiting for the train to take him to the Big Apple. The episodes ends with Pembleton sobbing as he realizes Rausch will never be humiliated at a trial. The New York cops shrug and say, “Sorry, Frank.”
I enjoyed this crossover quite a bit. It was interesting to see two police dramas, each with a very different style, come together to tell one big story. As Homicide always celebrated the lengths that Pembleton would go to get a confession in the Box, it was amusing to see what would actually happen to one of those confessions if it was brought to court. Jack McCoy is not at all amused by Pembleton’s tactics. Meanwhile, Briscoe, Curtis, and Claire was allowed to loosen up a bit when they went to Homicide and I enjoyed watching them shed their “just-the-facts” personas. If the Law & Order episode was ultimately superior to the the Homicide episode, that’s just because the Law & Order episode featured an actual mystery to be solved whereas the Homicide episode occasionally felt as if it was padded out a bit. On Homicide, it was obvious that Colonel Rausch was guilty and, from the minute he started to cough during the interrogation, it was easy to guess what his ultimate fate would be.
(I also have to say that it was interesting to compare this episode of Law & Order to watch Law & Order has become today. How this show went from featuring McCoy confidently doing his job to Nolan Price essentially begging his co-counsel, on a weekly basis, to actually do her job is something that is worth considering.)
Overall, this was a good crossover. For those who want to watch it, the Law & Order episode is available on Hulu and Disney+ while Homicide can be found on Peacock and Tubi.
October True Crime: Getting Gotti (dir by Roger Young)
In this 1994 made-in-Canada movie, Anthony Denison plays John Gotti. We watch as he goes from being a street boss to Paul Castellano to assassinating Castellano so that he can take over the Gambino crime family. Gotti thinks that he’s the king of New York and he’s convinced that no one will ever bring him down. U.S. Attorney Diana Giacalone (Lorraine Bracco) is determined to prove him wrong. She becomes the first of many prosecutors to try to get Gotti and Gotti reacts by having his attorney launch a series of outrageously misogynistic attacks against her. Gotti doesn’t just want to defeat Diana. He also wants to humiliate her. Diane may have the evidence but Gotti’s got the money. Who will get Gotti?
Now, I guess I could argue here that the horror aspect of this film comes from the crimes that Gotti commits. And it is true that we see Gotti kill a number of people. He’s a sadistic killer, the type who will shoot someone twenty more times than he needs to. As the last of the truly flamboyant gangsters, Gotti would go on to become something of a pop cultural institution. But one should not overlook the fact that, for all of his charisma and bravado, John Gotti was not a nice guy. Of course, I should also point out that none of that charisma is really present in Anthony Denison’s performance as Gotti. As played by Denison, John Gotti — the so-called Teflon Don whose greatest strength was his shamelessness — comes across as being a little boring.
Actually, the scariest thing about this film is Lorraine Bracco’s performance as Diana Giacalone. Bracco does a lot of yelling as Giacalone. Sometimes, it’s understandable. Giacalone is portrayed as being someone who grew up on the same tough streets as Gotti and who resents people like Gotti and the Mafia giving a bad name to Italians in general. The problem is that Bracco yells her lines even when there’s no reason to be yelling. At one point, she discovers that someone screwed up her lunch order and she screams about it as if the world is ending. Visiting her mother (Ellen Burstyn) for the holidays, Giacalone yells at her family. When the verdict comes in, Giacalone yells some more. The yelling is pretty much nonstop and, as a result, one starts to feel that the other U.S. attorneys might have a point when they say that Giacalone is a loose cannon. The film tries to present her as being a strong, no-bullshit woman who is going up against an army of misogynists but there’s more to being strong than just yelling. It would be such a big deal if the film had given her a personality beyond yelling but it doesn’t. I blame the script more than I blame Lorraine Bracco, who can be a very good actress when cast in the right role.
Getting Gotti pretty much hits every Mafia cliche. Whenever anyone drives around the old neighborhood, Italian string music plays. There’s a moment where Giacalone yells that her goal is to make sure that people understand that the Mafia isn’t “Al Pacino looking soulful” in The Godfather. I had to wonder if Giacalone had ever actually watched The Godfather. Seriously, an Italian attacking The Godfather? Who does she think she is, Joe Columbo?
Gotti remains the Gotti film to watch.
20 Films For The Week (10/19/25)
A Few Classics
The original The Omen (1976) can currently be viewed on Tubi. The Omen is still the best of all of the 1970s apocalypse movies. Whereas later Omen films would increasingly get bogged down with overly elaborate death scenes, the first Omen still holds up as a genuinely scary movie. The scene with David Warner and that plate of glass …. agck! Damien Thorne was never creepier than he was in The Omen, perhaps because little Harvey Stephens didn’t know that he was playing a villain. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the sequels are available to stream for free. I have a soft spot for the mess that is Damien: Omen II. The Omen can be viewed here.
Of the many film that were inspired by The Omen, my favorite remains The Visitor (1979). John Huston — yes, the director — plays a Polish angel who lives on a plant far away. Huston is sent to Earth to rescue 8 year-old Katy, who has psychic powers and who has apparently been picked to mate with her half-brother and give birth to the Antichrist. Lance Henriksen plays a Satanist who also owns a basketball team. Mel Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Glenn Ford, and director Sam Peckinpah all have small roles. Franco Nero plays Jesus! This is a visually stunning and narratively berserk film. The Visitor is on Tubi.
The Changeling (1980) is an absolutely brilliant horror film that should definitely be seen by more people. After a family tragedy, widower George C. Scott moves into a mansion that turns out to be haunted. It all links back to potential scandal involving a U.S. Senator, played by Melvyn Douglas. Well-acted, this film has tons of atmosphere and one of the best seance scenes that I’ve ever seen. The Changeling is on Tubi.
If The Changeling is an unusually intelligent haunted house film, Burnt Offerings (1976) is perhaps the opposite. It’s a remarkably dumb film but thanks to the performances of Karen Black and Oliver Reed and the no-holds barred direction of Dan Curtis, it’s still a pretty scary movie. Poor Bette Davis is wasted in one of her final roles. You’ll cheer when the chimney collapses. Burnt Offerings is on Tubi.
John Saxon later said that making Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) was one of the most depressing experiences of his career, just because he wasn’t prepared for how gory the film would get and he wasn’t particularly happy about the idea of playing a veteran-turned-cannibal. That feeling certainly comes through in his performance, which ironically is so authentic that it elevates Cannibal Apocalypse above the typical Italian zombie/cannibal film. Giovanni Lombardo Radice and Tony King give excellent performances as Saxon’s fellow cannibals and the entire film is far more emotionally effective than it has any right to be. Cannibal Apocalypse can be viewed on Tubi.
The Black Cat (1981) never gets as much attention as it deserves but it’s probably one of Lucio Fulci’s more accessible films. An adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story, it features David Warbeck at his most likable, Patrick Magee at his most demented, and a killer cat with more than 9 lives. The Black Cat can be viewed on Shudder.
I, Madman (1989) is a personal favorite of mine, largely because I relate to the main character played by Jenny Wright. Wright plays an aspiring actress and bookstore employee who becomes obsessed with the horror novels of an obscure pulp fiction writer named Malcolm Brand. Suddenly, murders start to occur that seem to match the murders in the books. Both Jenny Wright and Clayton Rohner give likable performances in this film and Randall William Cook’s disfigured surgeon is a wonderful villain. I, Madman can be viewed on Tubi.
Time After Time (1979) provides viewers with the rare chance to see Malcolm McDowell play a gentle soul. McDowell plays H.G. Wells, whose time machine is used by Jack the Ripper (David Warner) to escape into the modern age. Wells pursues him. Time After Time is as much a love story as it is a thriller. (McDowell married his co-star Mary Steenburgen.) McDowell, Warner, and Steenburgen all give excellent performances. Time after Time is on Tubi.
Malcolm McDowell is far more sinister in Paul Schrader’s 1982 film, Cat People. Cat People was made at a time when cocaine was very popular in Hollywood and the film has all the excessive hallmarks of a production that was under the influence. It’s about thirty minutes too long, the plot makes little sense, and Schrader sometimes seems to be struggling with determining what it is he’s trying to say. That said, it’s also an atmospheric and stylish film and it has a killer soundtrack. The sequence where Annette O’Toole is menaced while jogging and then swimming still creeps me out. Cat People can be viewed on Prime.
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) was the first and the most effective of several Spanish horror films to feature Templar zombies wrecking havoc on the countryside. This film is atmospheric and creepy and features some of the most convincing zombies to ever appear in a movie. This film also actually manages to effectively use slow motion. The Blind Dead are pure nightmare fuel. Tombs of the Blind Dead can be viewed on Tubi.
Hack and Slash
Directed by Bill Rebane, Blood Harvest (1989) tells the story of a young woman who returns to her family home, just to discover that her parents are missing and the house has been vandalized. As the bodies are strung up in a nearby barn, viewers are left to try to figure out who the killer is. Is it the handsome and hunky Gary? Or is it his brother, Mervo? Mervo, who deals with stress by putting on clown makeup, is played by Tiny Tim, a notably eccentric singer. This is one of those odd films that everyone simply has to see once. It can be viewed on Tubi.
Directed by Joseph Zito, The Prowler (1981) is a notably gruesome but undeniably effective slasher film. The gore effects were provided by Tom Savini. Zito keeps the action moving, the cast is filled with actors who are likable enough to make up for the fact that none of the characters are written to have much depth, and the killer is truly frightening. The Prowler can be viewed on Tubi.
Terror Train (1980) is another classic slasher film that is perfect for Halloween viewing, as all of the victims are in costume and the killer is a master of disguise. The train makes for a wonderfully claustrophobic setting and the film owes as much to the Italian giallo genre as it does to the typical American slasher film. Jamie Lee Curtis, Hart Bochner, and Timothy Webber are amongst those being stalked. Ben Johnson is wonderful as a conductor. Even magician David Copperfield is put to good use. Terror Train can be viewed on Tubi.
Prom Night (1980) is another Canadian classic. This is film the mixes disco with slasher thrills. Jamie Lee Curtis rallies the school with her dance moves. Leslie Nielsen gives one of his final “serious” performances at the principal of the school. The kills are genuinely frightening and, given that most of the victims are either likable or determined to live, genuinely sad. The twist ending works a hundred times better than it should. Prom Night! Everything is alright! I love this movie. It can be viewed on Tubi.
The House on Sorority Row (1982) is a diabolically clever little slasher film about a prank gone wrong. One minute, you’re accidentally causing your house mother to have a heart attack after you pull a gun on her. The next minute, you’re getting tossed in a shallow grave. The main lesson here is don’t try anything like this when you’ve also got a big, end-of-the-year college bash to put together. Director Mark Rosman comes up with some truly inspired visuals. Eileen Davidson gives a great performance as the sorority sister who can’t believe how difficult it is to cover up a murder. It can be viewed on Tubi.
Finally, Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983) is not as well-known as some of the other films that I’ve mentioned but it features a memorably isolated location and a few effective scares. It’s a good example of the rural slasher. It can be viewed on Tubi.
Odds and Ends
Zombie Nightmare (1987) features a long-haired zombie, an early performance from Tia Carrere, and an oddly serious performance from Adam West. The zombie is played a heavy metal musician named Jon-Mikl Thor. It’s a film so ludicrous that it becomes entertaining. It can be viewed on Tubi.
Ghost Story (1981) features a dead woman whose ghost returns, seeking vengeance on a group of elderly men who, decades before, covered up her death. Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. play the four men. Alice Krige is the ghost. Patricia Neal is Astaire’s wife. Craig Wasson plays twins. It’s a bit of an uneven film but it still has its moments. It can be viewed on Prime.
Night Terror (1977), which is also known as Night Drive, features Valerie Harper as a woman trying to drive from Phoenix to Denver over the course of the night and finding herself pursued by a mute psycho played by Richard Romanus. Clocking in at 74 minutes, Night Terror is suspenseful and features good performances from both Harper and Romanus. It can be viewed on Prime.
Finally, The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1977) is a creepy little film starring Jodie Foster as a child who will stop at nothing to keep people from figuring out that she’s living on her own. The true monster in this film is played, quite memorably, by Martin Sheen. It can be viewed on Prime.
Horror Song of the Day: Electronic Battle Weapon 7 (Acid Children) by The Chemical Brothers
“You are all my children now.”
Hey, does that voice sound familiar? Who would have thought you could dance to Freddy Krueger?
Some people have told me that they find the clown in this video to even scarier than Freddy.
Bonus Horror On The Lens: The Beast of Yucca Flats (dir by Coleman Francis)
Since today would have Tor Johnson’s birthday, it only seems appropriate to share a bonus Horror On The Lens. This is the one film in which Tor Johnson starred, 1961’s The Beast Of Yucca Flats.
The Beast of Yucca Flats is a thoroughly inept film that makes next to no sense and has massive continuity errors. It’s a film that also features Tor Johnson as a Russian scientist who gets mutated by radiation and becomes a monster, but not before taking off almost all of his clothes while walking through the desert. For that matter, it’s also a film about a family that comes together though adversity — namely, being shot at by the police after the family patriarch is somehow mistaken for Tor Johnson. And finally, it’s the story of how a dying monster can find comfort from a rabbit and that’s actually kind of a sweet message.
Here’s the thing — yes, The Beast of Yucca Flats is bad but you still owe it to yourself to watch it because you will literally never see anything else like it. Plus, maybe you’ll be able to figure out what the whole point of the opening scene is.
Because I’ve watched this film a few times and I still have no idea!
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 