Tag Archives: television

Horror On TV: Thriller 1.30 “Parasite Mansion”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Down here in Dallas, channel 47 is the local Me-TV affiliate.  Me-TV specializes in showing old TV shows from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.  The network sells itself as a nostalgic refuge for people who are several decades older than me, a place where they can go to escape from Seth McFarlane producing sitcoms and Maury Povich conducting DNA tests.

But you know what?

I like Me-TV and I’m glad that it exists.  It probably has something to do with me being a history nerd at heart.  I love the chance to see what the world was once like.  Add to that, some very good shows were produced in the 50s and 60s.  Just because a lot of us weren’t there to experience them firsthand doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate them in rerun syndication.

Case in point: Thriller.

Thriller aired for two seasons in the early 60s.  It was an anthology series, in the tradition of The Twilight Zone.  Whereas The Twilight Zone was hosted by Rod Serling, Thriller was hosted by horror icon Boris Karloff, who always introduced the macabre material with a bemused gleam in his eyes.

Parasite Mansion was the 30th episode of Thriller and it originally aired on April 25th, 1961.  In this episode, Marcia (Pippa Scott) crashes her car outside of a dilapidated Southern mansion.  When she awakens, she finds herself in the position of being the unwilling guest of the eccentric family that lives inside the mansion.  I like this episode, largely because I can never resist Southern gothic atmosphere.

Incidentally, the family’s matriarch is played Jeannette Nolan and, if she sounds familiar, that’s probably because she was one of the many actresses to voice Mrs. Bates in Psycho.

Horror On TV: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction Episode 13

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction aired off-and-on for about five years on the Fox network.  A sign of just how randomly this show was scheduled can be found in the fact that season 3 started in 2000 while season 4 didn’t start until 2002.  Reruns of the show currently air on the Chiller Network which is where I recently discovered it.

Hosted by Jonathan Frakes, each episode would present the viewers with five different stories.  Each story would appear to defy logic and then, at the end of the episode, Frakes would reveal which of the stories were fact and which were fiction.  The show was often incredibly silly and yet, it occasionally had an odd charm to it.  A lot of this was due to Jonathan Frakes, who always seemed to be rather amused with it all.

Even more importantly, as bad as this show often was, it’s the perfect type of show to watch in October.  It’s the television equivalent of a scary story being told around a campfire.

Episode 13 aired during the show’s 2nd season.  Can you guess what’s fact and what’s fiction?

Horror On TV: Twilight Zone 3.7 “The Grave”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is another fun one.

In The Grave, old west outlaw Pinto Sykes is gunned down by a group of townspeople and buried in a lonely grave.  However, before Sykes dies, he swears that if the bounty hunter Miller (Lee Marvin) ever comes near his grave, he’ll reach out of the ground and grab him.  Needless to say, it’s not long before Miller is challenged to put Sykes’s dying words to the test.

This episode of The Twilight Zone was written and directed by Montgomery Pittman.  It originally aired on October 27th, 1961.  Classic western fans will immediately recognize the majority of the cast.

Horror On TV: Twilight Zone 5.25 “The Masks”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In “The Masks,” a group of greedy relatives gather at the New Orleans home of Jason Foster (Robert Keith).  Foster is on the verge of death and the relatives are eagerly waiting their chance to claim their inheritance.  However, as Foster informs them, they will only get paid if they wear masks that are meant to reflect their inner natures…

This episode of the Twilight Zone first aired on March 20th, 1964.  As written by Rod Serling and directed by Ida Lupino (making her the only woman to direct an episode of the original Twilight Zone), this episode is full of gothic Southern atmosphere and it’s a perfect addition for any Halloween viewing marathon.

Add to that, the masks are really creepy!

Horror On TV: Twilight Zone 5.19 “Night Call”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this poignantly haunting episode of the Twilight Zone, Gladys Cooper plays a lonely widow who starts to receive mysterious phone calls from a stranger.

This episode was written by Richard Matheson (and based on his short story Long Distance  Call) and it was directed by Jacques Tourneur.  Tourneur is probably best known for directing moody horror films like Cat People and Curse of the Demon and he brings a similar atmosphere to Night Call.

Night Call originally aired on February 7, 1964.

Horror On TV: The Unaired Pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

When I first decided that I wanted to devote some of October to horror-themed television, I knew i wanted to feature a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  After all, Buffy is one of the most acclaimed and influential shows of all time.  On a personal note, the show started when I was 12 and it ended right before my senior year of high school.  As a result, Buffy was a show that I watched during some of the most emotionally turbulent years of my life and, as a character, Buffy Summers was the type of role model that I needed.

However, what i quickly discovered was that there really aren’t any full length episodes of Buffy on YouTube.  There’s plenty of fanvids.  There’s a lot of music videos featuring clips of Angel and Buffy staring soulfully at each other.  But, because of copyright issues, there aren’t any full-length episodes available on YouTube.

However, there is the unaired pilot.

This was a 30-minute “sample” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that was written and directed by Joss Whedon in 1996.  The episode was never meant to be televised.  Instead, it was a tool that Whedon used to pitch the concept of Buffy to the networks.

So, since I couldn’t find Hush on YouTube, here’s the 1996 unaired pilot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Horror On TV: Hammer House of Horror Ep. 3 “Rude Awakening”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Originally broadcast in the UK on September 27th, 1980, this episode of Hammer House Of Horror deals with a sleazy real estate agent (played by Denholm Elliot) who finds himself besieged by dreams about seducing his assistant Lolly (Lucy Gutteridge) and murdering his wife Emily (Pat Heywood).

Featuring an outstanding lead performance from Elliot and strong direction from Peter Sasdy, this is a good one.

Horror On TV: Hammer House of Horror Episode 7 “The Silent Scream”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s episode of televised horror is The Silent Scream, the seventh episode of Hammer House of Horror.  It was originally broadcast in the UK on October 25th, 1980.

This episode features an odd pet shop, a youngish Brian Cox playing an ex-con, and — best of all — the iconic Hammer horror star Peter Cushing!

Seriously, how can you do a horror month without featuring at least one appearance from Peter Cushing?

Horror on TV: Hammer House of Horror Ep. 5 “The House That Bled To Death:

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s episode of televised horror comes from the UK.

First broadcast on October 11th, 1980, the fifth episode of Hammer’s House of Horror was entitled The House That Bled To Death.  It’s about a family who buys and moves into a house that has a sordid past.  The family plans to fix the house up and then sell it for a profit.  The house has other plans.

(Incidentally, The House That Bled To Death would have been a great title for one of Lucio Fuci’s later films.)

Horror on TV: Twilight Zone — “The Howling Man”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s offering of Horror on TV is another episode of The Twilight Zone.

In The Howling Man, H.M. Wynant plays a rational man who, during a walk across Europe, finds himself in an isolated monastery.  Wynant discovers a bearded prisoner (played by Robin Hughes) who explains that he’s being held prisoner because he was caught kissing his girlfriend in public.  However, Brother Jerome (played by the legendary John Carradine) claims that Hughes is the devil himself!  It’s left up to Wynant whether to set the man free or to leave him imprisoned…

Written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Douglas Heyes, The Howling Man is a favorite of mine.  Not only does the show establish and maintain an atmosphere of palpable menace but it also features a brilliant ending.

Enjoy The Howling Man.