Curse of the Demon

I ran across a great black & white horror movie on Turner Classic Movies, "Curse of the Demon" (1957) starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis.  American psychologist Dr. John Holden (Andrews) travels to England to attend a conference on paranormal research.  He is supposed to join a team headed by Dr. Harrington but when he arrives he discovers the doctor is dead.  He soon meets Harrington's niece, Joanna (Cummins) and together they try to discover what really killed Harrington.

Their investigations soon leads to the mysterious Dr. Julian Karswell, who not only put a Runic curse on Dr. Harrington but also on Dr. Holden.  The curse brings the demon monster upon the person and death occurs at the appointed hour.  It's not too long into the movie where we first see the demon.  The demon is very cheesy looking by today's standards but remember this is 1957 and the effects were probably state of the art back then.  What makes this movie a classic is the atmosphere which really comes through in this old black & white movie.  The film's use of darkness and shadows really adds to the eeriness and mood in the film.  There are fantastically done wind storms with the requisite thunder and lightning.  There are walks through the dark foggy woods and walking around dark houses with candlesticks. 

This film was very well done and held my attention throughout.   Don't get discouraged and stop watching when you see the demon.  Keep watching and be rewarded with a horror classic that you may have never heard of.  This was a great movie to happen upon on TV!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown App

This is a review for an app, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" that's available for Android and Apple devices. I am reviewing the Android version. This is a haunting on the very small screen!

I've always loved the classic Halloween show with Charlie Brown and the entire Peanuts gang and I love this interactive storybook of that show also!  This app is like flipping through a storybook and listening to the actual dialog and voices from the original show all enhanced by the fantastic music in the background.

You create an avatar of yourself and dress it up in costume.  You can also download the free separate app "The Great Pumpkin Festival" which uses the same avatar and in that game you can earn more candy points to purchase better costumes for your avatar. The avatar that you build in either of the apps will join the Peanuts gang in the Great Pumpkin storyline.  You'll be invited to Violet's Halloween Party as well as trick or treating with the gang!

The characters and pages of the books are beautifully drawn and look like pages out of a story book.  There are also hidden things to find in the game (candy bags, pumpkins, etc).

This app is from Loud Crow Interactive which did a great job bringing this story to life.  They also developed a Charlie Brown Christmas app last year which is also great fun and in the same format as the Great Pumpkin.

These apps are available for your Android device (phone, tablet, etc) from the Google Play store or for your Apple device.  It's great fun for kids and for the young at heart!

Ghost Cat

Ghost Cat starring Michael Ontkean, Ellen Page and Lori Hallier is a made for TV movie from 2004 originally aired on Animal Planet as "Mrs. Ashboro's Cat" and is also available as "The Cat That Came Back".

Natalie Merritt (Ellen Page) is a teenager who moves from Manhattan to the small town of Ringwood, NY with her father Wes (Michael Ontkean) a year and a half after her mother passing away.  While looking for a house they meet Mrs. Ashboro and her cat, Margaret.  Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Ashboro dies of a heart attack and the cat on the day of her funeral dies also.  The Merritts end up buying her home from her scheming nephew who has been trying to sell the house out from under his aunt and get control of her money.

Soon after moving in, Natalie starts experiencing some ghostly happenings in the large old house.  The piano playing at night, pictures falling from the shelf and other noises.  We soon see it's the ghost of Margaret the cat who is trying to help Natalie get Mrs. Ashboro's hidden money that she had intended to give to Brenda who owns the neighboring animal shelter. Natalie also meets the two brothers next door who she starts volunteering with at the animal shelter.  Will the ghost cat help save the animal shelter from the scheming nephew and the unscrupulous land developer who wants the land?  Being a movie geared toward families - take a guess. "Ghost Cat" is definitely not a scary movie but is an enjoyable watch nonetheless. 

The Birds

This weekend I just watched Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) starring Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy and Suzanne Pleshette.  I’ve always loved this classic thriller where nature goes on the attack.

Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), a San Francisco socialite meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a pet store in San Francisco and they hit it off.   Melanie impulsively buys two love birds for Mitch’s sister Cathy and plans on driving up the coast to Bodega Bay to drop them off and surprise them.  Shortly after her arrival, a gull swoops down and attacks Melanie but this is just a hint of things to come.  Melanie gets closer to Mitch and his little sister Cathy but has a harder time breaking the ice with Mitch’s mother, Lydia (an excellent portrayal by Jessica Tandy).  Little by little we see normal characters deal with the abnormal situation where birds of all species start attacking the people of Bodega Bay.  

This is one of those movies I enjoy watching every time I watch it and is one of my favorite atmospheric horror movies.  It’s a Technicolor classic where the town and its colorful citizens add to the tension and humor of the very abnormal situation.  Terror slowly escalates and the bird attack scenes are especially horrifying and fun to watch.  If you haven’t seen this movie or watched it for a long time, take a look and you’ll quickly get sucked in to this wonderful Hitchcock classic! 

Haunted Honeymoon

Haunted Honeymoon (1986) starring Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner and Dom DeLuise is a comedy/horror movie that takes place in the 40s.  Larry Abbot (Wilder) and Vickie Pearle (Radner) are popular actors on a radio horror serial.  The couple heads off to Larry's childhood home, a huge Gothic castle where his Aunt Kate (Dom DeLuise) lives, to get married.

At the castle, we meet all the eccentric family members who have come for the wedding.  Aunt Kate is the bigger than life matriarch of the family (a delightfully funny performance by Dom DeLuise) and as soon as the guests converge for dinner, she announces the place and family is haunted by a curse that turned one of them into a werewolf. Larry thinks he's there to just to get married but his Uncle has planned to "scare him to death" to help cure Larry's mental disorder.  Something goes wrong when real dead bodies start to pile up.

This movie brings out all the classic and cliched atmosphere that a horror movie should have which adds to the funny scares this movie provides.  The castle is huge and gloomy.  The thunder and lightning are ever-present.  The interior of the castle is wonderfully grand and spooky with billowing curtains, secret passageways and candlelit scenes.

This is a fun comedy horror movie to catch on TV or find on video.  The musical scene with Aunt Kate and the Vickie (the always wonderful Gilda Radner) is worth the movie alone.  This movie is a blast to watch and enjoy!  

The Canterville Ghost

While rummaging through the DVD bargain bin recently I found "The Canterville Ghost" (1985) starring Richard Kiley, Jenny Beck, Shelley Fabares and a very young Brian Austin Green.  This is a made for TV version, one of the many different versions of the spooky Oscar Wilde story.

This is a good ghost story meant for a family audience with children at the center of the story.  A family inherits the old English manor and soon after moving in learns the house is haunted by the ghost of Sir Simon Canterville.  The little girl soon befriends the cranky ghost and sets out to break the curse of Canterville. The big old house is spooky and there's even the graveyard on the estate .This is one of those classic ghost stories that generations have grown up on. 

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special

I was recently looking for Halloween specials on Amazon and came across The Paul Lynde Halloween Special.  This was an variety show / special originally aired on ABC on October 29, 1976.  I knew going in that anything that had Paul Lynde would be campy but I didn't know how much of a campfest this would be until I watched it today! 

The show consists of comedy routines, skits, musical / dance numbers and a host of celebrities from the time.  To know how campy this is, think of the year this aired, 1976, and the following celebrities that guest starred:  Margaret Hamilton and Billy Hayes playing sister witches reprising their famous roles of the Wicked Witch of the West from Wizard of Oz and Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf.  These two had the most interaction with Paul and provided some great laughs.  Other guest stars had roles in skits and often in musical numbers as well: Florence Henderson who sang a rendition of "That Old Black Magic", Tim Conway in many comedic skits, Roz Kelly "Pinkie Tuscadero from Happy Days" and small guest appearances by Betty White (as Ms. Halloween 1976) and Donny and Marie Osmond.  This was also the first prime time appearance by the rock group Kiss and they do three different numbers including one of their slow songs, "Beth".

This show is a time warp back to the 70s!  Some cringe-worthy routines, disco dancing, Paul Lynde's trademark joke delivery style, 70s music and clothing and some real laugh out loud moments.  It took me a little time to get back into the time and enjoy myself but once I let myself go, I really enjoyed this special.  I particularly loved and couldn't stop laughing at the Halloween Disco finale where all the stars are dancing and singing in costume to a modified version of Johnny Taylor's "Disco Lady" - "Move it in, move it out, move in and about, disco lady".  All in all, if you want to see a time capsule of what pop culture was like in 1976 and you like campy variety shows of the time, find this DVD and prepare to laugh.

Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special

It's the first of October and Fall is here.  It's also the month where I start getting into the Halloween spirit!  As a kid, I couldn't wait to see the Halloween specials that would be shown on TV this time of year.  I just discovered this Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special (1978) at the store and couldn't pass it up.  This is a special that contains parts of many different cartoons with a Halloween theme.  Witch Hazel is the main attraction in this special and I always loved her.  She's the witch that would zip off the screen with a "HeHeHe" and her bobby pins would be left spinning in the air behind her.  She's always trying to cook up one of the regulars (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc.).  In addition to Bugs and Daffy, we also see Sylvester and Tweety and Dr. Jekyll, Porky Pig and Sylvester at the haunted hotel, Speedy Gonzales playing Witch Hazel, and Bugs at Count Dracula's castle.  These cartoons were always some of my favorites growing up and I'm glad I could revisit them this Halloween season.

A Howling in the Woods

Tonight was a good night to revisit one of my favorite Made for TV Thrillers from the 70s, A Howling in the Woods (1971) starring Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and John Rubinstein. Barbara Eden plays Liza Crocker, a woman who plans on leaving her husband, played by Larry Hagman, and returns to her hometown to get a divorce.

Upon arriving in Stainesville, NV on the shores of Lake Tahoe, she encounters the townspeople who she grew up with are cold and hostile toward her.  She makes it to her family's lodge, Staines Lodge, on the lake.  Her father is unexpectedly out of country but her step mother and step brother are there to greet her.

Liza soon learns that a child was found killed in the lake nearby and there is the eerie sound of a howling dog in the woods that everyone in town can hear.  Liza starts putting together the pieces of the mystery of her father who she can't reach, the murdered girl, the hostile townspeople and who attacked her in the woods on a stormy night while she took the shortcut from town. Liza's husband comes to the lodge to try to make things right and soon finds himself in the middle of the mystery.

I love this thriller from the 70s.  It's got the eerie music and the spectacular scenery of Lake Tahoe which contrasts with the general feeling of unease in the town and at the lodge.  It's full of mystery and atmosphere and some great acting, including a very young Tyne Daly.  I highly recommend this movie if you can find a copy or catch it on TV. 

Scream, Pretty Peggy

Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973) starring Ted Bessell, Bette Davis and Sian Barbara Allen is a made for TV thriller originally aired as part of ABC's Movie of the Week. A college student, Peggy (Allen), answers an ad for a job at an old mansion for light housekeeping.  A mother (Davis) and son (Bessell) live in the mansion and she is hired to help take care of the place.  She is warned not to go into the room above the garage.

After the mother has a fall and hurts her leg, Peggy convinces the son to let her move in and help take care of the mother.  The mother warns her she must leave now.  The mansion's architecture is heavy with iron gates and grills over the windows and doors which adds to a feeling of confinement in the large house.  There are several scenes on windy nights where someone or other is wandering around the estate investigating noises or spooky figures in the shadows.  All which adds to the creepy atmosphere of this film.

Bette Davis does an understated job acting as the mother - usually seen sipping her "coffee" from an ever present coffee cup in her hands.  Sian Allen plays Peggy as rather needy, looking for the approval of her role model, the son, who is a rather famous artist.

This is one of those made for TV movies that I grew up watching.  I remember watching these types of movies after the original airings usually on Saturday afternoons.  It always made for an enjoyable couple hours and so did this movie. 

Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow (1999) starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci and Miranda Richardson is director Tim Burton's retelling of the old American folk tale of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  Constable Ichabod Crane is sent from New York to the tiny country village of Sleepy Hollow in the 1790s to investigate the decapitation of several townspeople.

Crane comes from the city with new investigative techniques and slowly learns that not every crime can be solved with science.  This movie is full of spooky atmosphere:  horse drawn carriage rides through the dark and eerie woods with pumpkin headed scarecrows observing; ever present fog and mist; deep dark woods full of gnarled trees, an almost Gothic looking little village and glowing jack-o-lanterns.  The headless horseman is extremely scary galloping out of the woods on his horse toward the growing list of victims that he decapitates.  This movie does have some blood and shows the decapitations but it's done in a way that is not too gory - it's just an integral part of the story. 

Johnny Depp does an excellent job playing the fussy Ichabod Crane and the movie definitely has an undercurrent of tongue in cheek humor amongst the horror story.   What an excellent movie that I know I will watch over many times.  I don't know what took me so long to find this gem!

The Presence

The Presence (2010) is a new ghost story starring Mira Sorvino, Shane West and Justin Kirk.  It takes place on a secluded island in Oregon.  The woman played by Mira Sorvino, returns to her family's rustic cabin to get away and work on some writing.  Little does she know that she isn't the only one there.  The ghost is always there, observing her.  He doesn't look like the usual transparent ghost, he looks flesh and blood but she can't see him.

This is a really unusual film as for the first third of the movie there is no dialog - just atmosphere, music and silence.  The cabin is so rustic there is no electricity so the lighting is from candle and lantern light.  The setting is spectacular in atmosphere:  dark secluded woods, foggy mountains and lake.  It's not until her boyfriend shows up that there is any dialog.

Well into the film a second ghost suddenly shows itself and this one whispers things into the woman's and man's ears trying to cause deep seated problems to come to the surface and cause their relationship harm.  The intro of the 2nd ghost was a bit strange at first but in the end fit well with the story.

The Presence is a really unique ghost story.  Filled with atmosphere and psychological thrills, it's a quiet ghost story that I haven't seen the likes of before.

Darkness

Darkness (2002) starring Anna Paquin, Lena Olin and Iain Glen is a haunted house movie from Spain.  A teenaged girl, Regina (a young Paquin) moves with her family (mother, father & younger brother) to an old house in Spain after the father had a breakdown in the U.S.

It doesn't take long after moving in that the brother begins encountering an eerie darkness under his bed and we see glimpses on the periphery of children running around the shadows of the house.  Regina also starts to see the father become more on edge and she tries to convince the mother who is in denial that he's headed for another breakdown.

There's a back story of 7 children being kidnapped 40 years before and taken to this house never to be found again.  Since no one will believe Regina, she seeks the help of her friend and they investigate the history of the house and soon find the real reason they are in this home on the eve of the next total eclipse of the sun.

This movie has a very eerie atmosphere throughout.  As its name implies there are a lot of scenes in the darkness and creepy ghosts and other creatures abound in this big old house.  The acting is not the best but that doesn't detract from a pretty good haunted house story with lots of scares and no gore.  Being able to see Anna Paquin (Sookie from True Blood) in one of her early roles is also a treat.

The Illustrated Man

The Illustrated Man (1969) starring Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom and Robert Drivas is based on the Ray Bradbury book.  While not technically a horror movie, it is filled with tension and is about a man (Steiger) who is haunted by the past when he let a former lover (Bloom) tattoo his entire body from his neck to his toes.

Steiger's character runs across a drifter (Drivas) off a back road near a lake where they camp out.  The Illustrated Man warns the drifter not to look too long at his skin illustrations ("don't call them tattoos!") because they come alive and tell you stories and you may see your future - even your death!  He also tells the drifter how he met the woman and how he let her do this to him.  He's now trying to find her so he can kill her but he says she may have gone back to the future.  Of course, in addition to listening to his story, the drifter does look at the illustrations and he & we see different stories all starring the same actors.

We see 3 different stories (all taking place in the future):  "The Veldt" takes place in a futuristic home where the children's nursery is like a Star Trek holodeck and much to the dismay of the parents (and mental health adviser) the children's inner thoughts are causing a menacing atmosphere including hungry lions and buzzards.  "The Long Rains" is about a rocket ship that crashes on a planet where there is constantly a downpour of rain.  The surviving astronauts have to survive long enough so they can make it to one of the "sun domes" scattered across the planet.  The pounding rain drives the astronauts to the edge of insanity and beyond.  "The Last Night of the World" takes place on a future Earth where only a handful of survivors live rather idyllic lives but suddenly all at once all have the same vision that the world will end on a certain day.  The world's male population meets and decides that the vision is true and in order to spare the children having to face the horrible end, they will put them to sleep.  When the man comes home and tells the wife this, she of course refuses to do it.  You'll have to see the movie (or read the book) to see what happens.

Ray Bradbury stories are always thoughtful and often blend creepiness and science fiction into an always interesting story.  This movie based on his work is no exception and Steiger brings an extra level of tension and menace to the story his illustrated body tells. 

The Ghost of Greville Lodge

While browsing around Amazon for movies with a good ghost story, The Ghost of Greville Lodge (2000) starring Jon Newman, Prunella Scales and Marc Danbury caught my eye.  I hadn't heard of this British movie but it looked like it might be a good ghost story with lots of atmosphere so I gave it a try. 

A teenaged orphan, James, is invited to stay with his long lost great uncle at the family estate, Greville Lodge.  Once a bustling English country manor, now mostly closed up and run with the help of Sarah the housekeeper.  James explores the large house and manor and starts having dreams of the past where he is the owner's son.  These dreams soon become waking dreams where a ghost from the past is trying to get James to right some unfinished business.

There was some good atmosphere: wandering around the manor, estate and village (including a graveyard down the road), although I would have liked to see more.  The story kept my interest trying to tie the past to the present but overall it won't be one which I will return to.  If you are looking for a kid friendly ghost story, this may be a DVD for you.