Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

Approaching the new year of 2013 and saying goodbye to a so-so 2012, I thought why not welcome it in with a viewing of New Years Evil (1980), an early slasher that isn’t particularly graphic as customary with the genre, but it has various novelties that might interest fans of the decade anyway. A psychopath, with a peculiar interest in a self-absorbed, success-obsessed radio host hoping her New Years punk rock bash can draw media credibility and television stardom, forewarns her that he will kill people and eventually her. Kip Niven is the handsome, charming wack-job, who uses phone booths and a mechanized sound device to hide his real voice, calling “Blaze” (real name, Susan Sullivan (Roz Kelly)) off and on before and after murders, heading into the New Year of different time zones as the clock strikes 12 Midnight. **

The Big Surprise--Night Gallery (1971)

Mrs. Elva Keene, a grumpy (mainly because she’s...), lonely, handicapped, elderly woman, confined to a wheelchair, is getting eerie phone calls from a moaning, sorrowful voice groaning out, “Hello…helloooooo…” Badgering the phone company for answers, informed that the storm has downed many lines, by the operator who mentions that it could be a bad, faulty connection (before learning from Keene that there’s actually someone’s voice on the other line), Keene becomes increasingly agitated, worried, and frightened by the calls, wanting to know the person tormenting her with these repeated efforts to (maybe) contact her. ****

Days Gone Bye It was about five or so minutes into the show and I already knew I’d have problems with this series. Rick, still in his deputy uniform, shoots a little zombie girl right in the head and it is shown in explicit detail, in slow motion even, crashing to the asphalt, and I come to respect George Romero even more for not lowering himself to such a degree. Sure, he thought it free to just have a stupid biker get his guts ripped from his torso in Dawn of the Dead, but we never see two zombie kids (or the nun; although, I think some of my friends on the imdb would welcome this…) eat lead when Ken Foree has to defend himself. Many love child violence, I realize this, and will applaud the decision to commit blunt force trauma right out of the gate, speaking aloud, “We are willing to go here, hahaha.” *** Look, I know people are head over heels for Frank Darabont. I think a lot of his output deals a heavy hand, like the ending

The tormented shy brain, Vernon Potts. A polite, unassuming, eyes-to-the-floor student who is of constant ridicule, mistreatment, bullying, classless punishment at his school. The literature teacher decides to give him an F on a report of Robert Louis Stevenson because he accidentally turned in a Biology report he spent the Summer working on (his passion is Biology/Chemistry; she believed he needed to give as much dedication to her class as the others; she is a control-bitch who wields the power at her disposal towards “the unruly” or anyone else that might not quite satisfy her need for total devotion to their studies and the high standards of proper behavior in class), the janitor gets angry because he shoos away a cat trying to get at his pet project guinea pig, and then, not to be left out, you have the major antagonist, Roger, the cruel fellow student (dating Vernon’s desired girl-of-choice, Robin (played by the adorable Rosie Holotik), a bubbly, easily-approachable, and ea

Yes, sir. That’s the end of that. The Grave. My favorite Twilight Zone episode. I haven’t the foggiest notion why it doesn’t turn up on a lot of top 5’s in Twilight Zone fans’ lists of favorites episodes. This, my friends, never fails not to deliver the goosebumps. There are just certain episodes of this classic series that leave an indelible mark on me never to leave. The Grave, in my opinion, should work its spell best around Midnight, the dark, the pouring rain, all alone to yourself. Sit and watch it. You can thank me later. *****

Day of the Dead (1985) I've got three reviews and my internet connection is shit, and early this morning I watched Walking Dead, the first episode, and I couldn't help but think of Day of the Dead for whatever reason. It seems like Day of the Dead echoed throughout that first episode. I live where there isn't a broadband tower so what I do have, through Hughes Net, for what I can afford, isn't what I'd prefer, but anyway, Soap box and all, but maybe eventually I can get my three reviews in the can, on the blog and move on to Day of the Dead which will be an exhausting undertaking, considering how much I have loved to write about it in the past. I still need to add finishing touches to Days Gone Bye, with a Twilight Zone episode almost done, and Horror High also basically done, so maybe Day of the Dead will rear its head eventually.

I can just imagine slasher fans turning Death Valley on having heard of its existence and the peculiar stars that aren’t typical of this subgenre (Paul LeMat hadn’t starred in The Puppetmaster, yet), particularly little Peter Billingsley of A Christmas Story (prior to this major part that would forever link his face to the holiday season and in the hearts of audiences time immemorial). That little fellow with his father (The Lost Boy’s Edward Herrmann) in New York (pops is a professor at Princeton), not wanting to go to Death Valley, Arizona, to meet his mother’s new beau. How cutesy it is, set to made-for-television family drama music, Death Valley doesn’t pass the slasher scent that seems to stink the nostrils of haters and work as a sweet savour of favorable aroma to fans of the genre. Catherine Hicks of 7th Heaven and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is the mother, LeMat is the potential stepdad Billingsley has problems connecting to, because Daddy is the kid’s whole world.  **

  Picture of the spaceship E-89, cruising about the thirteenth planet of star system fifty-one, the year 1997. In a little while, supposedly, the ship will be landed and specimens taken, vegetable, mineral and, if any, animal. These will be brought back to an overpopulated Earth, where technicians will evaluate them and, if everything is satisfactory, stamp their findings with the word 'inhabitable' and open up yet another planet for colonization. These are the things that are supposed to happen. Picture of the crew of the spaceship E-89: Captain Ross, Lieutenant Mason, Lieutenant Carter. Three men who have just reached a place which is as far from home as they will ever be. Three men who, in a matter of minutes, will be plunged into the darkest nightmare reaches of the Twilight Zone.   In Tribute to Jack Klugman That was us in there…we’re dead!                                                                                          ****

A Christmas Story (1983) Speaks for itself, me thinks.