Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

“Back There” was one of my “Channel Ten faves” as a teenager. Before I had cable (and later digital cable and Direct TV), I had to turn an antenna just to pick up certain channels. Even then the channels that weren’t local often faded in and out or had interference. On occasion, when the time was just right, I could pick up Channel Ten, from a station in Alabama, I believe. Kids today haven’t a clue what I’m talking about but the thrill of picking up a station with content not in my normal lineup could be quite thrilling. On Channel Ten, from ten o’clock to eleven, I’d watch the funny British clothing store comedy, Are You Being Served? and Twilight Zone which followed it. It was an hour that almost every night came in without too much difficulty, although, oddly enough, before and afterward the signal faded out. I never understood why, but I sure wasn’t about to complain because this hour was anticipated with much excitement. During a period of time (I guess maybe a month or

I admit that “One for the Angels” isn’t particularly my favorite Twilight Zone although I just delight in Ed Wynn’s performance. He’s just a lovely fellow, the character beloved by kids even if his life has been a disappointment. He is a “pitchman”, in the city with an open case set up to peddle his wares to any passersby that might be interested in toys, ties, or tonic. He has a less-than-posh apartment, well lived in and messy. It is definitely a bachelor’s existence for his near 70 years of livin’. His list of accomplishments isn’t too impressive and looking back on what he has produced in the lifetime provided many might consider less than spectacular. What he does want to do is make that one big pitch before his life meets its end. Speaking of the end of life, Mr. Death (Murray Hamilton, the infamous mayor of Amity who allowed tourists to enter the waters of his beach with knowledge that a Great White might be in close proximity in Jaws (1974)) has come to fetch Wynn, seemi

Small rant. Robert Englund is just fine in this. He makes a contribution at the beginning as the tired operation manager of a mental institution for the psychotic insane. The very worst of the sickos the country can produce. He is giving a journalist a tour of the place in the hopes of keeping the establishment running. Except she isn't a journalist...she's Dollface (Candice De Visser), the daughter of a cult leader who led his flock to mass suicide, Reverend Manny (Jere Burns, of Angie Tribeca & Justified ). If the above posters didn't present Englund as anything more than a cameo thankfully involved in the low budget production, I wouldn't have been so remiss, but this gnawed at my guts due to its blatant false advertising. He's tricked, garroted​, and dismissed. Goodbye. **½ Let’s just get this out of the way. A LOT of fucking people die. A lot. Like a heavy body count to end all body counts. A lot of folks around the area for which this funhou

 * The Howling series just didn't need another sequel or addition or use of its name. Let's face it. This is a series that should just be allowed to spend its days in retirement, in reflection on where and how it all went so wrong. I think there some bright spots in the series after the first film (which is near and dear to my heart), but all too often so much more bad than good. Such, such bad. That said, in 2011 there was this attempt to revive the name, the brand if you will. I think it was just an attempt to slough off the name for a film that is closer to the Teen Wolf television show that anything associated with The Howling, at all. And I would be remiss to leave that as saying Reborn is even of the quality of Teen Wolf, a show I actually like. I think the Howling Reborn is merely an exercise in wishful thinking...thinking that perhaps this will lead to something similar to Twilight. Why not attempt the route of "college werewolves in love" and "look