Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

Well, House of Usher (1960) was on in the background thanks to TCM again and Pit & the Pendulum (1961) has just been presented by Ben, the host, as those paint colors run and score prepares us for some grim happenings weary traveler, Kerr, will inevitably endure, the real end of October brings on the melancholy. I always ponder what movies should have made the month, what choices certainly shouldn't have but I'm okay with an underwhelming year every now and then. If I am to load up 2020 as I plan to I needed to cut myself some slack in 2019. All in all those left off, those typical mainstays that get the rub because of their association to my past, could afford a missed year. Still, nonetheless, I'm bummed I feel as if missed opportunities left me feeling the month was a wash.

Almost all these are in the Blog Archive, written about plenty of times, especially in October. Frankenstein (1931) – Didn’t have a lot to say this year as my daughter distracted me from really enjoying this in full. Still the amazing sets and Karloff’s Monster reaching up to the light set themselves out to me this year. ****/**** I think the question that struck me this year is how could have everything turned out if Fritz hadn’t antagonized the Monster with fire. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) –I have plans to watch this again in November as my teenagers and I really enjoyed it. Linus collapsing at the silhouette of Snoopy while infuriated Lisa gripes about how she gave up trick or treating for a wasted evening cracked us up. ****/**** Mr. Sardonicus (1961) & Homicidal (1961) – I don’t believe I’ve ever written official reviews for these two. I finished Halloween Eve with these two films and concluded the next day with House on Haunted Hill (1959), s...

A special thank you to any who ventured here, if even for just a quick minute or two. The next two days will be dedicated to the old mainstay classics, a few made their way into the blog during the month, but I shelved quite a bit this year. 2018 was epic and I just had no plans to try and duplicate that. 2020 might be different, but as I age I'm realizing that into my 40s I can't pace myself like the young whipper snappers. And when you write and write the ink in the pen eventually might run dry. I hope it doesn't but I'm starting to accept I'm not who I once was. And so many more brilliant minds, far more substantial and literate will easily surpass this old horror fan's output and content. So a running tally the next two will probably be it unless some anecdote or spark pops. All of them have surely popped up on the blog, so the archive I'm quite positive has something about them.

I admit when I was a teenager, watching Night of the Living Dead (1968), I would get so frustrated with Barbara. Her “zombie-like” trance, a product of falling prey to a breakdown, while poor Ben was left to try and board up the farmhouse so that the undead outside wouldn’t get in. I can remember the feeling of this infuriation building—would you fucking help this guy!—and with any masterpiece after repeated viewings, important works that have something else to reveal to us as we grow older in our own human experience, there is always a fresh perspective, just unveiling itself. Barbara, early in the cemetery, as her brother, Johnny, gripes on and on about delivering a decorative piece for their father’s grave 200 miles from home for their mother, who doesn’t accompany them due to her age, vulnerably in her attempted avoidance of his nagging about being afraid of his digs at scaring her (the jump from behind a tree that immediately rattles her) proves that she’s easily spook...

As I was putting together some words on The Abominable Snowman, Turner Classics had Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920) as their Silent Sunday Nights feature presentation and the incredible 1907 short, The Haunted Hotel which I HIGHLY recommend. I hope to be around next year, which has absolutely no guarantees, to review Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for the blog to celebrate its 100th anniversary. I had a ball tonight, though. Barrymore isn't my favorite actor, I must admit. He really annoyed me in Mark of the Vampire,  but there's no discounting his value in the early days of cinema into its golden era where his name was synonymous with success. I didn't watch Mark of the Devil as I normally do every October. I still might but I doubt it as the month is winding down and I just don't plan to watch too many more. I plan a huge 2020 October if I am still kicking and alive, again, though, no guarantees. None a'tall. Barrymore's work as Hyde is just impeccable. H...

In a rare move, I chose a different, sadly less recognized Hammer film from their 50s output instead of “Curse of Frankenstein” (1957; released the same year) and Horror of Dracula (1958), deciding on “The Abominable Snowman [of the Himalayas]” with Peter Cushing as a kindly scientist with an interest in locating a Yeti for study/research and noising his way into a Tibetan monastery with a racist trapper/hunter in his entourage pooh-poohing his entire experience in this part of the world, is Forrest Tucker’s sensationalist showman. Arnold Marlé, as the Tibetan Llama who knows more than he’s letting on but unwilling to give the “tourists” anything of consequence because he clearly wants to protect the Yeti, Richard Wattis as Cushing’s aid, Fox, and Maureen Connell as Cushing’s wife, Helen; they remain in the monastery village as Tucker’s (given top billing) publicity seeking Tom Friend and Friend’s obtuse tracker pal, Ed Shelley (Robert Brown) bring along paying photograph...