Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

Serling prepares us for "Four O'Clock" I like Syfy's idea of airing a 24 hour slate of episodes every Tuesday into early Wednesday morning. Still their cut episodes aren't the ideal if you want to see the show in it's purest form but if you have nothing better to do, why not? I never dedicate official write-ups to Twilight Zone episodes from Syfy viewings, but I do often mention the marathons themselves just because the channel brings certain episodes to light that might otherwise necessarily remain in the shadows. The Gift Person or Persons Unknown Young Man's Fancy "The Gift" was one of the last episodes I had never seen. Set in a Mexican village, little Pedro is a mature, respectable, gentle boy who befriends an alien whose ship crashlands not far from him. The alien, in the form of a local, arrives injured after he's been shot by police, misunderstood by them as a menace and danger. The alien has a book he considers ...

“All Creatures Here Below” (2018)was probably not the best film to watch during this pandemic; soul-crushing true-to-life films about traumatized young adults in a world that rejects them maybe isn’t the kind of content I need to absorb at the moment. This is very well shot (it has that independent film, docu-style, free-camera, Cinéma Vérité approach), punch-to-the-gut film, directed with no intention on a happy ending for these victims of a world featuring a father who abused his son and daughter physically, sexually, mentally, and emotionally. I think you will realize at the very beginning that there will be no good outcome for Dastmalchian (holding on by a thread; you can tell he’s just at his wit’s end and his patience has been stressed to the max) and Gillan (she forgoes her more pop culture resume for a very bleak portrait of a young woman damaged and diminished by a hellish and dysfunctional upbringing (or is that “down”bringing?), seemingly a couple until we later lea...

Nothing against the cast who does try hard, the breathtaking vistas and panoramic view of Montana, and the interesting house with a tragic back story, but the sinister sound in the attic being revealed as nothing more than a biker at odds with rivals for killing a couple of their gang is anything but a powerful wallop worth holding out for during an extended period of glacial pacing. The name of the film needed to be different and the use of an artist’s murder of his family with his own eventual suicide after to keep the audience guessing as to when the paranormal would eventually surface only to instead deliver such a whimper of a finale just felt disingenuous and left me frustrated. This is really about a family in disarray, with a father addicted to porn and hoping to rekindle his inspiration as an artist despite being stifled, a wife hoping her brand new pharmacy business might be a fresh start in the right direction career-wise, and a daughter trying to escape a past of bul...

[3/27]“Zapped!” (1982) is definitely a film that when I did watch it in the past I could remember it warmly in my youth. But I remember my stepfather’s half brother really loving this film so much he would rewatch it on a videotape he had over and over throughout a day. He had certain films like that—I recall he would watch the Kenny Rogers “Six Pack” comedy (with kids) a lot as well, as well as, “Midnight Madness”, starring a young Michael J Fox—he would just leave in his VCR and watch them on repeat. He was born with an undeveloped brain and had his own little extended home separated from my stepfather’s father’s main house (a garage between them). So I visited him from time to time. While a lot of the comic bits just don’t age well (Heather Thomas is a consistent victim of telekinetic disrobing, certain to be a polarizing aspect of the film in the climate of today), and some of the tricks are obvious (a couple of school rivals pull down their pants while their girlfriends mock Baio...

[3/26] I watched "Selfie from Hell" (2018) thanks to Showtime Beyond Thursday evening. I tell you, after last night's series of shorts from ShortsTV, I could tell that just applying any passion that often comes with write-ups I have was nil. And yet I still write. I don't even know the fuck why. I just do. "Selfie from Hell" features Hannah (Alyson Walker) trying to investigate why her cousin, Julia (Meelah Adams) has fallen ill and seemingly comatose. This takes her into the dark web, into a "Black Room" where she encounters a bald creep with rodent teeth sending her "13 selfies" of a hanging victim that seems to send a type of possession. When you see all 13 there is no escape from this "unfathomable evil". Hannah has an internet friend, Trevor (Tony Giroux), with a crush on her, very tech saavy, with a firm grasp and knowledge of the dark web/net and what it can produce if you give up too much personal information. Plenty of...

[3/27] For a period of time Fulci’s Zombie (1979) wasn’t consi dered by me to be in the conversation with the greatest zombie films of all time. But I think so now. I watched it late Friday night and now even consider it an “event” film similar to “Night of the Living Dead” or “Dawn of the Dead”. It isn’t just a bad B-movie with blood and guts to me. I couldn’t say that in 2003 but I feel that way now. In fact I have never quite viewed that ending with the undead moving towards New York quite as eerie as I do now. The “disease” of the Dominican Republic island of Matool that sickened and killed locals (and eventually visitors) had made its way to New York. I just wish things weren’t what they are and that thought of what has overwhelmed the globe wasn’t on my mind as a substitute for Fulci’s zombies. But even when I wasn’t all that wild and crazy for “Zombie” 17 years ago, that ending and the music that accompanied it has some serious potency. But tonight’s viewing was very similar t...

 With the C-Virus ravaging the globe and so many horrible cases of victims to this, I work from home (fortunately) while many others aren't so lucky. Every day I get up and watch clips and such (I don't spend too much time on media or news because the tone would cause me to fall into a severe depression) before starting work and at lunch and after work, and the grim news of what is going on (and how many either are dying, working service industry trying to help folks or at hospitals and in labs helping as best they can) just deprives most of us of any joy. 

“Nowhere to Run” (2019): Simple but intense short set in the wild has a couple (Josh Gilmer and Brittany Wolf) backpacking in the idyllic woods (except for a giant cockroach), interrupted by this tattooed, bulging-muscled, foul-mouthed, filthy and hideous cretin, just ruining an engagement because he wants to rape and molest Wolf. While Gilmer is pissing, this creep with wicked eyes (Mike Ferguson) attacks him with a sledgehammer, assuring himself no intrusion on an attempt to abuse Wolf (who tries to flee but is cornered near a cliff with nowhere to go, knocked unconscious by Ferguson with the handle of the sledgehammer). Wolf will have to outsmart the much larger Ferguson in order to gain any advantage. A convenient bottle is available as is his discarded sledgehammer at Ferguson’s sparse cabin in the woods; will she be able to flee or does she want to stand and get revenge. With female empowerment out of a scary situation more than a bit obvious as a closing point made, I am sur...