Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

 Man, this movie and the time we now live in...the conversations that could be made! With the incredible story about the kids on Reddit bringing it to the Wall Street Billionaire Hedge Fund Establishment, the "equity and inclusion" Executive Order signed by the President just recently, and the talk of an imbalance in the have's and have-not's is all here in "Trading Places". This film, despite plenty of cringe (Aykroyd in blackface and speaking Jamaican, Mortimer and Randolph (Ameche and Bellamy) bringing up the n-word in a bathroom and how they would in no way let Murphy's Valentine be in a privileged position at their commodities company (despite being quite smart and successful), Gleason's crooked Beeks (he set up Aykroyd as a thief) being ass-raped by a gorilla in a cage, Curtis (who was cast because of Landis with Paramount frowning upon a "scream queen" being involved in such an A production) having to expose her breasts twice seeming...

 Sometimes I just like to watch a good early 70s movie that few if any ever talk about much. This isn't the Blake Edwards film from his resume that just comes up in mainstream conversation. I thought "The Carey Treatment", more or less, is a star vehicle for James Coburn. Its his charisma, his obvious star power, the way he coolly approaches others, coolly talks to others, the charming smile, that ease for which he can bring tensions down and broach a difficult situation involving his friend, Dr. Tao (James Hong), accused of killing the daughter of a major surgeon (Dan O'Herlihy) through a very botched abortion. Tao was performing secret abortions so that they would be done correctly, without hackery often associated with backdoor, back alley doctors. So Carey (Coburn) turns amateur sleuth, destined to find the real person responsible, with colleagues at his Boston hospital often aggravated at his "not actually doing the job at the hospital he's hired". ...

 I finally picked up the Criterion Blu Ray of Videodrome (1983) after eyeing it time and again at Barnes & Noble. I wish I would have bought it at the store in my nearest city, but I found it at an excellent price on Amazon. Granted, I hate giving Bezos anymore of my money, just the same, this release, seeing it on my big flat screen (this has been a great purchase, picked up ridiculously cheap on a sale), was just fabulous. While I will keep my gritty DVD release, picked up years ago, of the film, the Criterion presentation, "Director Approved" according to the back of the box, is a gem. I have "Scanners" (1981) coming soon, so I'm also excited about finally picking up the Criterion of that (I had to get the DVD because the Blu Ray was insanely expensive now). I won't lie to you, though. Even late Saturday Evening's viewing, probably my sixth or so (I saw this one later in life, probably in my 20s in the early 2000s), I'm still often thinking wi...

 So after we finished Part 2 my daughter wanted to watch the third one so I was like, Sure. What I noticed about the 2D version is that even though the transfer didn't leave me awestruck like Part 2 the audio quality was fantastic. I felt the first two films lacked that strong audio punch. Not Part 3. My flat screen just boomed this one across the living room. Vid I have coming later. One thing you always can say about Chris...she kicked Jason's ass, man.

 I will have a small vid later but watching the Scream Factory Blu Ray from the series set for the first time on a decent flat screen was just an incredible experience, like I was watching it for the first time. You can see things you just never could before. The best way to watch Part 2. My daughter wanted to watch these with me, much like the Nightmare series last year.

 I get to actually watch Friday the 13th (1980) on a 58 inch screen. Close to a theater as I figure I'll ever get.

 I really noticed that I LOVED this first episode of the Roanoke season as I was revisiting it on Netflix. This was the season that I felt disappointed when it took that typical Murphy/Falchuk left turn in a bizarre twist, shifting everything you were watching into a jarring direction. But this first chapter does have familiarity; horror fans certainly see the tropes here, but I guess I dig these particular ones. The LA locals transplanting themselves into rural Virginia after an assault, adopting an old country home seemingly plopped in the middle of nowhere, fearing they are being harassed by "hillbillies", where the spirits of long dead folks emerge to raise hell horror overload is just right up my alley. The house creaks, has long halls with cornered walls that could hide creepy manifestations, features this ungodly pig squeal that seems to wake you up from a deep sleep, and has enough rooms (with this curving stairwell that gave me awesome "The Haunting" vibes...

 So as far as this episode goes, I did personally enjoy the progression of the story arc involving Blaine while the pivot from Liv and Major (AGAIN) has become just preposterous to me. This episode a buddy of Major's (who works with him at Fillmore-Graves) named Justin (Tongayi Chirisa) interested in pursuing Liv...Major gives him the okay. Justin also learns that Major is human, so there is that. Justin is cool so Major doesn't have to worry about him snitching to anyone. However, still remaining with Fillmore-Graves despite no longer having the abilities of a zombie does land Major into awkward situations such as going to a "zombie speakeasy" with some of the guys from Fillmore-Graves where to prove you are among the "undead" eating a ghost pepper is a requirement...matter of plot convenience is Don E showing up to allow Major inside. Don E and Blaine both tell Liv they didn't take the remaining doses of the cure, so that bit of mystery remains intact....

My last season being the third, all out of sorts, it is amusing to see how the story arc involving zombie cures and Liv getting one (Blaine and Major going through their own ups and downs involving memory loss and recovery) played with emotions. Liv was always so close to the cure and like her, we as the audience, went on that roller coaster. But it wasn't meant to be: Liv was a zombie who often accompanied Clive on cases and helped him solve them by recovering memories from those whose brains she cooked in gourmet (and not so gourmet) meals. In the episode, "Some Like It Hot Mess", Liv could very well be close to the cure. Don E gets an offer for a cool million from a trust fund zombie and requests Ravi give up some of the doses. Eventually Ravi arrives at his lab and those very doses were stolen from a locked cabinet. And that one dose that Major had was given by him to a young woman he felt needed it. So poor Liv once again is so close to being human again and is left ...

 Just in early January, I was thinking about how cool it was Peter Mark Richman was still around considering a good majority of actors and actresses who appeared in The Twilight Zone had now passed. I was watching "The Fear" during my final evening of the Twilight Zone Marathon Weekend and his still being with us gave me a kind of fleeting appreciation for any remaining members of a class of talent almost gone now. He was 93; an incredible career, too, considering he retired in 2011. Nehemiah Persoff, of the Twilight Zone episode, "Judgement Night" is still with us, aged 101. But I guess I couldn't help reflect back on just a few days ago before Richman's passing thinking to myself how awesome it still was to have Richman with us. I have brought up that while the ending of the episode, "The Fear", left me disappointed, I really liked him in it. It is probably one of his more significant roles, along with "Three's Company" (his episode...

 I watched my upteenth Jimmy Stewart movie in like two months after coming home tonight. Thanks to Turner Classic Movies, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) was on and I was like, "Why not?" Alfred Hitchcock directing a potential assassination in the Royal Albert Hall with Bernard Herrmann conducting the orchestra as Doris Day peers into a skybox at Reggie Nalder who is waiting the bang of cymbals signalling his turn to kill the prime minister as Jimmy Stewart hurriedly rushes about to stop the murder...the epic of this writes itself. The way the orchestra builds and Hitchcock prepares us for the musician and the cymbals to crash as Nalder hides behind a curtain, pulls his Luger, and awaits, with Day, in tears, torn about how to stop the killing, knowing her son's life is in jeopardy....Hitchcock milks that for all its worth. A child kidnapped, Stewart and Day caught between a rock and a hard place, London the location where the film takes us (Morroco to Marrakesh, and even...

 I have to admit: I enjoy "The Royale" almost purely as a guilty pleasure. I could see why folks would just roll their eyes and pick it apart. This created place from a specific book you could buy in a second hand shop right out front of a store by aliens regretting the death of an astronaut's crew on some planet that is uninhabitable by humans (or most life forms) being a casino with a mob murder plot as Riker, Data, and Worf find themselves trapped inside the place, unable to leave or beam out, realize they must "become part of the plot" in order to escape is absurd. Finding a dead astronaut who could never leave the place in a room "upstairs" has always left an impact on me, though. An explorer, too, stuck in a recreated casino by aliens believing that the book was where he'd be familiar and wish to stay...kind of a tragedy. To be found by members of the Enterprise D so long after, nothing but a deteriorated corpse, the suit hanging in the close...

 It is so funny how you can sort of unexpectedly just start binging a show after watching some random episode. Then another, then another, so on and so forth. I was temporarily watching "Home Soil" on YouTube TV after recently getting a bigger television with Roku finally. I went over to Netflix (I do have the entire Next Gen on DVD) and finished the episode. The first and second seasons of The Next Generation are often sited as less than favorable by Star Trek fans, but I personally enjoy many of the episodes from them, if I must admit. Now don't get me wrong: most of the episodes aren't great. But I think they can be fun. I really like "Home Soil" about an inorganic life form that shines and even hums, soon "relocated" to the Enterprise after a member of a terraforming team is killed by a laser, later determined to have been under the control of the life form (defending itself). What made this discovery incredible is that it challenges what we on...

 Thankfully, Maggie FINALLY is allowed by the writers of Dark Shadows to leave the cell. It takes a riddle from Sarah, ghost girl, to Maggie to get there, but I was like, "Hallelujah!" Seeing her put that riddle together, go to that "brick" wall (the walls in the basement are quite "fragile"), find that one brick that pushes in, and the escape "hatch" opens; I was just as relieved as her. Of course, the episode really milks that search for the button and Barnabas moving glacially and ominously to her cell. I was laughing while my son was closing his eyes half the time. The writers really wanted that walk to last and last. I got a kick out of it. Barnabas told Willie that when he woke up Maggie would be killed. Willie even thinks about his situation, killing Barnabas, helping Maggie; all of this in his head narrated to us at the beginning of the episode, Willie eventually decides to poison some milk. Willie knew that he would be killed or much wor...

 Episode 259 is a huge episode of Dark Shadows for more than one reason: Elizabeth is convinced by Victoria to leave Collinwood and Elizabeth finally tells someone, Victoria, that she killed Paul Stoddard, her husband! Finally Elizabeth says it. Finally, after eighteen excruciating years, Elizabeth leaves that damn mansion. Imagine carrying that weight around and only one other person knowing it: Jason, Elizabeth's blackmailer. Victoria has often been treated as a sideline character despite being the first character established on the series from the very beginning. But she's actually been another daughter to Elizabeth. But during Dark Shadows - The Beginning, Vicky's past was so important. It came up often. But as time went on, Victoria was sort of the character who moved around different stories without really having one of her own. She was the person others leaned on, talked to, needed to vent to, release their pentup frustrations to. In this episode, not only does Vicky...

 Boy, this song is about to drive me as mad as Maggie Evans, still held captive in her cell for something like years it feels like at this point. Dark Shadows could reallllllly drag out a storyline. Phew. Willie realizes that Barnabas will dispose of Maggie if she doesn't quit acting like a "babbling child". Gee, I wonder if that has anything to do with Barnabas and Willie keeping Maggie stuck in an isolated cell days and days on end. Willie really just yells and freaks out at Maggie who insists she has a special friend who visits her. He is losing his ability to keep Maggie alive as Barnabas visits her at the beginning of the episode and considers any chance of her being Josette as hopeless. If Maggie can't be Josette then keeping her alive is pointless to Barnabas. If she were at least sane perhaps that would be enough to try and push her towards adopting Josette as a new identity. Once Barnabas calls her Maggie and leaves her, that signaled to him all was lost. Wil...

 Episode 259 features Jason trying to keep Elizabeth in line as she watches her daughter defiantly dedicated to marrying Buzz. Jason confronts Caroline in her room about her bad behavior, trying to use his manipulation to convince her she's falling into her own father's personality flaws. Eventually all the sleazy smiling gives way to a loud demand to straighten up, but Caroline isn't about to just follow Jason's orders. In fact she doubles down by going back out with Buzz (after Buzz is invited in by Caroline, despite Elizabeth closing the door in his face) to the Blue Whale, getting her nose powdered when Jason arrives hoping to buy him off with a brand new motorcycle. That doesn't work as Buzz prefers the girl to the bike, with both laughing in Jason's aggravated face. Nothing is as fun (except maybe for Maggie to be let out of that damned cell) as seeing Jason put in his place. But that dastardly mind always seems to have another trick. Elizabeth caring more...

This face is quite the norm. Lots of cell time for Maggie Willie explains why he's Barnabas' mutt.  Sarah, a girl ghost from "a long, long, long, long time ago" (says David, for whom she meets and somewhat befriends), seems to have been introduced to further drive Maggie nuts. It isn't until the end of the episode (#256) that Sarah finally talks to Maggie, telling her "don't let big brother know I'm down here, he doesn't like when anyone comes down here" (okay, I'm probably paraphrasing, but it's close enough). So Sarah does find David (finally being given something to do besides remain a background character you never see or hear from) swinging near the Old House--because no matter how many times he's told to stay away, David keeps returning--and returns to her same song, "London Bridges" with that ball. I'm already sick of hearing the damn song as much as David. Anyway, he returns home as Sarah goes to find her par...

  If life couldn't get more complicated for Elizabeth Stoddard, Jason wants to get married in two weeks and Caroline, still acting out against mama proposes that her and Buzz do the same! Joe tries to talk sense into Caroline at the Blue Whale but she's bound and determined to be a pain in Jason's ass. I admittedly absolutely love this whole Buzz(kill) development as it is such a hilarious monkey wrench in the whole wedding preparations for Elizabeth and Jason. Caroline can really misbehave if something pushes her to it, and Elizabeth sure has enough burdening her with the lecherous Jason.  In another development, Jason decides he wants a cut of profit from whatever ancestral heirlooms Willie has been selling for Barnabas, refusing to heed to Willie's warnings to leave well enough alone. Such greed will no doubt be his true undoing. Willie knows quite well that sucking around with Barnabas is ill-advised. Willie's response to Jason's news of marriage cracks me u...

  Episode 255 really doubled down on how savage Barnabas could be. I mean in this episode, the writers really just placed Maggie in a position of almost zero hope. And they emphasize how Maggie is seemingly without any remaining help to arrive. Sam is shown just downing shot glass after shot glass as the Blue Whale, as he informs Joe that he set to bring Barnabas his portrait, finally finished. Well, Sam arrives just as Barnabas, Willie, and Maggie are up in Josette's bedroom. Barnabas assures Maggie that if she lets out any noise that might draw attention to her (Willie holds her with a gag on her mouth), he'd kill Sam, her dad. If that wasn't bad enough--actually hearing her father's voice and Barnabas asking about any information on Maggie's whereabouts (now that is scummy!) without being to yell for help--Sam gets word from Joe that a girl's body had been found miles outside of town, a corpse that fits the description of Maggie. Sam is led to believe that t...

  Got to give to Maggie for using whatever is available to her to try and get some sort of help her way, considering she's stuck in a cell (no longer in a bride dress, now wardrobed in black with impeccably curled hair and madeup quite beautifully despite days of imprisonment and stress) with very little option for escape. Barnabas has just turned into an asshole by this point, seemingly enjoying walking away from the cell as Maggie begs and reaches from the limited room of the door window in desperation. Maggie has a ring, a large diamond with an inscription. She tries to get Barnabas to get the ring to her father, claiming she would capitulate her devotion to him if he would. Barnabas is just too wise for that bit of cat and mouse, so she capitalizes on Willie's avarice--no matter how he might show signs of humanity, he's still a greedy stooge when it comes down to it--and he bites. She wishes to offer the ring to Willie as a token of appreciation for saving her life, and...

 I so enjoyed this one because this episode (#252) brought out those grandiose Soap Opera family drama cliches so ripe with camp. Elizabeth is marrying Jason no matter how Caroline appeals to her about how rotten he is. Elizabeth, of course, knows all too well Jason is a money-hunting scoundrel and blackmailer but that damned secret she's long held onto for 18 years (a long trial that has kept her practically confined to Collinwood) won't allow her to just tell her daughter the truth. Because the truth would be Elizabeth telling her daughter about the murder of her father. So you have the merry-go-round of drama that results from one lie just spawning a perhaps even worse reaction. That chain reaction includes Elizabeth noising her complaint against her family always trying to live her life for her and retorts to Caroline--who was sincerely and compassionately pleading with her mom to talk to her--about what she has done with her own life lately. Uh oh...that sparks a defiant...

  So as Barnabas decides whether or not to destroy Maggie for trying to stake him, Willie works his ass off to convince his master to put away those thoughts and look at her beauty and realize that she can still be Josette. So while Willie actually stands up for Maggie and puts himself in front of her to die first, he has to work that brain power against a superior mind and evil in Barnabas. Because Maggie looks like Josette and Willie uses whatever leverage is available to him (the authorities are still out there looking for Maggie and if Willie went missing it would stir up suspicion) to halt Barnabas from immediately killing them both, there is a brief stall...and a matter of convenience arrives in Victoria, who visits the Old House to talk with Barnabas about a curfew in place by the police due to recent events. This episode, number 251, introduces an interesting wrinkle in the Maggie-kidnapping storyline with Victoria's interest in the music box (and later a handkerchief suppo...