Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

If you are watching one of the Ocean’s films, or seen any number of sitcom appearances by Eliot Gould and nothing else, you might think he was always more or less the silly supporting guest assigned the task to tickle your funny bone for a few minutes. But he had a whole leading man career for the decade of the 70s with a ton of highs and lows. He flopped hard and yet there are gems littered throughout the decade if you can find them. The 1978 Toronto based Christmas cat-and-mouse bank heist thriller, <b>The Silent Partner</b>, for me, is such a gem. Gould really wants out of his vault teller job. It is a daily form of soul-sucking monotony that yields a basic apartment and the occasional expensive goldfish. Gould is asked by his married boss at the bank to be a date for the operations manager (Susanna York) until he can get away from the wife to continue the affair. Gould carries a torch for York, but it just seems like they cannot quite gel, with something, or someone (ma

I was grappling with when to watch this follow-up to the 1974 Bob Clark classic, a solid 42 minute short film 47 years after the events of that horrible Christmas Eve when Sam’s grandmother, Jess, thought she had killed the one responsible for murdering her friends inside a sorority. In this short “fan” film (this looks and sounds too damn good for what many might consider typically carrying that distinction), Sam returns to her grandmother’s house (after owners of the sorority house where Jess killed her boyfriend, Peter, in the basement reject her request to look inside) with two best friends, Justine and Emma, on Christmas Eve to spend the night. Billy, the actual killer of Jess’ friends, has made his home in the attic, as unstable as ever, talking with a doll he twists and grasps in his hands. So in the dark of night, Billy will strike once again, this time venting his rage on Sam’s friends, with the twist of Agnes showing up adding some extra woah to the final minutes of the film

 I had a previous Letterboxd review, but decided to include that in the comments instead. This was the one I ultimately came up with for A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas (2011): A heartwarming story of friendship reunited on Christmas Eve, as Harold, a Wall Street success story (much to the chagrin of protesters not just carrying picket signs), and Kumar (having been kicked out of med school but just needing a little push towards making a rebound and recovering his broken relationship), must find a tree in the city while escaping possible danger (a notorious gangster and his hitmen, looking to get even for a "slight misunderstanding). Harold just wants his father-in-law to like him since he loves his wife and wants her to be as happy as possible. Oh, and there is lots of weed. Lots and lots of weed. And just a wee bit of oddball 3D. Oh, and Santa smoking a bong as he tells us, Merry Christmas...after a long night's work and shotgun wound to the head patched up by Kumar (resp

I guess if there is enough fracking, penetrating the earth brings forth a kind of evil certain to do some real damage. On Christmas Eve, Jack and Lucy weren’t expecting their own holiday together to be interrupted so hostilely, much less Lauren’s family, having invited the couple over kindly for a warm supper that…well, let’s just say it all gets a little out of hand. How could it not get out of hand if Jack and Lucy are possessed by demons looking to have plenty of violent, sadistic fun? It might take a strong stomach for some viewers to see a family all happy and cheery when their mom tells them she’s in remission after an ugly six months of cancer treatment and just as the celebration begins, with lots of love, warmth, and hugs, out comes a hammer that obliterates a head. It really doesn’t last long but sure feels like it goes on for an eternity. I give Ward and Loxley a lot of credit for totally convincing as human shells occupied against their will. Getting to spend just enough ti

While I totally get why many consider Serling’s writing style for the Ghosts of the film heavy-handed, less-than-subtle, on-the-nose, and landing with quite the hammer to the head, being such a fan of his, I personally have no problem with that. Being that “Twilight Zone” is my all-time favorite television show, knowing he had written a variation on “A Christmas Carol”, one of my all-time favorite stories, thrill and excitement were a given. I wasn’t a big fan of Hayden since I just see Scrooge going through a roller coaster of emotions, and he never shows anything but that stern, austere, unwavering rock of a personality. Even when on his knees asking Christmas Future (Robert Shaw in a robe as outstanding as always; Serling’s dialogue in his mouth is pure magic) if the “rubble and madness” dystopia of Seller’s ME philosophy could be altered, while also concerned about his own survival should elicit real emotion, and yet I just never find myself convinced by Hayden. There is just no ra

1973. Connecticut. Kevin Kline and Joan Allen are the Hoods, a couple whose marriage is in decline. Their neighbors are the Carvers, Jim and Janey (Jim Sheridan and Sigourney Weaver), whose marriage isn’t particularly riding too great a high. Kline’s Ben and Janey are having an affair. But Janey gets bored very easily with Ben any time he talks about his life. In fact, Janey seems bored by everything around her to the point I wondered what the fuck she’s doing in Connecticut with a family at all. She seems little interested in her sons, Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Hann-Byrd, “Halloween H20”), much less her husband, often away on business. Allen’s Elena eventually learns of Ben’s affair with Janey, not particularly amused by it. Tobey Maguire is the Hoods’ son at college, Paul, while Cristina Ricci is their daughter, Wendy. On the night of the Ice Storm there is a swinger’s party gathering up all the neighbors called “a key party”...the Hoods go as do the Carvers. In the film there a

  I had a nice Halloween today. It was overcast here and a bit chilly, but when I went for a walk in my nearby park, there were so many leaves and pine needles on the little asphalt path I take, it definitely felt like fall. I took the day off and just enjoyed the day. My teenager kids came in on Friday with pumpkins so I carved jack-o'-lanterns which I'll add in this post and later watched Halloween as part of Joe Bob Briggs' Halloween Hootenanny, that happened just after the release of the 2018 film. So many YouTube takes on the entire Halloween franchise, lots of posts about the most recent film, which my wife liked and daughter loved, and every kind of video and Letterboxd review imaginable I've read and watched this month and up to October. I'm absolutely burned out and can say assuredly that I completely embrace retiring anything related to John Carpenter and Debra Hill's classic 1978 horror film. Let Myers truly stay dead for a while...pretty please?

Meant for Letterboxd, once again I got write-happy and perhaps put together too much of a novelization I had to segment. Here it will be in full as I close out October 2022: I like how while this is a follow-up to "Curse", Frankenstein (going by Dr. Stein) is somewhat different in how Cushing portrays him from the Baron of the previous Hammer success. The murdering adulterer willing to stoop to certain scummy levels seems a bit less hideous in personality. Though he's perfectly fine with a priest replacing him at the guillotine, assisted by Karl (Quitak), wanting his brain placed in a body put together piecemeal by Frankenstein and out of a disabled shell he finds cumbersome and ugly, "Dr. Stein" isn't as psychopathic, setting up a practice at Carlsbruk, three years developing his reputation even as he serves as a "voluntary charity doctor" for the poor and destitute (many of whom are criminals). Dr. Stein does take parts from them, surgically excu

 I had to shorten my Letterboxd review but I'll go ahead and add something on a film so often talked about in the past as I go through Hammer weekend now. -- I’m thinking when Father Sandor tells you not to go to Carlsbad, it’s best to listen to him. However, outsiders from England, The Kents, don’t, instead opting to travel to Carlsbad, left stranded by a refusing coachmen who will not look at Castle Dracula. Other horses with no coachmen arrive and the Kents decide to hop into the coach and position to drive to Carlsbad, taken to Castle Dracula, eventually endangered (or killed) by Dracula and his servant, Klove. Father Sandor, obviously, will have to match wits with Dracula, and either contain or destroy the evil before his vampire bite becomes an infestation threatening anyone unfortunate enough to be targeted. Klove isn’t the only one Dracula will use to gain advantage when available: Thorley Walters’ Ludwig, with troubled mind and feeble mental strength, has a home at Sandor’

Shredding: I grew up addicted to X-games and skateboarding/snowboarding content around 1998-ish. You know, following the exploits of talents as they travel from place to place living the dream. And, for some reason, Bitchcraft reminded me of The Donnas or something akin to maybe Hole. So this footage on a VHS tape had those kinda vibes. The converging of footage of the band looking to make it big and friends goofing off and looking for whatever next thrill might happen sort of made sense considering when there would be tracking/white noise “blips”, each would pop up and intrude on the other. It was inevitable the band might emerge as some type of zombies or ghouls (I just figured they sold their souls for success and maybe somehow died) ready to tear apart of the merry band of thrill-seeking youths intruding upon their former stage. I have to say that all of the cast look like TikTok Gen Z so that took away some of the authenticity, but minor grapes, I guess. The “Double Dare” Nick tee

 I used to just love Octobers and while the month is probably my favorite along with December, it can be a real nightmare. It's like I have all these movies that often remain mainstays and feel essential as annual watches within the month. And a couple of years ago during the Pandemic era I thought I'd just watch all of them prior to October and relieve myself of that burden. That I could just watch one film a night and not feel as if I was cheating on the month like   owing sex to someone via a contract or something. I am not OCD but first world problems I guess. There is just something in my brain, like these debates about enjoying the month and season without applying this insane expectation of getting all the shit in before the 31st. I have been trying to get my reviews in for all the classics in Letterboxd so I could start to watch first-time viewed horror films. It's just like so many others, it is quite a tall order to do. So eventually by the third week of the mont

The old box set. I thought I would post it for fun. I still have the Blair Witch emblem! I can't remember where the brown string went. I also took a pic while watching the film below.

 No matter where I am, I'm always a sucker for Halloweeny items!

I totally get why anyone who takes a chance on a little chiller that is barely over 60 minutes like The Vampire Bat might ask themselves what is the point. I realize there is a niche audience who just enjoys these 30s and 40s B&W horror films, many of them made with very little money, on borrowed or reused sets, with plots just piecemealing elements in the hopes of cashing in on successes that were currently or just recently very popular…sound familiar?  It is no surprise to find Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill, and Dwight Frye were cast in this 1933 cheapie since they had been so noteworthy for “ Doctor X” and “ Dracula ” just a year or two before. Frye, I think, is perhaps the reason to watch this ‘33 film, since a majority of the film takes place within the manor of Dr. Otto (Atwill), a mad scientist (obviously) keeping tissue living outside the body, using blood from victims to continue his experiments, arranging a ruse of the vampire bite (by hypnotizing his assistant and ordering h

 I looked at this on my Letterboxd and in its initial form went long, so I'll add it in its entirety here: It isn’t that I don’t have fun with this shot-in-Yuma “desert road vampire adventure” – this was one of the Movie Gallery shelf filler rentals that would have my fingerprints on the box due to dust collecting – it is just that The Forsaken doesn’t have an original bone in its entire skeletal frame.  Brendan Fehr’s Nick needs to find “an original vampire” turned by Abaddon (angel from the bottomless pit) in order to free himself of a curse he keeps at bay through medication in order to hitch and move during the day. He steals the wallet of LA film editor, Sean (Kerr Smith), taking a sweet ride to Miami. A blown tire is absolutely the worst thing to happen to Sean as this causes an eventual encounter with Nick, who drags him into the mess with original vampire, Kit (Schaech) and his gang (which includes “Okey dokey” doof, Pen (Rex, actually rather amusing and not as obnoxious t

I had a realization while watching this: this would be so much better as a Haddonfield anthology horror film that perhaps might have worked <i>after</i> <b>Halloween Ends</b>. See, I think this isn’t a bad idea if it wasn’t promising the ultimate MICHAEL MYERS VS. LAURIE STRODE showdown as its major headline. You know, I think a lot less flak would be dished at this if this happened when The Shape was out of the picture. We would have gotten that big showdown, it would satiate fans, and then you could try out this experiment. What hurts is that Halloween fans sort of have certain expectations. Now, I have already read reviews and watched videos from Halloween diehards who actually like that this tried something new. Dammit, I know this film isn’t what I was expecting either. Halloween is seen as Evil in the form of Michael Myers against Laurie or family. Even with Thorn and Dangertainment, usually Myers is after Laurie or those connected to her first. So this un

Riley is a pill-popping alcoholic on the mend trying to find some way of staying clean while feeding an addiction so Trevor gives her sex. Matt is her well-rounded, supportive, patient brother who has clearly tolerated a lot and given her a bedroom out of the goodness of a kind heart that is clearly fed up with the constant drama. Colin is Matt’s nice, live-in boyfriend and Nora is their friend. This is the Scooby Gang, I guess, of the Hellraiser “update”. Trevor pretty much plays Riley for a patsy, luring her eventually to “open the box”, that is the Lament Configuration, a paid prick by a depraved aristocrat in Massachusetts named Roland Voight. So what causes the puzzlebox to “cycle” stage to stage before HellPriest gets her victims? A little blade with a curve that pops out to slit the hands of those who happen to come in contact with it, sometimes by accident or by intention (Matt grabs it when locating his zonked-out sister in a pills-dosed haze spinning on a merry-go-round, Nora

So let me see if got this right. Let me see if I gleaned from this what I thought I did. Your art, craft, talent can conjure madness, perhaps this monster that will possibly or probably destroy you? Whether you are an actress with an opportunity to shine on stage with this acting teacher who spits and noises vitriolic techniques and challenges to his class to pull out of them a monster, descriptively quite hyperbolic, or a musician inspired by a bandmate to try out some new chords that would appear to actually draw out something quite menacing. Maybe you are a snobby painter quick to dismiss your girlfriend's desire to act, pretentiously weighing your work on canvas as more valuable than her passion to perform on stage...and after you challenge yourself in the mirror, asking who you are and if you are a fraud, the real art on canvas comes at your expense. Perhaps you are a novelist of gimmicky horror stories, eventually resting too comfortably on your laurels, resulting in the kill

This is the most pleasant surprise of the year for me personally. I do think West's two films were at the top with me, for sure, but I had NO IDEA this little FF horror satire on YouTube/Twitch/TikTok influencer culture mixed with demonic blood and guts possession comedy would just pop up and be so much fucking fun! Now I read from some of the LB reviewers I follow this had all the wonderful Evil Dead II vibes, and that had me VERY EXCITED, and, sure enough, they couldn't have been more accurate. Shawn can really scream, too! Now, I don't know how much influencers get paid, but, damn, this guy had all the nicest equipment for what looks like a JACKASS knockoff nutjob committed to doing crazy shit for likes, subscribes, and sponsorships.  What I thought was really cool is how those cameras are used, the way the dynamic duo directorial team of Vanessa and Joseph Winter have developed creative workarounds for what we horror fans (and I've done this a lot, I'm the first

Damn, Epps as Detective Denver can take a lot of stabs! They are Trick and will continue to grow unless Reyes and Adair follow behind, with Epps riding shotgun, and stop them. So this sets up a sequel. Why would I go ahead and say that, you might ask? Because it is a slasher film with Farmer and Lussier clearly hoping Trick could be a potential franchise. Sort of a variation on The Strangers, where folks in town thrown on face paint and skull/jack-o-lantern masks and represent Trick (Niemann), stabbing locals in Benton, New York. Epps is so perplexed because it appears no matter what he (or other cops) do to (Pa)Trick, he keeps returning time and again to stab more and more locals, Halloween after Halloween, seemingly stemming from "spin the stabby knife" where he was to kiss a high school guy. I thought to myself, "Surely, this isn't the reason Patrick would go ballistic!" Just don't kiss the guy! Fucking hell. Each person stabbing Epps at the end, while Ni

 What I was thinking of while watching this was how it is just the perfect kind of designed horror film. You might ask, why. Because there are scenes designed specifically for us to yell at the screen, "Noooo! Don't fucking go down there! What do you think you are doing?! Don't do that! Go the other direction! Leave!" And, of course, they do exactly what we scream at the screen not to do.  Never ever never ever walk into that dark room in a basement. And even if you do that, never ever never ever go down the cavernous dark tunnel further into whatever it might lead. If Keith decided to be a stupid idiot and do it doesn't mean you have to.  I love how AJ curses and everyone is taken aback by him. He's just a scumbag who works in Hollywood and debates raping a costar for a sitcom pilot. He just makes things more and more worse, even calling her while drunk. They tell him to lay low and he ends up at a rental property in Detroit, this lone Airbnb among a downtrod

Fargeat paints the whole movie red…talk about a movie that BLEEDS. This bad boy gushes red all over the place. I will tell you what got me…the scene in the cave where Jen (Lutz, who has one hell of an arc) needs to tend to a nasty torso wound with a tree stick protruding. She took some swigs of a Mexican Beer taken from the first scumbag she knife stabbed in the face/eyes, opened up the aluminum, lit it up over an open fire, and planted the heated and opened can to her wound. That was after Jen was able to barely swallow down some strong, hallucinogenic peyote, make heated knife cuts on the flesh around the stick wound, and pull the stick from the wound. I think Fargeat was like, “Rambo III, Shmambo III. I’ll take it to the next level.” Well, she are hell did.  I get that the opening 20 minutes will irk those who feel the camera lusts over Jen’s body, with lots of closeups that just worship her. She’s all pretty, glam, and Instagram ready. Then at like the 69 minute mark, the camera do

The scene where the I-90 killer pulls his van in front of an SUV with people in it and Kathy doesn’t just barrel her car into the sonofabitch lost me. What I did think was interesting was the idea of the killer “remaining dormant” from like 1991 until 2018-ish (or so we are led to believe; does a killer ever really stop?), that homicidal psychosis triggered by Slasherman comics left behind at a ratty service station in the middle of nowhere by the very mind responsible for “detailing” his activities. The script provides the contrivance of that I-90 killer happening to be at that service station not long after Todd and his buddy, Ezra (responsible for publishing the comic books), left issues on an empty spinning rack, but without that there wouldn’t be a slasher film I don’t guess. Baruchel (who gets his head shattered by the killer’s machine fire through the backseat window) and Chabot include a flashback and horrible memory where the I-90 killer, who works as a welder, his helmet pull

Because I want to keep my Letterboxd review short, I have been adding additional comments. I want to try and put all that together in my much neglected (here lately) blog here. I actually typed up notes while watching Ti West's prequel to "X" this year and will leave all of them here. That monologue by Pearl to "Howard", encouraged by Mitsy, who had no idea what awaits her is just an incredible piece of acting from an astonishing performance by Goth. She's the real deal. But I just know she'll get the Collette Hereditary treatment while those of us horror fans know why she was robbed come award time. Goth is that fucking good. But, phew, I was going to see Barbarian today and I'm drained. This is right out of the theater. That smile during the credits gradually darkening into tears and this break is almost as incredible as the monologue. These are from my notes: "Are you still in there?" Pearl wants what seems to exist out there while her m

When I first got Shudder right before the Pandemic, this was on one of their channels late at night. I had seen this in one of those Mill Creek 100 or 50 movie packs of public domain titles but never had I seen <b>NIght Tide</b> in this good a shape. So for me personally, the film's appeal really isn't as much about the story -- sailor on leave decides to spend some time in Santa Monica, California, falling in love with an enigmatic young woman named Mora who portrays (or does she?) a mermaid in a sideshow near an amusement park surrounded by pier -- as it is the location/setting at that particular time of 1960 and a young Dennis Hopper, so young, soft-faced, and healthy. It's crazy to think Hopper has been gone 12 years now. He was just a fresh-faced kid of 24 when he starred as the young sailor, Johnny Drake. I think I just find myself captivated by time and place more than anything else. Watching Hopper do nightly Santa Monica pier walkabouts, the little apar

I just wanted to watch <b>Re-Animator</b> with Joe Bob insert trivia and monologues – a part of the big marathon he thought was his final horror hosting gig that broke Shudder’s site – even though I plan to watch it again this Sunday (I own the Anchor Bay box special edition from 2007 with Herbert on the cover, a fake re-agent included, and a ton of special features I will be revisiting in full). I was in the mood for this warped bloody mayhem. While watching this tonight, I couldn’t help but think to myself throughout…this is really fucked in the head, isn’t it? That scene where Dean Halsey’s lobotomized reanimated corpse with mad eyes and bloody mouth, hypnotized by the “mesmerist” decapitated head of Dr. Hill (his head held in his separated body’s hands!) kidnaps his daughter, Megan, and strips her fainted body of all her clothes…I couldn’t help but just remain aghast at the gall to direct that and leave it in. How that was able to go to any theaters remains astonishing