Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

 This could have been just a fun Spirit of the Week episode of Supernatural, but I appreciated including Sam's torment arc in regards to his lost love, Jessica, and how he is not only continuously haunted by nightmares of her death but so guilt-stricken he just can't forgive himself, taking responsibility. Dean has tried to snap Sam out of it, but, nonetheless, Sam continues to carry around such shame he can't forgive himself.  Much like "The X-Files", Supernatural could pull from all the folklore and folk legends for stories. In the case of Bloody Mary, Sam's shame could be used almost in his undoing when he calls her name in front of a mirror, awaiting her presence in order to smash the glass, hopefully stopping her murder spree. Dean and Sam investigate the death of a father after his kid daughter called for Bloody Mary (saying her name three times in front of a mirror, in the dark with just a lit candle), wondering what exactly was responsible.  Through th

 I can only imagine parents watching the first episode of Euphoria had to have been mortified, then perhaps looked back at their own high school behavior and tried to make comparisons. Parties did happen. Drugs and booze were plentifully available. Teenagers talked about sex, wanted to have sex, arranged to have sex, and had sex. The different drugs that are available now circulate, as teens discuss (well, when I was a teenager, texting, sharing pics, and chatting, all the social media jazz, wasn't available as it is now) their failed relationships with each other, while others attempt to hook up. You have the football jocks who make sure to keep their shirts off, particularly Nate who seems to be the showboating, obnoxiously forward, popular quarterback, mouthing off and generally rude. He's the one a lot of the teens gravitate towards, especially the football team and the girls looking to associate themselves with the upper echelon of high school hierarchy. Maddy is the top o

 While writing this for my Letterboxd account, I realized this was going way over the limit I intended for the minor review there. I didn't think that was nearly as wretched as I had heard. Is the plotting a mess? I wouldn't dispute anyone's critique on some odd decisions made or the soap opera moments with music giving them cringe (Batista and his daughter, talking about tofu and how he wasn't there for her, Batista and de la Raguera stopping for a chat about why she came along on this mission.."not because of money, because of you, you idiot."). And the damned running time is way, way too long. This is just too bloated for a Vegas zombie heist film. So I get that the film has its problems. But I'm going to be honest: some of this is fun. Like everything with Chambers is awesome. How Dillahunt screws her over because she suspects him of being suspicious (and rightfully so) and Samantha Win's Chambers still combats a good many of a horde of "hiber

I'm trying to keep my Letterboxd reviews short but I still seem to drag on these too long... Clarence Williams III as a mortician/host for a horror anthology? Hell, yeah! What a fantastic face for a horror anthology, and blowing cigar smoke with that "devilish" smile, Williams is an absolute blast.  And the stories of the victims in his funeral parlor are just as potent and impactful today as they were in the mid 90s if not even more so if that were possible. Dirty cops, racism, drugs, gang violence, prison rehabilitation, good and bad politicians, domestic abuse, and confronting the horrors of the past, bringing them to fore, are explored in four tales, lives cut short and appearing in Williams' funeral home. Three drug dealers are looking for some product at the funeral home of Williams III, not realizing their own current situation isn't what it seems... While the first tale regarding a politician looking to clean up a police department has another memorable na

I agree with others that the soundtrack pumping out the tunes (blasting in my car CD-to-CD in the 2000s) for the film is delicious candy to the ears as the model callsheet of casting. There was very little casting for anyone not a 10 on the attractive scale. Lestat through Townsend felt like somebody cosplaying a vampire version of Ville Vallo, mostly with his shirt off. Lena Olin is sadly barely in the film much as the motherly vampire to mortal (for most of the film) Marguerite Moreau -- I know her from "Wet Hot American Summer" (1998) -- and is Queen Aaliyah's greatest rival. I had forgotten about just how little Aaliyah is in the movie. I think my lust for Aaliyah admittedly might interfere with an objectionable view of her performance (or lack thereof), but how she moves in confidence is similar to Townsend...they are both very comfortable wearing hardly anything and rightfully so, I guess. While I found Townsend to be a bore as Lestat, I could see how women would th

  It had been a while. Shudder had these on their "Soon to Be Leaving" list so I wanted to revisit "Demon Knight" and "Bordello of Blood". Good times. Demon Knight Kelly Brook would not have chosen the other guy over this film's Billy Zane in "Survival Island". Zane was never more a commanding hunk that in Demon Knight. He's just phenomenal. Zane quips with style and charisma, owns the screen whenever he appears. And how he is able to seduce some of the victims is realistic because...well look at him! I think the film gives us that Carpenter siege vibe when you watch this as it is set in this off-the-beaten-path desert hotel with Zane needing something in Sadler's possession, as the latter holds up with an unfortunate collection of locals while the former tries to get inside. While I think the demons accompanying Zane are fucking rad (they do resemble the oft-mentioned Evil Dead possessed humans but I think Dickerson's Tales/Crypt

The plot doesn't reinvent the wheel and wears its influences in every frame: Uruguay slasher in a theater in 1993, where a maniac in a raincoat and hood, using a tiny knife (still sharp), takes advantage of attention-occupied patrons as a Frankenstein gory monster movie (that reminds me of some Paul Naschy / Klimovsky collab) plays on the big screen. I LOVE this theater, with its blood red (and fading) seats and multilevels of space. The killer really does have plenty of room, and those in the theater aren't thinking about some wacko trudging around a bag looking to pickle their plucked/collected eyeballs once he sticks the knife in deep and savage. The characters are more or less an assemblange of regulars, unfortunately choosing this particular theater to spend a rainy evening. Ana, studying for a test, takes over for her coughing, ill father, running the projector room. Mauricio is the flashlight-carrying employee tasked with quieting the unruly, halting cigarette smoking, s

 Jamie Lee Curtis wrapped on her final Halloween film. This is it. I was on the horror subreddit when someone brought this up. I just felt timing is good to put an end to the Laurie Strode and Michael Myers characters and leave Haddonfield for good. I think John Carpenter is ready to put this officially behind him as well.  I get that as long as there are rabid fans clamoring for more Halloween films, the franchise will continue to get some sort of coat of paint. But Laurie Strode's departure feels right. I saw her first onset photo and Jamie Lee looked tired. I bet you she was ready to say goodbye to the part. Who wouldn't be after this amount of time. "Halloween Ends" follows a really polarizing second film that left a portion of the fanbase really dissatisfied. So I do hope Jamie Lee's final film as this character leaves a majority of the fanbase satisfied. I recognize after watching "Texas Chainsaw 2022" that perhaps these tired franchises deserve re

  So director Stuart Rosenberg passed away on March 15th, 2007, and I could recall watching "The Amityville Horror" (1979) not long after his death on the sister channel of Showtime, "Flix". It was a rainy, wet, somewhat cold Mississippi Monday and this film was, for whatever reason, on my mind. I also remembered watching "The Amityville Horror" on the 21st of 2007. I thought it was a sunny Wednesday afternoon after work, but I checked the calendar and I had watched the film on a Thursday. All of this doesn't really have much to do with this evening's viewing, but I just always seem to remember the 2007 revisit so distinctly because I believe Flix had mentioned Rosenberg's passing. So it was sort of a timestamp. I also chased down a 2007 review of the film as a historical marker of my own. An entire family is murdered, with no apparent motive, by the oldest son. The Lutz family, headed by George(James Brolin)and Kathy(Margot Kidder), move in an

 There is just nothing worse than having to do the right thing and in doing so it will cause someone you love to be arrested and put away. To not do anything but booze and booze some more won't dull the hard decision Jessica has to make in getting Trish to either turn herself in or bring her in. Erik is a gauge to determine how dark Trish's soul is. When she touches him, the pain is so severe he bleeds from his eyes. "Everything" brings Jessica and Trish to a confrontation. Trish is dangerous to the very public she believes she plans to protect from whoever might die by her hand next. And there will be other victims. The pain Erik endured was evidence of that.  Jeri Hogarth saw what Trish was capable of when that elevator reached the lobby of the precinct in Hell's Kitchen. Jessica also saw what was left of Salinger, proving to her that Trish has given herself over to the darkness. So this final episode of "Jessica Jones" closes that chapter. The three s

There is a lot of discussion about truth. Trish to Malcolm about murdering murders, conquering evil by killing those who commit evil, how it isn't easy, that doing so helps add balance to the world, "balancing the scales". She tells Malcolm about her abusive father, how he beat on Dorothy. Trish tells Malcolm about how heard that thump, finding her mom on the floor bleeding. And Trish tells Malcolm about adding blood to her body and clothes, telling a neighbor that her father hit her. That lie removed the man that smacked her mother around for her life. So Salinger is the next one she has to remove from the picture. Jessica tries her best to keep Trish from "going too dark". Erik could feel Trish's descent. That is his own curse, Erik enduring the headaches that come when encountering evil in humans. And Erik can feel Trish's descent. He tells Jessica Trish is "5-ish" in a scale of 1 to 10. Jessica works hard during "A Lotta Worms" to

 Dante and Melody have a dream. Harlow, Texas, with all its buildings in basically a ghost town to be auctioned off and refurbished as an ideological haven for young people to get out of the city and build as something they can be proud of. A sort of utopia born out of poverty and economic collapse where all most of the residents are no longer there. Dante's mistake was believing Leatherface's mother (played by the great Alice Krige, who looks emaciated and weathered by age and ill health) was living in a home bought by them. Big mistake. A contractor named Richter hired to renovate the buildings takes the keys to all vehicles, telling Dante to prove to him that they had the deed to Krige's Mother's house. Dante searches through his files and doesn't find the deed. Melody obviously freaks out because she assumed everything was in order. Well, Melody finds the deed in a lockbox and Leatherface returns from a field where a van carrying his dying mother (who "cro

Even if I might be skeptical of the Warrens, Wilson and Farmiga bring a sincerity and integrity to their roles as Ed and Lorraine that I buy hook, line, and sinker. The knockoff Exorcist poster iconic image of Father Merrin with the priest in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) is so on the nose, I admittedly winced and was like, "You didn't have to make it so obvious." The story does seem to be fertile for a fictionalized, jacked-up retelling for The Conjuring Universe where the James Wan bells and whistles I and many others have grown to know and love so well (while others groan and wish the franchise would come to an end, probably saying to themselves, "Enough already!") are incorporated by whoever the director might be (I didn't hate "La Llorona", from Chaves, but it is one of my least favorites of the Universe).

 Jeffrey examining Zorro, the Pimp's hookers for certain body parts in order to assemble his lawnmower shredded fiance (whose head is still intact) anew says all that is needed in order to get an idea of the kind of bad taste Frank Henenlotter doled out to us with his 1990 film, "Frankenhooker". When talking to Joe Bob Briggs during the Last Drive-In Valentine's Day special, Heartbreak Trailer Park, Henenlotter told him that this film was actually inspired by The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), not what Joe Bob thought (Gordon Lewis' "Blood Feast" (1963)).  Exploding hookers due to very potent "super crack" while they were hitting the pipe, dancing, giggling, removing their tops, and having a grand old time, with Zorro knocking in the cheap motel room door only to get knocked unconscious by a spiraling head popping off the body of his last remaining prostitute; this kind of movie is made for a very specific audience. This is the kind of cin

 Just so I watch it, on the 14th of February, Valentine's Day, I'll be watching the theatrical cut of "My Bloody Valentine" (1980) from the Shout Factory set release a couple years ago. I have yet to put that poster up, by the way. I need to rectify that. I finished the 2009 remake currently on HBO Max, and I do think it is a fun time, if very much opposed by the 3D gimmick it used to get folks in the theaters back then. I watched the 2D version when I went to see it. I get that they wanted to shock us with a twist and make their version different from the original My Bloody Valentine, but I just don't think it works for me, personally.  1980 Version My daughter had never watched this one before and was very interested as I was talking about it just yesterday. She got to see this as uncut (in the pristine Shout Factory Blu release with the best transfer it has ever had), and I described to her all the cut scenes in the butchered Paramount DVD I used to rent from B

 I remember going through a little bit of a "Daria mourning phase" after Nicolodi's death in 2020. I had watched Bava's Shock, Argento's Tenebre and Phenomenon, etc. I sort of found myself watching "Shock" (Beyond the Door II), and this desire to just watch our beloved Daria came to the fore. I just enjoy the hell out of her in "Deep Red". She's this spirited, aggressive reporter, while Hemmings' pianist and conservatory teacher is a bit intimidated and miffed by her. I always enjoyed that dynamic. Marc seemed frustrated by how Gianna is so take charge, so blunt and on the nose in everything. She really has an interest in solving the murder of Helga, the German visiting psychic who has "immediate telepathy", sensing thoughts (memories) as they happen from others. So in the giant opera house where a lecture is open to the public interested, Helga visualizes the murder of a man in a room, later tied to The House of the Screaming

  I Blame Society (2020) 2.5/5 Gillian can't seem to catch a break in Hollywood. Her latest project about Israel is "too political", her peers (including her editor boyfriend) consider her perhaps "not a right fit" for the industry, and a friend she really cares about seems destined to marry a woman she really, really can't fucking stand. So a lot going on here, but all of that pales in comparison to what she will eventually do when challenged by two guys, seemingly interested in distributing / producing a film of hers after getting a recommendation from Gillian's friend, Diane. However, their pointers (all the Hollywood talking points are covered, such as "strong female lead", "intersectionality", being a "good ally"; all these "inclusive" soundbites that seem woven into every conversation they have with starving artists looking to get their foothold in an industry that can make or break you) provoke Gillian to ac

"Alison's Birthday" just feels very much like a film right out of the 70s. Just a bleak conclusion where innocence either dies or will die and a cult accomplishes everything it sets out to do. There is no victory for boyfriend Pete, packing his crucifix and pistol, entering the snakepit where the vipers plan to take from girlfriend, Alison, her body, her youth, and innocence. And I wince at the telegraphed warning signs, such as the father's spirit reaching out from the "great beyond" to warn Alison, his daughter, of what awaits her on her 18th birthday through her friend during a seance while using a makeshift spirit board, and the lie from her "aunt" that her "uncle" as a way to get her to their house in order to prepare her for a ritual concerning an evil spirit, how the two that raised her after her "parents died in an accident" go about separating Alison from Pete, orchestrating their eventual "body swap" ceremony

 Entwined (2020) 3.5/5 There comes a point in the film where "big city doc", Panos, has tended to this seemingly gangrenous skin disease (crusty, black, deteriorating) of Danae, but when he goes to return to the main road and his parked SUV, he can't find his way out of the ever "entwining" , all-enveloping, overwhelmingly suffocating, all-engulfing wilderness. She tells him that perhaps the woods are "protecting" Panos, keeping him from a cruel outside world. Danae seems hellbent on keeping Panos with her, even as he claims what helps her flesh is some medicine. Danae indicates that the fire in her cabin must be kept burning in order for her to remain well. I sort of caught on to a trick of the film regarding the old man in Danae's cabin. There is this immediate thought of him being her father and their sexual activity being incestuous. But when Panos is able to get him out of the woods and finds himself stuck in the woods, that little lightbulb w