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