Tales from the Crypt – TV Shows for Halloween viewing!

It wouldn’t be Halloween without watching a couple of episodes of Tales from the Crypt!

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Tales from the Crypt  (HBO)
The Thing from the Grave  – Season 2 episode 6

 

Teri Thatcher plays, Stacy, a young model with an abusive boyfriend. Her photographer wants her to get away from the bad situation and gives her the keys to his pad. That night she shows up at his place and he professes his love for her. He wants her to stay with him and gives her a necklace saying, as long as you have this gift I will be there for you when you need me. As they kiss and lay upon the bed, we see “Mitch” the abusive boyfriend outside the window spying on them. Several nights later, “Mitch” lures the photographer to his summer house in the woods where he kills him and buries him. Then Mitch confronts Stacy saying he’d like to start over and that he would forget the past if she would.

Suspicious, Stacy goes to the photographer’s place to check on him. With that, she has failed the test and Mitch brings her to the summer home to kill her too. The dead photographer hears her screams and digs his way out of the shallow grave to save her. He drags the abusive boyfriend, Mitch, back to the grave site and holds him down as he drags the loose dirt on top of them both.

The usual rich lighting captures the right mood for the chilling ending. The make up on the dead photographer was excellent, very corpse-like but allowing facial movement. I will admit that part of the highlight of the episode is Teri Thatcher sporting skimpy bathing suits and lingerie. Naturally that sex appeal had always been a part of the allure to Tales from the Crypt, offering the little naughty visuals allowed by cable television but not allowed on broadcast TV.

Miguel Ferrer plays the part of, Mitch, the abusive A-hole boyfriend to the hilt making us viewers really loathe his character. This is your typical Tales from the Crypt episode; a love triangle, jealousy and a murder, resulting in a return from the dead due to a promise or curse. A little bit of campy fun and highly visual horror drove the series to become a horror favorite in the early 90s and although the themes and plots were familiar tropes pulled from the comics of several decades earlier, they are still fun to watch.

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The Night Flier (1997) – Movie Review

“Don’t believe what you publish, don’t publish what you believe.”

The Night Flier (1997)

Directed by Mark Pavia

Starring
Miguel Ferrer
Julie Entwisle
Dan Monahan
Michael H. Moss

Richard Dees is top reporter for the Inside View, a sensationalist rag, comparable to Weekly World News, (you know the type of stories; the bat boy, I gave birth to five pound turnip, Bigfoot stole my girlfriend, etc). Dees is a bitter senior reporter that hasn’t had a good story in some time. His boss offers a new item for him to investigate but he turns it down thinking it’s a flop, that is, until a new young reporter, Katherine, digs up some additional info. Dees disregards the young reporter and steels back the assignment knowing it will get front page coverage. He’s on the hunt for a killer that drains his victims of blood to make it look like a vampire is on the loose. Dees is a total asshole but likable for his hardboiled style.

The killer is visiting small civil (non-commercial) airports in a black Cesna Skymaster 337 and dispatching the few workers on the field. He signs the airport manifests as Dwight Renfield. Maryland, Maine, Vermont; he sky hops to rural airports that don’t ask many questions because, quite often, they know they’re catering to drug runners. The story intensifies as Dees closes in on the killer and strange events take place in the killers wake. Katherine is also hot on the trail and Dees rushes to get the scoop. The story climaxes at an airport in DC, somewhat larger than the others, where Dees finds a mass carnage and the truth about his killer.

This near faithful and exciting adaptation to Stephen King’s novelette of the same name brings back some of the dark creepiness of King’s earlier film adaptations such as Salem’ s Lot. Miguel Ferrer plays an exceptional part in the film making it all believable by his dismissal of the events. Despite negative reviews from critics, I enjoy this film tremendously. It might not be for everyone. but it‘s entertaining to me. It’s a smaller film, not a huge blockbuster but worth a look for King fans. I think it’s an overlooked King classic.

A fantastic King adaptation that quietly trumps many of his bigger budgeted films.
I give it 4.0 bloody bodies on the flying fanged fiends scale of wretched creature killers.

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Fun Facts:
If you are familiar with The Dead Zone, you may remember character Richard Dees attempting to interview psychic, (main character) Johnny Smith for an Inside View article. He was played by Miguel Ferrer in that film also.

One of the headlines shown on the cover of the Inside View reads, ‘Kiddie Cultists in Kansas Worship Creepy Voodoo God!‘ which refers to ‘Children of the Corn’ a story (and film) also written by King.

My Top 10 Underrated horror films:

Ok, I’m recycling. I’m having an outpatient procedure (every day for two weeks) and have very little time so I hope you don’t mind if I recycle a few of my older posts.

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My The Top 10 Underrated horror films:

In no particular order, here are my top 10 underrated horror flicks. This list is subject to change…

The Legend of Hell House (1973)
A great ghost story starring Roddy McDowell, which provides scientific explanations of the existence of ghosts, creepy mood, dark atmosphere and quite a bit of carnage and death! This is one of the first ghost/horror movies that scared me as a young lad, so I may be partial to this film. Would love to know what other people think.

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The Entity (1981)
I watched this recently and was terrified for the woman within the first ten minutes of the film. The movie never lets up. Barbara Hershey, plays a fantastic role as the struggling single mom tormented by an evil spirit. I was surprised that the film had an affect on me so many years after I had first seen it.

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The Amityville Horror II (1982)
IMO this film is scarier than the original, with strong characters played brilliantly (albeit melodramatically) by their respective actors. Follow the Defeo’s lives’ up until the time of the true-life murders. There is a ten-minute sequence, from the demon’s POV, where the evil presence travels from the cellar through the house. Creepy as hell.

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The Night Flier (1997)

This quiet little film made for Showtime, from Stephen King’s story of the same name, became one of my favorite King adaptations. A successful yet jaded reporter, for a fringe tabloid newspaper, begins hunting a vampire, who has been landing his Cessna at small northern airports and leaving havoc in his wake. The reporter, played perfectly by, Miguel Ferrer, is a total A-hole, but you like him anyway.

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Feast (2005)

This is one great horror-comedy. This film is funny and it contains plenty of hard hitting action, violence, original monsters and a strong R rating! Another lazy night in a Texas bar on the outskirts of Anytown, USA, turns into a war between humans and monsters as a horde of creatures move in from the desert, looking for some eats (humans) and to procreate – much like the usual barfly’s. These are some ugly looking creatures ! Did I mention, tons of gore?

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Open Water (2003)

Based on a true story, filmed in a gritty, reality style, we follow a young couple on a scuba-diving expedition during their Jamaica vacation. The party boat mistakenly leaves them stranded in the deep Atlantic, with no sign of land anywhere. We follow this couple as they try to stay afloat and fight for survival against the elements.
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The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

In the first scene, from the killers POV, we see the stalking and murder of a victim. It immediately reminded me of Halloween and I cursed the film as a blatant rip-off of Carpenter’s style – until I looked at the credits. The film was actually written by John Carpenter (but not directed by him). The Eyes of Laura Mars is a great white-knuckle thriller, worthy of mention in the same breath as Hitchcock and Brian DePalma films. Laura is plagued by visions of a serial killer’s murders as they happen in real-time.

Creep (2004)

A young lady is mistakenly locked in the London Underground – what we NY-ers would call the subway – and is stalked by a strange creature. As she desperately tries to find another way out, she discovers the humanoid’s lair, a long abandoned underground medical facility that had cruelly experimented on humans. It seems this Creep is going to do some surgical experiments of his own.

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The Fourth Kind (2009)

A strong unease gripped me after seeing this film. I wasn‘t even all-that scared when I was watching it, but the movie wouldn’t let go of me; I kept thinking about it for days. Was it a demon disguising itself as an alien so it would be relevant in this modern day and age? Or was it an ancient alien still wielding strange powers upon a small northern town because it could isolate it’s victims? The film never really gives you an answer – I think that is what makes it unnerving.
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Dagon (2001)

A cross between the very short-story, Dagon, and the infamous “Innsmouth” tale, this Lovecraft adaptation successfully captures the true fear, atmosphere and mood of Lovecraft terror. When a young couple’s yacht runs aground, they become stranded in a strange, backward town on the coast of Mediterranean Spain. The feeling of isolation and terror grow, as the strangely deformed townspeople close-in on the unwelcome intruders.

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Honorable mention:

Pulse (2006)
Nobody seemed to like this film as much as I did. To me, it relays a plausible scientific theory: the expansion and amplification of once unknown frequencies will eventually lead us to discover something we should not, or, in this case, they will discover us. A proficient programmer/hacker in college is contacted by entities from the great beyond, only to discover they are the denizens of hell. In the end, this brooding, quiet film turns into an apocalyptic disaster as the film looks outward from this college community to the bigger picture. Wi-Fi is everywhere.

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Let me know what you think of my picks. Post some of your favorite underrated horror flicks in the comments, films you think should’ve gotten more attention.