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TV terrors reviews

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ECC	TV terrors reviews	Lead	[-]
Posts: 1977 (04/25/08 15:09:59) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None I thought I'd start up a thread reviewing made for TV horror movies. Anyone is welcome to contribute reviews. I've already written one for WHEN MICHAEL CALLS in another thread but here it is to start this thread: *Quote:* Elizabeth Ashley (with one of the unappealing mullet-like 70s hairdoes) plays a divorced mother who starts receiving calls froms someone who claims to be her dead nephew Michael (he ran away 7 years before and his remains were identified by his jacket). The calls intensify. The local doctor and the sheriff meet strange deaths. Is a ghost calling her, is Michael alive, or is someone playing a trick on her? Her ex-husband (Ben Gazzara) investigates along with Michael's child-psychiatrist older brother (Michael Douglas). This seventies made-for-TV movie adapted from a novel by John Farris (THE FURY) is creepy even if the story itself is rather routinely told. The calls aren't that creepy at first until the voice screams and says "I'm dead, aren't I?". The film manages some nice chills throughout but the actual shock moments are telegraphed by the music and the editing. Co-star Marian Waldman and co-director of photography Reg Morris would go on to work on BLACK CHRISTMAS together. Although the film was shown on TV as WHEN MICHAEL CALLS, the DVD I saw has the title SHATTERED SILENCE (it didn't look video generated). "I just spent all morning watching a VH1 special on Gwen Stefani. I don't know what a Hollaback girl is. All I know is that I want her dead." -- Brian the Dog from FAMILY GUY.
ECC	Re: TV terrors reviews	#1	[-]
Posts: 1977 (04/25/08 15:29:25) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	SHE WAITS - Laura (Patty Duke) is the second wife of Mark (David McCallum with one of a series of unfortunate hairstyles that plagued his career). Mark has brought her to his family home in the Hollywood hills to meet his mother Sarah (Dorothy McGuire). His mother, however, is not pleased to see them and wants them to leave immediately as she has felt the presence of Mark's dead first wife Elaine and believes she wants to do her son harm. She warns Laura who has already been hearing voices in the night and other strange sounds including Elaine's favorite music box. Although Elaine's death was ruled a suicide, Sarah tells Laura that Mark killed her and that Elaine's ghost wants to take revenge. Laura starts taking on Elaine's personality and terrifies Sarah into revealing where the gun used to kill her is hidden. Elaine as Laura sends for Mark's best friend with whom she had an affair and confronts the two of them with a gun intent on having a second chance with her lover and doing away with her husband. SHE WAITS is an effective little TV chiller because of its very modest approach. Elaine's presence is only represented on the soundtrack and with the billowing of curtains in front of closed windows. Although set in Los Angeles, we are not treated to postcard views of the city (in fact, given the locations used, it could've been believably set in some small town on either side of the coast). The dialogue is more than a little heavy-handed (Mark's agonizing over Elaine's memory to the family doctor sounds like it was lifted out of a seventies soap opera). Duke is more effective when possessed. The print I saw, however, left a bit to be desired. It was overly dark which did not help the fact that the couple arrived at the house in the middle of the night and did not bother to turn on any lights (in fact, we are not even given a good view of the house's exterior) and some shots of the camera prowling the house were almost entirely black. I'm not sure how much of this was intended since it was a made-for-TV movie and one would think they would've at least sprung for lights even on a tight budget (the 70's Aaron Spelling entries into TV horror look lavish by comparison). SPOILER: The film's climactic twist is intriguing in that it suggests since Elaine was a heavy drinker and was drunk the night of her death, her ghost might have misremembered what happened or perhaps Sarah's own guilt over her daughter-in-law's death has kept her there and her belief that her son was the murderer influenced the ghost's interpretation rather than the afterworld clearing things up and allowing her to set things straight. "I just spent all morning watching a VH1 special on Gwen Stefani. I don't know what a Hollaback girl is. All I know is that I want her dead." -- Brian the Dog from FAMILY GUY.
ECC	Re: TV terrors reviews	#2	[-]
Posts: 1977 (04/25/08 15:45:48) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	SATAN'S TRIANGLE - Two coast guards (Doug McClure being himself and the usually good Michael Conrad in a truly awful performance) respond to mayday from a yacht in "The Devil's Triangle." McClure gets aboard and discovers the bodies of three men including a priest hanging from the sails and the body of another man floating in midair down below. The one survivor is Eva (Kim Novak, more mature than in VERTIGO but still stunning). Their attempt to get back up onto the rescue helicopter is thwarted when the cable snaps. Conrad goes off to refuel and get help while McClure listens to Eva's flashback-riddled tale of how things came to be. It was a pleasure cruise with grumpy businessman Hal (Jim Davis) trying to catch a large swordfish to trump the one caught by his competitive stepbrother. The crew catches sight of a priest (Alejandro Rey) floating out on the water using the wing of an airplane as a raft. As soon as they rescue him, a sudden storm hits and the superstitious crew abandon ship leaving Eva, Hal, the priest, the ship's captain, and a single crew member to brave the storm. The priest helpfully informs them that they are in the Devil's Triangle (no mention of Bermuda) and of the things that happen there. Right away the mysterious "accidental" deaths begin leaving Eva the only survivor. McClure is quick to logically explain away the deaths (in slow motion flashbacks of recycled footage in order to pad the running time an additional five minutes). At dawn, help arrives and the two get aboard the helicopter but of course there are one or two shocking twists in store before the ending credits. I really liked this one. The build-up doesn't give the viewer much time to reflect on the cardboard characters (and the stock seventies TV movie actors playing them) and Novak and Rey make up for the less interesting performances of the supporting cast (along with Conrad and McClure - though he does manage an effective bit that would be a spoiler to reveal). The effects by the reliable Howard Anderson Co. (who have done everything from the solarized opticals in VENUS IN FURS to projection opticals in more recent effects-riddled fare) are rather ordinary (post production lightning flashes, some bluescreen work) so its just as well the camera doesn't dwell on them. Its the twist ending that everyone who has reviewed this film seem to remember and the appreciation is totally justified. If only this film had had the budget of Rene Cardona's truly awful BERMUDA TRIANGLE, this might have made an even more effective feature film. "I just spent all morning watching a VH1 special on Gwen Stefani. I don't know what a Hollaback girl is. All I know is that I want her dead." -- Brian the Dog from FAMILY GUY.
KlimovskyKat	Re: TV terrors reviews	#3	[-]
Posts: 273 (04/25/08 19:24:13) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Great idea ECC and excellent work! So many telemovies out there are very ripe for rediscovery.
ECC	LAST BRIDE OF SALEM (1974)	#4	[-]
Posts: 1753 (05/06/08 05:59:57) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Well, my review of STRANGE AND DEADLY OCCURRENCE was lost in the move to Yuku so I'll get around to doing another writeup for it later. Matt (Bradford Dillman) and Jennifer (Lois Nettleton) move to Salem with their daughter to occupy a house owned by Sebastian Mayhew (Paul Harding) who wants to foster Matt's artistic career. What they don't know is that a Satanic cult operates in the gloomy old house across from theirs and has plans for the family. That's really all there is to it. To go into more detail would be to give away a lot of the obvious details which perhaps seemed more original when it was written for the ABC Afternoon Playbreak though it will all be familiar to viewers of such material usually slotted in the prime time movie of the week which only included one other horror title GIFT OF TERROR amidst what appear to be a lot of character dramas. Nettleton carries the production though she doesn't really discover anything suspicious so much as have it told to her by Murray Westgate's priest (an uneven performance). The usually entertaining Dillman has nothing to do but go from bland to ill-tempered and the daughter's performance is nothing extraordinary (though she avoids being annoying like a lot of horror movie children). Most of the actors seem to have only been directed to act suspicious with the Satanic characters not projecting much in the way of menace. Shot on tape, the entire production looks cheap, sort of sub-par color DARK SHADOWS with live music cues even drowning out a line of dialogue and sustained takes that seem to make some of the actors nervous (even though most of them have a lot of stage experience). Had it been shot on film like other TV horror movies of the week with the same actors and perhaps more conventional coverage and less dependence on live sound, it could've been an incredibly decent TV terror but with its "television play" veneer it comes across as if the writer's though "well this will be original for afternoon viewers." "I just spent all morning watching a VH1 special on Gwen Stefani. I don't know what a Hollaback girl is. All I know is that I want her dead." -- Brian the Dog from FAMILY GUY.
ECC		#5	[-]
Posts: 1756 (05/06/08 23:30:55) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Darn. We also lost my CRUISE INTO TERROR writeup too. "I just spent all morning watching a VH1 special on Gwen Stefani. I don't know what a Hollaback girl is. All I know is that I want her dead." -- Brian the Dog from FAMILY GUY.
ECC	SOMETHING EVIL	#6	[-]
Posts: 1760 (05/08/08 02:08:47) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	SOMETHING EVIL - TV producer Paul (Darren McGavin) and wife Marjorie (Sandy Dennis) and their children move into a farmhouse in the country. Marjorie - who has godawful taste in crafts - is intrigued by the pentacle painted on the barn and makes a bunch of medallions with similar designs and even paints one on the floor of the children's bedroom. Marjorie is constantly disturbed by the sound of a child crying coming from the barn. Paul is oblivious and trying to produce a TV commercial. Shooting on location ends in disaster when the actress and a crew member are killed in a car crash on the way home (caused by a cheezy red optical). An eccentric neighbor believes there is a devil haunting the farm. Marjorie discovers a jar of red goo in the barn which seems to be the source of the crying sound and pretty soon the devil is making its presence known by blowing things around and speaking in that heavy-metal-record-played-backwards voice and Marjorie believes it wants to possess her and hurt her children. Despite a few occasional moments, this Steven Spielberg-directed TV movie (made after DUEL) is a mess. Sandy Dennis may have been an Oscar-winning actress but she is just truly awful here. Her line readings are bland and on the few occasions she does look anywhere near the camera she looks stoned. An especially annoying attempt at suspense has Dennis searching for her son. There is no sense of increasing panic, she just launches right into the running, stumbling, getting tangled, and screaming her son's name. The annoying son (Johnny Whitaker) is just as bad (if you thought the kid from the BEYOND THE DOOR films was annoying, you haven't seen this). McGavin gives one of the few normal performances here. Spielberg's direction is heavy-handed with music stings to emphasize points that the actors seem to gloss over and some outright odd touches like Dennis' encounters with the red goo actually being captioned "The Red Goo!". The climax seems to have been tacked on at a point where the filmmakers realized they were running out of steam as it seems unprovoked by anything preceding it. "I just spent all morning watching a VH1 special on Gwen Stefani. I don't know what a Hollaback girl is. All I know is that I want her dead." -- Brian the Dog from FAMILY GUY.

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Notorious Japanese "Pink" film, BOHACHI BUSHIDO: CODE OF THE FORGOTTEN EIGHT, finally available on NTSC DVD and loaded with extras!

Four previously unreleased on DVD Hammer films in one affordable collection, ICONS OF ADVENTURE, containing PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER, THE DEVIL SHIP PIRATES, THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY and THE TERROR OF THE TONGS.