Friday Night Frights: Willard (1971)

Where your nightmares end...WILLARD begins.


Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is the 1971 film Willard, directed by Daniel Mann and starring Bruce Davison, Elsa Lanchester, Ernest Borgnine, and Sondra Locke. It was based on the novel "Ratman's Notebooks" by Gilbert Ralston (under the pen name of Stephen Gilbert), who also wrote the screenplay.

A sequel called Ben (after one of the rats in the original) was released in 1972, and a remake of Willard, starring Crispen Glover, was released in 2003.

A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates (and their increasing number of friends). However, when one of them is killed at work, Willard goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him.

This is the full movie, from a playlist. It hasn't been released on DVD.

Friday Night Frights: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead, directed by Zack Snyder. The writers are George A. Romero (1978 screenplay) and James Gunn (screenplay).

A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.

Friday Night Frights: Battle Royale (2000)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature, Battle Royale, is a Japanese film based on the book by Koushun Takami. Many members of the Japanese Parliament tried to get the novel banned, but to no avail. When the film was released, they attempted to ban it also. Both efforts resulted in the novel and film becoming even more successful as people bought the book and went to the movie to see what the fuss was all about.

In a future where society is on the verge of collapse, the government takes drastic action against the problem of rebellious teenagers in this violent sci-fi opus from Japan. In the year 2002, Japan's economy has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, and massive unemployment and inflation have thrown most adults into a state of chaos; the nation's youth culture responds with unprecedented violence, delinquency, and truancy. Desperate to restore order, the Japanese parliament responds by creating the Millennial Reform School Act, in which groups of junior high students are selected at random, sent to an isolated island, and forced to play a rigorous war game, in which all but one of their number are killed. Kitano (Beat Takeshi) is an embittered school instructor who guides the 44 students of the Zentsuji Middle School's Class B through the deadly game known as "Battle Royale," as they struggle to survive against the elements and each other. Battle Royale proved to be both successful and highly controversial in Japan, where it set box-office records and prompted political leaders to call for stricter controls on violence in Japanese entertainment; the film was initially rated R-15 (no one under 15 admitted), unusual for violent films in Japan, though director Kinji Fukasaku later prepared a re-edited version that earned a more lenient classification. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Friday Night Frights: Burnt Offerings (1976)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is a chilling offering from the 70's I made reference to in a previous post about Karen Black.

Burnt Offerings (1976) was directed by Dan Curtis and stars Karen Black and Oliver Reed as summer caretakers moving into a gothic house with their young son. The catch? The house rejuvenates a part of itself with each death that occurs on its premises.

Check out the creepy chauffeur, and beware an ending that will give you nightmares.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

House of Wax (1953)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is House of Wax (1953), directed by André De Toth and starring Vincent Price as a horribly disfigured sculptor who opens up the House of Wax in New York, using the wax-covered bodies of his victims as his displays. And he's now set his eyes on his Marie Antoinette...

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: House (1986)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is House, directed by Steve Miner (the only director to direct more than one film in the Friday the 13th series). The cast includes William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, Kay Lenz, and Mary Stavin.

Roger Cobb (William Katt) is a Vietnam veteran and horror novelist. After his son Jimmy disappears while visiting his aunt, Roger's search for Jimmy ruins his marriage and writing career. After Roger's aunt suddenly dies, Cobb moves into her house to work on a novel based on his experiences in the war. As strange occurrences start happening around him, Roger becomes aware that the house is evil, not to mention ghost-infested, and it resents his presence in it. The ghosts force him to endure a journey into his past, where he ultimately finds Jimmy at the end.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Colossus: The Forbin Project, directed by Joseph Sargent. The cast includes Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, and Gordon Pinsent.

An artificially intelligent supercomputer is developed and activated, only to reveal that it has a sinister agenda of its own.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Theater of Blood (1973)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Theater of Blood, directed by Douglas Hickox and starring Vincent Price as Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart, who takes poetic revenge on the critics who denied him recognition.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Prince of Darkness (1987)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature was written and directed by MOH John Carpenter.

Prince of Darkness features Carpenter favorite Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong, Lisa Blount, and yes - that's Alice Cooper as a "Street Schizo"!

Father Loomis (Donald Pleasance) is a priest who discovers a strange object in a church basement -- a canister filled with a swirling and volatile green substance. With the help of Professor Birack (Victor Wong), Loomis discovers the startling truth about his find -- it seems that Satan, who is actually an alien life form, had a son, and the essence of the devil's spawn is trapped inside the canister. The evil spirit has been guarded by a group calling themselves "The Brotherhood of Sleep," but the spirit has the ability to free itself whenever it decides the time is right... and it seems that time is just around the corner. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is the 1956 movie Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.

The movie was directed by Fred F. Sears, and stars Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor.

The groundbreaking flying saucer effects were courtesy of the legendary Ray Harryhausen.

Project Skyhook, a U.S. effort to launch a dozen satellites, is visited by a flying saucer. A misunderstanding leads to the aliens being fired on, and they retaliate by destroying the project site, killing everyone except Dr. Russell Marvin and his wife Carol. The sequence of events quickly spirals out of control and leads to a full scale invasion of Earth. Can Dr. and Mrs. Marvin find a way to stop these creatures, or is it the end of the human race?


Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The movie was directed by Don Seigel; the cast includes Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, and Carolyn Jones. It was based on the novel by Jack Finney.

A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

This movie was remade in 1978 by Philip Kaufman, with Donald Sutherland in the lead role.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Suspiria (1977)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Suspiria, directed by Dario Argento.

A newcomer to a fancy ballet academy gradually comes to realize that the staff of the school are actually a coven of witches bent on chaos and destruction.