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.

Boo!

CSI: NY Season 4 Episode 6
This episode, entitled "Boo", originally aired on Halloween 2007.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Put on your masks! It's time for the big giveaway! It's time!




EPILEPSY WARNING: This video contains flashing lights of increasing speed. Some people are susceptible to epileptic seizures or loss of consciousness when exposed to certain flashing lights or light patterns in everyday life. Such people may have a seizure while watching certain monitor images or playing certain video games. This may happen even if the person has no medical history of epilepsy or has never had any epileptic seizures.

The Real Amityville Horror (2005)

The Amityville Horror
In December 1975, George and Kathleen Lutz and their three children moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch Colonial house in Amityville, a suburban neighborhood located on the south shore of Long Island, New York. Thirteen months before the Lutzes moved in, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. had shot and killed six members of his family at the house. After 28 days, the Lutzes left the house, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there.

Mediums and psychic investigators have claimed that there is a curse on the property, while others believe the gruesome history has been invented as a money-making scheme.

The Real Amityville Horror sets out to discover the truth about one of American folklore's most notorious mysteries and features George Lutz's last on-camera interview before he died in 2006.

Additional information can be found at Amityvillefiles.com.

This is the full documentary, from a playlist.

Disney's Halloween Treat (1982)

Here's Disney's Halloween Treat, first released on October 30, 1982.

It contains memorable scenes from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Fantasia," "Lady and the Tramp," "Peter Pan," "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," and "The Sword in the Stone."

This is the full movie, from a playlist.

Vincent (1982)

Vincent was written and directed by Tim Burton. It was narrated by Vincent Price.

A transcript of the poem can be read here.

When Vincent Price was asked what he thought of the short, he said that it was "the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality - better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard."

An early form of Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) can be seen in the upper-left corner of the screen at 4:45.


Young Vincent Malloy dreams of being just like Vincent Price and loses himself in macabre daydreams which annoys his mother.

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:

Harper's Island Premieres Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow night (April 9 at 10pm ET/PT) CBS will premiere it's new show Harper's Island.

In this 13-episode murder mystery, a group of family and friends travel to a secluded island for a wedding but fall prey to a murderer who kills them one by one. Every episode, someone is killed, and everyone is a suspect.

Mark H. Harris, of About.com, has provided an overview with a cheat sheet of the main characters (there are 25 of them) in preparation for this event.


Here's a promo from CBS:



In fact, you can find a whole page of videos from CBS about the show here.

There's even a Pick the Victim Game you can play weekly. Enjoy!

Let the Right One In

A fragile, anxious boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. The lonely boy's wish for a friend seems to come true when he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him.

But Eli's arrival coincides with a series of gruesome deaths and attacks. Though Oskar realizes that she's a vampire, his friendship with her is stronger than his fear and he cannot forsake her.

However Eli knows that to continue living, she must keep relocating. But when Oskar faces his darkest hour, Eli returns to defend him the only way she can...


One of the best novels of any genre I've read in the past several years, it's not just a terrifying and gripping vampire story, but a tender tale of friendship between two lonely children as well.

This 2004 novel is the first by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist. The book was a bestseller in the author's home country of Sweden and has been translated into Danish, German, Russian and English. Lindqvist also wrote the screenplay for a Swedish language film version by the same name, directed by Tomas Alfredson, which was released in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim. An English language remake, to be directed by Matt Reeves, is scheduled for release in 2010.



THE MOVIE

Let the Right One In was directed by Tomas Alfredson and stars Kåre Hedebrant as Oskar and Lina Leandersson as Eli. The highly acclaimed film was awarded 43 wins and 6 nominations.

"A CHILLING FAIRY TALE. As delicate, haunting, and poetic a film as you're ever bound to see." - Guillermo del Toro (director of Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy)

Here's the trailer:

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: The Valley of Gwangi (1969)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Last week we had soldiers and werewolves, this week we have cowboys and dinosaurs!

Tonight's feature is a classic dinosaur movie from 1969, with some great stop-motion special effects by the genius Ray Harryhausen. I remember loving this on TV when I was a kid.

The Valley of Gwangi was directed by Jim O'Connolly; the cast includes James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson, and Laurence Naismith.

Cowboy James Franciscus seeks fame and fortune by capturing an Allosaurus living in the Forbidden Valley and putting it in a Mexican circus. Guess what happens?

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

The Mysterious Stranger

The Mysterious Stranger is an unfinished work, and the last novel attempted, by the American author Mark Twain. It was worked on periodically from roughly 1890 up until his death in 1910. The body of work is a serious social commentary by Twain addressing his ideas of the Moral Sense and the "damned human race".




Twain actually wrote multiple versions of this story, each unfinished and each involving the character of "Satan".

Project Gutenberg has an online eBook containing the story.



ANIMATED VERSION
The Mysterious Stranger was adapted to a short scene in the 1985 claymation film The Adventures of Mark Twain, in which the children visit a planetoid and meet an angel named Satan. He claims to be incapable of performing an evil act as he does not understand the concept of wrongdoing. Satan builds a sandcastle and has the children make clay figures which he then brings to life. Two of the clay men bicker over ownership of a cow, and Satan kills them by mashing them with his palm. He then creates a storm and an earthquake to kill the remaining people and destroy the castle, to the horror of the watching children. Thereafter, the kids leave the planetoid as Satan lectures, "Life itself is only a vision, a dream. Nothing exists save empty space and you, and you are but a thought," ultimately disappearing with the planetoid, an illusion he created himself.

Due to the disturbing nature of this scene, it is edited out of the movie when aired on American television.

Here's the scene:

Leprechaun (1993)

Sure and it's a Happy St. Patrick's Day I be wishin' ye now!!!

Leprechaun was directed by Mark Jones. The cast includes Warwick Davis (as Leprechaun, and also of Willow and the Harry Potter movies fame), Jennifer Aniston (Her film debut! Begorrah!), Ken Olandt, and Mark Holton.

When Dan O'Grady returns to the U.S. after stealing some Irish leprechaun's pot of gold, he thinks he can settle down and enjoy his newfound wealth. He thought wrong. The leprechaun followed him and O'Grady barely gets away with his life, having locked the little monster in his basement. Ten years later, J.D. and his spoiled daughter Tory move in. By accident, the leprechaun is released and almost immediately the annoying creature starts to look for his gold, not displaying any respect for human life.

Here's the full movie, from a playlist:

Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)

Bambi Meets Godzilla was written, directed and (as you'll see) everything else by Marv Newland.

This cartoon prefaced Godzilla 1985 on New World Pictures' VHS release, but was omitted when that film was licensed to Starmaker.

For those interested, the background music is "Ranz Des Vaches", from Gioacchino Rossini's William Tell. The loud, elongated piano chord is the final note of "A Day in the Life" from "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles.