🎃October 26🎃

🕷️TCM schedule October 31 2020: the howlin’en creepfest continues🕷️

Remember TCM stands for Turner Classic Movies; that leaves at least 50 years of horror films you can sample for your creepfest!

Suggestion: As many classic (and not so classic) horror films have been made and remade (and remade), perfect set up for a “bite-size” binge)

12:45 am: The Wicker Man (1974): When Police Sergeant Neil Howie goes to the isolated island of Summerisle to search for a missing girl, the local inhabitants insist that she never existed. During his investigation, Howie, a staunch Christian, is horrified to learn that the locals on the island practice a type of Celtic paganism. Director: Robin Hardy: Cast: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento. (This one is really really creepy, suspenseful, scary with a really wild ending – the remake with Nicholas Cage isn’t nearly as creepfest worthy.)

 2:30: Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972): Dusty Cole leaves her boyfriend and becomes a prostitute. Director: Andy Milligan; Cast: Lynn Flanagan, Bob Walters, Paul Matthews (This film is tucked in between horror films, and the genre listed is experimental so . . .)

 4:00: Guru The Mad Monk (1970): On the island of Mortavia in 1480, schizophrenic Father Guru is the chaplain of a Central European prison. By agreeing to rob graves for Guru, the jailor saves a beloved prisoner who has been condemned for infanticide. When Guru’s bishop arrives with a replacement, the indignant priest orders their executions. Guru also murders his mistress, a lesbian vampire, and a hunchback, the pet of the reprieved prisoner. The jailor, however, hangs the priest and saves his paramour. (All I can saw, is WOW!!!! what a surrealistic 1960s style romp through the horror genre!)

6:00 am: Freaks (1932) A lady trapeze artist violates the code of the side show when she plots to murder her husband. Director: Tod Browning; Cast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova (Note: the “freaks” are portrayed by sideshow performers, not actors “made-up” to look “freakish,” and I can’t watch the ending – just too much for me.)

7:15 am: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of a scientist who unleashes the beast within.  Director: Rouben Mamoulian; Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart (I think Jack Palace, in another version does the best Dr. J/Mr. H! RLS story does get kinda been there, done that after a while.)

9:00 am: House of Wax (1953) A scarred sculptor re-populates his ravaged wax museum with human corpses. Director: Andre Detoth; Cast: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk (A better than yesterday’s 1932 film, but then I like Vincent Price.)

10:45 am: Children of the Damned (1964) Space invaders impregnate six women with super-powered offspring. Director: Anton M. Leader; Cast: Ian Hendry, Alan Badel, Barbara Ferris. (Well worth DVRing! Still resonates 56 years later, even after we have been bombarded with superheroes with super powers.)

12:30 pm: The Bad Seed (1956) A woman suspects that her perfect little girl is a ruthless killer. Director: Mervyn Leroy; Cast: Gage Clarke, Jesse White, Joan Croyden (a creepfest classic)

2:45 pm: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) From the Oscar Wilde tale of a man who remains young and handsome while his portrait grows old. Director: Albert Lewin; Cast: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield; Donna Bellamy (and a very young Angela Lansbury)

4:45 pm: The Wolf Man (1941) A British nobleman undergoes a startling transformation when he’s bitten by a gypsy werewolf. Director: George Waggner; Cast: Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy

6:00 pm: The Haunting (1963) A team of psychic investigators moves into a haunted house that destroys all who live there. Director: Robert Wise; Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson (I’m still haunted by this one . . .)

8:00 pm: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Director: Stanley Kubrick; Cast: Peter Sellers, George C Scott, Sterling Hayden A mad United States General orders an air strike against Russia. (Some comic relief after all that scarifying)

10:00 pm: Them! (1954) Federal agents fight to destroy a colony of mutated giant ants. Director: Gordon Douglas; Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon (The classic “mutated” giant creature feature. More funny than scary, unless you don’t like ants. Hey, I don’t like ants . . .)

12:00 am: The Seventh Victim (1943) A girl’s search for her missing sister puts her in conflict with a band of Satanists. Director: Mark Robson; Cast Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell

1:30 am: I Walked with a Zombie (1943) A nurse in the Caribbean resorts to voodoo to cure her patient. Director: Jacques Tourneur Cast: James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway (Warning: Given the period, the portrayal of African-Caribbean culture may be stereotypical and bigoted.)

3:00 am: The Body Snatcher (1945) To continue his medical experiments, a doctor must buy corpses from a graverobbers. Director: Robert Wise; Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell

4:30 am: The Leopard Man (1943) When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders. Director: Jacques Tourneur Cast Dennis O’keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks

🕸️Now, arrange an exorcism for your television . . .🕸️

💀Hope your day’s not too frightful💀, and 🐺 your night’s something to howl about 🐺

featured image: Nosferatu, Old Farmers Almanac