Thursday, October 29, 2020

TMP Television Edition: Horror

It's the final spooky Thursday of 2020. Since it is the last Thursday of the month, that means we're talking TV for this week's Thursday Movie Picks. Our host, Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves left it pretty vague and only said "horror." Hmmm. So many ways to go, but to be honest, I'm not as well-versed in TV horror as I am with cinematic scares. That said, I have come up with something.

American Horror Story

2011 - ???

My youngest daughter watches a number of horror TV shows. I've wandered in on a few and watch the odd episode here and there. This is the show this has happened most often with. I've seen at least an episode or two from every season, except the latest. There are even a couple of seasons I've watched most of the episodes. I've always liked what I saw as the writing takes the show in some interesting directions. I might have to give it a more proper watch. 

Evil

2019 - ???

By chance, all of this transpired last weekend. Mrs. Dell has been binging a lot of old sitcoms on Netflix that we used to watch 20 years ago. I watched an episode of this and an episode of that with her, but since I'm not particularly interested in revisiting them I would slink off to another TV and watch something on my own. She wanted to find something we could watch together and start scrolling through Netflix as you do, and came across the series Evil. The draw is that it stars Mike Colter, who played the titular character in Luke Cage, a series we both love. There are some religious aspects for her, and horror for me, so we gave it a go. Colter plays a priest in training who works for the Catholic church investigating supernatural occurrences and deciding on a course of action with his team of would-be ghostbusters. who are both skeptics. This is not a comedy, though. Think of it more like The X-Files meets The Exorcist. Happily, we binged the whole first (only) season and are eagerly awaiting season 2. Damn you, pandemic. 

Lovecraft Country

2020 - ???

This is a first. I'm mentioning something I haven't watched myself. That's because this is not as much a suggestion for you as it is a reminder for me. I don't have any version of HBO, I think this on HBO Max, but I've heard nothing but great things about it. I'm just figuring out a way to watch it, legally, of course. No Your Honor, I would NEVER stoop so low as watching unauthorized copies online (fingers crossed behind my back).

Click here for more Thursday Movie Picks.


17 comments:

  1. I've only seen some of the first show. I was drawn in by the stars Murphy was able to corral-Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett etc. but even with them I only made it a couple of episodes in each season and it gets far too ghoulish for me and I finally gave up.

    The other two would never work for me.

    SO glad this is the last of these!! This has been a near impossible month. Add into which I misread the theme and thought these had to be TV holiday horror and the hunt was on!! The only one that I could think of was my first-a far, far superior piece of entertainment to the other two bottom of the barrel dredges that I finally remembered from my long ago viewing.

    Home for the Holidays (1972)-Wealthy autocratic Benjamin Morgan (Walter Brennan), frail and seriously ill, insists his four daughters-Alex (Eleanor Parker), Freddie (Jessica Walter), Jo (Jill Haworth) and Chris (Sally Field) (he had wanted boys)-come home for Christmas to his enormous but isolated mansion. Estranged over their shared belief that Benjamin drove their mother to suicide they reluctantly return to be informed by their father that he suspects his second wife, Elizabeth (Julie Harris) is now trying to kill him. Shortly afterwards the girls learn that their stepmother was accused of killing her first husband and they begin to fall prey to a killer dressed in a yellow rain slicker!

    What would normally be a rather standard, though well directed, scare flick is elevated by the fact that the cast is ridiculously overqualified for this sort of endeavor-Sally Field (2 Oscars), Walter Brennan (3 Oscars), Julie Harris (5 Tonys and 2 Oscar nominations), Eleanor Parker (3 Oscar nominations) and TV stalwart Jessica Walter (a handful of Emmy nominations and a win)!

    A Vacation in Hell (1979)-When their excursion boat sinks four women including Marcia Brady (Maureen McCormick) and Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) and a man (Michael Brandon) who have been holidaying at an exotic vacation resort must fight for survival after they become lost in a remote jungle while being stalked by a murderous native tribe. Terrible Movie of the Week incredibly was directed by the same guy who helmed Roots!

    The Midnight Hour (1985)-In the New England town of Pitchfork Cove a group of rather stupid teens (though the actors playing them are at minimum in their mid to late 20’s) pinch some costumes and artifacts from the local museum on Halloween and chant in the graveyard calling forth all manner of ghosts, zombies and other ghouls who they spend the rest of the movie running away from like the idiots they are.

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    1. That's about as much of AHS as expected you to see, lol.

      Sorry you made it so hard on yourself. Home For the Holidays sounds familiar, but I can't say for certain that I've seen it. Definitely have not seen the others.

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    2. Home for the Holidays used to be rerun every once in a while on different stations especially in the 80's & 90's when Sally was big box office so you might have run across it there. It might not be a great (it's not bad though as these sort of movies go) film but it is a great example of the sort of talent producers were able to utilize during the heyday of the TV Movie of Week years. Take into consideration that Sally was the least famous of the cast when it was made! And even she was a very popular TV performer because of Gidget and The Flying Nun.

      One of the funny little sidelights of the movie is that the year before this Eleanor Parker had played Sally's mother in another decent TV movie named "Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring" about a runaway's adjustment when she returns home after living the hippie life with boyfriend David Carradine and finding her parents making the same mistakes with her sister that had driven her away. It even has a theme song sung by Linda Ronstadt! (obviously before she hit it big herself). In Home for the Holidays they play sisters!!! Both films are on YouTube.

      The second two, if you could even find them, are most definitely NOT worth your time.

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    3. I'm sure I saw a thousand commercials for it each November/early December as a youth. But at that age, I had zero interest in family Christmas dramas.

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  2. Great picks!
    I'm so curious about Lovecraft Country but also haven't had a chance to see it yet.

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  3. Of course, I have not seen any of these but I would be interested in the first.

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    1. A bit surprised you haven't come across at least one episode of AHS. It's very good, but like Joel said, ghoulish. It's on Netflix, and I think it's up to its 9th season.

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    2. I don’t have Netflix or any streaming extras....just cable.

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  4. I've watched the first four seasons of American Horror Story, and I'm always left a little disappointed in it. Some of the ideas are really good, but they also can't seem to sustain themselves for a full 10 episodes.

    Case in point is season 2--Asylum. It takes place (no surprise) in an Asylum. Cool! There's a lot of potential for that, and shows about insanity are always a little disturbing, in part because you never know the honesty or reliability of the narrator. So naturally, they also include a subplot about alien abduction. What? I tried, and I just can't care about it any more.

    Lovecraft Country is one I've heard about and would really like to watch.

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    1. You've watched more than I have. I've popped in for a few here & there, but never a full season, so that's interesting.

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  5. Great list! I've seen bits of American Horror Story and I haven't finished watching it yet. The other shows sound interesting!

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  6. Lovecraft Country is awesome you should definitely check that out. I've never heard of Evil, I'm going to look that up. I liked Coulter in Luke Cage as well.

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    1. I'm biding my time with Lovecraft Country. Evil is on Netflix.

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  7. I saw bits of Lovecraft Country and what the fuck? I liked what I saw.

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