Yearly Archives: 2018

Interview with Amanda Reyes of Made for TV Mayhem part 4

Posted on by

This is part 4 of our interview with Amanda from Made for TV Mayhem!

Other than TV movies, what are some of your other favorite films?

I’m a slasher fanatic! That’s where my heart is. I love the golden age of slashers, and some of my favorites are He Knows You’re Alone, Prom Night, Madman, The Mutilator, and The Slayer. I love the direct to video and late entry stuff too like Happy Hell Night. My favorite though is probably Killer Party. It’s flawed, but endlessly watchable because the characters are so great. I also love the silly stuff too like Killer Workout, Blood Diner and Pieces. There’s just so much to discover, rewatch and enjoy. I’m a big Lamberto Bava fan as well. I think he’s a really underrated talent. His big popcorn movies are great, but his smaller films like Macabre, Body Puzzle and Ghost Son are really emotionally raw. Also, Blade in the Dark is so amazing. I love that man. I LOVE THAT MAN.

As for non-horror, it’s quite varied and some of my favorites are a foreign film called Twist and Shout, Weird Science, Porky’s 2 (forever!), a British movie called Letter to Brezhnev, Hal Hartley movies, David Lynch (which is arguably horror), and I adore Harry and Tonto even though I’ve only seen it once. What a beautiful film. Another favorite is Christiane F., which I’ve seen way too many times, considering the content. And I think Jackie Brown is easily one of my all-time favorites. I’ve seen it five times on the big screen. I don’t even care about the heist. Just give me that romance between Jackie and Max Cherry. So good.

Are there any actors we’d be surprised made the transition from TV to movies?

Hmmm.. that’s a good question. It’s actually really tough for actors who start on TV to find leading roles in movies. I think it’s because, as the saying goes, “Why pay for it when you can get it for free.” You’ll notice that both Don Johnson and Tom Selleck struggled a bit with starting up a theatrical career. I guess a good place to look might be soaps, because you’ll see actors like Meg Ryan, Tommy Lee Jones, Mark Hamill, etc., all started there. However, I guess one of the more surprising names to start on TV might be Crispin Glover. He’s so amazing in High School USA and appeared in everything from Happy Days to The Facts of Life. I met him recently and he told me he thought High School USA was a very good film, which pleased me immensely. He’s absolutely hilarious in it.

Are there any current movies that you’re digging?

Yes, I love a lot of what I see on the big screen. I missed the last entry, but I’m a huge supporter of Insidious and the James Wan stuff in general. Insidious is great because it’s so wonderful to see a woman in her 70s leading a horror film and kicking butt. That’s actually really subversive and I love it. It’s important. Get Out and It Follows are phenomenal. I thought Black Panther was really fantastic and I enjoy the big popcorn blockbuster franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek. I do think modern films are really good, but they don’t necessarily resonate with me like the films I first discovered at a younger age. I’m sure some of that is nostalgia, but I’m all for people’s love of modern cinema, and I’m always pleased to hear my friends talking about new films they love. I just probably don’t go as often as they do.

We just watched The Supernaturals, which isn’t necessarily a great movie but has great ideas and more importantly, has Scott Jacoby in the cast. How awesome is he? Like, in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, he’s a magician and just full of strange tics and mannerisms!

Scott Jacoby is the magic word. I love that man so much. He’s just an amazing talent. I thought The Supernaturals was really fun. It’s by the guy who did He Knows You’re Alone, and honestly, he can’t make a bad film as far as I’m concerned. I love the Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane as well. I haven’t seen it in years, but that goes back to my statement about the edgier climate of the seventies. They’d never make that film now!

How awesome would a series of The Norliss Tapes have been? I’m obsessed with TV pilots that went nowhere, like Poor Devil, the Sammy Davis Jr./Christopher Lee show or TV movies that became short-lived series like Salvage One and The Man from Atlantis. Any you love?

Norliss Tapes is one of my all-time faves. I’m a big Roy Thinnes fan. And, speaking of pilots, he starred in Children of the Lotus Eaters, aka God Bless the Children which was the pilot for a short-lived series called The Psychiatrist. It’s amazing. I also love Poor Devil. Pilots can be a mess though. I thought Sword of Justice was fun, but all over the map. I also liked Samurai with Joe Penny, but again, all over the map… and Mandrake too. One of the best might be Fame is the Name of the Game from the sixties. Just discovered it and I’m not going back! I think Cover Girls, which is about models who are also secret agents is pretty worthy of its awesomeness!

How did I not bring up Home for the Holidays?

I love it too. John Llewellyn Moxey is my favorite telefilm director. Double Home with something like A Taste of Evil or No Place to Hide. They all have similar endings, and are all fantastic films that he directed. Oh, and see The House that Wouldn’t Die. Or anything else he’s made. If you catch his TVM Smash-Up on Interstate 5, you’ll see Scott Jacoby. Just sayin’.

Are you a fan of Murder, She Wrote? We occasionally do a podcast about it. I’m always amazed at the budgets of that show. They bring in so many people per episode!

Huge Murder, She Wrote fan. I discovered it a bit late, like maybe only a few years ago, but I’ve been through the run of the series and just adore it. Again, we’ve got this older woman kicking ass and taking names. Angela Lansbury is wonderful. And Seth Hazlett for life!

Thanks Amanda for answering so many questions! I learned a lot and also have tons of new movies to watch with Becca! Please visit her site today!

The Victim (1972)

Posted on by

If you ever wonder why I love my wife so much, I watched this movie, and she walked into the room, sat on the couch and excitedly remarked, “That’s Eileen Heckart!” Yes, Becca loves The Bad Seed, a classic psychological thriller where Heckart’s performance as the mother of a sociopathic child is unforgettable. And she isn’t shy about it.

Director Herschel Daugherty’s directorial efforts run the gamut of TV classics, from Star Trek to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller and The Six Million Dollar Man. He was even the dialogue director for Mildred Pierce!

Kate Wainwright (Elizabeth Montogomery, who you may know from Bewitched, but around here we celebrate her for her role in The Legend of Lizzie Borden) is coming to visit her sister, but unbeknownst to her, her sister is already dead. She has to deal with the increasingly crazy attention of her sister’s maid, Mrs. Hawkes (Heckart), power outages, and an increasingly frightening storm. We soon learn that her sister already fired the maid and plans to divorce her husband, Ben.

While the film opens with the murder of the sister, the identity of the killer remains a mystery. As we witness Kate’s growing fear, Montgomery’s performance is nothing short of superb, keeping us on the edge of our seats.

The McKnight Malmar story this was based on was first filmed for a 1962 episode of Boris Karloff’s Thriller, ‘The Storm,’ also directed by Herschel Daugherty. The Victim was rewritten by Merwin Gerard and doesn’t stick as close to the original story, but it retains the core elements of the original, including the intense psychological suspense and the theme of a woman in peril.

The ending of this movie is bound to stir up some strong emotions. It might leave you feeling frustrated, or you might find it enjoyable, as it maintains a consistent level of suspense and creepiness throughout.

Interview with Amanda Reyes of Made for TV Mayhem part 3

Posted on by

This is part three of our interview with Amanda from Made for TV Mayhem. In this installment, we asked for some of her recommendations and thoughts on TV movies!

B&S About Movies: Do you have any recommendations?

AR: Sure. In the first episode of the Made for TV Mayhem Show, I go into why I love This House Possessed, Fantasies and Dark Night of the Scarecrow, so I’ll just say check that out if you’re interested. Other titles I don’t mention as much but absolutely adore would probably be Secret Night Caller, which features Robert Reed in a really dark turn as an obscene phone caller! I also love Night Terror with Valerie Harper, which is a bit of a riff on Duel and really suspenseful. Midnight Offerings is one of the best telefilms ever made. I fall more in love with it with each viewing, and sit down with it a few times a year!

Other movies I love are The House that Wouldn’t Die, The Stranger Within, the small screen remake of I Saw What You Did, and the pilot for Nick Knight. Those are the ones that come to mind. Ummm… I also really dig The Haunted, Outrage, Sandcastles (that’s a supernatural romance), and Scream, Pretty Peggy is a favorite from my childhood. There’s dozens I’m forgetting! And that’s just the horror stuff. I love all the small screen genres!

B&S: Which film is most ripe to be remade?

AR: I’m one of those people who isn’t really up on remakes. I mean, some are quite good and I really liked The Woman in Black remake. I do think remakes often shine a spotlight on the originals so I tend to be more open to TVM remakes, and there are some good ones. The Initiation of Sarah remake (which was also made for television) is a lot of fun. So was Satan’s School for Girls, which is like a feature-length episode of Charmed, basically. Hmmm… I think something like She’s Dressed to Kill would be fun because it’s basically a giallo set in the fashion world and could be pretty fabulous on a larger scale. Plus, it’s fun but flawed, so it might be worth revisiting. In an old article I wrote about telefilms that would potentially make for a decent reboot I said I thought Crawlspace’s exploration of our disconnect with society might be relevant if put into a sort of Web 2.0 space. So, I’ll go with that!

B&S: Who would be your dream team if you could film your own made for TV movie?

AR: Oh gosh! I am hoping you mean living or dead? I would love to bring on Aaron Spelling as a producer because he understood how to mainstream hot button topics, and many of his films and TV shows have an interesting subtext to them. I’d get John Llewellyn Moxey to direct, and I’d either hire Rita Lakin or Paul Playdon to write the script. Or, maybe Juanita Bartlett, because Midnight Offerings is everything. As for the cast… that’s hard. I guess Stephanie Powers, Barbara Eden, Suzanne Pleshette and Joan Hackett could lead the cast, because I love female-driven films. For their co-stars? Robert Reed, Robert Culp and maybe John Ritter. What would the story be? Who cares!

What is it about 1970s TV movies that are so doom laden? So many of the storylines — and the endings — are downbeat, even as Hollywood made the transition to blockbusters with happy endings.

I would argue that most genre films of the 1970s were downbeat, whether they be theatrical or made for television. Look at Deathdream, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Massacre at Central High, Don’t Look Now, and even big films like The Omen embraced a sort of nihilism or pessimism that was fairly prevalent during the decade. And moving out of the horror genre, what about the disaster movies of that era? I remember Earthquake’s ending is a little shocking! That was sort of the joy though of movies from that decade. You never knew who’d make it out alive! It was just an edgier time in terms of the willingness to go there.

Is there more? Of course! Come back for part 4 tomorrow!

Order April Drive-In Asylum now!

Posted on by

DRIVE-IN ASYLUM’s April 2018 is here! #11 has some great content, including four different authors making their DIA debuts!

This issue includes:

An exclusive interview with “HORROR HIGH” director Larry Stouffer. No, no, it’s not “RETURN TO HORROR HIGH” from the late 80s, this is the 1973 movie where a nerdy high school biology wiz develops a serum that transforms him into a monstrous alter-ego that destroys his enemies. Larry talks to Marshall Crist about the film’s development from conception to casting, post-production and its release to theaters via Crown International. Marshall makes his DIA debut with this great piece.

(Plus I did some crazy artwork for it…)

Also new to DIA is Ryan Clark, who offers his interview with screen writer George Abagnalo, who co-wrote “ANDY WARHOL’S BAD”. George talks about his association with Warhol and the creation of this shocking satire of suburban America, featuring a cast of sociopathic characters who all have the worst intentions.

Author Stephen Pytak also contributes his first piece, a profile of Ulli Lommel’s “Boogey Man” franchise of supernatural slashers, and Ryan Ellington from film blog Grindhouse Theology discusses the career of exploitation filmmaker Stephanie Rothman.

Sam Panico compares two movies titled “Frightmare”, one from 1974 and the other from 1983. Victor Leroi’s Video Nasty column features Nazi exploitation flick “Love Camp 7”, and Lana Revok from Facebook page STARTS TODAY! has an ad gallery of great vintage video store ads to take ya back.

And of course, there are tons of vintage movie ads to look at in this issue.

Each issue comes with a matte 4×6 print of a random horror, cult or exploitation movie ad.

Get yours today right here!

Article Rewriter Tool

This House Possessed (1981)

Posted on by

A rock star has a nervous breakdown and decides to recuperate in a remote house. Yet he finds himself asking, “Am I insane? Or is this house haunted?” Just by reading the title of this movie, I think you know the answer.

Gary Straihorn (Parker Stevenson, former husband to Kirsty Alley and one of TV’s Hardy Boys) has hired a nurse named Sheila (Lisa Eilbacher, Bad Ronald) to help him. The house they settle in seems way too familiar to her, but she can’t remember a lot of her life. Like the fact that she may be named Margaret. But everyone who either screws with her — like Gary’s girlfriend Tanya — or tries to help her, like a woman who gives her some newspaper clippings, all get killed by the house. Can a house fall in love with someone? After you see this, you’ll answer: YES.

There’s a great cast in this as well, including Slim Whitman (The Howling), Joan Bennett (Suspiria and TV’s Dark Shadows), character actor David Paymer, Amanda Wyss (the first person Freddy kills in A Nightmare on Elm Street) and even Philip Baker Hall (Magnolia) shows up in a blink and you’ll miss him role.

This movie was directed by William Wiard (his 1980 TV movie The Girl, The Gold Watch and Everything was a big deal when it came out) and was written by TV writing and producing vet David Levinson. They’d also work together on another TV movie, Fantasies.

This has never been released on DVD. You’re at the mercy of the grey market and YouTube. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Feed Shark

Interview with Amanda Reyes of Made for TV Mayhem part 2

Posted on by

We’re excited to bring you the second part of our interview with Amanda from Made for TV Mayhem. In this installment, she shared her thoughts on some of the made for TV films we’ve covered here at B&S About Movies.

B&S About Movies: Here are some of the films we’ve covered. Do you mind sharing your thoughts on them?

Death Car on the Freeway

AR: I really enjoy this one. It’s surprisingly subversive. It didn’t occur to me that this was a film with really deep feminist undertones until I read the review that Jennifer Wallis submitted for Are You in the House Alone? I mean, I got it, but not to the level she did. It’s a fascinating film. Also, it has great car stunts, so you can watch it for that too!

Something Evil

AR: I hate to admit that I’ve never seen this. I’ve had a copy for forever, but it just hasn’t reached the top of my “To Watch” pile. Not sure why.

Scream, Pretty Peggy

AR: Here’s Gordon Hessler. He told me he directed this film in five days! It’s wonderful. So creepy. The artwork is amazing. And I don’t mean just the sculptures the male protagonist creates, but all of the artwork throughout the house is stunning. It’s almost distracting! This one is also pretty feminist, but it’s more overt. It’s also a lot of fun. Bette Davis is wonderful in it as well.

Crawlspace

AR: One of my favorites. This film really digs deep into the anxiety of the changing family unit in the 1970s. The childless couple and Richard, the man they take in, are both so desperate to create a traditional family unit that they end up destroying each other. It’s not a horror film in the conventional sense, but it’s extremely unsettling. The novel is just as good.

All the Kind Strangers

AR: Speaking of trying to maintain a traditional family unit! All the Kind Strangers does have some issues. Mostly with how it portrays the South as an unforgiving space clinging to a conservative ideology, which is a stereotype, but ultimately, it’s very effective. Also, John Savage is just amazing in it.

She Waits

AR: This is an oddball one. I think it’s a little too slow for its own good, but there’s something really interesting at play with the ghost. So, for me this movie is about how houses absorb our memories, but everyone in the house will remember events differently. There are so many versions surrounding the death of a young woman in the house that the ghost itself can’t actually remember who murdered her. It’s really a pretty interesting idea wrapped up in a slightly misguided film. But it is thought-provoking.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

AR: Absolutely one of the best films ever, and one of the first TV movies I ever saw. I love how quietly creepy it is, and those little monsters are terrifying! Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a classic for a reason. The ending is… oh man, I’ve never gotten over it.

Satan’s School for Girls

AR: Oh gosh, Satan’s School for Girls is so much fun. There’s not a lot going on here, it’s just a straightforward devil worship kind of thing, and I love it. The female ensemble is amazing, and it’s so cool to see Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd in a movie before they were both Angels. Also, Roy Thinnes is my husband.

Gargoyles

AR: Another favorite. Gargoyles is the first movie I can remember where I wasn’t scared by the monster. I was drawn to them, and I wanted to see them survive. Those feelings of fascination and empathy would carry over when I started watching Godzilla films, but this was the first time I remember rooting for the beast. It’s a wonderful little movie. It does so much with so little, and Bernie Casey as the head Gargoyle is everything to me. This was one of those game changers I mentioned earlier. Such a gateway into horror and creature features for me.

Trilogy of Terror

AR: Oh my gosh, another classic! It’s all about that crazy Zuni Fetish doll, and it also gives Karen Black a really great arena as an actress. I think that the Millicent and Therese segment is predictable, but she’s so much fun in those roles! Still, I just go nuts for that dang doll!

Bad Ronald

AR: Such a favorite. I think Bad Ronald really goes to interesting places. It’s dark, and creepy. Plus, Scott Jacoby is amazing. He’s sympathetic but also scary. The novel makes Ronald much darker, and I appreciate the balancing act in this version, although I think the novel is really fantastic too!

The Night Stalker

AR: Confession: While I love the Night Stalker, I’m a bigger fan of The Night Strangler (and I love The Norliss Tapes even more than those two films!). I realize that The Night Stalker and its sequel are basically the same film, but there’s just something about the characters in Strangler that I’m drawn to. That said The Night Stalker is fantastic, and Skorzeny is absolutely terrifying. One of the great monsters of the small screen!

Curse of the Black Widow

AR: I’m on a bit of a James Franciosa kick. I just sat down with Fame is the Name of the Game, and I got to see Tenebre on the big screen last year. Curse is one of my escapist go-tos. James is always wonderful, and he shares the screen with some great small screen faces, including Patty Duke, Donna Mills and one of my favorite character actresses, Roz Kelly. This one just has oodles of energy. And the spider-cam is a hoot!

Believe it or not, we have even more questions for Amanda! Come back and see what she has to say tomorrow. Make sure to visit her on Twitter and Facebook, too! And you can see all of the B&S About Movies TV movies reviews right here!

The Initiation of Sarah (1978)

Posted on by

Originally airing on February 6, 1978, this movie reminds me of a very important lesson: the occult was everywhere in the 1970’s and it was ready to fuck your life up.

The film opens with Sarah (Kay Lenz, House) who joins her stepsister Patty (Morgan Brittany, who was in Death Car on the Freeway and was Katherine Wentworth on Dallas, who was Bobby’s killer before the shower scene retcon) going to the beach. A young man forces himself on Patty and Sarah saves her with telekinesis.

The movie tries to set things up with Sarah as some ugly duckling, but in every other movie I’ve seen Kay Lenz in, she is portrayed as being attractive. That’s the only hollow note in this movie.

The girls go off to college, where they both plan on joining Alpha Nu Sigma. Their mother is even the head of the alumni committee, so it’s a big deal for her to get her biological daughter, Patty, in. For some reason, Patty is welcomed with open arms while Sarah is directed to joining Phi Epsilon Delta.

All of the PED girls are rude and ill-tempered other than Mouse (Tisa Farrow, Zombi 2, Anthropophagus), a shy girl who everyone else is mean to. Mouse just wants to play her violin because otherwise she gets nuts!

Jennifer (80’s sex symbol Morgan Fairchild), the head of ANS, forbids her sisterhood from fraternizing with the PED girls, which tears the sisters apart. Meanwhile, Sarah starts to fall for Paul (Tony Bill, Are You in the House Alone?) while staying wary of den mother Mrs. Hunter (Shelley Winters in an unhinged performance).

Even after she uses her powers to shove Jennifer into a fountain, Sarah doesn’t want to give in to her powers. But once the ANS girls retaliate and throw food and mud at her, she gives in to Mrs. Hunter’s call to hatred and gives in to an initiation ceremony.

That ceremony? It involves blowing off the evil girl’s dresses, permanently ruining Jennifer’s face and killing Mouse, but Sarah decides at the last second to kill both herself and Mrs. Hunter to stop the sacrifice.

As the film ends, Patty joins PED and becomes friends with Mouse. They both mourn the loss of Sarah.

These are the kind of movies that made me glad that I went to art school and a downtown college instead of a real university. That said, I would not be eligible for a sorority, so I guess the point is moot.

This movie also has appearances by Michael Talbott (Freddy from Carrie), Robert Hayes (Airplane!), Deborah Ryan (Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park), Talia Balsam (The Supernaturals) and Kathryn Grant (The Night the World Exploded).

Unlike a lot of TV movies, Scream Factory released this on a double blu-ray called TV Terrors, along with Are You in the House Alone? You can get it at a pretty affordable price and I’d recommend it for this movie alone.

Interview with Amanda Reyes of Made for TV Mayhem part 1

Posted on by

We’re really excited for the chance to share this interview with Amanda Reyes, who was a major inspiration in our decision to do multiple made for TV movie weeks! She was good enough to do an extended interview and shared her feelings on several of the films we’ve already covered!

Amanda is an archivist, author and film and television historian. She edited and co-wrote Are You in the House Alone? A TV Movie Compendium: 1964-1999 (Headpress, 2017) which celebrates the made for television film, and was featured on Barnes and Noble’s Best of Horror list for 2017, and was nominated for Book of the Year at the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. The book is an expansion of her TV movie-centric blog, Made for TV Mayhem and its companion podcast. Most recently, her essay on anthology shows featuring scary holiday episodes was published in Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television (Spectacular Optical, 2017).

Reyes has been a guest speaker at international film festivals, TV movie screenings, and academic conferences in such places as England, Australia, and stateside in Austin, TX, where she currently resides. She also contributed the commentary tracks for the Blu Ray release of the 1977 telefilm The Spell (Shout Factory, 2017) and the upcoming release of Last House on the Left (Arrow, 2018). And, she is the curator and co-presenter of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Made for Television Mystery Movie series, which runs quarterly as part of Terror Tuesday. She also loves slashers and soap operas, and is completely obsessed (and slightly disappointed) by how much she relates to Alison on Melrose Place.

B&S About Movies: How did you get into TV movies?

Amanda Reyes: When I was pretty young our local channel used to run a lot of telefilms as part of their weekend afternoon programming. It was such a gateway into horror because I was only four or five when I saw movies like Gargoyles, Horror at 37,000 Feet, etc. Those were game changers for me! I also saw some great dramatic telefilms like Circle of Children, and dark comedies like The Girl Most Likely To… So even though I didn’t recognize them as TV movies at the time, I was heavily exposed to several amazing small screen films at a young age.

B&S: And how did this lead to Made for TV Mayhem?

AR: As I got older, and these films began to air less and less, I got really nostalgic for them. I started buying bootlegs off of eBay, back when they allowed that. Then I wrote an article about TV movies for a fanzine called Debaser. As a lover of odd films, I found myself wanting to write more about these films, many of which seemed truly lost. That got me into blogging. I started Made for TV Mayhem about a decade ago on Livejournal! I’m still a bit of an idiot with technology, but the blog, which is now on Blogger, is popular and people don’t seem to mind the typos or sometimes hinky coding! Anyway, while I was working on the book, I wanted to expand my audience and branched out into podcasting, which is just an extension of my blog but with an even more casual vibe. I really enjoy doing both, and wish I had more time to blog!

B&S: Have you talked to any of the talents that worked on these films?

AR: I have. I guess the most important person I’ve met and spent real time with was the late director Gordon Hessler. I got to spend a day with him in his amazing home in the hills of Los Angeles. We drank cosmopolitans and talked film with the friend who brought me over to Gordon’s house! That was so exciting. Hessler is a bit of an underrated figure in the telefilm world. He’s got an amazing filmography, and his thrillers are always heavy with atmosphere. Anyway, he was a really wonderful and talented man.

Other people I’ve met are Richard Matheson, William F. Nolan, and Parker Stevenson, who was kind of blown away by how much I loved This House Possessed. He loved to tell funny stories about his work in the TV movie and was just as charming as you’d expect. I’ve also talked with John Carpenter about making Someone’s Watching Me! I’ve met several others as well, but those are the biggest names that come to mind.

I interviewed Lance Guest for my blog. It was mostly about his work in the Afterschool Special, but we did discuss some of his TV movie work. Most people that I’ve met who have some work experience with the telefilm hold it in very high regard. It’s a tough gig – short shooting schedules, little money, and lots of restrictions. They have to create these little worlds without a ton of resources, and are generally really wonderful at doing it. They really respect the work and the medium, and so I like to give that respect back.

B&S: Why do you think so few of these films have been released to DVD or are streaming?

AR: I don’t know for sure, but think it’s partially because there are rights issues. Some of these movies were co-produced between networks and studios and I think the licensing might be a little complex. Also, the people who have the rights don’t often think there’s a market for TV movies. There’s some truth to that. A lot of TV movies don’t really profit in their home video releases. That’s why the Warner Archives model is so important for the TV movie. The print on demand service is a great way to sell DVDs. They don’t have to worry about paying for thousands of copies of something that won’t sell. I was hoping more companies would take that route, but since Warner Bros. owns those films, and most companies only license titles to distribute for a finite period of time, I can see where it’s not as feasible.

Come back tomorrow to hear what Amanda had to say about the made for TV movies that we’ve recently featured! Make sure to visit her on Twitter and Facebook, too!

Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973)

Posted on by

Once you watch this film, you’ll wonder — just how did this play on TV? It was part of the 13 titles included in Avco Embassy’s Nightmare Theater package syndicated in 1975 (the others were Marta, Maniac Mansion, Night of the Sorcerers, Fury of the Wolfman, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Horror Rises from the Tomb, Dear Dead Delilah, Doomwatch, Bell from Hell, Witches Mountain, The Mummy’s Revenge and The Witch) and several of these films aired intact on regular television! I can’t imagine — nor will you once you read this — what people thought! I even found a mention that the scene where Klaus Kinski inserts a pin into a girl’s eye aired uncut on Pittsburgh’s beloved Chiller Theater (indeed, it played on  July 7, 1979 and December 26, 1981, thanks to the amazing listing on the Chiller Theater fan site).

1906. Austria. Greta von Holstein (Ewa Aulin, Candy from Candy as well as Death Laid an Egg) has been used and abused by all of the men in her life, including Dr. von Ravensbrück, a rich cad who knocks her up and leaves her to die in childbirth.

Three years later. Her hunchback brother Franz, besotten with incestual love, brings her back to life with a magic medallion inscribed with the secret of life over death. He tries to get back into her pants, so she throws a black cat at his face. It eats his eyeballs, because, well, this is a Joe D’Amato movie. She then escapes into the world where she seeks revenge on the von Ravensbrück’s family.

Walter, the son of the doctor who done her wrong, and Eve, his wife, take her in after an accident outside their home. They both fall in love with her, which gives D’Amato license to shoot long lovemaking scenes. You may know him on one hand for his horror films, like Beyond the Darkness, Frankenstein 2000, Absurd and Antropophagus. But you may also know him for his adult films like Porno Holocaust and the Rocco Siffredi vehicle Tarzan X – Shame of Jane. Here, he combines his love of the female form with his eye for murder and insanity.

Eva is becoming jealous of Greta. But what he doesn’t know is that her new lover is wiping out people left and right, just for fun. The butler in the gallery with a razor. The maid in the woods with a shotgun. A lab assistant in the lab with a metal club. Even the family doctor (Klaus Kinski, do I need to say more or tell you he was in Schizoid, Crawlspace, Marquis de Sade: Justine and more? Or that he was also a maniac who was drafted to the German army, spent time as a POW and drank his own urine to get sick and get home earlier? This is not the craziest Kinski story, by the way…) is strangled right after he learns how to use her amulet to bring back the dead that he had been experimenting on (as you do).

Eva’s jealousy wins out, so she walls her up alive in the rooms beneath the castle, killing her. But Greta isn’t done yet. She shows up as a ghost at a party and lures Eva toward falling off the roof. That night, Greta’s ghost gives Walter a fatal heart attack in bed. And all of this was just to lure her old lover, Dr. von Ravensbrück, to the funeral, where she leads him to a vault and suffocates him.

A police inspector wonders if he’ll ever add up the case, as he finds the corpse of Greta’s brother near her empty grave. She’s gone and he wonders whatever happened to her. The person he has been telling the story to? Greta.

I was really struck by Berto Pisano’s music in this. He also contributed the strange soundtrack to Burial Ground. Here, his music is jazzy and then atonal, with sharp stings to call out the action.

I feel like I need to take a long shower after watching this movie. Which isn’t a bad thing, really. It’s an effective mix of giallo and gothic romance, with plenty of sleaze and gore for those seeking those thrills.

Death Walks at Midnight (1972)

Posted on by

Nieves Navarro is a true queen of giallo, appearing in All the Colors of the Dark, Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, So Sweet, So Dead and Death Walks on High Heels. Here, she makes her second film with her husband, Luciano Ercoli.

In this one, she plays a fashion model named Valentina who agrees to help her journalist beau study LSD. But while she’s dosed and in the middle of a photo shoot, she watches a man brutally murder a woman with a spiked gauntlet. He thinks she’s just hallucinating and publishes her account, but she believes it’s real. And when the killer starts stalking her, she really starts to worry.

The entire opening of the film is one big acid freakout and everything that follows is the bad trip, the comedown and reality brutally intruding into drugged out bliss. This is a film packed with brutal violence and plenty of gore, but it makes sense. The movie demands it.

The end, when everything is wrapped up by the killer (killers?) is pretty great, as the many red herrings are discussed and the entire plot is finally explained to us. If everything before felt like a nightmare, this is bracingly cold water directly to the face.

Even better, Navarro portrays a heroine who doesn’t faint at the first sign of danger. She deals with the ineffectual police and indifference of her boyfriend with aplomb.

And yes — this film is packed with bonkers crazy fashion — a metal/glass silver wig and a strange sculpted wall feature prominently — so if that’s why you love giallo, you’ll be quite happy here. Me? I loved every minute.

If you want to watch it, it’s on Shudder.