Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 20

Tonight isn't about scares, but about tradition: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is on ABC at 8PM.

No Halloween is complete without a viewing of this classic tale of a child's dangerous delusions. Seriously, Linus is nuts. He's even got the crazy eyes!

It's followed by Toy Story of Terror at 8:30PM, which has become another fun Halloween viewing tradition.



Alas, I'm not seeing either of these available for online viewing, which isn't surprising, it being a Disney-owned channel and all. You can definitely purchase them though!

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 19

This is the post I have every Halloween, where I talk about the original Halloween movie, and how it's a must-see flick this time of year, and it's on TV tonight....but you shouldn't watch it.

The thing is, it's on AMC, and they edit their movies AND don't show them in the correct aspect ratio (ASPECT RATIO NERD ALERT), even on their HD channel, so I can't in good conscience encourage anyone to to watch Halloween that way.




AMC is also showing a lot of the sequels, which are generally garbage. I remember being pretty disappointed by Halloween II when it came out in 1981, though compared to the rest of the Michael Myers-themed sequels that followed, (Halloween III is a whole other ball of wax I'll hopefully address here this month), it's a classic, and has some genuinely scary things in it, (the biggest one being Jamie Lee Curtis's wig).

Fright wig indeed.

So, Halloween is on at 9PM and Halloween II at 11PM, both on AMC. This is where I'd usually give you alternative ways to view them, but it doesn't look like Halloween is streaming anywhere. Halloween II IS available to rent via Amazon. And you can get Halloween on disc from Netflix. (Just be sure it's the original and not the god awful Rob Zombie remake.)

I'll be watching the fancy Blu-Ray version I got last year for Christmas, and haven't watched yet. Come on over. I'll make popcorn!

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 18

As if circuses weren't creepy enough, vampires were once running them? And the tigers were actually weretigers? Or something?

Not entirely sure, and the trailer to the 1972 Hammer movie Vampire Circus doesn't really shed much light on the matter.



I suppose the only way to clear up this mystery is to watch it at 9PM on MGMHD, which also seems to be the only way to do it, as it isn't available on Amazon or Netflix, or On Demand.

Clearly, he's annoyed by the lack of viewing options.

Oh, don't give up, disgusted circus vampire! I'm sure if you Google it hard enough, some online option will present itself.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 17

Here's a new one. Well, new to me. It's 1957's The Vampire, a black and white thriller about a doctor who starts to take pills made from vampire bats' blood, mistakenly thinking they're his migraine pills. I hate when that happens! Of course, messing around with vampire bats' blood is never a good thing.

First symptom of vampirism: Out of control eyebrows

It's airing at 9PM on MGMHD, but if you're really intrigued, you can watch the entire movie right here, right now!

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 16

Tonight is creepy children night on TCM, with such classics as The Bad Seed and Children of the Damned, (you can see the complete line-up here.)

But my favorite of the bunch is The Curse of the Cat People, which airs just after midnight at 12:15AM. More in title than in actual plot, it's a sequel to the classic 1942 Cat People featuring most of the same cast, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. It's not so much a horror movie as it is a creepy fairy tale about the sometimes scary loneliness of childhood.

It must have confused the hell out of people when it first came out.

I

I think I cried the first time I saw it; it's that touching. And I think it actually makes a better Christmas movie than it does a horror movie, so maybe save it and watch it in December. Speaking of which, can someone get me this cape Simone Simon is wearing for Christmas? Thanks.

I curse you and your amazing cape!

You can rent Curse of the Cat People from Amazon, and it's available on disc (along with Cat People) from Netflix.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 15

The Psychopath, written by Robert Bloch (he had a thing about psychos) and directed by Hammer Film's Freddie Francis is, as one would guess, about a psycho killer. But this one has a little quirk. Well, a quirk aside from that of being a serial killer: he leaves doll versions of his victims at the scene.

The cutest murders ever.

You can watch it at 1PM on a channel called KTVU 195, or on YouTube, though it doesn't seem to be a widescreen version or the movie. Alas.

Finally, here's a disturbingly-titled clip from the movie.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 14

Tonight brings us two Jack the Ripper tales. Well, two highly fictionalized tales of Jack the Ripper.

First, at 11:30PM on TCM we have Time After Time, a movie I've loved since I first saw it as a kid in 1979. It posits that H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) made a real time machine, and Jack to Ripper (David Warner) used it to venture to 1970's San Francisco. Wells follows him to S.F., and falls in love with a bank teller (Mary Steenburgen).



Yeah, it's silly. But it's also fun, and filled with great late 70's San Francisco locations (even though, as usual, they get the geography all wrong).

H.G. Wells? Or modern day bartender?

Following Time After Time at 1:30AM is Hands of the Ripper, about Jack the Ripper's supposed daughter, and how she may be following in her father's footsteps.



If you want to see this one, you're gonna have to have TCM, because it doesn't seem to be available to rent online, and this is what you get if you search for it on Netflix. Ha!

Time After Time is available to rent via Amazon, and YouTube.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 13

Tonight we have a movie I've never heard of, 1971's Tower of Evil, which you can watch at 9PM on MGMHD.  It was also called Horror on Snape Island, and ten years after it first came out, it was re-released as Beyond the Fog, to try and trick people into thinking it was a sequel to John Carpenter's The Fog.

There is some creepy looking fog in the trailer though.



The story, such as it is, follows a group of archaeologists in search of a treasure, who find MURDER instead. "Archaeologists" huh?

Typical archaeologists

It's also available for rent from Amazon.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 12

If you ain't got dreams, you got nightmares

 
Director Wes Craven died in August, and that's a loss the horror movie genre is going to feel for a long time. Sure, he made some crappy movies. But the good movies he made were really good, and I'm going to miss seeing what he could have brought us in the future. Also, he seemed like a genuinely nice and funny guy, as anyone who followed him on Twitter can attest.

So, how's about you watch the original A Nightmare on Elm Street tonight. Technically, it's on at 8PM on IFC, but it's terrible to watch a movie on IFC because they interrupt the film about every 5 minutes to show commercials. Seriously annoying. Stream it on Amazon instead.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 11

After The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but before Poltergeist, director Tobe Hooper made a slasher movie called The Funhouse, about four "teenagers," (like a lot of movie teens, they actually look to be in their twenties), who spend the night in a carnival dark ride, and are hunted by a deformed killer.



Now, it's not a great movie, but for some reason I ended up watching it a lot as a youngster, perhaps because it was on cable, so it kind of made an impression on me. And it's worth watching because of two actresses: Elizabeth Berridge, who would later go on to co-star in Amadeus, as Mozart's nubile wife, and screen legend Sylvia Miles, who plays a fortune teller/hooker. And if that's not scary, I don't know what is.

I see a disappointing sexual encounter in your future!

Now, technically this is on TV tonight, but it's on Telemundo channel 8PM on KSTS, so it will be dubbed in Spanish. But it IS available to rent from Amazon Instant or on disc from Netflix.

Also, someone made a blog that analyzes the entire movie, scene by scene, complete with a ton of images and other Funhouse related memorabilia. Sometimes I just love the Internet.