This November, as we gear up for the start of the nightmare that is HOLIDAY SEASON, Spectacle is serving up two heaping helpings of MORAL TERROR – films with black and white visions of good and evil, where every transgression is followed by a lesson (usually deadly).
Both of these offerings are made for TV, but that doesn’t lessen the thrills – including haunting scarecrows, nightmare children, and the hobo-ization of a Wall Street scumbag.
DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW
dir. Frank Felitta, 1981
96 min, USA
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – 10 PM
‘Mar-vel-ous! I was terrified!’ – Vincent Price
Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a made-for-TV horror film about a subject we’ve all become a little too familiar with lately: a gross miscarriage of justice.
When word spreads around town that little Marylee has been killed by gentle giant and local dullard Bubba (Larry Drake – Darkman, Dr. Giggles), five good-ol-boys decide to take ‘justice’ into their own hands by organizing a flash-mob and murdering Bubba in cold blood. Literal moments after the deed is done, word comes over the radio that Marylee is fine – in fact, Bubba saved her.
The murderers are acquitted on the grounds of ‘self-defense’ (lol) but its not long before a scarecrow turns up on the property of the ringleader…
If you like moody, creeping thrillers and a healthy serving of true karmic justice, this one is not to be missed. A true gem of a film.
Screening the blu-ray remaster courtesy of CALIFORNIA PICTURES INC.
ALIEN ZONE aka THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD
dir. Shannon Miller
1978, USA
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20 – 10 PM
A rarely seen American anthology that attempted to capture the glory of the Amicus days in the UK, Shannon Miller directs this series of five alternately creepy and hilarious shorts, with a wraparound story centered on an adulterer who’s taxi accidentally drops him off outside of a funeral home.
After asking to use the phone, our adulterer is given a tour of the funeral home’s current residents by the caretaker, who takes him through each demise in great detail, each one addressing a different ‘sin’ of sorts.
Though it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Scarecrow, it is definitely a unique ride, featuring everything from evil trick or treaters to a hidden-camera-serial-killer to a cat-and-mouse game between rival Private Investigators.