Friday Night Frights: Willard (1971)

Where your nightmares end...WILLARD begins.


Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is the 1971 film Willard, directed by Daniel Mann and starring Bruce Davison, Elsa Lanchester, Ernest Borgnine, and Sondra Locke. It was based on the novel "Ratman's Notebooks" by Gilbert Ralston (under the pen name of Stephen Gilbert), who also wrote the screenplay.

A sequel called Ben (after one of the rats in the original) was released in 1972, and a remake of Willard, starring Crispen Glover, was released in 2003.

A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates (and their increasing number of friends). However, when one of them is killed at work, Willard goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him.

This is the full movie, from a playlist. It hasn't been released on DVD.

Zombie: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!


Last Halloween we featured Night of the Living Dead.
Tonight we feature Dawn of the Dead.

Director George A. Romero's epic sequel to his legendary Night of the Living Dead has firmly established itself as the equal of its ground-breaking predecessor. Though shot in 1978 -- ten years after the first films' release -- Dawn's story begins as if the events in Night had happened only a few months before: after shambling armies of the recently-dead take over every major city -- seeking warm human flesh for food -- the U.S. government imposes a state of martial law, sending in special National Guard units to attack and destroy zombie infestation where they find it.

This is the faster-paced European/Italian version edited by overseas distributor Dario Argento. It's the full movie, from a playlist.

How to See Ghosts

In the 1970's, Vincent Price recorded a few albums for the Caedmon label, one of which included readings from "A Hornbook for Witches". From that album, here's the Minister of Sinister, Mr. Vincent Price, giving instruction on seeing the incorporeal.

How to See Ghosts or Surely Bring Them to You

Friday Night Frights: Burnt Offerings (1976)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is a chilling offering from the 70's I made reference to in a previous post about Karen Black.

Burnt Offerings (1976) was directed by Dan Curtis and stars Karen Black and Oliver Reed as summer caretakers moving into a gothic house with their young son. The catch? The house rejuvenates a part of itself with each death that occurs on its premises.

Check out the creepy chauffeur, and beware an ending that will give you nightmares.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Colossus: The Forbin Project, directed by Joseph Sargent. The cast includes Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, and Gordon Pinsent.

An artificially intelligent supercomputer is developed and activated, only to reveal that it has a sinister agenda of its own.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Theater of Blood (1973)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Theater of Blood, directed by Douglas Hickox and starring Vincent Price as Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart, who takes poetic revenge on the critics who denied him recognition.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Suspiria (1977)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Suspiria, directed by Dario Argento.

A newcomer to a fancy ballet academy gradually comes to realize that the staff of the school are actually a coven of witches bent on chaos and destruction.

Friday Night Frights: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)

Can you see them, Sally ... hiding in the shadows. They're alive, Sally. They want you to be one of them when the lights go out.


Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, an American made-for-television horror film by Lorimar Productions that was first telecast on ABC on Wednesday October 10, 1973.

It was directed by John Newland; the cast includes Kim Darby, John Hutton, Barbara Anderson, and William Demarest.

A young couple inherits an old mansion inhabited by small demon-like creatures who are determined to make the wife one of their own.

This movie has not been officially released on DVD.

Here's the full movie, in a playlist:

Farrah Fawcett Sci-Fi - Logan's Run and Saturn 3

Happy Birthday to American actress Farrah Fawcett, who was born on this day in 1947.

She became a noted pop culture figure and sex symbol of the 1970s and into the 1980s, shaping the landscape of fashion and pop culture.

Her body of work includes a couple of science fiction films:


Logan's Run (1976), with Michael York. An idyllic sci-fi future has one major drawback: life must end at 30.

Here's the trailer:




Saturn 3 (1980), with Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keital. Two lovers stationed at a remote base in the asteroid fields of Saturn are intruded upon by a retentive technocrat from Earth and his charge: a malevolent 8-ft robot.

Here's the trailer:

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" is an American television series that aired on ABC in 1974. It featured a newspaper reporter — Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin — who investigates crimes with mysterious and unlikely causes that the proper authorities won't accept or pursue. Crimes which seem to point to a Jack the Ripper copycat, voodoo priestesses and the walking dead ("Zombies"), a coven of warlocks ("Vampire"), and an extra-hairy luxury liner passenger with a taste for his shipmates ("Werewolf").

Though the show only lasted 20 episodes, it is often credited as the inspiration for "The X Files" and was succeeded by a second television series with a new cast and characters in 2005, as well as several novels and comic books.


The Kolchak character originated in an unpublished novel, The Kolchak Papers, written by Jeffrey Grant Rice. In the novel, Las Vegas newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak tracks down and defeats a serial killer who is really a vampire named Janos Skorzeny.

The novel was finally published by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original under the title The Night Stalker with a Darren McGavin photo cover to tie in with the movie. The novelizations of the first two movies were republished by Moonstone in 2007 as an omnibus edition called The Kolchak Papers.

The series was preceded by two television movies:

The Night Stalker (1972)
Rice was approached by ABC who optioned the property, which was then adapted by Richard Matheson into a TV movie produced by Dan Curtis and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Darren McGavin played the role of Carl .

The Night Stalker aired on the ABC network on January 11, 1972 and garnered the highest ratings of any TV movie at that time (33.2 rating - 54 share). Matheson received a 1973 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best TV Feature or Miniseries Teleplay.

The Night Strangler (1973)
Impressed by its success, ABC commissioned Richard Matheson to write a second movie, The Night Strangler, which featured another serial killer in Seattle who strangled his victims and used their blood to keep himself alive for over a century through the use of alchemy. The Seattle Underground City was used as a setting for much of the action, and provided the killer with his hiding place. Dan Curtis both produced and directed the second movie, which also did well in the ratings. Rice then wrote a novelization based on Matheson's screenplay, a reverse of the situation for the first movie. The novel was published by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original under the title The Night Strangler with a close-up of the monster's eye to tie in with the movie.


Here's episode 9: "The Spanish Moss Murders", from a playlist:





Sources include this Wikipedia article.

Happy Birthday Tobe Hooper!

Director Tobe Hooper was born on this day in 1943.

This Master of Horror has written and directed movies in the horror genre for over three decades, and has enthralled audiences with such offerings as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Salem's Lot (posted here on Friday Night Frights), and Poltergeist, to name just a few.

He has contibuted to several horror anthology series as well.

Here's one of the all-time greatest trailers, for his original 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The Devil's Rain (1975)

Happy Birthday Ernest Borgine, born on this day (January 24) in 1917!

Here's one of his movies, The Devil's Rain, directed by Robert Feust. The cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Tom Skerritt, Joan Prather, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Keenan Wynn, and John Travolta.

SPOILER ALERT
This horror oddity tells the story of a well-networked throng of devil-worshipers populating a small Arizona town who possess a strange crystal icon which houses the captive souls of their sacrificial victims. The coven, led by the thick-browed Jonathan Corbis (Ernest Borgnine), are also determined to get their hands on a diabolical "Book of Names" which contains the identities of those victims. After the family of Tom Preston (Tom Skeritt) are murdered by the coven for concealing the book, Tom sets out to avenge them. During an outrageous climax — in which none other than William Shatner is offered up in sacrifice and Borgnine is transformed by a lightning bolt into a chunky horned demon — the receptacle of souls is shattered, releasing the title storm and causing the congregation to melt into puddles of multicolored goo (a scene which seems to last forever). Produced in 1975 but released two years later, this film touted John Travolta's name at the height of his popularity, though his role is remarkably small (he does melt nicely at the end, however).

Here's the full movie, from a playlist:

Friday Night Frights: Salem's Lot (1979)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is the television miniseries Salem's Lot, directed by Tobe Hooper and based on the novel by Stephen King. It stars David Soul, James Mason, and Lance Kerwin.

Sinister events bring together a writer returning home to Salem's Lot after many years, a suave antiques dealer whose expertise goes beyond bric-a-brac and the dealer's partner - a vampire bent on draining the local bloodlines.

Here's the full movie, from a playlist:

Happy Birthday Linda Blair!

American actress Linda Blair was born on this date in 1959. She is most famous for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist.

Here's the famous spiderwalk scene that was cut from the theatrical release. It's available on The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen.



She was a real head-turner:

The Stepford Wives

On this date (January 12) in 1915 the United States House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.

The Stepford Wives (1975) was directed by Bryon Forbes and based on the novel by Ira Levin (whose other novels made into movies include Rosemary's Baby and The Boys from Brazil).

Joanna Eberhart has come to the quaint little town of Stepford, Connecticut with her family, but soon discovers there lies a sinister truth in the all too perfect behavior of the female residents.

Here's the trailer:

Friday Night Frights: Race With the Devil (1975)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is Race With the Devil, directed by Jack Starrett and starring a stellar cast from the 70's which includes Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, and Lara Parker.

Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.

Here's the full movie, from a playlist:

Bad Ronald (1974)

I published a previous post about this movie, with a trailer, back in September. Here's the full length television movie Bad Ronald, directed by Buzz Kulik.

Ronald (Scott Jacoby), a nerdy high school youth, accidently kills a neighbor's young daughter. Panicking mother (Kim Hunter) fears the police will not believe that it was an accident. She moves her son into a bathroom that she turned into a secret hiding place. After her death, a new family moves in. In the mean time, Ronald has gotten lost in a fantasy world created in his own head from being hidden away for so long.

Here's the full movie, from a playlist:
(note: video begins at around the 20 second mark)

Friday Night Frights: The Food of the Gods (1976)

Welcome to tonight's episode of Friday Night Frights.

Tonight's feature is The Food of the Gods, written and directed by Bert I. Gordon and based on the novel by H.G. Wells (which is available to read in an online web edition).

Morgan and his friends are on a hunting trip on a remote Canadian island when they are attacked by a swarm of giant wasps. Looking for help, Morgan stumbles across a barn inhabited by an enormous killer chicken. After doing some exploring, they discover the entire island is crawling with animals that have somehow grown to giant size. The most dangerous of all of these, however, are the rats, who are mobilizing to do battle with the human intruders.

The American Nightmare (2000)

The American Nightmare, a documentary directed by Adam Simon, examines the nature of 1960's-70's horror films, the involved artists, and how they reflected contemporary society.

The film features interviews with John Carpenter, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, Tobe Hooper, John Landis, George A. Romero, and Tom Savini, among others.

WARNING - CONTAINS SCENES OF EXTREME HORROR

Full documentary, from a playlist:

Blood Freak (1972)

Happy Thanksgiving! My quest for a Thanksgiving themed horror flick served up this turkey:

Blood Freak (1972)

A biker comes upon a girl with a flat tire and offers her a ride home. He winds up at a drug party with the girl's sister, then follows her to a turkey farm owned by her father, a mad scientist. The father turns the biker into a giant turkey monster who goes after drug dealers.

Here's the trailer.