TERROR TEE-VEE: A Countdown to Halloween (Day 24)

Somehow, appropriately, George A. Romero recieved his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame posthumously on Wednesday.  Romero died earlier this year after a brief battle with lung cancer.  His wife, Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, accepted the honor for him and actor Malcolm McDowell, filmmaker Edgar Wright and effects artist and director Greg Nicotero all spoke at the ceremony in his honor.

His hit horror movies were famously filmed in Pittsburgh where he got his start on commercials, short films and even segments for “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and attending Carnegie-Mellon University.

He was 27 when he came up with the $114,000 to make “Night of the Flesh Eaters”, which evolved into “Night of the Living Dead” by the time it was released.  And so the modern zombie genre was invented.  Or, as they were called in the film, the “ghoul” genre.

Much more than horror and gore, his films had social commentary, humor and a humanity that is combative, abrasive and, end the end, fragile.  Something people living in the modern United States need to realize for the sake of the future.

This here is an excellent lost interview with Romero from 1972…

Variety 1972

Romero's original masterpiece can be found virtually free all across the internet--in fact, here it is again, just in case you want to hear those magic words again... those ominous, taunting words that are at once both sardonic and apt:

"They're coming to get you, Barbara."

TERROR TEE-VEE: A Countdown to Halloween (Day 21)

Since we've fallen a few days behind on our little countdown, we'll be making up this deficit over the next few days.  No need to panic, people, we've been here before.  Stiff upper lip and all that.  And on with the countdown...

THE WALKING DEAD

Based on the comic book series of the same name, the show confronts life after the dead rise to consume the living.  Survival Horror, it's called… or what happens after the credits roll in a Romero ghoul picture.

What's interesting to me, as an avid reader of the comic, is how the tv story varies from the original—they were smart enough to alter some of the basics enough that it keeps the interest of those knowledgeable about the plot.  Just the smallest changes can result in big plot differences, some unpredictable. And while it is fairly faithful, it watches like something totally different… and new. So while remaining faithful it stands on its own.

Like a Romero picture, life isn’t cut and dry.  There are politics and pissing contests, it’s more about figuring out who you can trust in a tight spot than just about bashing zombie skulls.  It should be the latter, in a perfect zombie world, it would be, but that’s not the world Romero introduced us to and that’s not the world Kirkman has put his characters in.  Which makes it worth watching, honestly.

And these characters have been given room to breathe.  They stretch and grow and sometimes shrivel up an die.  The world pulls them like taffy as politics and situations change.  They either bend and survive or snap and break in one way or another.  It’s not a pleasant place, this post-apokalypse

Too many guys like this…

 

And not enough guys like this…

And thats how you keep things interesting, while doing this kind of stuff on the side…

TERROR TEE-VEE: Countdown to Halloween (Day 2)

The Basil Gogos painting of the night.

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE

“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality.

But…there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real,

but not as brighty lit … a dark side.”

Spinning out of the success of George Romero’s CREEPSHOW, those involved looked to weekly television as an outlet for more.  A syndicated show, this anthology series had a very limited budget, so the frights came cheap.  However, the writing was sometimes notable, with talents like Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Frederik Pohl and Stephen King behind some of the dark tales in question.  Perhaps that’s why it was able to last for four seasons, running from 1984 through 1988.

Once the show ended, a movie was released in 1990 with contributions from Stephen King, Deborah Harry, Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore and William Hickey.  Tom Savini is said to have called this movie “The real CREEPSHOW 3”.

Horror writer Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son) was guiding the series to a return in 2014-16, but it seems to have fallen into limbo at the CW as of today.

Picking just a few episodes of this series was tough, but we here at The Goods bit the bullet and got ruthless, pulled out the long knives and began hacking down the list to a manageable three episodes...

“Inside the Closet” is written by Michael McDowell and directed by Tom Savini and features a college student who rents a room from a professor.  In the room, which used to be his daughters, she notices a small door and inquires as to it’s purpose.  It used to be a closet, but is off limits now—she learns.  Youtube happens to have this episode available for your viewing pleasure right now:

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Based on a story by Robert Bloch and adapted by James Houghton, “A Case of the Stubborns” is one of the more comedic episodes of the series.  It tells the tale of an old man, played brilliantly by Eddie Bracken, who dies, but refuses to let a little thing like that get in the way of his way of life. In notable roles, this episode, are Christian Slater and Brent Spiner.  Here it is right now, via Youtube-O-Vision:

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“Seasons of Belief” by Michael McDowell and based on a story by Michael Bishop, is about two children who no longer believe in Santa at home on Christmas Eve who are told about a creature called the Grither (think Krampus) by their parents (E.G. Marshall & Margaret Klenck). A fine monster story told on a dark winter evening or a cool autumn night in early October on Youtube:

“The dark side is always there, waiting for us to enter—waiting to enter us.

Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.”