32) Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)

"There's a curse upon me. I change into a wolf!"

Director
Roy William Neill

Cast
Lon Chaney, Jr. - The Wolf Man/ Lawrence Talbot
Bela Lugosi - Frankenstein's Monster
Patric Knowles - Dr. Frank Mannering
Ilona Massey - Baroness Elsa Frankenstein
Lionel Atwill - Mayor

The Universal Monsters exist deep in the American psyche regardless of whether who has watched any or all original Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, etc., movies from Universal Pictures. There's no escaping them anytime soon. Those monsters are deeply rooted.
Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man is the fifth Frankenstein movie from Universal following right after The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). It's also the second movie to feature Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi, playing Frankenstein's monster- the role Boris Karloff made so incredibly iconic.
Universal made and released these monster movies fairly quickly back then.
It's too much for me to go into their line of monster movies in relation to this one, but I recommend critic James Rolfe's reviews and commentaries on these films found on his website, www.cinemassacre.com. It's a fantastic source on all things horror- classic and contemporary. If you have an hour and want to get caught up on the previous Frankenstein movies before watching this one, as some tie into Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Rolfe strung his Frankenstein movie commentaries into one video posted on his YouTube channel.
Anyhow, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man is a first in monster mash up movies - this one versus that one. It's a trend that still exists. Freddy vs. Jason comes to mind, and I wish Hollywood would continue those kind of movies. They'd bring in money for sure!
The events in this movie take place four years after what happened in both The Wolf Man (1941) and The Ghost of Frankenstein. 
Two men break into the grave of Larry Talbot - The Wolf Man - played by the legendary Lon Chaney, Jr.
After cracking open his tomb in order to steal jewelry buried with him, they find him laying underneath wolfsbane - a werewolf repellent.
Meanwhile, the light of the full moon beams through, waking Talbot up and turning him into a werewolf. One of the unaware grave robber doesn't notice Talbot's arm reach for him until it's too late. The other robber makes a getaway, leaving his accomplice alone to meet his fate. No heroes among thieves, I guess.
Talbot is later found my police passed out a sidewalk in town. The police take him to Dr. Mannering (Patric Knowles) where Talbot's memory returns to him.
Mannering and Inspector Owen (Dennis Hoey) seek to find whether the mystery patient is really Talbot as he claims to be, whom they're informed had died four years ago.
Meanwhile. one night, Talbot turns into a wolf, and kills a police officer on patrol.
The transition affect is worth mentioning.

Chaney had to lay still for several hours as makeup was applied piece by piece, and the camera slowly transitioned each segment shot by shot.
Of course, to modern audiences, it looks and sounds primitive. But understanding just how the effect was achieved is nothing short of praise-worthy.
Mannering figures out Talbot has been roaming around last night. And Talbot tries to convince Mannering and Owen that he's a werewolf, and needs to be killed. He's restrained to his bed after he flips out on both of them.
It's a difficult claim to swallow, and the doctor and investigator head into the town of Lanwelly where they continue their search for answers.
While they're away, Talbot becomes a wolf man again and escapes his restraints.
Talbot then seeks out a gypsy woman named Maleva hoping she can help him.
Maleya claims to know someone who has scientific knowledge of life and death, and takes him into the village of Vasaria to meet this scientist.
That scientist is Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein - this is the movie's callback to Ghost of Frankenstein. 
Frankenstein's castle is just an abandoned, nearly destroyed, pile of brick and debris. But Talbot searches through rubble for files containing information how he as a werewolf can end his own life for good because, as of yet, nothing seems to be able to kill Talbot.
He once again turns into the wolf, and ends up killing a young lady.
The villagers chase him down back to the castle, where Talbot falls through the floor and lands in the basement that's completely frozen over.
And who does he find down there buried in ice - Frankenstein's monster.
I think Lugosi's portrayal of the monster (which, by the way, is how he's credited in the movie) established the famous image of the monster stomping around with hands outstretched haphazardly - the common image that comes to mind when the name Frankenstein is mentioned. Boris Karloff, who previously played the monster, hadn't portray him quite like that.
Talbot revives the monster, and tries to have him locate the doctor's notes in the castle but with no success.

Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's Monster

So, Talbot seeks the help of Dr. Frankenstein's daughter, Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey - I recognized her from the 1949 Marx Brothers film,  Love Happy. She gave Harpo Marx the "whammy").
The villagers are out to get both Talbot and the monster once they discover he's returned.
Then the fireworks really go off when the Wolfman and the monster begin fighting each other.
Frankenstein has strength in his favor while the Wolfman is agile.
There'a musical scene in the middle of the film that was really out of place. But it became my favorite scene as the screen keeps panning back to Talbot who's sitting at a table with Ilona, and looking disdainful.
As the lead singer sees them sitting together, he begins singing to them about life, death, and love. Talbot starts shouting out of paranoia, telling everyone to stop signing and grabs the singer by his collar demanding an explanation as to why he thinks it's OK to sing about such topics in his presence. The moment just cracked me up. Normally song routines in early movies aren't so abruptly ended like that.
It's no spoiler to say the ending left it open for a sequel. And a sequel there was the following year - House of Frankenstein.
This movie is fun to watch, but drags just a little until we see the part audiences waiting for - Frankenstein going the round with the Wolf Man.
However, I think the movie should be called The Wolf Man Meets Frankenstein as it's centered on Talbot for the majority. The title made me think the movie was going to center on Frankenstein's monster. But he doesn't show up until the middle of the film. The Wolf Man is the central character.
My original intention was to watch the Frankenstein movies in chronological order, and begin my reviews with the third entry Son of Frankenstein (1939). I'll still do it. Nevertheless, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man a good movie to watch even before viewing the other films in the series. Aside from being a little slow, it still carries that nostalgic punch that still impacts modern audiences, shining the spotlight on those monsters rooted in our American psyche. Good or bad. Liked or disliked. This is one strong pillar in the foundation of American horror movies.

Coming Up Next...
I'll be finishing up my look at ten obscure Stephen King movies with a made-for-TV adaptation, with a teleplay written by King himself. And it has Tom Skerritt! Woo-hoo!!

31) Willow Creek (2013)

"We plan on retracing the famed 1967 Patterson Gimlin footage, and our search for Bigfoot."

Director
Bobcat Goldthwait

Cast
Alexie Gilmore - Kelly
Bryce Johnson - Jim
Bucky Sinister - Angry man on the road
Peter Jason - Ranger Troy Andrews
Timmy Red - Singer

Bobcat Goldthwait made a horror movie! If you don't know who Bobcat is, just watch the Police Academy movies.
I was listening to either Joe Rogan's Podcast, or  Adam Green's Scary Sleepover Podcast, and I heard that Goldthwait was both a believer in Bigfoot, and made a horror movie based on the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage of an alleged Bigfoot taken in Bluff Creek, California in 1967.
Willow Creek is a "found footage" film like The Blair Witch Project and  Cloverfield. 
I'm not much into those types of movies as I find them annoying. They tend to build up to nothing, and the unsteady camera work is distracting. I didn't care much for The Blair Witch Project as I found it underwhelming and precisely what I just described.
The found footage type of movie is a unique style however, but I think it has worn out its welcome. But that's just my personal opinion. If done right, it does add to the dread of a horror movie.

Anyhow, for being his debut movie in the horror/thriller genre, Bobcat Goldthwait's Willow Creek does deliver on scares and dread.
Jim (Bryce Johnson) takes his girlfriend, Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) to Willow Creek, California, to record a documentary about alleged Bigfoot sightings in the area in the last several years since the famous Patterson-Gimlin recording.
Jim is interested in capturing years worth of stories and sightings, the lore and the legends, of Bigfoot.
He interviews a retired park ranger who shares a sad story about how a Bigfoot literally ripped his dog in half. It paints a picture that if there is a Bigfoot out in the California woods Jim and Kelly are about to pass through, it has a deadly violent streak.
After gathering footage of stories and local sights centered around the Bigfoot lore, as well as personal dialogue between the two for the sake of backstory and exposition, Jim and Kelly drive deep into the woods to camp out off the beaten path. Jim also wants to visit the exact same spot where the 1967 footage was recorded.
On their way driving through the woods looking for the spot, they come across a big guy played by Bucky Sinister (best name ever!) The guy practically yells at Jim, threatens him to go back to town, and get out of the area. It's an unsettling scene that sets the stage for what's too come. It's played out in that the audience doesn't know if this angry guy just doesn't like tourists poking around the forest, or if he's crazy, or if he knows something about those woods and tries to scare off the couple for the sake of their own safety.
Regardless, they ignore the guy's threats, and find an obscure spot to set up camp.
Odd happenings pick up right away. After they set up, the couple decides to take a swim in the river nearby.
Upon their return, they find their belongings thrown about, and their tent collapsed. Was it a bear? Was it locals trying to scare them? Was it a Bigfoot? We don't know.
Regardless, they set up their tent again and are determined to spend the night right there.
Sometime in the early morning hours, Jim wakes Kelly up as he hears someone or something

knocking wood together along with "vocalizations."
His camera is locked on their faces for eighteen straight minutes as this scene plays out, and it really pulled me in. It was the scariest part of the movie. I think it was more impressive, considering how intense those eighteen minutes are, than anything in The Blair Witch Project or the Paranormal Activity movies - those are also found footage films.
Deep grunting noises, and crunching, along with distant howls that sound more human than they do coyote or wolf, grow closer to the tent. Pretty soon, something hits the tent several times, and eventually pushes against it. It's really a chilling, frightening scene as Jim and Kelly are helpless and frozen in fear inside their small tent.
The movie was satisfyingly scary, but the ending was less than so. It was not an ending I expected, nor would I call it a bad ending. It just wasn't the payoff I would have liked. It also left me a bit confused.
For a debut horror movie from Bobcat Goldthwait, Willow Creek was pretty decent. I'd say Goldthwait has a knack to make some decent horror/thriller movies. If he does more, I'll definitely watch them.
I thought his premise would be cliche, but I think it was fantastic, especially the role the Patterson-Gimlin footage had in the movie.
And his use of the unseen works rather well, although I always want to see the monster in movies like this. Even a glimpse would suffice. Then again, bigfoot is one elusive mammoth of a beast, so I suppose it makes sense he's just as elusive in the film.
I definitely recommend this movie during a late Friday night creature feature. It definitely outdoes many other found footage movies thanks mostly to those eighteen minutes I mentioned above. It's fun, scary, and entertaining despite it being another found footage movie.
Here's a fun fact. According to IMDB, Goldthwait did all the guttural noises for Bigfoot himself. And it took only five days to shoot the movie!

Bobcat Goldthwait in a movie that's not Willow Creek but
would be great if it was!

30) Bloody Birthday (1981)

"It's like Curtis doesn't know the things he's doing are wrong - like he doesn't care!"

Director
Ed Hunt

Cast
Jose Ferrer - Doctor
Elizabeth Hoy - Debbie Brody
Billy Jacoby - Curtis Taylor
Andrew Freeman - Steven Seton
Melinda Cordell - Mrs. Brody
Bert Kramer - Sheriff James Brody

For the 30th post on this blog, I picked a movie released the same year I was born because...why not.
I also recently bought a year subscription to Shudder - an on-demand service featuring nothing but horror, thriller, and supernatural titles. It's a horror movie fan's theme park.
Bloody Birthday is a movie I previously heard about, and wanted to watch for a long time. I found it streaming on Shudder and just needed to watch it. I'm glad I did.
When it comes to storytelling, I'm a believer that the storyteller (regardless of medium - writing, film making, whatever) shouldn't shy away from including important elements if they're needed for the story line despite what current sensitivities might be.
This movie did just that, telling a story despite the possibility that some cages might be rattled. This movie is a dark, serious one as it centers around murderous children who have no qualms about their misdeeds.
The movie begins as a doctor arrives at Meadowvale General Hospital somewhere in California. He meets a nurse outside who's watching for a solar eclipse that's supposed to take place.
As the eclipse commences in a time lapse fashion, the sounds of three children - two boys and a girl - being delivered by three different moms is heard over the shot.
The movie cuts to 10 years later, where a young couple is making out in a cemetery at night. They make their way into an open grave as the girl is worried someone will see them. As they start back where they left off, the guy is smashed in the face with a shovel and knocked out cold. The girl is then strangled by someone unseen.
These murders create a big controversy in the community, as murders often do.
Sheriff James Brody (Bert Kramer) visits the local elementary school to ask students if they recognize the wood handle of a skipping rope, which turns out to be the weapon used to strangle the girl at the cemetery.
Things really get dark as one of the girls in the class, Debbie Brody (Elizabeth Hoy), is not only the Sheriff's young daughter, she's also one of the three child killers. After her father's visit to her classroom that led to no results, she and the two other children - Steven Seton (Andrew Freeman) and Curtis Taylor (Billy Jacoby), who acts like the ring leader - set a death trap for her father at his house. This takes place, by the way, as the kids are planning their collective 10th birthday party.

Anyhow, after school, the kids plot to kill the sheriff (Debbie's dad) by placing a skateboard on the front step to make his death appear as an accident.
Debbie calls her dad out of the house under the auspices of showing him something. When he comes out, he steps over the skateboard foiling their plane.
In a scene that really made me cringe, she proudly shows her sheriff dad a jump rope with a missing wooden handle - the one found at the murder scene.
With a smirk on her face, one of the other kids sneaks up behind him with a baseball bat and bashes him in the back of the head.
"Mommy! Daddy fell!" she shouts.
The murders continue with both fun and revenge working as motives. Otherwise, there really are no motives established. I was confused at first, until I remembered the solar eclipse at the beginning.
Each of the three children act so differently from each other. Debbie seems driven by spite, acting vengeful while she murders even her own sister. Steven seems more dead inside, acting on the suggestions of the other two children with no clear motive aside from that. And Curtis seems to murder for the thrill of it with absolutely no real concern about the consequences. He's filled with pride and certainty about what he's doing.
This movie is good but for reasons it shouldn't be. The suspense continues building up right unto the very end. Billy Jacoby is especially good playing a child the audience can't help but despise thanks to his smug nature.
The whole supernatural element (I'm guessing) behind the murderous nature of these three kids, stemming from the solar eclipse at the start of the film, was the movie's low point.
Had the kids decided to go on their rampage for the sake of curiosity - what it's like to kill - or thrills, or even rage would have been much more alarming than a cliche' solar eclipse.

The emotional trauma expressed in the film is well played. The deaths are one thing, but to show just how it's effecting the families and community members makes the story both believable and emotional. Normally in horror movies, deaths are treated as something to be expected. Bloody Birthday makes reactions an integral part of the storyline to enhance the seriousness of what these kids are doing, and how brazen they are when doing it. It's well done.
To me, this seems like a movie that would have a hard time being filmed in today, especially with the number of unfortunate mass deaths taking place at the hands of young people in schools and public places. In a couple scenes, Curtis roams the town with a hand gun, pointing it at unsuspecting people but he's unable to carry out his plans to kill as he narrowly escapes getting caught.
Bloody Birthday is a suspenseful, very dark, and alarming film. I recommend it but with a caution.

29) Cell (2016) - Obscure Stephen King flick #9

"Our sins have overcome us, and we cannot see..."

Director
Tod Williams

Cast
John Cusack - Clay Riddell
Samuel L. Jackson - Tom McCourt
Isabelle Fuhrman - Alice Waxman
Owen Teague - Jordan
Joshua Mikel - Raggedy Man

Zombies, and cell phones, and John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson teamed up in a Stephen King movie nearly 10 years after working together in the Stephen King movie 1408 - oh, my!
How this movie adaptation of King's cautionary novel of the same name, published in 2006, came out without a lot of notice, is kind of weird. When it comes to flying under the radar, this one was so far under that radar, it was practically invisible.
With John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan, The Hunger Games) in the cast, it boggles the mind.
In Cell, directed by Tod Williams (Paranormal Activity 2) comic artist Clayton Riddell (John Cusack) is just landed at Boston airport from Los Angeles. When he arrives, he calls his ex-wife whom he previously walked out on, and his son to tell them he sold one of his graphic novels. He also makes an attempt to see his son and ex, but to little avail.
His phone dies mid-call, so he finds a payphone to call them again.
While he's on the landline phone, some kind of pulse is mysteriously sent through all cell phones causing users to convulse, foam at the mouth, and start going into violent fits of rage attacking other people and inflicting bodily harm on themselves.
As things inside the terminal escalate rapidly, Riddell and others unaffected by this pulse literally run for their lives.
Riddell makes it to the airports underground rail where he and a few other panicked travelers find that the train isn't operating.
The train operator, Tom McCourt (Samuel L. Jackson), tells them their only option is to abandoned the train because of a power outage, and there's no one in the main control room. Some stay in the train regardless, while Riddell and another guy decide to walk the tunnels with McCourt to escape the airport.
As they approach the end of the tunnel leading to the outside, they're quickly met by a man who kills the one guy. Riddell and McCourt manage to make it safely back to Riddell's apartment.
It goes without saying that any use of cell phones is out of the question.
After a few moments of useless dialogue and suspense that leads to nothing, a young girl named Alice Waxman (Isabelle Fuhrman) who lives upstairs knocks on the door looking for help.
She's panicked as she tells them she just killed her mom.
The remainder of this scene in Riddell's apartment is boring as they are basically sitting and waiting for...their next plan of action, I guess?
But what his role is in the story, and why he's appearing in the dreams of all survivors, or what his messages mean is unclear. And why it's one of Riddell's characters who's manifesting - also unclear. Does this mean that Riddell plays some kind of larger role in the string of events. Nothing along
those lines is explained.
The three of them set out to New England as Riddell wants to find his wife and son.
They camp out where they can, try to avoid the "phoners," - those affected by the pulse -  and run into other survivors.
These phoners, by the way, are somehow able to transfer the pulse themselves, using their voices. How, I don't know?
Meanwhile, Riddell has a dream of a man in a dirty red hoodie. It turns out all survivors are having dreams of the same person. He reveals himself to some as "the King of the Internet."
It turns out this person, referred to as Raggedy Man, is a character Riddell created in one of his graphic novels. But why he's appearing in everyone's dreams, what his purpose is, and what his sinister messages mean is unclear. In fact, it's never really explained.
Riddell finally makes it to his home. Inside, he finds a message from his son on the fridge written with letter magnets, letting him know he went to Kaswhak and his mom is "one of them."
On their way to Kaswhak, they run into Ray and Denise camping out in the wilderness. Ray warns Riddell Kaswhak is a trap set up by the Raggedy man, and not to go.
The ending of the movie just leaves more questions than answers. The motives behind who's responsible for the pulse remains unclear? Who actually is responsible is unclear, too. And just who this dreamy Raggedy Man is, and why he's showing up in people's dreams is one big mystery. Why any of this is happening - mystery!
Yet, somehow, some characters have answers rather quickly. In one scene, Riddell, Waxman, and McCourt come across Charles Ardai (Stacy Keach) - a private school headmaster, and a surviving student, Jordan (Owen Teague - no stranger to King adaptations as he played Patrick Hockstetter in the recent It and It: Chapter 2), have both figured out some things rather quickly when the pulse was just sent out in, maybe, a day's time.
Ardai tells the group with lazy exposition, that the phoners have developed some kind of telepathic abilities among themselves. He also concludes that a war between survivors and phoners will soon take place. How he figured all this out is beyond me.
Jordan somehow figured out that the pulse reset the brains of those infected, and they are in some sort of evolutionary development. They're the beginning of a new species. Again, he figured this out so matter-of-factly, in such a short amount of time is poor writing in my opinion. Jordan later explains that he's super smart, but still. It seems as though the movie is telling rather than showing, and that's  poor writing.

I read the book Cell  back in 2009 - a cautionary story about just how much society depends on their mobile devices, and where their dependence leaves them. According to King, it was based on his dislike for cell phones. This was before he began constantly Tweeting photos of his Corgi, Molly (aka "the thing of evil"), and being blocked on Twitter by President Trump.
I saw production stills pop up on Facebook and some movie websites before this movie was released. Having read the book, I was excited to see a new King adaptation coming out. This was before the current King renaissance we're currently experiencing. 
But news of Cell faded like any typical internet rumor, and I didn't see or hear anything about it until stumbling upon a copy of it at my local public library.
Evidently, this movie went through some kind of release hell before going straight to DVD. I heard there was a very limited theatrical release, but not at any theater near me.
What lacks here is a clear story line, kind of like the movie Mercy (based on King's short story, Gramma) which I previously reviewed.
I found myself lost on certain details, which made the end of the movie confusing.
The story also seems too fast paced with a story line too simplified for its own good.
Even though such a cautionary, or maybe socially satirical tale is timely (though critic Odie Henderson on rogerebert.com says it's late as far as movie goes - not so much King's novel), it could have been so much better.
The cell phone technology offers the story a different twist in the zombie horror genre - a genre I think is dying off...no pun intended. But the movie just falls flat in its delivery leaving wide-open holes in crucial plot points. John Cusack seemed like, well, a frustrated John Cusack. And at times, Samuel L. Jackson just seemed uninterested in what was happening.
The storyline in general brought King's book The Stand. The Raggedy Man made me think of Randall Flagg from the same book.
The suspense started strong in the airport, only to pathetically waft to the ground like a dead leaf anxious to be done with.
I shouldn't have to ask Google to explain the story to me just to make sure I understood what I just watched. And I think, despite a few moments of gore, horror fans will take the two-hour run time to treat themselves to a snooze.

Ambiguous Stephen King

 

Memorable Roles in Horrific History - Norbert Grupe in, In the Mouth of Madness

Among the general populace, I think it's a safe assumption to say there's only one movie audiences know German actor and former boxer, the late Norbert Grupe (better known by his stage name, Wilhelm Von Homburg) from, and that's Ghostbusters 2.
Homburg's most notable role was Vigo the Carpathian whom the Ghostbusters battle in the sequel film.

For many horror fans like myself, again I think it's a safe assumption to say there's at least two movies such fans know Wilhelm Von Homburg from - Ghostbusters 2 and John Carpenter's Lovecraftian movie In the Mouth of Madness. 
There's a fantastic fan-made documentary on YouTube about Homburg as part of actor Brandon Hardesty's docu-series Supporting Actor Spotlights. It's worth watching.
Though he's well known for his role as Vigo, it's worth pointing out his voice was dubbed over in the movie by Max Von Sydow. If you watch this behind-the-scenes video of Homburg acting out Vigo's lines, you'll probably understand why producers chose to dub. He was rather monotone in his deliverance, and his voice just didn't sound sinister nor intimidating for a role such as Vigo.

Anyhow, Homburg's role in the movie In the Mouth of Madness is short, and isn't really a stand-out performance, but it is memorable in that it's one of few American movies Homburg appeared in. It may be perhaps his second best known role for American audiences. And it's an important supporting role for the film. (He also had a role in Die Hard.)
The psychological thriller/horror film In the Mouth of Madness centers on the books of fictional writer Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) and their evil influence over the reality of freelance insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) and the small town of Hobb's End where Cane writes his Stephen King-esque stories.
Homburg plays town resident Simon who lost his son to the evils of Cane's work, and his influences.
Trent meets Simon in a bar, and Simon warns him to leave Hobb's End before Simon takes his own life. It's an impactful moment as previously in the movie we saw Simon amidst an angry mob approach the church in which Cane houses himself to write his novels.
As evil flows from Cane, Simon catches a glimpse of his son inside the church. He calls out to his boy, but it's not really him.
Simon is a portrayal of the sanity in Hobb's End that's dying, and the hopelessness that's left thanks Cane. His small role in the movie is crucial as it shows Trent just what sort of impact Cane and his writing has. It's enough to drive a man to despair and suicide.
Homburg is a legend in his own right, and managed to make an impact on American audiences through his role in Ghostbusters 2. But as my focus is on both horror, and the underrated, I wanted to shout out his role as Simon from In the Mouth of Madness - an underrated movie.  

28) Segmented Stories from the Small Screen - Obscure Stephen King #8

I'll be winding up my look at obscure Stephen King adaptations on both the big screen and the little screen. I plan (as of now) to do this review, plus two more so I can focus on other aspects of the horror genre besides Stephen King. I have a list - obscure vampire movies, deadly animals, forgotten 70s and 80s. I have plans!
Stepping away from obscure Stephen King movies, I'm turning my attention to some obscure King adaptation segments from various television shows of days gone by.
I'm not talking about Stephen King mini-series like The Tommyknockers, or The Stand, or his remake of The Shining. I'm talking about episodes from anthology series - regular horror, thriller, or suspense shows that at various points in random seasons adapted some of King's work along with other writers and such.
The new series Creepshow debuted on Shudder recently, which is fantastic. It made me wonder what else was out there in TV history - Kingwise. By the way, the first segment of the new Creepshow series, Grey Matter, is based on one of his short stories. It stars actress Adrienne Barbeau who also starred in the first Creepshow movie from 1982, in the story The Crate alongside Hal Holbrook and the late Fritz Weaver. Yeah! If you've seen it, she was the loud mouthed lady who ends up becoming "the crate's" victim. Oh, spoiler alert right there...sorry! Anyhow, I just wanted to get that observation out there.
I want to take a look at programs lost to obscurity to some degree or another. So, I'm not going to review anything current.
I hunted down some long forgotten episodes from T.V. shows no longer airing and tackled them one by one. It's all about the obscure! And I'm going to start with one of my favorite King short stories ever...

The Moving Finger (aired on Monsters season 3, episode 21 - 1991)


"You ever see something that wasn't there..."

Director
Ken Myers

Cast
Tom Noonan - Howard Mitla
Alice Playten - Violet Mitla
Sharon Cornell - Police Officer

This segment is the creepiest story I watched. I also read the short story it's based on, same title, found in King's short story collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It's one of my favorite short stories, and one of King's scariest stories in my opinion. It's simple, yet really cringy.
In this episode, Howard Mitla (Tom Noonan, The Monster Squad) finds himself alone in his apartment after his wife, Violet (Alice Playten), runs out for some ice cream.
While watching one of his favorite quiz shows, he hears scratching coming from the bathroom.
Howard goes to investigate thinking there's a mouse trapped in the bathtub. When he over-dramatically pulls back the shower curtain - no mouse! The scratching is coming from the bathroom sink.
When he peeks in, a finger is poking out of the drain scraping around.
Unsure whether to believe his own eyes, reality forces itself upon him. This happens when he gets up in the middle of the night to relieve himself. Howard peeks over the edge of the sink only to see an empty drain. He covers it with the sink's plug, but the finger wakes up, and flings the plug open. So, Howard turns the water on to submerge and hopefully drown it.
It thrashes a bit, but protrudes over the water's surface.
The next day, as his wife is called in early for work, Howard pulls out the big guns - a super dissolving drain liquid.
He pours some in, and we're treated to a point of view from down the drain.
The acid smokes, eating away at all the other-worldly flesh and bone, and whatever gunk is down there. The finger then furiously thrusts out, long and snake-like.
As Howard falls back, the finger makes its way to the bathroom floor, weaving along like a snake, and grabs him by the ankle, pulling him closer and closer to the drain.
Howard manages to break from its grasp, and finds a small, electric weed trimmer. Meanwhile, his neighbor is yelling at him to keep the noise down.
When he goes back into the bathroom, the finger is looming from the drain over the sink as though its waiting for him.
He grabs it, and begins slicing piece after piece off - blood spraying all over the porcelain and bathroom tiles.
Soon after, some random cop burst in with gun drawn. I'm guessing the neighbor called the cops. That's the only logical reason why this random cop would just show up to Howard's apartment.
She makes her way into the bathroom (gun still drawn) to find Howard in the middle of a bloody mess.
The cop tries to question him, and is interrupted as the toilet seat is hit by something underneath it. She opens it like a moron, and we see just what that finger was attached to.
In The Moving Finger, the scariness is boiled down to a single finger. But it's were that finger is that's scary. (That's not meant to sound dirty.)
What we don't see is who's finger that belongs to as it winds its way through the vast intricacies of pipes and plumbing to protrude through the sink drain.
But what I find the most scary is just how this one appendage completely changes the main character's reality for the worse. Life was as it should be, until the finger appears.
Life now will never be the same. It's scarier than dealing with a maniac killer. With a maniac killer, you have to run like hell, but at least you know what your dealing with. You can survive. With something like a finger poking out of the drain, reality becomes twisted and you have no idea what you're dealing with. What does its existence means for all of reality - the world, nature and science. It's as though everything you thought you knew now ends with a question mark. That to me is scary.
The show is a little over the top, with annoying "scary" music constantly playing through the 20-minute program. It's distracting and silly.
There's green light always shining through the windows giving the production an almost comic book atmosphere.
The acting is below par. I'm in no way convinced Howard is terrified that a friggin' finger is coming up through the bathroom sink. He's more curious that afraid.
But the fun is in the gore and the creepiness. Had the series Monsters been more popular, I bet this episode would have been memorable.
In fact, if they made this into a more serious adaptation, it would be fantastic. I enjoyed it overall.

Gramma (aired on The Twilight Zone season 1, episode 18a - 1986)

"Please, God! Don't let her wake up 'till mom gets home."

Director
Bradford May

Cast
Barret Oliver - Georgie
Darlanne Fluegel - Mom
Frederick Long - Gramma

An episode of the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone adapted the King short story, Gramma, found in his 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. 
I previously reviewed the movie Mercy which is based off of the same story.
This adaptation stars former child star and former child Barret Oliver (The NeverEnding Story, Cocoon, D.A.R.Y.L.) as Georgie who's left to care for his bed-ridden grandmother while his mom visits his brother in the hospital suffering from a busted ankle he received while playing baseball.
Georgie is afraid of his grandma, but braves the seclusion.
Once grandma (who reminds me of a Muppet from The Dark Crystal) starts calling for her tea, we can hear both Georgie's thoughts, as well as the audible memories of the turmoil grandma's presence in the house has caused the family.
When Georgie enters her room, she scares him causing him to drop her tea.

It spills through the floor boards, causing a lot of smoke. For some reason I might have missed or it just went over my head, Georgie pulls up the floor boards as lights and mist come up through the hole in the floor.
He finds some of her old books, which he takes to the kitchen to read through.
One of those books happens to be the Lovecraftian horror "best seller", the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead). Yeah....just like in the Evil Dead movies.
Georgie figures out that his grandma is actually a witch, and that's when all hell breaks lose. She calls out to him from the bedroom in demonic voice that is rather unsettling. And Georgie finally realizes just how demented Gramma really is.
The segment seemed rather scatterbrained to me, but Barret Oliver really put all he had into this small role. Bravo!
Most of the dialogue is Georgie's thoughts, composed of much exposition. It's exactly what I expected an 80s revival episode of The Twilight Zone to be - a quick "BOO! Scared you!" kind of entertainment, with a cliffhanger ending that the audience will never get a resolution to.


Word Processor of the Gods (aired on Tales from the Darkside season 1, episode 8 - 1984)

Director
Michael Gornick

Cast
Bruce Davison - Richard Hagstrom
Karen Shallo - Lina Hagstrom
Patrick Piccininni - Seth Robert Hagstrom

Michael Gornick, the director of Creepshow 2, also directed this forgotten sparkle of a Stephen King adaptation.
The plot of this segment, adapted from King's story of the same name first published in a 1983 edition of Playboy Magazine, then later published in his book Skeleton Crew is a story kind of similar to another King story, Umney's Last Case. 
I can't critique how dated this segment is. I can only critique its entertainment value and quality.
This segment stars a young Bruce Davison, who's gone on to appear in some big movie titles (X-Men, Bender, The Crucible).
Davison plays writer Richard Hagstrom who receives a word processor from his nephew Johnathan for his birthday. It's hilarious seeing this dinosaur of a computer with its floppy disks, and "execute" key, and dot matrix printer.
Hagstrom's family is such a stereotypical family. He's the quintessential aloof father. His wife, Karen, is the overweight cynical wife who watches her husband with a judgy eye. And their son, Seth, is the rebel kid, playing his rock music loud, and dismissing his parents demands with the typical teenage "whatever!"
Literally, as soon as he starts typing away at his present, Bruce discovers whatever he types becomes reality.
If he types in something that's true, and hits "delete," then that thing will be deleted from existence.

Richard types "twelve gold doubloons in a small sack" and hits the enter key. Behold, a small sack of gold coins appear on the floor.
The more he does this, the more overworked his word processor becomes. But, he manages to change his family to something more desirable right in the nick of time before the computer overheats and bursts into flames.
There really is nothing scary, creepy, or disturbing about this segment. I kept waiting for that trope where whatever you wish for has a catch - a price the victim must pay. But, nothing like that happened. Richard found something that changes reality, he went along with it, and changed things to his liking. The end!
It was a really rushed segment that didn't amount to much more than being 20 minutes of mindless entertainment.
Having a word processor, or computer, or whatever, that would change reality at your command is a cool and interesting story idea to run with. This segment only had a few minutes to play with it before the credits. Given more time, I'm sure a much better story could be told.  

Sorry, Right Number (aired on Tales from the Darkside season 4, episode 9 - 1987)

Director
John Harrison (as John Sutherland)

Cast
Deborah Harmon - Katie Weiderman
Arthur Taxier - Bill Weiderman

Remember in the movie Back to the Future, at the very beginning as the camera pans through a variety of clocks in Doc Brown's place, we catch a glimpse of a news anchor reporting on a case of missing plutonium? Well, that news caster (Deborah Harmon) is in this segment. Neat, huh!
Anyways, director John Harrison went on the direct the movie version of Tales from the Darkside in 1990. He also directed some episodes of the new series Creepshow currently airing on Shudder. So, he's experienced with King.
This segment was written as a teleplay by King for this series. The story was later included in Nightmares and Dreamscapes. 
Katie (Deborah Harmon) receives a call one night from an unknown women who's frantically crying over the phone. The phone cuts out before Katie can determine who's on the other end. She panics, and calls various family members to see if they're the caller and to make sure they're alright.
Her writer husband (writer....in a King story?) tells her to relax and they both try to figure out who called.
Everyone she suspects and contacts clearly didn't call her.
Later in the night, Katie finds her husband dead in the living room, having suffered a heart attack.
The story then pans to years later on her daughter's wedding day.
After a heart-felt talk with her daughter, she begins to reminisce about Bill, and begins to cry pretty hard.
She then recalls that when Bill died, he had been complaining of headaches and other symptoms that were clearly warning signs of a bigger, more serious health issue. Had she not ignored them and they had gone to the hospital, he could still be alive.
Katie then, in some kind of daze, picks of the phone and dials their old number. You probably know where this is going.
This segment was rather simple, and suspenseful. Though the outcome was predictable, it still made for something entertaining and intriguing. All she had to do was take her husband to the hospital. She learned that after the fact. 
It was an entertaining segment.

Obscure Stephen King

Memorable Roles in Horrific History - James Karen as Old Man Bender in Bender

I had the pleasure of interviewing director John Alexander around the time of his movie's debut. I was a news reporter at the time in Geary County, Kansas where the movie was filmed.
The movie Bender is a well-made independent film that both horror and history fans would appreciate. As George Lane pointed out in the Inde Spotlight Second of HorrorHound magazine issue #78, this was one of a few movies James Karen starred in before he passed away in 2018.
Karen was both a legendary actor, and a horror movie icon before starring here. He starred in classics like Poltergeist (1982), Return of the Living Dead  parts 1 and 2 (1985-1988), The Unborn (1991), and another movie I have my heart set on finding and watching - Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965). Karen also starred in other cinematic masterpieces such as The Pursuit of Happyness and Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (sarcasm intended). He's a legend. There's no other way to say it.

Bender, which also stars Bruce Davison, tells the true story of America's first serial killing family, the Benders.
They were a family of homesteaders living out on a Labette County Kansas prairie, operating a bed and breakfast. Their bloody notoriety came about shortly after the Civil War as people started disappearing in their area.
Approximately 20 people fell victim to the Bender's when all was said and done.
James Karen's performance is so visual. His character is dead inside - void of compassion, feeling, human warmth. He's barely sentient at all. He reacts and kills, while merely going through the actions of daily life in the meantime.
Karen plays the part of this serial killer old man so well. His character murders impulsively. And such a person as Old Man Bender could only be a shell of a man with no sanctifying grace maintaining his humanity. He's just physically alive, and James Karen portrays such a dead man stunningly. His performance is in his face, his eyes, and his body language. Bender was a sick man, and Karen captures and conveys this man's inner torture, turmoil, and psychopathic mentality so well through his eyes and face.
His role in Bender is a fantastic nearly final bow (he had a couple more productions he was involved with before his death) to a rich and full acting career. I can imagine decades upon decades of his audience members giving him a tremendous standing ovation when the credits role at the end of this film. 
This role is worth remembering.