(1972)
Dir - John Newland/Buzz Kulik
Overall: MEH
This adaptation of Herbert Lieberman's novel Crawlspace aired on CBS in February of 1972 and boasts a head-scratching premise that is nevertheless played straight. Both directors John Newland and Buzz Kulick had a busy enough decade from behind the small screen, but their powers combined cannot elevate such a curious and flimsy tale. An elderly, childless couple living all alone in the woods deciding to let a drifter with noticeable mental illness live in their crawlspace is a difficult enough pill for any audience member to swallow. Yet plausibility is stretched further as Tom Happer's behavior continues to raise eyebrows both around town and in front of his clueless new tenants. Ernest Kinoy's teleplay offers up a few flimsy excuses along the way, pitting the locals as bigots who are suspicious of hippy-esque outsiders and making it seem that Arthur Kennedy and Teresa Wright would turn a blind eye to things out of desperation and loneliness. Verisimilitude breaking aside, the film's pacing lags and suspenseful set pieces are almost non-existent, making it a drab and miserable watch, in addition to a moronic one.
(1972)
Overall: MEH
An Appalachian mountain bit of folk horror from veteran television director John Newland, The Legend of Hillbilly John, (Ballad of Hillbilly John, Who Fears the Devil), has tonal issues for days and is a curious watch because of it, for better or worse. Based on the work of author Manly Wade Wellman who researched regional mountain folklore, Hedges Capers' title character is a dopey hippy who travels the land with his silver-stringed guitar, something that respells evil in this universe and makes him sort of a nonchalant hero. A part musical, the syrupy folk songs are lame at best and they slow down an already unhurried presentation. Several familiar character actors crop up including Severn Darden, Harris Yulin, and R.G. Armstrong, plus we get some stop-motion animation sequences where a prehistoric bird of apparently demonic origins swoops down on John a few times, for reasons that are never properly explained. Most of the harrowing moments come off as goofy due to the whimsical and inconsistent presentation, but the dense dialog, lousy music, rambling plot, and low-grade production values make it unique and worth exploring for fringe genre cinema fans.
(1973)
Overall: MEH
One of the several "Don'ts" to come out of the 1970s, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark was a made-for-TV movie directed by John Newland, a veteran of the small screen both on and behind the camera. It has endured well with a cult audience that includes Guilermo del Toro who co-wrote and produced the 2011 remake with Katie Holmes. The film's basic premise is chilling enough, but it comes off as under cooked within such conditions. First off, Kim Darby, (from True Grit fame), is a piece of wood in the lead and easily one of the least convincing or exciting potential scream queens of all time. Her and on-screen husband Jim Hutton, (who does a comparatively better job), hardly exude any chemistry and basically come off as roommates, but then again maybe that was the point considering the film's couple-in-tension framework. The whispering things to be afraid of in the dark who start their friendly chatter within the first few seconds of the film mostly look and sound silly, though they could have looked and sounded a lot more silly. Finally and though it is only seventy-four minutes long, it is sluggish to the point of being Xanax in movie form.
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