Thursday, July 24, 2025

Journey to the Unknown Part Four

THE LAST VISITOR
(1969)
Dir - Don Chaffey
Overall: MEH
 
Scoring Patty Duke in the lead as a young woman who holidays at a resort, only to be visited by a less than desirable guest, "The Last Visitor" is another unremarkable entry in Hammer's Journey to the Unknown series.  Speaking of Hammer, this was the second episode in a row to be directed by Don Chaffey who had done a number of adventure and fantasy films for the studio, the material here being light years removed from One Million Years B.C. and The Viking Queen.  Duke gets little to do in such a context besides act annoyed that nothing is done about the creepy old person who keeps interrupting her sleep and apparently has free reign of Kay Walsh's establishment.  We eventually get an explanation and it is hardly the most startling or frightening, so besides Walsh getting to chew the scenery here or there, this is just a pedestrian psycho-biddy time-waster.
 
POOR BUTTERFLY
(1969)
Dir - Alan Gibson
Overall: MEH
 
The William Abney short story "Poor Butterfly" gets the Journey to the Unknown treatment, continuing the program's trend of featuring uncanny scenarios with predictable twists and outcomes.  Chad Everett gets an invitation through his mail slot to a costume party out in the country that is hosted by a man that he has never met, which is curious enough, but once he meets a local that shoots him a perplexed and disturbed look when Everett asks for directions, the audience can easily deduce what is happening.  Things continue in such a direction from there and some of the specifics as to the mysterious shindig and why Everett was invited are the only things that keep it captivating, at least to a degree.  Alan Gibson was behind the screen on three segments for the series, (the most for any director), but he, the cast, and the crew can only do so much with a tale that fails to pack a punch and simply lands where everyone thought it would land after only ten minutes in.
 
STRANGER IN THE FAMILY
(1969)
Dir - Peter Duffell
Overall: GOOD
 
One of the more interesting Journey to the Unknown installments, (authored by prolific playwright David Campton), "Stranger in the Family" dips its does into science fiction as much as it does horror.  Set in modern day, it concerns a "mutant" who has reached early adulthood and has the ability to control people's actions, as well as having weird fingers without nails because evolution is an odd duck apparently.  Anthony Higgins turns in an increasingly wrought performance as said individual, who is sought after by scientists, a smarmy talent agent, and protected by his parents who can no longer keep him under lock and key.  The opening scene is fetching where we are introduced to the disturbing outcome of Higgins' powers, and we get several more examples along the way, most memorably in a live hypnotism act that hilariously goes awry immediately after it starts.
 
THE MADISON EQUATION
(1969)
Dir - Rex Firkin
Overall: MEH
 
Infidelity meets super computers in Journey to the Unknown's "The Madison Equation".  Any time that scientists insist that a complex machine of their own creation is infallible, eyes are bound to role.  In this particular instance, Barbara Bel Geddes and Allan Cuthbertson play a less-than-happy couple who have collectively designed said super computer to run an entire establishment and have various fail-safes in place.  Cuthbertson is a hot-tempered asshole who hires a private investigator, (portrayed by the always unsettling and effeminate Aubrey Morris), to spy on his wife Geddes and her love interest who are trying to bide their time for the correct moment to make their partnership official.  The computer gets in the way with deadly results, but the story has a predictable reveal, none of the characters are likeable, and none of the set pieces are memorable.
 
THE KILLING BOTTLE
(1969)
Dir - John Gibson
Overall: MEH
 
Even with heavyweight Roddy McDowall on board as a lowlife conman who is out for his brother's inheritance, the final Journey to the Unknown installment "The Killing Bottle" fails to deliver.  An adaptation of L. P. Hartley's short story of the same name, is has a convoluted scheme involving driving McDowall's eccentric sibling William Marlowe insane via the death of a butterfly in a mason jar because the gentleman is apparently touchy about any living creature being killed or something.  Not that this stops him from going full-on maniac eventually, so it is probably best not to think about such things so much.  There is also a young songwriter looking for a break who gets involved, though one could take him out of the equation and the outcome would hardly differ.  McDowall is great in anything and this is no exception, turning on the sleaze as he makes his wife increasingly uncomfortable and exhibits hardly any moral compass.  Otherwise though, this is a meandering bore.

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Journey to the Unknown Part Three

GIRL OF MY DREAMS
(1968)
Dir - Peter Sasdy
Overall: MEH
 
The second of two Journey to the Unknown episodes to have Hammer director Peter Sasdy behind the lens, "Girl of My Dreams" is an adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1963 short story of the same name.  It takes the premise of premonitions and in addition to exploring the type of turmoil suffered by those who have them, also shows what can go horribly awry if said psychic medium runs into the wrong type of asshole.  Said asshole is portrayed by Michael Callan as a man who takes ruthless advantage of Zena Walker and her vivid nightmares of future deaths, and watching the hapless Walker do everything in her power to accommodate her clearly up-to-no-good husband becomes increasingly unpleasant to watch.  Justice is eventually served, but the road to get there is only mildly interesting and more of a showcase for Callan to be unwholesome.
 
SOMEWHERE IN A CROWD
(1968)
Dir - Alan Gibson
Overall: MEH
 
Sidestepping what could have been yet another premonition story, "Somewhere in a Crowd" opens with David Hedison's troubled protagonist ranting and raving to anyone who will listen to him, (and those who refuse to), about seeing a handful of people in some crowd footage which to him spells doom.  Based on famed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's "The Crowd", it mostly runs through the formula of every other character refusing to believe the one who is claiming that otherworldly forces are afoot, (which of course they are), and the plot follows a predictable pattern where Hedison is believed to be crazy, seems to have been cured by a psychiatrist and his steady love interest, and all of this happens when we still have several minutes left in the running time which can only signify that a happy ending is not in the cards.  Jane Asher is also on board as another woman that Hedison has an affair with who is also part of the aforementioned "crowd", a detail which makes our lead kind of an asshole actually.
 
DO ME A FAVOR AND KILL ME
(1968)
Dir - Gerry O'Hara
Overall: MEH
 
Pure melodrama fuels the Journey to the Unknown installment "Do Me a Favor and Kill Me", which finds Joseph Cotten uttering those words to his agent after failing to attempt suicide.  On top of obviously being ill-advised, such behavior seems sudden and unnecessary, though Cotten does his predictable best with the assignment, portraying a mostly unlikable alcoholic actor who has blown a number of chances at keeping his career on track before he becomes hopelessly paranoid about changing his mind on the unwholesome favor that he has asked for.  An adaptation of a story by Frederick Rawlings, it is unfortunately another one with a twist ending that anyone can see coming from miles off.  Any time that a guaranteed insurance money payout is on the table, all one has to due is look at the beneficiary to surmise what is going to go down, and since the story springs from such far fetched logic to begin with, this one has little to offer besides Cotten doing his professional best.
 
THE BECKONING FAIR ONE
(1968)
Dir - Don Chaffey
Overall: MEH
 
Journey to the Unknown finally ventures into haunted house terrain with "The Beckoning Fair One", an adaptation of Oliver Onion's 1911 novella of the same name.  Sadly, the presentation lacks sufficient chills and is a better vehicle for Robert Lansing to increasingly just act like a prick.  We do have a portrait of the abode's beautiful and previous owner that has the ability to haunt/entice/possess men, but besides the woman's cackling voice being heard at irregular intervals, all of the explicit ghost activity is kept off screen.  Another male character even claims to have had a run in with the lady specter at a dinner part, but the presentation forces us to take his word for it.  Such suggestive supernatural occurrences are fine to indulge in, but the plot merely has Lansing growing more insulated and cold to those around him while talking to himself, which hardly conveys any type of proper spooky atmosphere.

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Journey to the Unknown Part Two

PAPER DOLLS
(1968)
Dir - James Hill
Overall: MEH
 
Taking its cue from Village of the Damned with a group of sinister children who are psychically linked together, share each other's artistic gifts, and can cause people to hallucinate, "Paper Dolls" is an adaptation of L.P. Davies' novel of the same name.  These particular evil youngsters are identical siblings who were fathered by a less than agreeable brute under less than agreeable circumstances.  The four brothers are all split up in relative proximity to each other which is convenient for the plot, and the strongest one of them lives in the woods and seems to be pulling the strings with a maniacal plan that consists of mind controlling anyone around them.  Everyone's favorite Hammer bit player Michael Ripper shows up as a barkeep as he is wont to do, but besides an unintentionally funny opening scene where a school bully is manipulated into spontaneously jumping out of a window, nothing much else memorable goes down here.
 
THE NEW PEOPLE
(1968)
Dir - Peter Sasdy
Overall: MEH
 
Adapting a short story of the same name by author and screenwriter Charles Beaumont who worked on a handful of seminal horror films, Journey to the Unknown's "The New People" is also notable for featuring a slew of Hammer regulars, as well as Mr. Brady Robert Reed in the lead.  Unfortunately, it is one of those stories where the twists and turns are easily forecast, leading to a meandering watch.  Besides a fetching opening where several people are casually enjoying themselves at a dinner party while one of the guest's dead bodies swings from a noose, nothing else undeniably sinister happens until the final three minutes.  Until then, we witness our hapless main characters get wooed over by their extra friendly new neighbors, (never a good sign in a horror tale), whose ringleader plays an unnecessarily long con on them until the running time has fulfilled its duty.  Spotting the guest cast members is fun, but the rest of it plays to a formula that does not justify its weak and preordained climax.
 
ONE ON AN ISLAND
(1968)
Dir - Noel Howard
Overall: MEH
 
An equally unremarkable and predicable installment in Hammer's Journey to the Unknown, "One on an Island" has a self-explanatory premise where someone is shipwrecked and gradually loses their mind.  The fact that Brandon deWilde's protagonist with mommy issues fails to be likeable in the first place is a problem, and he quickly starts to exhibit the usual bouts of mania by talking to himself, naming a pet goat, and eventually falling head over heels in love with another shipwrecked woman who just so happens to have the same names as his crashed boat and is obviously too good to be true.  Each plot turn has a preordained outcome, and Oscar Millard's script, (based off of a story by prolific writer Donald E. Westlake), slams home the point that deWilde's character is hellbent on proving himself in order to win the fancy of a beautiful woman.  This clashes with some of his latter actions once crippling jealousy is introduced to his psyche, and with no surprises anywhere, it just runs through the castaway motions.
 
MATAKITAS IS COMING
(1968)
Dir - Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Overall: MEH
 
The only Journey to the Unknown episode to be directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg of The Beatles/The Rolling Stone music video and documentary fame, "Matakitas Is Coming" finds Vera Mills locked in a library against a Satan-following serial murderer who just so happened to have died several decades prior.  There are even more supernaturally-charged details to Robert Heverley's script, (like Hogg, likewise his lone contribution to the series), and thankfully the viewer is kept in the dark throughout most of the time to enhance the creepiness of the scenario.  Some scenes are wonderfully played out to eerie silence, which amps up the tension as Mills slowly begins to realize the otherworldly predicament that she is in.  Oddly, other moments are awkwardly handled, as if somebody inserted in the bombastic soundtrack to another program and the editor was trying to make a deadline and just haphazardly threw a bunch of cuts together.  It also has some predictable plot beats, but it still gets by to a point on atmosphere alone.

Monday, July 21, 2025

Journey to the Unknown Part One

EVE
(1968)
Dir - Robert Stevens
Overall: MEH
 
Though far from a landmark bit of television, the debut episode "Eve" for Hammer's Journey to the Unknown at least has a fetching premise that does not merely rely on the studio's previously established Gothic horror tropes.  Based on John Collier's short story "Special Deliver", it concerns a solitary young man falling in love with a window mannequin, which gives the story a one-note trajectory.  Yet the script from Paul Wheeler and Michael Ashe has some twits and turns to it, especially during the finale where our doomed protagonist flees London after a violent episode in fear of the authorities taking away his plastic love interest.  Dennis Waterman is ideally cast as the introverted romantic, but Carol Lynley gets little to do besides look lovely as his mostly mute object of obsession.  At least Michael Gough shows up doing what he usually does, which is playing an asshole that gets his just desserts.  Not that he particularly deserves his fate here, but again, something had to happen to get our troubled lead on the run.
 
JANE BROWN'S BODY
(1968)
Dir - Alan Gibson
Overall: MEH
 
Taking a short story from Cornell Woolrich for its basis, Journey to the Unknown's "Jane Brown's Body" once again boast and interesting and singular premise, and once again comes up short of memorably executing that premise.  We meet Stefanie Powers' title character who has just committed suicide for reasons that are eventually divulged in the finale, only to be resurrected by a scientist's experimental treatment.  From there, she has lost all of her previous memories and has to be educated again from scratch, prompting her tutor David Buck to fall in love with her, convince her of who she actually is, and cue everybody in on the traumatic circumstances that lead to her demise.  It is well performed and properly melodramatic when need be, but besides its one uncanny plot point, the story barely qualifies as a science fiction one and raises no interesting philosophical questions, let alone enticing set pieces.  Instead, it just ends up being a predictable doomed romance played out for forty-nine minutes.

THE INDIAN SPIRIT GUIDE
(1968)
Dir - Roy Ward Baker
Overall: GOOD
 
Amicus regulars Roy Ward Baker and Robert Bloch join forces for Journey to the Unknown's "The Indian Spirit Guide"; another fetching concept that does a better job at maintaining interest.  Julie Harris plays a rich widow who made a pledge to her dead husband to try and contact him in the afterlife, prompting Tom Adams scheming "private investigator" to stage a series of phony seances in order for her to keep paying him.  Adams eventually takes his ambitions too far, which irritates his co-conspirator love interest and ultimately puts him in the hands of legit supernatural interference, or so we are lead to believe.  Debunking spiritualism had been a well-established trope by this point, and we get several sequences where Adams exposes all of the tricks.  Though this deliberately takes the mysticism out of the proceedings, it forgoes merely being a Scooby-Doo styled ruse in its closing moments, which delivers some satisfying comeuppance while still leaving things open-ended.

MISS BELLE
(1968)
Dir - Robert Stevens
Overall: MEH
 
One of the more disturbing pieces of small screen fiction to emerge in the 1960s, "Miss Belle" takes its cue from Charles Beaumont's shorty story "Miss Gentilbelle", which presents an icky gender-manipulation scenario where a bitter and odious seamstress insists on raising her nephew as her niece.  Its depiction of child abuse is not as exploitative as it could have been considering that this is a television program after all, but it is still eyebrow raising and uncomfortable.  Much of this hinges on Barbara Jefford's appropriately vile performance, an actor with a face that spits her cruel manipulation and tormenting with determined coldness instead of outright diabolical glee.  George Maharis' drifter who knocks down the house of cards is also morally dubious, but he comes off as a saint next to Jefford.  Though comeuppance is mercifully delivered, the story is too one-note and relentlessly unpleasant to recommend, merely presenting us with a horrible person doing horrible things to a child for nearly an hour.  Maybe some ghosts or something would have helped.

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Chiller TV Series

PROPHECY
(1995)
Dir - Lawrence Gordon Clark
Overall: MEH
 
A Final Destination precursor with incessant keyboard music, some mild nudity, and some also mild death sequences, "Prophecy" kicks off the short-lived ITV anthology series Chiller, an adequate if less than memorable collection of five supernatural tales for the small screen.  Not to be confused with the Christopher Walken vehicle The Prophecy which was released the same year, novelist Stephen Gallagher concocts a bog-standard story here about a group of friends conducting a seance while not taking it seriously, (always a bad idea), only to inadvertently bring back into some semblance of existence a villainous spirit that starts picking them off five years later.  He also possesses the young child of Sophie Ward's new boyfriend's son, but said child also gets possessed by a priest that is trying to help, plus Ward comes to a revelation that she too is the source of some form of possession.  It has the feel of being made up as it goes along, but A Ghost Story for Christmas director Lawrence Gordon Clark manages to deliver a slick production and if anything else, it is nice to see him back in the saddle for some genre material that he is well-versed in.
 
TOBY
(1995)
Dir - Bob Mahoney
Overall: MEH
 
Several fetus/ghost of a dead baby haunting/possession yarns have come down the pike over the years, and the Chiller installment "Toby" goes through the motifs while offering up a few unique details to the formula.  Here, Serena Gordon loses her unborn baby in a car accident that she feels responsible for, understandably having a more difficult time moving on than her frustrated husband Martin Clunes does.  When the couple thinks that they are pregnant again and start planning accordingly, certain kinks in the armor arise, leading to a disturbing melding of physical and psychological traits that push Gordon to the point where everyone of course assumes that she is mentally compromised.  Also, Rosemary Leach plays a crotchety cat lady neighbor.  Despite the odd details surrounding Gordon's quasi-pregnancy, it eventually just turns into another scenario where a poor women is wracked with guilt, preyed upon by a malevolent force, and not believed by anyone.  Certain events are inexplicable yet still denied by everyone except Gordon, and the story chooses to live both in the material and metaphysical world which makes for muddled results.

HERE COMES THE MIRROR MAN
(1995)
Dir - Lawrence Gordon Clark
Overall: MEH
 
The second and last Chiller episode to be written by Stephan Gallagher and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, (also representing Clark's last foray into horror), "Here Comes the Mirror Man" is neither dull nor spectacular.  It takes the concept of sinister invisible friends which children usually interact with when residing in a haunted abode, except here it is the young adult John Simm who is under the influence of a fellow that only he can see.  Said fellow "Michael" appears at random intervals, reminding our doomed lead that he is the only one who is here for him, encouraging Simon to murder certain pesky individuals who will interfere with him squatting in an abandoned church.  Simon is far from likeable, yet this is the point since he is portraying a schizophrenic social outcast.  Unfortunately Paul Reynolds gets little to do as his demonic string-puller besides smirking, so the duo lack the necessary charisma to make their mysterious bond interesting.  This is ultimately just the sad story of a troubled man who succumbs to malevolent forces, with the supernatural elements underplayed to the point where when they finally become pronounced in the closing shot, it makes for an unearned tag.
 
THE MAN WHO DIDN'T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS
(1995)
Dir - Bob Mahoney
Overall: MEH
 
Skeptics vs. the supernatural is a formula as old as time, and the penultimate Chiller episode "The Man Who Didn't Believe in Ghosts" takes on such a formula.  We have a haunted mansion, a child who sees a creepy woman in a mask outside of his door, and a lead character who makes a living debunking all manner of otherworldly claims.  When protagonist Peter Egan suffers a stroke after doing his skeptic shtick on a television show, he and his family move into a house with both a ghostly history and a recent murder having occurred there.  The previous owner is still around as a handy man and gets more than handy with Egan's Mrs. at one point, (an unnecessary scene that is never brought up again afterwards), and several unfortunate events befall the new homeowners which inadvertently cause a wedge between them.  Director Bob Mahoney does his best with some of the spooky set pieces, but these are few and far between, plus Anthony Horowitz' script is too adherent on uninspired tropes to offer up anything unique.  It is a slick production that makes solid use out of its location, but it is also as forgettable as most of the other installments in the short-lived program are.
 
NUMBER SIX
(1995)
Dir - Rob Walker
Overall: MEH
 
The final Chiller episode "Number Six" mixes a child murderer, the ghosts of their victims, and mysterious druid rituals, all done as a police procedural that is as competent and unadorned as the proceeding four stories.  Anthony Horowitz also authored the previous "The Man Who Didn't Believe in Ghosts", and he blends a different assortment of familiar motifs here.  Kid drawings play into the identity of the killer being discovered, and said reveal links right up to Kevin McNally's main police detective who just so happens to have a young son that has made similar drawings and is himself prone for abduction.  Sadly, the mystical elements are underplayed to the point of being redundant, as are the few supernatural moments, both of which take a back seat to the formulaic tracking down of a serial killer.  Not that the show had to be otherworldly first and foremost, but the material here only teases at such potential and would have been better served as a straight true crime thriller.  It is no wonder that the series wrapped up after only five episodes since none of them stick, merely providing fiftyish minutes a piece of some mildly chilling, (pun intended), atmosphere.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Nightmare Classics

THE TURN OF THE SCREW
(1989)
Dir - Graeme Clifford
Overall: MEH
 
Producer Shelley Duvall switched her sights to the young adult market with Nightmare Classics; a short-lived anthology program for Showtime that followed the exclusively kid-friendly Faerie Tale Theatre and Tall Tales & Legends shows which she also created.  The opening installment "The Turn of the Screw" is an adaptation of the famed 1898 Henry James novel and a redundant one at that, since the source material had been brought to both the small and big screen numerous times before and since.  It has also been brought to the screen far better, particularly with Jack Clayton's lauded 1961 film The Innocents, a version that this one seems hellbent on learning nothing from.  In place of still, increasingly eerie mood setting and rich, suggestive black and white photography, we have incessant and loud creepy music, overt supernatural sequences that leave nothing to the imagination, a bombastic finale, and a sterile color presentation fit for typical low-rent television productions.  Amy Irving does an admirable job in the lead as the tormented governess, plus a young Balthazar Getty has the right smug and manipulative charm as the not-so-little Miles, even if he also is the only actor here without an English accent.
 
CARMILLA
(1989)
Dir - Gabrielle Beaumont
Overall: MEH
 
Next up for Nightmare Classics was "Carmilla", retelling Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's influential 19th century lesbian vampire story, this one featuring Meg Tilly as the blood-sucking seductress of the title.  Given a Southern Gothic setting during the American Civil War where a deadly plague is rumored to be ravishing the countryside, Tilly shows up to woo away a plantation owner's daughter Ione Skye and nearly succeeds, being able to teleport, disappear, and summon a swarm of bats at one instance to due away with an interfering house servant.  The undead rules here are equally willy-nilly, as Tilly is shown having no problem being outside in the day time yet flees from sunlight during the finale, also she keeps a barrage of other undead in close proximity to the plantation setting that no one notices until said finale.  On the plus side, the actual night time shooting is atmospheric, plus Roddy McDowall shows up in a bad hair piece yet gets a surprisingly gruesome death scene where he is impaled on a wooden stake in the collapsed on the floor position.  The made-for-TV presentation is still too sterilized, especially considering the more exploitative genre films that utilized different aspects of the source material to more titillating and gore-ridden effect.
 
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
(1989)
Dir - Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Overall: MEH
 
Taking its cue from the 1960 Hammer film The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Nightmare Classics' adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde features an impish and unassuming Jekyll and a dashing Hyde, forgoing the usual tactic of the latter villain having a physically monstrous appearance.  Unlike the aforementioned Hammer movie though, Anthony Andrews portrays Hyde without any semblance of charm, instead he is a humorless, smug, odious, and ill-tempered brute who terrorizes everyone around him as much as any other actor's interpretation has.  Typical of the Showtime series, this is a stock and sterile television event that deserves little fanfare, tweaking several elements from previous versions yet merely being a competent retelling of a story that had long been done to death already by the end of the 1980s.  British filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg was not one to work in the horror genre regularly, and with no nifty monster transformation scenes or any memorable set pieces to work with, there is little that he can do under such confines.  At least Laura Dern shows up as Jekyll's would-be love interest, with a British accent to boot.
 
THE EYES OF THE PANTHER
(1989)
Dir - Noel Black
Overall: MEH
 
For the last of only four episodes in Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics, the series finally took a swing at some lesser-known source material, namely Ambrose Bierce's 1897 short story "The Eyes of the Panther".  Though it inspired Val Lewton to pen his own tale "The Bagheeta" in 1930, (which would eventually lead to the celebrated RKO film Cat People), Bierce's story had never been given a proper cinematic treatment until here.  Three years after infamously appearing in black face for Soul Man, C. Thomas Howell dons a lot of old crone makeup in order to chew the scenery, narrating a flashback of running into and then falling for a female werepanther some decades beforehand, played fittingly enough by Daphne Zuniga.  Considering that cinematic felines are never frightening no matter what size or gender they are, (Noel Marshall's absurd "documentary" Roar notwithstanding), this episode is fighting an uphill battle from the onset.  Also considering that the program was not equipped for hardly any special effects sequences, nor was it able to recreate any high-octane monster mayhem, it leads to a talky and dull affair that is as forgettable as the rest of the show was.