Thursday, October 20, 2022

Thursday Movie Picks-New Home

 


I have heard footsteps in my home when no one else was there plus my doggie, Katie, heard them too. Just when I was ready to see who was in my home, the footsteps stopped. Katie went out of my tv room and I found her in the library. Another time, my then husband and I heard someone fall with a metal walker just by the steps yet nothing was there. We asked my mom, who was upstairs in her apartment, if she was alright. She was annoyed with us because we interrupted her watching "Diagnosis Murder". Things have gone missing only to be there later and I know I looked there more than once. There are more unusual things that have happened but that gives you a clue. The people who owned the home before, he died in  the house back in the mid 70s. He always wore regular shoes, never sneakers, and he needed a walker later on. My dear friends' parents were good friends with the people living here so that's how I know anoutvthe people. So, anything ever go bump in the night at your home...aside from sex of course:). Wandering Through The Shelves chose "new home" as the theme and homes are often a major player in movies from Tara to Amity house. Here are my 3 picks...

1. THE UNINVITED-1944

This is an excellent, spooky film starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey as a brother and sister who travel to England and see this great old house and decide to buy it. They do, for a song, (sorry,  Ray plays a composer) not realizing why they got it so cheap. They meet the man's granddaughter, played by Gail Russell, who loves the home and feels a strong pull to the home. You find out there are 2 spirits-one good and one...not. It’s very eerie and atmospheric especially with the waves of the ocean. The famous song, "Stella by Starlight" comes from this film. It's really quite good and intelligent which I much prefer over slasher crap.

2. MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOME- 1948

Didn't expect this one eh? Well, if you ever owned a home, you know that it can be your own horror show with all the things that can go wrong...hell, we still have knob and tube wiring! This film stars Cary Grant and Myrns Loy who decide to screw the apartment life and buy a home. To say they bought a lemon is an understatement but they fell in love with the image they had in their heads. Along for the ride is Melvyn Douglas who is a family friend and lawyer who thinks they are nuts. It's hilarious and we can all relate to the nightmares of owning a home. 

3. BEETLEJUICE-1988

Newlyweds,  played by Alec Baldwin and Gena Rowlands, buy a neat old home which they are fixing up but before you can say "paint dry", they die and are now ghosties in the home which they can't leave.  Enter new home owners  played by Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones and a young Winona Ryder who hates her life. She soon finds out about the ghosts but also finds out there is a miserable wretch called Beetlejuice who wants to be free. Well, guess what? Yup, he is freed and wants more than just to roam around. Now the sweet ghosts and the young lass are trying to figure out what to do. Meanwhile Catherine is redesigning the beautiful home into something gross and the dad just wants one room he can call his own. This is funny especially the dinner scene with the Belafonte song is done in full tiltthat makes me laugh every  plus you have the great Sylvia Sydney as a clerk for the dead. 

Now, yesterday I asked which 1984 song won the Oscar, which was Nominated and which got nuttin'. Here are the answers...

"I Just Called To Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder won the Oscar. "Ghostbusters" was nominated and the Prince song didn't get any love.

What home horrors have you dealt with? Any hornet nests in between the walls? Mice? Let me know and let me know what film you can think of.

15 comments:

  1. Birgit - Birgit - Birgit!

    (I called your name three times hoping that you will appear before me.)

    Hi, BB!

    You gave me the shivers with your stories about hearing strange noises in your home. It really does seem like you have a ghost. I know this is movie day, not song day, but you reminded me of the hit novelty song "Haunted House" by Jumpin' Gene Simmons (not the Kiss guy):

    I just moved in my new house today
    Movin' was hard but I got squared away
    Bells started ringin' and chains rattled loud
    I knew I'd moved in a haunted house

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoO4rJjQWjI

    I remember Dick Van Dyke's 1990s/early 2000s medical crime drama TV series Diagnosis Murder, a spin-off of Wm. Conrad's Jake and the Fatman. Mrs. Shady and I watched it.

    How about that v/o narrator's perfect diction on the trailer for The Uninvited? I love every Ray Milland movie performance, especially his spookers. I would enjoy The Uninvited, if for no other reason to soak up the creepy B&W ambiance of the "house of terror on the haunted cliffs of Cornwall."

    I also enjoy watching Cary Grant, and Mr. Blandings looks like a safe bet. Beetlejuice is one of the first films Mrs. Shady and I watched together when we first started dating. We both enjoyed it immensely. Michael Keaton is fabulous as B-juice and Winona Ryder has come a long way in the years since. Alec Baldwin probably wishes he could turn back the clock to that part of his career and have a do-over.

    I'm going to pick a late career film that stars one of my favorite actresses, Cathy O'Donnell. In the 1958 horror flick My World Dies Screaming aka Terror in the Haunted House, Cathy plays a newlywed who moves into a Florida mansion (Shady's crib) with her hubby, only to be terrorized by the eerie goings on inside the house. Terror In The Haunted House has the distinction of being one of only two movies shot in Psychorama, a subliminal imaging production gimmick. Wiki explains - " At different points in this film, a skull is flashed to inspire terror, a snake to inspire hate, two hearts to inspire love, and large letters spelling out 'blood' to create fear."

    I also choose The Money Pit (1986) starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. Witnessing what their fixer-upper puts them through will give you goosebumps!

    Enjoy the rest of your week and have a safe and happy weekend, dear friend BB!

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  2. Fortunately never anything weird in our house.
    I'm going to go with the first thing that came to mind - Poltergeist.

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  3. I've seen your first two choices. My first thought was Amityville Horror. That is likely because I recently saw a documentary about how the new owners of the house created a scam about the tragedy that happened there. I have lived in my home for fifty years and one week today. It makes lots of creaky sounds now that it is getting old. Makes me wonder if it is sinking into the ground around here.

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  4. Wow. That's very woo-woo about your house, Birgit.

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  5. You go with Mr. Blandings and I'll raise you a Money Pit.

    I'm always so jealous of people who encounter actual hauntings. They always seem to pass me by. I've been in actual places that are supposedly haunted, told by people I know that they've experienced strange occurrences, and zip. Zilch. Nada.

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  6. I'm glad we both chose Beetlejuice. That's the only one of yours I've seen this week.

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  7. The only one I’ve seen is Beetlejuice but I was very young so remember nothing.
    Were you scared when you heard the noises in your house, or has it just become normal?

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  8. We've lived in our house for 25 years now. It was brand new when we bought it so there are no previous owners haunting it and so far nothing about the land that it is built on. We've been very pleased with our home.

    You made some good picks this week. The first that came to my mind was Poltergeist which was a whole neighborhood of new houses.

    Then there was that massive mansion that Tony Montana builds with his drug money in Scarface. I didn't much care for that film, but I remember the mayhem in the mansion toward the end where a bunch of people die. Yikes!

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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  9. HI Birgit - I've not seen any of these ... but I really don't like horror! Great comments - cheers Hilary

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  10. That was spooky! Have you ever tried to set up cameras to see what is happening?

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  11. I was here Thursday and now see I only left your blog post open, but didn't leave a comment. DUH. I haven't seen any of these but at least I have HEARD of Beetlejuice.

    Really scary what goes on in your own home, dear. Think I should have lead with that.

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  12. BIRGIT ~

    I don't recall having ever seen 'MR. BLANDINGS...' but I'd like to. I've seen many Cary Grant movies and enjoyed *most* of them. (Sorry, not 'Bringing Up Baby'. Extremely overrated and kind of cringey.)

    'THE UNINVITED' sounds like it might be up my alley, too.

    Someone mentioned 'POLTERGEIST' - great choice and one of only a small handful of Horror movies I really enjoy.

    Another one - highly underrated and creepy as hell - is 'THE SENTINEL'. It was a low budget movie from 1976, and despite several really gruesome scenes, overall it's more of a mystery / psychological Horror movie, which is why I dig it. Once seen, NEVER forgotten! (Not really about a new house, but an old apartment. However, I never bother with the rules. I make my own, thank you very much!)

    I've mentioned this often, but 'TORTILLA FLAT' also comes to mind. A womanizing drunkard inherits two old (but new-to-him) houses and then the fun begins. One of my very favorite movies of all time - both funny and sentimentally moving.

    ~ D-FensDogG

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  13. I hope life is treating you well. The first two movies look good. We saw Bettlejuice many years ago and I wasn't too crazy about it. Maybe, we need to watch it again. Thanks for the movie review. Have a great week!

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  14. Oh, Beetlejuice! That's one of my all-time favorite movies. :D

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  15. Loved Cary Grant. YOU have a great one.

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