What I Watched in October

Isn't that a cool tree? My friend, VJ came down for a few days and we had a good time. October is the time I watch more scary movies, but no slasher flicks...I don't like them. So, this is what I watched....

MOVIES

1. POLTERGEIST-1982

I have never seen this movie because it looked scary....it's stupid. If they would not have shown the actual ghosties and kept the coffin people to the pool, it would have been better. They actually used real skeletons in that mud scene and only told the actress, JoBeth Williams after she completed the scene...how nice. I would have killed those in charge.  Behind the scenes was much more tragic with the young girl, Heather O’Roake, dying at age 12, from intestinal stenosis. The teenage girl, in the movie, Dominique Dunne, was murdered by her boyfriend, shortly after making this film….she was just 16. It’s very sad,,

2. BETWEEN TWO WORLDS-1944

I always think of this film with the title “Between Two Worlds”  which was the title of an earlier film starring Leslie Howard, which I still need to see. Anyways, I spoke about this film a few posts back and love it. I had to show this to my friend, VJ, who enjoyed this film. It stars Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker as young marrieds in war torn Britain. He can no longer play the piano due to a hand injury and they can’t leave for the States due to lack of passports so he decides to off himself and his wife wishes to be with him. Meanwhile, a group of very different people who were waiting to get on the boat get in a taxi and are blown up in a bomb. Next thing you see are the couple who realize they are dead but the others do not. It becomes a character study with John Garfield at his annoying best as an angry reporter, his trampy girlfriend, a sweet old lady, a priest, a happy sailor waiting to meet his baby daughter, a rich elderly couple-an uppercrust, image seeking bitch and her poor husband who is sweet. A corrupt jerk and the man that seems to be the only employee on the ship played so well by Santa, I mean, Edmund Gwenn. I love this movie!!

3. ED WOOD-1994

This is a funny gem of a film with Johnny Depp playing the lead, Ed Wood, classified as the worst director ever. He created the horrible masterpiece, “Plan 9 From Outer Space”  and the gender bender flick, “Glenn or  Glenda” that starred …who cares, but he did have Bela Lugosi who, by this time, was a druggie, worn out and very broke. Bela was played brilliantly, by Martin Landau, who won an Oscar for his role and, I think, he deserved it. This is an homage to the director and his love of film. 

4. THE NEW CENTURIANS-1972

Yes, this is not a horror flick but a movie I enjoyed watching even though it’s so 70s. You have George C. Scott as a veteran of the force who is teaching  his new partner the works, he is played by a young Stacy Keach. It’s not a great movie but a standard film that came out during this time and I love that it’s gritty and dirty instead of all clean and glass with all the cops looking smart and dressed in Gucci. You get the feel for these cops on and off the beat.

TV SHOWS

1. UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE DE GUY-BLACHE

I was able to see this gem on our TVO station, which is our PBS. This lady started creating films right from the very beginning just like the Lumiere Bothers and George Melies. You are taken through her life and how she created and changed cinema as we know it but this was a man’s world so she had to do her work under her husband’s name and later, she was just forgotten. It’s brilliant and a must see, in my opinion 

2. RECORDS-2021

This is an original documentary from TVO about people who just love their record collection which amount to thousands. They all have an eclectic taste from the great rock records we love to the weird, like Heino. This is really fun to watch.

3. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE-2018

I received a 2 pack DVD collection for Christmas from a friend and finally watched them. This is the first which is loosely based on The Haunting. It’s quite eerie about a family who buy this old home to fix and flip so they can have their dream home. The 5 kids witness all sorts of strange things especially the 2 youngest. It flips to present day…late 80s or early 90s when we see how the 5 kids have been so horribly affected by the home. The eldest, in denial, has written a best selling book about the house. The next owns a funeral home and is often angry at everything. The middle child who has a gift to sense things by touching people, which is why she wears gloves, is a bit of wild one who bargains. The 2 youngest…the boy is a drug addict and the youngest accepts her fate and dies at the house. It continues from there and the ensemble cast work well together. One has to watch closely because there are ghosts everywhere!

4. THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR-2020

Many of the actors from the first miniseries is in this film based loosely on “The Turn Of The Screw” or “The Innocents”. You have a young lady, trying to escape her past, hired as a nanny to 2 young kids who really know how to steal the show especially the young girl. As she says…She is “perfectly splendid”. You find out there were 2 people who had an obsessive love-the bad Quint who was an aide to the uncle, and Miss. Jessel, the former teacher/nanny. It goes from there including the lady of the lake which is freaky. It’s well done. I found out that another miniseries has been made from the Poe stories so it would be good to see that one.

What did you watch?