This Steven Spielberg-directed movie made for TV and adapted from Richard Matheson's short story still packs a punch. David Mann is a travelling businessman venturing to an appointment across California but is slowed down considerably by an ominous truck that at first inconveniences him until things suddenly take a much darker tone. This film could …
Continue reading Day 17- 31 Days of Halloween 2023- Duel (1971)
Writer David Norliss is employed to write about his scepticism regarding the supernatural and the self-proclaimed spiritualists who are currently in vogue. However, he goes missing. His publisher discovers his research in the area on a series of tapes at his San Francisco home and decides to listen to the first one. He hears the …
Gail Osborne is a 16 year old who starts dating Steve Pastorinis who goes to the same school as her. It's also around this time that she starts to receive abusive notes stuck in the grills of her school locker and also abusive telephone calls. For a film, let alone a TV movie to deal …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 31- Are You In The House Alone? (1978)
A pretty faithful account of The Hillside Stranglers starring Dennis Farina as Angelo Buono and Billy Zane as Kenneth Bianchi. Richard Crenna is cop Bob Grogan who is hunting them. This made for TV movie is based on the book Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers By Darcy O'Brien. I love TV movies based …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 23- The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989)
Maggie and Ben inherit an old farm by default (the man who it was actually left to had to inhabit the farm within 30 days but we see him attempt to move in in the dead of night but runs his car into a tree after swerving to miss a mysterious girl who intentionally caused …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 22- Crowhaven Farm (1970)
This early Spielberg directed TV movie features a TV advertising exec (Darren McGavin) move into a country farm with his hippy drippy New Age wife (Sandy Dennis). But strange things start to occur shortly afterwards. I first saw this when it aired on UK television in the early 80's. It scared the pants off me. …
Continue reading Day 3- 31 Days of Halloween- Something Evil (1972)
Ahh, the 3D craze of the early 80's. Some films were great and used the gimmick really well (take a bow, Friday the 13th 3D) whilst others were films just a flat and mediocre in 3D as they would have been in 2D. This film belongs in the latter category. I only watched this as I …
The other half of a double-bill in UK cinemas with the other film being the far better The Incredible Melting Man. This was actually made for television in America. Killer bees have flown into America and are claiming their first casualties disturbingly close to New Orleans when their Mardi Gras is due to kick off. A …
Continue reading Day 23- 31 Days of Halloween- The Savage Bees
Small town vigilantes wrongly accuse a mentally challenged man of attacking and killing a little girl. It turns out he didn’t attack her but saved her from a neighbour's vicious dog. The vigilantes find this out just after killing the innocent man who is disguised as a scarecrow. Oops. When the local courts offer no …
Continue reading Day 5- 31 Days of Halloween- Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
A man (called David Mann) is travelling to meet an appiontment but is stalked, driven insane (pun not intended) and almost killed by a driver in a huge battered old truck. This movie is amazing. Firstly, it was directed by Steven Spielberg for TV which makes the fruits of his labour even more staggering. So much …
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