albie
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 134
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Post by albie on Mar 25, 2019 13:54:02 GMT
Saw the original as a child. As spooky as any horror. Spookier!
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Post by mattofthespurs on Mar 25, 2019 15:17:57 GMT
Us the new horror by Jordon Peele.
It's excellent.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 5, 2019 15:17:23 GMT
Us the new horror by Jordon Peele. It's excellent. Seconded. I don't think Us is quite on the level of Get Out, but that's a tough standard--I'd rank Peele's first film as one of my favorites of the decade so far. There are aspects of Us that work best if not considered too deeply*, but it's full of tense scenes, funny bits, and clever touches for horror fans (for example, there's a subtle Lost Boys reference in the first scene)--along with striking, and sometimes disturbing, imagery. * For example: {Spoiler}Where's all the bunny poop?
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Post by mattofthespurs on Apr 6, 2019 6:56:43 GMT
Pet Sematary (2019)
It's ok. Thankfully it veers quite drastically from the original book (and original film) in it's final 40 minutes or so, so those with knowledge of the book will see something different at least. The whole film feels a little rushed imo. Not great but not terrible either.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Apr 7, 2019 16:55:18 GMT
I've spent the past few weeks immersed once again in the world of Dark Shadows, with my on/off marathon viewing of episodes from the coffin-shaped DVD box-set of all 1225 episodes of the original series returned in force. Currently the residents of Collinsport are deep in Frankenstein territory with the creation of Adam, Dr Eric Lang's stitched together creation brought to life by the essence of troubled vampire Barnabas Collins. Meanwhile a mysterious portrait has summoned an 18th century witch back to life, a curse is plaguing her victims' dreams, a young man with no memory of his past may be the reincarnation of the man young governess Victoria Winters fell in love with when she was transported back to 1795, a witchfinder's ghost seeks revenge for being entombed alive centuries ago, the Collins family matriarch is cursed by incessant thoughts of death, and a young lawyer has been hypnotised to murder the local antiquarian occultist who meddles in these various diabolical schemes... So, just routine business in the soap opera world of Dark Shadows.
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Post by helrunar on Apr 8, 2019 12:55:15 GMT
Daniel, I'm impressed that you're watching Dark Shadows. The second episode I ever saw, as a 9 year old in June 1968, involved the exorcism of evil Cassandra Collins. I was mesmerized. I still don't know how they got away with running stuff like this at 4 in the afternoon. Although the fan base was heavily tilted towards kids, we were told that grad students, professionals, and bohemians such as Andy Warhol's set also tuned in every day to watch.
One of my favorite characters is about to be introduced (or maybe you just saw his entrance). I hope you continue to enjoy the show.
Best wishes, Steve
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Post by Swampirella on Apr 8, 2019 13:25:36 GMT
Although I can't remember any details of it, I can still remember the sense of fear I had watching that program on dark winter afternoons. Surprised my mother let me....
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Apr 8, 2019 14:22:57 GMT
Daniel, I'm impressed that you're watching Dark Shadows. The second episode I ever saw, as a 9 year old in June 1968, involved the exorcism of evil Cassandra Collins. I was mesmerized. I still don't know how they got away with running stuff like this at 4 in the afternoon. Although the fan base was heavily tilted towards kids, we were told that grad students, professionals, and bohemians such as Andy Warhol's set also tuned in every day to watch. One of my favorite characters is about to be introduced (or maybe you just saw his entrance). I hope you continue to enjoy the show. Best wishes, Steve Oh, I've been besotted with Dark Shadows for about 20 years. I was aware of it long before that due to pictures from House of Dark Shadows in various monster movie books - old-age Barnabas was such a creepy image - and the occasional feature in genre magazines, but apart from a half-remembered viewing of Night of Dark Shadows on BBC1 in the '80s (where I was irked that it wasn't a vampire film), and a single episode shown during a soap opera-themed weekend on Channel 4 (again, without Barnabas, but one of the 1897 episodes) I didn't actually see it till I got cable and the European version of The Sci-Fi Channel. By then it had reached the Parallel Time era, and I wasn't massively impressed by the style or look of what I saw... at first! But I found myself leaving it on in the background as I was writing (there were two episodes airing at about 3:00 or 4:00am and I had work in the mornings, but weekends were for sleeping, not nighttime) and I went from mild confusion and derision to starting to pay more attention, to making a point of finishing what I was writing in time to sit down and watch the latest goings on within the space of about a week. So I really got into it with the 1995 flash-forward, then Rose Cottage and the ghosts of Gerard and Daphne, and the staircase through time to 1840... A staircase through time! This is one of my favourite ideas in any genre! After that it was a case of grabbing any books on the series I could find - mainly from Kathryn Leigh-Scott's Pomegranate Press - and some of the old 'Marilyn' Ross paperbacks, when I got online a few years later, by picking up some of the VHS releases from the USA, and the soundtrack album. I ordered some of the DVD sets, so I'd seen the closing run of episodes then the early Barnabas episodes, and some other storylines, like the 1897 origin of Quentin. With the complete set I'm finally seeing the entire run in order, though with Dark Shadows' frequent trips through time watching it in a weird order has felt almost appropriate. The thing I've always loved most about the series is that it was bringing these wildly gothic, fantastical, frequently science-fiction ideas to an audience outside the normal followers of horror and fantasy. That kids and their parents alike were getting a daily dose of the occult in a slot usually filled with more humdrum drama. I'm also currently reading Lara Parker's fourth Dark Shadows novel, Heiress of Collinwood, and I feel that her continuation of the saga has caught a great deal of the delightful, sometimes overheated oddness of the series. And I'm looking forward to the new documentary on Dan Curtis - Master of Dark Shadows - which comes to DVD/BluRay later this month. Also a big fan of the audio productions from Big Finish that have provided their own continuation of the story. I liked the 90s revival series, though I wish they'd had time to delve into the weirder aspects of the story. I even like bits of the 2012 film (blasphemy, I know!!!), though the tone is misjudged and the comedy grates (but, then, in my mind the various films, books and remakes all take place in Parallel Time - which is why some of the real Collinwood residents crop up briefly in the film, having popped through from our Collinwood to investigate this odd realm. We-ell, that's my preferred theory.) The house known as Wraithvale and the town of Greymarsh which have featured in several of my own stories are certainly influenced by Collinwood and Collinsport, though my most flagrant homage to Dark Shadows was in a text story in the 2002 Bunty Annual - a spin-off from the popular UK comic for girls - titled The Mansion of Strange Shadows, where every character bore the name of an actor from the original series as they faced ghosts, time travel, and sealed rooms inside a strange old house. My episode viewing has seen the arrival of Nicholas Blair - I'm guessing this is the character you mean. Humbert Allen Astredo is clearly having a delightful time, and getting some great, sharp lines. The recent arrival of Professor Stokes is also a joy, and I can't help wonder about some of his researches and if they ever took him into more Jamesian spheres... That's a bit of a longer reply than anticipated, but Dark Shadows does spark my enthusiasm somewhat. Good job I've got another few hundred episodes left to watch.
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Post by helrunar on Apr 8, 2019 21:03:38 GMT
Thanks for those lovely memories, Daniel. I'm glad there are a few discerning folks in the UK who appreciate a series that has always had such a significant place in my personal pantheon. I'd love to read the "Mansion of Strange Shadows" tale from the Bunty Annual (sounds absolutely ripping, Mavis), should that ever be reprinted. Was it in your recent anthology? I presume the latter is already out of print. Nicholas Blair is indeed the gent I had in mind. His scenes are such a treat. He was particularly good opposite Grayson Hall, I thought. There's a very interesting interview with late actor Humbert Allen Astredo here. He only speaks about Dark Shadows during the final 2 or 3 minutes of the interview, where he reveals that the character of Nicholas was written with him in mind. That was quite fascinating to learn. www.collinsporthistoricalsociety.com/2014/03/podcast-humbert-allen-astredo.htmlBest wishes, Steve
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Apr 9, 2019 10:00:26 GMT
Ah, The Collinsport Historical Society is a terrific site. Nice interview with Astredo. I love how he's come into DS like one of the guest villains in the Adam West Batman series, stealing the show from all around him. I'm enjoying Blair's devilish activities. I'd already seen Astredo in the later 1897 episodes, playing Evan Handley, who is basically Blair in slightly more mortal form. My latest collections has sold out with the publisher (may be available via dealers), but The Mansion of Strange Shadows was written as part of my day job, so I don't own the copyright even if I did want to reprint it (and even if I could, I'd probably want to rewrite it it considerably all these years later. With publication deadlines there wasn't much time for polishing things through different drafts). I did give a capsule synopsis of it on the board some years ago; vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/1994/bunty-strange-shadowsI've just realised that my current DS viewing means I've watched something like 75 episodes in the last two weeks. That doesn't strike me as remotely excessive, but, then, I may already have fallen prey to the curse...
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Post by andydecker on Apr 9, 2019 19:16:40 GMT
You really whet my appetite, you know, Lurker :-)
As I already wrote somewhere, I only know the telemovie Night of Dark Shadows, the remake with Adrian Paul and the Burton movie. The daily soap never run on the continent. But in the last years I read the some of the episode summarys by John Scolari. They give a good picture what the series is about. Some of the story-lines appear pretty wild, and the idea that everybody - as far as I understood, correct me if I am wrong - has a doppelganger in the past is a great idea.
I wonder how hard it must have been to produce it. A frantic pace of production, no doubt always problems with the network censors, small budget. And it still captures the imagination.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Apr 9, 2019 20:20:04 GMT
I've spent the past few weeks immersed once again in the world of Dark Shadows, with my on/off marathon viewing of episodes from the coffin-shaped DVD box-set of all 1225 episodes of the original series returned in force. I am considering getting started with DARK SHADOWS. Should I begin at the beginning, or does the good stuff start at some specific later point? Also, is it necessary to watch every episode? Modern soap operas are characterized by a glacial pace and a constant repetition of crucial plot information, so it is never really necessary to watch more than once a week in order to follow the story.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Apr 9, 2019 21:36:19 GMT
Some of the story-lines appear pretty wild, and the idea that everybody - as far as I understood, correct me if I am wrong - has a doppelganger in the past is a great idea. Oh, yes, there are few cast members who don't play multiple roles throughout, sometimes as ancestors during timeslip stories, sometimes as the same characters but at different ages, sometimes variations on their usual roles but in 'the strange and frightening world of Parallel Time'. It works very well, and gives the proceedings a repertory theatre air in many ways. I wonder how hard it must have been to produce it. A frantic pace of production, no doubt always problems with the network censors, small budget. And it still captures the imagination. Well, it was shot on videotape five days a week, without the time or facilities to edit the tape to any great degree, so it was shot almost as live, with various fluffed lines, stumbles and wobbly camera moments, microphone shadows and dodgy special effects preserved on tape. The fact that they don't let these limitations get in the way of pushing forward with increasingly imaginative and ambitious storylines is part of what I love about the series. It's not slick, but it's bold and weird and unique.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Apr 9, 2019 21:52:51 GMT
I am considering getting started with DARK SHADOWS. Should I begin at the beginning, or does the good stuff start at some specific later point? Also, is it necessary to watch every episode? Modern soap operas are characterized by a glacial pace and a constant repetition of crucial plot information, so it is never really necessary to watch more than once a week in order to follow the story. A lot of people start with episode 210, which is where the vampire storyline is first introduced. There are supernatural storylines before then, but they creep in gradually amidst the more earthbound intrigue of plots and murders and family secrets. Amazon Prime starts off what it calls Season 1 with episode 210 - in reality the show didn't have seasons, but was broadcast five times a week all year round, but I think Amazon are basing their 'seasons' on the individual DVD boxsets, which also started with the introduction of Barnabas Collins with the earlier episodes being released later. There is a lot of repetition of plot elements and recaps for viewers in DS... to the point that you can end up memorising certain bits of dialogue you know will come up again and again. There are also a couple of interesting releases on DVD and streaming on Amazon - The Vampire's Curse and The Haunting of Collinwood - which condense weeks or even months worth of episodes into three hour features based on two of the series' most popular storylines - the origins of Barnabas in the 18th century and the ghost of Quentin Collins - which might make handy samplers for anyone looking to delve into the series without committing to all 1,225 episodes.
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Post by andydecker on Apr 10, 2019 9:45:46 GMT
Thanks. I didn't know that it was shot this way. Compared to other daily soaps there appears to be a lot of story. The kitchen sink approach - vampires, ghosts, witches, cursed portraits, werewolves - seemed to have worked well. Sometimes I wonder if it is the uniqueness of an old show like that or really the storylines which made it so famous. Hard to imagine that people will still talk about True Blood or Supernatural in 50 years time.
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