Category: TV Terror Guide
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Betrayal (1974)
When we discussed Scream & Scream Again (1970) on The Classic Horrors Club Podcast, We mentioned that director Gordon Hessler always seemed to get the short end of the stick, either filling in at the last minute, or being restricted by contract. After making The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), he directed several TV movies…
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The Tribe (1974)
Lane Slate wrote some of the TV movies in this series that I’ve rated highly, such as Isn’t It Shocking? (1973) and The Strange & Deadly Occurrence (1974.) Plus, he wrote a theatrical favorite, The Car (1977.) Richard A. Colla directed one of the best TV movies in this series, The UFO Incident (1975), as…
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The Missing Are Deadly (1975)
The most frightening moment in The Missing Are Deadly (1975) comes when Dr.. Margolin (Ed Nelson) tells a member of the press that a pandemic is “a very real possibility that no one thinks about.” Been there; done that. It’s intriguing, but is unfortunately only a footnote to the story. Here, the authorities seem prepared…
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The Werewolf of Woodstock (1975)
Imagine it’s late one Friday night in 1975. You’re leaning back in your recliner, the living room lit only by the glow of your television. On comes ABC’s The Wide World of Mystery, which resides under the umbrella of ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment, the network’s effort to compete with The Tonight Show on NBC.…
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The Secret Night Caller (1975)
The Secret Night Caller (1975) takes a different approach for an obscene phone caller movie. Although it opens with a few thrills and chills, it quickly morphs into a sympathetic character study of a man with compulsions he doesn’t understand. Because he takes responsibility for what he’s done and seeks help, he’s magically forgiven for…
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Cave In! (1983)
Disaster Film Checklist Thoughts If When Time Ran Out… was a whimpering last hurrah for theatrical disaster films of the 1970s, then that’s the purpose Cave In! serves for television. It’s a watered-down version of earlier “hits” like Flood, Fire, and Hanging by a Thread, and concludes the third part of a thematic trilogy with…
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The Night the Bridge Fell Down (1980)
Disaster Film Checklist Thoughts One thing I’ve noticed during this series is that the longer the disaster movie subgenre ran, the more unlikable its characters became. I failed to mention it twice now, but it’s unavoidable with The Night the Bridge Fell Down (1980.) Instead of cheering for heroes to survive, we’re cheering for villains…
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Hanging by a Thread (1979)
Disaster Film Checklist Thoughts There’s no reason on God’s green Earth that Hanging by a Thread (1979) should be over three hours long. It would be hard to hang in there with it (pun intended) if not for the flashbacks the characters experience while trapped in a cable-car that’s been struck by lightning and is…
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Fire (1977)
Disaster Film Checklist Thoughts On one hand, Fire (1977) is a retread of Flood (1976) from the year before. They were even produced and directed by the same team of Irwin Allen (the former) and Earl Bellamy (the latter.) The names of the writers, though, may have been changed to protect the innocent… Don Ingalls…
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Flood (1976)
Disaster Film Checklist Thoughts Wait, I didn’t list Roddy McDowall’s character, Mr. Franklin. That’s because he plays a fisherman that Steve delivers to the resort in the very first scene of the movie… and he’s neither seen nor heard of again. Mayor John Cutler is a conflicted villain. He’s truly doing what he thinks is…
Classic Horrors Club 