Zombos' Closet of Horror

Dead of Night (1977) Mystery, Imagination, And Terror

I have not reviewed a DVD release before by starting with its extras, but with Dan Curtis' Dead of Night from Dark Sky I will because they are wonderful additions to this anthology first aired on television in 1977.

The standard photo gallery and unimportant clipped footage are here, but more pleasant surprises await  fans of Dan Curtis' atmospheric approach to daytime television terror: the many Robert Cobert highlight music tracks and the pilot for the proposed Dead of Night series,  A Darkness at Blaisedon.

Robert Cobert's orchestral compositions for Dark Shadows are identified more with Dan Curtis than him, but this association shows how integral Cobert's music is to Curtis' eerie, American Gothic atmosphere and its inhabitants. Cobert's string, wind, and percussive instrumentals amplify Curtis' romance-charged supernatural world of dark forces and dark beings,  demanding an emotional response from us. You don't listen to a Cobert score, you dread its alarming tones, experience its mortifying portents, and anticipate its inevitable chilling denoument. The tracks included provide a good sampling of the tonal qualities and scales he used to produce his music's dread and terror tones.

A Darkness at Blaisedon, stars Kerwin Mathews as paranormal investigator Jonathan Fletcher.  Along with his assistant, Sajeed Rau (Cal Bellini), both investigate the newly inherited--and very haunted--mansion now owned by Angela Martin (Marj Dusay). The American Gothic sets are elaborate, the pace 1969-slow (this would have been for daytime television, in the vein of Dark Shadows), and the premise would have provided for varied story ideas spread across the paranormal spectrum.  Thayer David as the stone-faced caretaker provides the usual melodramatics as he struggles to keep the secret of Blaisedon from being discovered. If you've seen The Uninvited (1944), this will all seem familiar.

A Darkness at Blaisedon shows its age. In the opening, Fletcher and Sajeed examine a sarcophagus with a conveniently hinged lid, and throughout the production closeups are often executed abruptly. Still, Mathews in his cozy sweater and Bellini as the youthful and more daring assistant give it a charming dynamic that draws you into the mystery as they unravel it.

Thriller: The Complete Series

I'm thrilled. You will be, too. Boris Karloff's Thriller is finally coming to DVD. All the episodes on 14 discs. There are two episodes I especially look forward to: Pigeons From Hell and The Incredible Doktor Markesan. Both scarred me for life. But in a good, horror fan way.

Here's more information from Amazon. Release date is August 31st.

All 67 episodes--remastered, uncut and loaded with exclusive extras
27 new audio commentaries featuring Arthur Hiller, Patricia Barry, Ernest Dickerson, David Schow, Tim Lucas, Gary Gerani, Jim Wynorski, Richard Anderson, Lucy Chase Williams, Steve Mitchell, Marc Scott Zicree, Alan Brennert, Beverly Washburn, Larry Blamire, Jon Burlingame, Daniel Benton, Ron Borst, Craig Reardon
Extensive promotional and production still galleries
Rare episode promos
Thriller series promo
Isolated music and effects tracks for select episodes from composers Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens

Rod Serling's Walking Distance Still Quite a Distance

ZC Rating: 7 of 7 (Sublime)

MARTIN
(nods, slowly)
I see that now. But I don't understand. Why not?

ROBERT
(softly)
I guess because we only get one chance.
(a crooked smile)
Maybe there's only one summer to a customer.

The fifth scripted episode of the Twilight Zone, Walking Distance, written by Rod Serling, aired on October 30th, 1959. It concerns one Martin Sloan (Gig Young), age thirty-six, burned-out, fed up, and racing his expensive sports car into the distance where neither the direction nor time it will take is something he's sure of. He just wants out. What he wants out from is back there in New York City, the place he's racing away from. What he hopes to find is somewhere ahead of him, but it's still quite a distance away. How close he comes to finding it will be a little side trip; a brief moment of respite, bittersweet and soft to touch, but it will remain a little side trip nonetheless, because he still has quite a ways to go.

Call it the Golden Age, nostalgia, the uncluttered simplicity of childhood memories filled with cold ice cream eaten on hot summer days, endless bike rides, and sparse responsibilities making abundant time uniquely your own. We each have our own special slice of Golden Age pie gulped down deeply within us. Some may get a bigger piece, and for some it may not be as sweet, but it's there to be savored, especially during those grown-up times of inner turmoil and uncertainty when we long to go back for another taste.

Happy Town American Gothic Terror Returns to TV

The locals call us "The Bready." We happily employ 12 percent of Haplin's residents, and we are proud to make Haplin a place where the air is alive with the aroma of fresh baking bread, all the live-long day! Enjoy! (Our Daily, Baking and Confectionary, Haplin, MN)

ZC Rating 4 of 7: Very Good

Measure two fingers of sinister mystery from American Gothic, add a dash of Stephen Kingish small-town-hiding-dark-secrets, spice with serial murderer and missing people, stir in an all too quiet and aloof visitor, Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill), top off with a more recent visitor who's way too anxious to ascend the staircase leading to the dark third floor of the boarding house she's staying at, and finally dabble assorted bitters of quirky townsfolk and a sheriff and his son in over their heads. Shake it all violently, garnish liberally with tidbits of plot, then knock back this new series on ABC called Happy Town: it's quite a rush given the promise shown in this first episode, In This Home on Ice.

U.S. Stamps Honor Twilight Zone and Others

The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, appear on one of 20 first-class stamps released by the U.S. Post Office, featuring 1950's hit television shows. The stamps include images of Dragnet, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Lassie, The Lone Ranger, Ozzie and Harriet, Howdy Doody, and Perry Mason.

(Don't miss the Edgar Allan Poe 200th birthday commemorative stamp either.)

Here's the press info on the classic TV series:

One of America’s most revered canines was among 20 television icons that came out of retirement today to be honored on the U.S. Postal Service’s Early TV Memories 44-cent commemorative First-Class stamp sheet. Lassie participated in the first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony that took place at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood.

Masterpiece Theatre's Dracula (2007)

ZC Rating 1 of 7: Poor

Journal of Iloz Zoc

Feb 11. Westbury.— Oh, the horror!  In this age of reimaginings and adaptations based on mere fancy and egotistical hubris, to be subjected to this singular carriage-wreck of a teleplay is more than I can bear. What mind could conceive such a thing; to put pen to paper with such disregard, such wretched villainy, this version of Dracula, and to put Bram Stoker's name upon it? I hear the pounding now, like the beating of my racing heart, as he pummels the lid of his coffin, seeking retribution for this vile act. I feel faint. I must lie down.

Excerpt from issue of Victorian Variety — front page — Who Do This Voodoo? A Stinkeroo.

Feb 12. London.— From the What-Were-They-Thinking social club, comes this switch on the Stoker-coker pot-boiler, mangling Count Drac with so-called Brotherhood of the Undead and syphilis shenanigans. Poor Van Helsing reduced to switcheroo role with Harker, and becomes head vamp's captive, set free in last half-hour to lead lackluster wooden-stake charge against is-that-all-you've-got? blood-sucker in chamomile tea-paced climax.

Ninety minute walk-through-park story has Lord Holmwood contracting syph from over-sexed Dad, forcing him to postpone nuptials with hot-to-trot Lucy as he goes off to find cure from undead count using social ties with Brotherhood of the Undead, headed by a chap named Singleton, who dresses better than the count, clothed in simply gorgeous Freemason, secret society-style robe and hat.

Using Singleton as his go-between, Holmwood foots bill to have Dracula take longer than three-hour cruise to England aboard doomed ship Demeter. Due to minuscule budget, not much happens during faithful trip as the weather doesn't get rough and the good ship doesn't get tossed. Why does every film miss potential, terror-filled carnage aboard the Demeter? Then again, why bother writing this snooze-fest?

Chindi Speaks: The Dresden Files

Although I missed the premiere episode of The Dresden Files on the Sci Fi Channel, all-knowing, all-TV-viewing Chindi wrote up a review for us. And anyone who can use the word "nictitating" in a sentence can write a review for Zombos Closet anytime.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have not yet read Jim Butcher’s original fantasy books upon which the SCI FI Channel's new, original series, The Dresden Files, is based. I suppose that means I may have saved myself from the all too familiar disappointment when a TV adaptation fails to live up to the vision created by the author. On the other hand, I was quite taken with the premiere episode of The Dresden Files, “Birds of a Feather”.