It is 27 October. There are 4 days until Halloween.

Over the past few years, I’ve rediscovered an appreciation and a love for the made-for-TV movie. Thanks in large part to Amanda Reyes’s podcast, Made-for-TV Mayhem, and her book, Are You in the House Alone?: A TV Movie Compendium 1964-1999, I think a lot of other people are, too.

Since listening to Ms. Reyes’s podcast, I’ve gone back and re-watched some old favorites and discovered more than few new ones like...

FACE OF EVIL!!!

Far from being a poor relation to the feature film, the made-for-TV movie has a lot going for it. For one thing, the running time is just right. Most made-for-TV movies come in at around 75-90 minutes. That means that there isn’t a lot of time for fooling around. Every scene has to forward the plot/story in some way. Another reason to enjoy made-for-TV movies is that there are loads of roles for older actors. Whereas most feature films tended to skew younger in cast and viewers, the made-for-TV movie was a wonderful chance to see veteran actors strut their stuff and do what they do best. Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson, and Barbara Stanwyck all performed memorably on TV.

Although made-for-TV movies were made in a variety of genres, it’s the thrillers and horror films that people tend to remember most fondly. I still recall watching Dark Night of the Scarecrow when it aired in 1981. It scared the pants off of me!

Just as scary as the actual movie sometimes was the TV spot advertising it. You’d catch sight of what was to come and listen to Ernie Anderson’s voiceover, and you couldn’t wait for it to hit the airwaves.

Home for the Holidays (1972), dir. by John Llewellyn Moxey

Killdozer (1974), dir. by Jerry London

Trilogy of Terror (1975), dir. by Dan Curtis

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978), dir. by Leo Penn

I urge any of you who liked Midsommar by Ari Aster to read Thomas Tryon's novel, Harvest Home. You can thank me later.

The Initiation of Sarah (1978), dir. by Robert Day

The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978), dir. by Steven Hilliard Stern

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978), dir. by Curtis Harrington

Cliffhangers (1979), various directors

Not a made-for-TV movie, I know, but still pretty great!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980), dir. by Henning Schellerup

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981), dir. by Frank De Felitta

This House Possessed (1981), dir. by William Wiard

Deadly Messages (1985), dir. by Jack Bender

The Midnight Hour (1985), dir. by Jack Bender

Ol' Jack was a busy boy in 1985. The Midnight Hour AND Deadly Messages?! C'mon!

The Haunting of Sarah Hardy (1989), dir. by Jerry London

Women named Sarah don't seem to make out well in made-for-TV movies. Between being initiated and haunted, poor Sarah is not having a good time.

It is 6 October. There are 25 days until Halloween.

One of the (many) criticisms levied against television is that it erodes attention spans. That was certainly the case in the 1980s. Growing up, all I heard was people belly-aching that the quick-cut, high-speed editing techniques of MTV and other television networks aimed at “the kids” was weakening the abilities of those who watched their pablum to focus, to concentrate on the task at hand, to…to…

…is that a squirrel wearing a Halloween mask?

Where was I?

Oh, yeah…shortening attention spans…

On the other hand, keeping the attention of MTV viewers taught a generation of writers, directors, and editors to cut the fat, to trim away the unnecessary bits and stick to lean, bite-sized chunks of information. Those unable to reduce what they had to say to a more manageable size dared the viewer to do her worst – to switch channels!

The movie trailer was one such slab of information that needed to be trimmed down to fit on the end of a fork for easy TV digestibility. There was no time to engage in high-falutin’ “artistry.” Not a second could be wasted if you wanted the viewer to look forward to what was coming this Friday to a theater near them!

If you watched TV in the 1980s, then you know that horror was king, and the undisputed champion of the genre was Stephen King. It seemed that everything that King signed his name to was fodder for the movies and TV. In some cases, the 30-second TV spot had more pace, was more exciting, and made more sense than the movie it advertised. Speaking for myself, I know my skin crawled when the TV spot for Maximum Overdrive came on the air. Yeardley Smith screaming “What is going on?!” over that pulsating, synth-driven score made me break out into gooseflesh. Quite a different experience when I actually got to see the movie.

So, let’s celebrate the condensed horrors of the TV spot by looking at how the films of Stephen King were sold to TV viewers in the 1980s. The films themselves were sometimes good and sometimes bad, but the mini movies of the 30-second TV spot were all pure gold.

The Shining (1980), dir. by Stanley Kubrick

Creepshow (1982), dir. by George A. Romero

Cujo (1983), dir. by Lewis Teague

The Dead Zone (1983), dir. by David Cronenberg

Christine (1983), dir. by John Carpenter

Children of the Corn (1984), dir. by Fritz Kiersch

Firestarter (1984), dir. by Mark L. Lester

Cat's Eye (1985), dir. by Lewis Teague

Silver Bullet (1985), dir. by Dan Attias

Maximum Overdrive (1986), dir. by Stephen King

Stand By Me (1986), dir. by Rob Reiner

Creepshow 2 (1987), dir. by Michael Gornick

The Running Man (1987), dir. by Paul Michael Glaser

Pet Sematary ( 1989), dir. by Mary Lambert

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

No, just because the stores have started to celebrate Christmas doesn’t mean I have. Christmas stopped being a big deal for me ‘round about the time I became more excited to find a pair of socks in my stocking instead of a Star Wars action figure. The most wonderful time of year that I am alluding to is centered around eating candy, wearing masks in public, watching tons of movies, and getting the pants scared off of you.

Hmmm. It seems that Halloween and life in 2020 have a lot in common. I guess COVID is just another of life’s drear events that horror movies prepared me for.

Normally, I would be spending the coming month posting all sorts of spooky nonsense on Facebook for my friends and family. Having recently left Facebook for good, however, my celebration of Halloween will take place here at LARPing Real Life. So, for the next thirty days, I want to share some Halloween memories, movies, and stories with you.

As someone who read the HBO guide religiously as a kid, marking off every airing of every film that promised adult situations, adult language, and graphic violence, I thought I’d give you a schedule of sorts so you can tune in when you want. Here’s what you can expect for the next month:

• Thursdays will be all about my personal feelings and remembrances of Halloween.
• Fridays you’ll get a spooky movie.
• Saturdays will bring a short story (maybe even one of my own!)
• Sundays we’ll listen to an old-time radio program or new-fangled audio drama podcast.
• Mondays we’ll listen to music.
• Tuesdays are for movie trailers and tv spots.
• Wednesdays are wild cards. I have no idea what we’ll do!

Honestly, I hope I can complete this project and make it through to Halloween in one piece. Being a very slow writer, this is going to be quite the gauntlet for me. I am, hopefully, setting myself up to succeed. Unlike the other writings you’ll find on LARPing Real Life, my Halloween posts will be short, sweet, and to the point (if they even have one). I want them to be more like the oral tales you tell around the campfire. They won’t be anything you’ll have to spend too much time with, but, hopefully like those fireside stories of old, they’ll affect you and stick with you.

So, get ready, folks, the show is about to begin!