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Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Backtalk Goes to the Movies–HALLOWEEN EVE

September is Halloween Eve in my house, but because the other residents are sensitive viewers, we'll probably just watch Over the Garden Wall for the nth year in a row. I do have a Horror Itch that needs scratching though. Had this transferred from a further branch and picked it up from the local library an hour or two ago:

Richard Straker doesn't do mornings. Richard Straker, are you me?

I haven't seen Salem's Lot since the miniseries premiered in 1979. I expect the Suck Fairy will have left her fingerprints all over it, but that's okay. Tobe Hooper, David Soul, James Mason, Bonnie Bedelia. Certain scenes from it, along with certain images from The Dawn of the Dead, The Shining, and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78) have stayed with me since childhood. When I say "stayed with", I mean "scared the crap out of" li'l SQRL. Other than The Shining, which I've watched more times than I can recall, I hadn't rewatched any of the others until very recently. I still adore them, although they don't terrify me anymore. 

But I've got to go pick up replacement retainers at the orthodontist,  go to the USPS and mail a package to college daughter, and take the high school daughter to her circus arts class later so I may not get to watch it today. I'll tap out a few words about the rewatch soonish enough though.

The remake premieres October 3 on MAX, and that's why I checked out the original now. Held back by those brainy cineastes at HBO for three(?) years, potentially permanently shelved for tax purposes like Batgirl was, even though Stephen King has seen it already and liked it (He's not actually had a great track record recommending adaptations of his own work, IMO). I don't have high expectations for it, but I recall enjoying the book and the original mini so I'm still looking forward to it, even though it looks to have more in common with 30 Days of Night than with the CBS mini:


There seem to be a couple of callbacks to the original series. And the song in the trailer – Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" – now has a sinister double meaning, particularly since the character of Mark Petrie is portrayed by a young Black actor in the remake. Jerusalem's Lot now feels like a Sundown town, a reading completely absent from the book and mini. We'll see.

Are there any scary movies you're looking forward to on Halloween Eve?

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