It's yet another Thursday, which means it's time for a new Thursday Movie Picks post, thanks to the blogger behind Wandering Through the Shelves. The theme of the week was horror TV-series and here are my picks.
Sleepy Hollow; Modern-day retelling of the short story from 1820.
Penny Dreadful; It plays around with classic horror stories and Victorian London.
Bates Motel; For the fans of the original Psycho movie.
Nice choices though I haven't seen any of them. I've been meaning to check out Sleepy Hollow and Penny Dreadful but there aren't enough hours in the day!
SvarSlettThis isn't really my field of interest but I managed to come up with three that I've enjoyed.
Dexter (2006-2013)-Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is a highly respected blood splatter expert with the Miami police department. He seems a little odd and secretive but his co-workers including his sister Deb know that in his past he had some traumatic experiences so they allow him some space. Thing is Dexter has a sideline that keeps him pretty busy off hours…he’s a serial killer who only pursues the evilest of men & women and disposes of them without a trace. Dark, dark comedy that intermingles gallows humor with gore, its absurdist viewpoint is greatly enhanced by Hall’s performance in the lead.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975)-Weathered persnickety Chicago newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) seems to have a real knack for stumbling across bizarre often ritualistic seeming deaths. Turns out that’s because Chicago is apparently a hotbed for every sort of supernatural being, witches, vampires, zombies etc. imaginable. Kolchak usually get to the bottom of each case but somehow can never quite make a believer out of his editor Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). One season series originated with two highly rated TV movies (the first earned a 54 share!), was stacked with familiar faces and had a twisty sense of humor mixed with its horror. The studio however never quite figured out how to market it and buried in a bad time slot.
Night Gallery (1970-1973)-Second anthology series by Rod Serling isn’t quite the masterpiece The Twilight Zone was but had many original memorable episodes. Unlike the original this usually contained two or even three shorter vignettes that leaned more often towards horror and the supernatural than science fiction. Thought neither as well-known nor as critically respected as the first it did create several famous episodes including “Green Fingers”, “The Diary”, They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar”, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow”, “Caterpillar” and “Whisper” starring a very young Sally Field among others. Originated with a TV movie that provided Steven Spielberg with his first directing gig in an episode starring Joan Crawford.