I just watched Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) and I was thinking of other really good made for TV horror movies. Here are a few that I think are great:
Salem’s Lot (1979)
The Woman in Black (1989)
Don’t Go to Sleep (1982)
Does anyone remember the pizza cutter scene from Don’t Go to Sleep? That scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.
Please post if you know of any other good made for TV horror.
How about Tales From the Darkside, 1983-1988?
shareI had forgotten about those. If I remember right, the intro had some really spooky trees in it when the title is on screen. I really don’t remember any of the stories though.
Ill look the episodes up. 👍
Have to include The Night Stalker (the two movies & the series) & Friday the 13th: the Series
shareYes, Mrmojo, yes with this thread!
All three of these are great. Yes I definitely remember the 'za cutter. : )
I actually recently ripped the audio track from Don't Go to Sleep and it's been on rotation.
I'm very, very about 80s and earlier TV horror, even the not so great ones. Something about the grey soup of spooky moods and moments that sticks vaguely in your memory, getting mixed up and half misremembered after seeing so many hundreds of them is inspiring to me. I treat them in general like wallpaper. If I need something on in the background it's probably an old tv horror movie. But there are some that stand out. I admit I can't tell if any of these are actually good (probably not) or if I just have a pet fascination with this sort of music and atmosfear.
One of my faves is Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973). The atmosfear is so autumnally, fever dreamily creepy and kitsch. Like most of the ones I'm most into it's the sort of thing that would be terrifying through the eyes of a child. It should be pretty easy to find on putlocker/openload/whatev.
db Mentioned Tales From the Darkside, which is one of my favorite things ever. Highly recommended. If you have Shudder they have all of the episodes.
The Peanut Butter Solution, Satan's School for Girls, The Babysitter, The World Beyond, The Night Stalker, When Michael Calls, and on and on into the blurry porridge of endless TV horror. I've found there are some good Youtube channels for this stuff, like TVTERRORLAND and TheBurialGround5 if you ever need to inundate yourself with grey, fuzzy feverdreamery...
I checked out a few clips from Don’t be Afraid if the Dark and I have somehow missed that entry along the way so I’ll be looking for a way to see it soon. I love the feel of that type of movie.
I do subscribe to TVTERRORLAND and several other genre YouTube channels but I’ve never heard of TheBurialGround5. I wonder if it’s inspired by the film Italian film Burial Ground: Nights of Terror. That’s a wacky one.
Maybe! Love Burial Ground. It's wacky to say the least. How about that scene where a horde of zombies crawl up to a girl's balcony at night, one of them throws ninja stars at her hands, impaling them to the moulding, and she's stuck there just screaming for minutes while the zombies slowly boost one of them up who is wielding a scythe, who then proceeds to slice her head off with all the force of a falling feather like it's made of ice cream lol.
Here's that channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgZF-0Kv_jNd0LJTxzAwRvw/featured
I have always thought that scene was so bizarre for all those reasons but I’ve never had anyone describe it in such terms or so accurately. I will think of the force of the falling feather when I see the scythe from now on.
I recently got into all the Italian euro crime films of the 70’s and I was watching one called Cry of a Prostitute (1974) and it just seemed extra weird and brutal. I looked it up and it’s directed by Andrea Bianchi who also directed Burial Ground. It’s so funny that his weirdness shined through even in a police / mafia drama. Lol
😂 It's kind of like this: https://media.tenor.com/images/3c6862139aadbcf5a75fe74b7307ccfa/tenor.gif
Also man the score is great on Burial Ground. Just total abstract synth noise at times. Really amps up the psychedelia.
Cry of a Prostitute (1974)
The Shining was remade in 97 as a three part ABC mini-series
It was truer to the novel but not as good as the Kubrick version
On the subject of Stevey K miniseries, I think the Langoliers was pretty good up until you actually see the Langoliers. Storm of the Century was a vibe too.
shareI found the ending to The Langoliers to be abrupt and unsatisfying in both the novel and the series
I can't recall much about Storm...I saw it once years ago
There are loads of great made for TV Horror Movies out there, From the older classics from pre 1980's like Duel, Trilogy of Terror, Crawlspace up to the modern day syfy channel type movies (There are literally hundreds made. but only about a 50% are enjoyable) There is also an increasing number of good horror themed TV series. Some that I would suggest to a horror anthology fan are:
Tales From The Crypt
Tales From The Darkside
Fear Itself
Friday the 13th
Masters Of Horror
The Twilight Zone
Slasher
Monsters
Night Visions
Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
Great informative first post MrRipEager. I hope you stay around. 👍
shareWhat did you think of the remake of The Woman in Black? Most people who love the original can't stand the remake, so I'm curious if you feel the same way.
Not the same kind of horror you're talking about but Spielberg's 1971 Duel is superb, and terrifying.
I am not sure who your message was aimed at, but since you referred to a film I mentioned, I'll throw in my 2 cents, I don't know If I have seen the original tbh. But it seems to be a common trend with films that get remade for the cinema audience from tv. I personally love the original IT mini series (Yes the one with the weird spider monster at the end) and can't stand the new feature films released at the cinema. I believe that it also has to do with the nostalgia we feel when we watch something that we enjoyed years earlier, but there are very few and far between remakes that surpass the originals. When will Hollywood learn that the films budget doesn't improve or add anything to the original story. If they spent half as much money on adapting original stories as they do rehashing them, then they will end up creating new successful franchises instead of just creating something that will blemish an existing one.
Another good made for TV Horror movie is Maximum Overdrive.
I was asking the OP but I'm happy to have your thoughts on this too :)
"I believe that it also has to do with the nostalgia we feel when we watch something that we enjoyed years earlier, but there are very few and far between remakes that surpass the originals."
Yes, part of it's nostalgia, and a strong positive first impression we don't like feeling is going to be usurped in some way. Very true, few remakes surpass the originals, although very occasionally it happens, to the point where the original is forgotten.
"When will Hollywood learn that the films budget doesn't improve or add anything to the original story. If they spent half as much money on adapting original stories as they do rehashing them, then they will end up creating new successful franchises instead of just creating something that will blemish an existing one."
Totally agree. The last 10 years have been riddled with remakes and reboots. Too few are willing to risk making excellent original films. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of even the word "franchise" at this point.
The original Woman in Black is one of my favorite horror films and I saw it for the first time only within the last few years. I think I had actually seen the remake before the original and had just blown the remake off as another jump scare horror film.
I truly love the atmosphere and sense of dread the original creates. So yes, I doubt I’ll ever watch the remake again and the original is in my DVD collection. If I remember correctly I paid 50 dollars for it because it’s a rare one. I’ll check eBay and see what’s out there now.
I only saw the original within the past few years too, and after I saw the remake.
I liked them both a lot. Each has their pros and cons, and both are very atmospheric. There are things I liked about the way the main character were handled in both. I also thought the endings were weak, but hey, I can't complain too much about movies that were so successful in creating a believable (and creepy) atmosphere.
I'm surprised it's not more easily available. It has a very avid following.
If you could only have one movie which one would you choose?
The original needs another DVD release for sure. I checked EBay and there weren’t any for sale in the US and only 2 copies for sale abroad.
Tough question, having to choose between them. Honestly, when I tally up the pluses and minuses, it's a dead heat.
There's an opportunity for someone. A new release of it would sell well and reliably.