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The phrase of “be careful what you wish for” is associated with W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw,” yet it doesn’t actually appear anywhere in the 1902 short story. The closest semblance is the line, “If you must wish, wish for something sensible.” That said, the more ubiquitous statement emphasizes the risk of tempting fate.

This one punishing lesson in resisting greed, taking responsibility, and exerting self-control has gone on to spawn numerous adaptations, both faithful and loose. From film to television, W. W. Jacobs’ cautionary tale has touched just about every form of entertainment since its birth.

And if the classic “The Monkey’s Paw” wasn’t enough to stop the allure of wish fulfillment, then perhaps these twenty other stories might do the trick.

Tales from the Crypt: Wish You Were Here (1972)

Image: Richard Greene and Barbara Murray in “Wish You Were Here” from Tales from the Crypt (1972).

Amicus Productions...

Stars: Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Jack Wild, Oliver Reed, Shani Wallis, Harry Secombe, Joseph O’Conor, Hugh Griffith, Peggy Mount, Leonard Rossiter, Hylda Baker, Kenneth Cranham, Megs Jenkins, Sheila White, Wensley Pithey, James Hayter, Elizabeth Knight, Fred Emney| Written by Vernon Harris | Directed by Carol Reed

Charles Dickens wrote some amazing tales during his lifetime. Think about A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield or the holiday classic A Christmas Carol. But in only his second novel, he wrote a tale that has and will forever live in our thoughts. Of course, I’m talking about the little parish boy Oliver Twist.

Charles Dickens’ little orphan boy Oliver’s life story has been adapted for film and TV more than 20 times. In 1968, Columbia Pictures brought the world an epic musical version of Oliver Twist in the film Oliver! This Academy Award-winning musical is rapidly approaching its 60th anniversary. Now, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment...

To celebrate the release of Worzel Gummidge: The Combined Harvest Edition on DVD and Blu-ray from 13th November, we’re giving away a Blu-Ray copy!

Revisit Jon Pertwee in his favourite role as Worzel Gummidge. Worzel Gummidge: The

Combined Harvest Edition includes the original 4 seasons of Worzel Gummidge, as well as the two-season series of Worzel Gummidge Down Under. Together for the first time fully restored from the original negatives and packed full with 312 mins (approx.) of incredible bonus material, both old and new….plus a bonus CD containing the soundtrack from the Original Series and the

later Down Under Series.

Walking, talking scarecrow Worzel Gummidge (Jon Pertwee) lives on Scatterbrook Farm, where he stands in Ten Acre field. When children John and Sue move to the countryside, they learn that life is never dull with Worzel around. The restless scarecrow dreams of a life away from his post in...

[This Halloween season, we're paying tribute to classic horror cinema by celebrating films released before 1970! Check back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic horror films, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Halloween 2019 special features!]

“Sometimes one can’t help… imagining things.” Released nearly 60 years ago, Jack Clayton’s The Innocents still remains one of the greatest psychologically charged horror movies ever. Anchored by an all-time performance by Deborah Kerr, whose fragile and frantic governess believes that the children in her care have become possessed by two ill-fated lovers who now utilize the juveniles as a means to continue to not only live on, but experience the joys of childhood once again, The Innocents set the bar for “evil kid” horror in 1961, and its legacy in that regard remains unmatched even now.

Based on playwright William Archibald’s adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the power of The Innocents lies in its ambiguity and its smothering atmosphere, as it explores the horrors of sexual repression in the Victorian era. The Innocents is also propelled by a palpable sense of paranoia that continues...

Welcome back for another week of horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases, readers! January 16th features plenty of intriguing offerings, from cult classics to sequels of cult classics to even a few recent films as well. If you happened to miss Blade Runner 2049, Happy Death Day, or The Snowman in theaters, all three are making their way home this Tuesday. Severin Films has put together The Amicus Collection (which features Asylum, And Now The Screaming Starts and The Beast Must Die), and Scream Factory is giving Eye of the Cat the Blu-ray treatment as well.

Beyond Skyline is also coming to Blu on January 16th, and for all you Joe Dante fans out there, Shout Select has put together a Collector’s Edition release of Matinee that looks like it’s a must-have.

The Amicus Collection (Severin Films, Blu-ray)

Known as The Studio That Dripped Blood, the British film...

Even 56 years after its original release, Jack Clayton’s 1961 gothic horror film The Innocents has lost none of its ability to disturb. Based on Henry James’ Victorian novella The Turn of the Screw, the film is shot in black and white in CinemaScope (a rare pairing of the two), its wide aspect ratio manipulated through the use of eerie lighting by cinematographer Freddie Francis. The film’s striking imagery is visceral, unsettling and hard to forget, but isn’t the only determinant in the tense atmosphere established within the film. The Innocents innovative soundtrack and sound design is responsible for much of the film’s creepy mood and it is showcased from the film’s very first frame.The Innocents opens with a completely blackened screen, a canvas of nothingness from which the sweet singing of a disembodied little girl suddenly emerges. Her gentle voice is heavily reverbed and amplified...

With Christmas now only a week away, there’s a big day of genre-related home entertainment releases to look forward to in the meantime, just in case you were in need of some last-minute gift ideas (or if you were looking to spoil yourself, which is totally cool). Easily my most anticipated Blu-ray release for all of 2017, Synapse Films' stunning 4K restoration of Suspiria gets the royal treatment via an incredible three-disc limited edition Steelbook set this Tuesday, and Severin Films is also keeping busy with their HD upgrade of The Amicus Collection, which includes Asylum, And Now The Screaming Starts, and The Beast Must Die.

Other notable Blu-ray and DVD releases for December 19th include American Gothic, Leatherface, mother!, and the limited edition Steelbook for Donnie Darko.

American Gothic (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

A new tale of terror from the director of The Legend of Hell House and The Incubus.

Severin Films will bring horror to the holidays this December with their box set of three 1970s movies from Amicus Productions, aka "The Studio That Dripped Blood."

Slated for a December 5th release, Severin Films' The Amicus Collection includes Blu-rays of Asylum, And Now the Screaming Starts, The Beast Must Die, and a bonus disc of interviews, trailers, and more.

Each remastered Blu-ray is packed with new special features that offer insights into the making of the movies and the creative minds behind each effort.

The Amicus Collection box set is priced at $54.99, and it's also available in a special bundle that includes a T-shirt, enamel pins, book, and artwork (for an overall price of $129.00). You can also pick up And Now the Screaming Starst and Asylum as individual Blu-rays for $24.99 apiece).

For more information about The Amicus Collection, we have the full release details, cover art images, and...

Ron Moody in Mel Brooks' 'The Twelve Chairs.' The 'Doctor Who' that never was. Ron Moody: 'Doctor Who' was biggest professional regret (See previous post: "Ron Moody: From Charles Dickens to Walt Disney – But No Harry Potter.") Ron Moody was featured in about 50 television productions, both in the U.K. and the U.S., from the late 1950s to 2012. These included guest roles in the series The Avengers, Gunsmoke, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, and Murder She Wrote, in addition to leads in the short-lived U.S. sitcom Nobody's Perfect (1980), starring Moody as a Scotland Yard detective transferred to the San Francisco Police Department, and in the British fantasy Into the Labyrinth (1981), with Moody as the noble sorcerer Rothgo. Throughout the decades, he could also be spotted in several TV movies, among them:[1] David Copperfield (1969). As Uriah Heep in this disappointing all-star showcase distributed theatrically in some countries.

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

Being that director Jack Clayton grew up with the misfortune of having no father figure, he grew up with a deep affinity for the Henry James novella he had read as a child called “The Turn of the Screw,” which features a pair of parentless siblings who endure not only the void left by their parents and their neglectful uncle, but the deaths of those most close to them in their governess Miss Jessel and their uncle’s valet, Peter Quint. Following the Academy attention getting success of his 1959 film Room at the Top, Clayton pursued the rights to “The Turn of the Screw” only to find that 20th Century Fox held them through the acquisition of William Archibald’s stage adaptation of the book, “The Innocents,” which he was happy to have his acquaintance Truman Capote adapt into a proper throwback southern gothic ghost story that subverted genre expectations...

Joan Fontaine movies: ‘This Above All,’ ‘Letter from an Unknown Woman’ (photo: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine in ‘Suspicion’ publicity image) (See previous post: “Joan Fontaine Today.”) Also tonight on Turner Classic Movies, Joan Fontaine can be seen in today’s lone TCM premiere, the flag-waving 20th Century Fox release The Above All (1942), with Fontaine as an aristocratic (but socially conscious) English Rose named Prudence Cathaway (Fontaine was born to British parents in Japan) and Fox’s top male star, Tyrone Power, as her Awol romantic interest. This Above All was directed by Anatole Litvak, who would guide Olivia de Havilland in the major box-office hit The Snake Pit (1948), which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nod. In Max Ophüls’ darkly romantic Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Fontaine delivers not only what is probably the greatest performance of her career, but also one of the greatest movie performances ever. Letter from an Unknown Woman...

By Amanda Reyes

In this newfound grey area of defined roles, or lack thereof, The Innocents delves into an exploration on dualism, showcasing both possible endings in one, because the reality of the ghosts and Miss Giddens’ apparent insanity do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. — Friedrich Nietzsche

All things truly wicked start from an innocence. — Ernest Hemingway

Henry James’ late nineteenth century novella “The Turn of the Screw” and Jack Clayton’s early 1960s cinematic adaptation The Innocents denotes both the broadness and intimacy of intertextuality. The Innocents is at once a devoted adaptation of James’ shocking horror story about corruption and yet, at the same time it becomes its own beast of repressed sexuality. The challenges presented...