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Stars: Frankie Muniz, Jackie Moore, Chelsea Edmundson, Ravi Patel, Blake Webb, Alexander Ward, Colby French, Cullen Douglas, Laura Richardson, Mary K. DeVault | Written by Richard Handley, Brian Hanson | Directed by Brian Hanson

Lonely slacker Jonathan is stuck working night shifts at a convenience store. When he goes on a blind date with a strange woman, his world suddenly begins to unravel in horrifying fashion. Plagued by paranoia, illness and nightmarish visions, he desperately searches the suburbs for the mysterious seductress. His friends and family believe he’s losing his mind, but he believes he’s the target of a sinister occult plot.

The Black String comes from director Brian Hanson, who also co-wrote the film with Richard Handley – who also stars in the film as Dr. Ronaldi. For both this is their first feature, with Handley having penned some shorts previously. However in the case of Hanson is his first film period.

Terry O'Quinn as Gavin Doran in "666 Park Avenue" (ABC/Andrew Eccles)

ABC‘s slate of new shows for fall has a strange flavor to it, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. The network has about as many new shows as returning ones (if you count all the midseasons), and a good percentage of the returning offerings are a year old or less, making this look a bit like a rebuilding year.

Not only is it a rebuilding year, but it’s the year of bringing back every actor and actress who ever had a decent run on a show before. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a network’s new season slate that was so crammed with people returning from something else. If you can’t make it good, I suppose, make sure viewers recognize the faces.

It’s tricky to get a solid feel...

Yesterday was ABC‘s turn for upfront presentations, which meant that yesterday morning the network released its fall schedule and more detailed information about its new 2012-2013 series. We’ve been watching the development of 666 Park Avenue starring Terry O’Quinn for some time now, and had been keeping an eye on the alien comedy The Neighbors, but we got a wonderful surprise today when we saw the full description of midseason (meaning 2013) series Zero Hour starring Anthony Edwards.

We had been told that he played a skeptic whose wife gets abducted, but happily, as we found today, he is a “confessed paranormal junkie” and that he will be running ”a breathless race against the clock to find his wife and save humanity.” Ooo, save humanity! It’s also said to be a DaVinci Code-type hunt with ancient clues. What sealed it for me was the trailer, which we have for you.