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It’s that time of year again when folks put out scary decorations and pumpkins, fill bowls with candy, and don costumes to blend in with the other ghosts and ghouls. Halloween is in the wind, and nothing quite gets this holiday’s observers in the festive mood better than watching horror.

Movies are the obvious route for experiencing horror at a safe distance, but the television side of the genre has also been a reliant as well as rich source of Halloween activity. And while anthologies can be sparing with tales set around October 31 — they don’t need a special occasion to get scary, after all — these select stories not only celebrate Halloween, they’re a reminder of its power over events and people.

Tales from the Darkside (1983-1988)

The Cutty Black Sow

With every new season of Tales from the Darkside, the series showed less and less straightforward frights.

Formerly only available via import, 88 Films are set to release to exploitation “classics” on Blu-ray this June 24th- Pets, from director Raphael Nussbaum and Star Time, the magnum opus from writer/director Alexander Cassini. Full details and artwork for both release are below; and you can pre-order both films at the following links: Pets | Star Time.

Pets

Teenage Runaway Bonnie (Candice Rialson) has escaped the clutches of her controlling brother, only to become immediately embroiled in a twisted web of sexual manipulation. Initially convinced to aid in a carjacking, Bonnie is then taken in by a lecherous lesbian artist who hopes to groom her into a sapphic lover, only to have her plans thwarted by the perverse advances of a local gallery owner whose bizarre proclivities include the keeping of an unusual assortment of ‘pets.’ A truly unparalleled exploitation film viewing experience, Raphael Nussbaum’s Pets veers between moments of...

We’re told that the first live- action feature film super-heroine was the marvelous Helen Slater, whose fine presence redeems this last film in the Salkind Superman franchise. CineSavant likes it for the right reasons — his very young kids adored it — but can see its turnip screenwriting and frayed corners showing through. The release combines a 125-minute Blu-ray with an overstuffed 139-minute DVD.

Supergirl

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1984 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 125 (Bd) & 139 (Sd) min. / Street Date July 24, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Faye Dunaway, Helen Slater, Peter O’Toole, Mia Farrow, Brenda Vaccaro, Peter Cook, Simon Ward, Marc McClure, Hart Bochner, Maureen Teefy.

Cinematography: Alan Hume

Film Editor: Malcolm Cooke

Visual Effects: Derek Meddings

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by David Odell

Produced by Timothy Burrill, Ilya Salkind

Directed by Jeannot Szwarc

I got caught up short about ten years ago when doing extras for the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Grease 2 has long unjustly suffered as a box office bomb and disappointing sequel. It’s actually even better than the classic Grease in many ways, at least when it comes to gender dynamics. Maxwell Caulfield plays Michael Carrington, a new student at Rydell high. He falls in love with Pink Lady Stephanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) who only dates T-Birds. So Michael creates a mysterious biker persona to woo her. Filmmaker Brian Herzlinger (My Date with Drew) assembled director Pat Birch and cast members Caulfield, Adrian Zmed, Leif Green, Christopher McDonald, Alison Price, Maureen Teefy, Liz Sagal and Jean Sagal for a […]

The post The Travolta/Newton John Cameo We Almost Got and 11 More Things We Learned From The Cast and Director Of Grease 2! appeared first on Monsters and Critics.

With Brandon Routh back in a DC-created superhero costume (as the Atom on Arrow), a new Supergirl show being teased for TV, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice less than a year from landing, it feels like a perfect time to revisit and rank all of Superman's live-action cinematic outings.

We've ordered them from worst to best, and you should probably brace yourselves for a few surprises along the way. So, whip off your glasses, run to your nearest phone-box, twirl around a bit, and then maybe put your glasses back on because you might need them if you want to read the following.

7. Superman Returns (2006)

Okay, so before you grab your Kryptonite pitchforks/aim your heat vision in our general direction because we've ranked Bryan Singer's Christ allegory below Christopher Reeve's attempt to secure world peace (which everyone else agrees was the nadir for the franchise), hear us out.

"It's better than a real school. It's free and you don't get raped in the hallways."

Fame is full of no-nonsense dialogue like that, earning its stripes by making art vikings out of its adult and teenage characters alike. "This isn't your dick you're holding," seethes a classical music teacher. "It's a violin bow!" Fabulous. Now we're talking real music.

It's hard to comprehend the thought process that resulted in this movie remade into a network television show and more recently a PG-rated cash-in. It's hard to comprehend because this 1980 original is an open, uncompromising R-rated movie by Alan Parker, director of controversial films such as Midnight Express, Pink Floyd's The Wall and Angel Heart. Fame follows the same rabble-rousing spirit of those films, depicting the school years of underprivileged and misunderstood kids who want to pursue their dreams of being performers—be it dancers, musicians, actors or stand-up comedians.

What may be most shocking about the 2009 remake of Fame is that it really is a remake. And with the release of both the 1980 original and remake now on Blu-ray, a quick compare and contrast can be done. Both films follow a group of students (in 1980, Maureen Teefy, Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, and Barry Miller are the stand outs, in 2009, it’s Kay Panabaker, Naturi Naughton, Walter Perez, and Paul Iacono) through their four years at a prestigious New York performance arts school where they learn to act, sing and dance. My Reviews of both versions of Fame after the jump.

In 1980, Alan Parker’s film must have been seen as a slice of life kind of thing. Half realism, half-playtime, it’s about a group of kids as they come up and the life lessons they get about being a performer. For one (Maureen Teefy) it’s realizing that...

The 1980 Alan Parker drama/musical Fame catapulted all of its young actors into the stratosphere of superstardom. Irene Cara, Gene Anthony Ray, Laura Dean, Maureen Teefy, Lee Curreri, Antonia Franceschi, Barry Miller, and Paul McCrane all became huge stars for years. Or maybe they didn't, it's so hard to remember. I think a couple of them ended up on the television series based on the movie and one guy was on E.R., maybe. That's not going to discourage the stars of the upcoming remake of Fame, though. You many have not heard of these guys, yet, but there names will be as common as Lee Curreri and Maureen Teefy soon. Hr says MGM has lined up the lead cast for director/choreographer Kevin Tancharoen's remake. Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono, Paul McGill, Naturi Naughton, Kay Panabaker, Kherington Payne, Collins Pennie, Walter Perez and Anna Maria Perez de Tagle will portray...