Stephen Hopkins slips into the director’s chair for the fifth installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Despite having vanquished him in the previous film, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is back and Alice (Lisa Wilcox) doesn’t know how to stop because she doesn’t understand how he can be back. The viewer puts it together…
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981) – The Guardians, and Mark of the Saurian
Buck (Gil Gerard) and the crew of the Search have an interesting encounter this week when they become The Guardians. Written by Paul and Margaret Schneider this episode was first broadcast on 29 January, 1981. After a strange encounter with a dying man, who claims to have been waiting for Buck, Hawk (Thom Christopher) and…
Mission: Impossible (1971) – The Merchant, and Blind
Season five of Mission: Impossible came to an end on 17 March, 1971 with The Merchant. Written by Harold Livingston, the episode marked the final appearance of both Dana (Lesley Ann Warren) and Paris (Leonard Nimoy). Phelps (Peter Graves) allows himself to be captured so that he can ingratiate himself with Armand Andressarian (George Sanders)…
Gwendy’s Magic Feather (2019) – Richard Chizmar
Richard Chizmar takes us back to Castle Rock with Gwendy Peterson in the follow-up to the novella Gwendy’s Button Box. Fellow author Stephen King doesn’t lend a hand this time but gives the story his endorsement and we join Gwendy, now a Congresswoman for Maine as she returns to Castle Rock to see her parents,…
Gwendy’s Button Box (2017) – Richard Chizmar, and Stephen King
I’m always delighted to dig into a Stephen King story. Equally so when it takes me back to Castle Rock (not sure I’d want to visit Derry anytime soon). He pairs up with author Richard Chizmarto to deliver a unique coming-of-age tale. Gwendy Peterson is a young girl who encounters the enigmatic and vaguely unnerving…
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) – Sam Raimi
Sam Raimi returns to the superhero genre and tinges it with his sense of horror with Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Benedict Cumberbatch returns as the titular Strange as well as multiple versions of the famed sorcerer as he confronts a danger that threatens the whole of the multiverse. Raimi brings his…
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981) – Journey to Oasis
Mark Lenard guest stars in the second feature length instalment of what is Buck Rogers derided second season. Written by Bob Mitchell, this double episode first aired on 22 January, 1981, and sees Buck (Gil Gerard) leading a party – despite the presence of a higher ranking officer, COLONEL Wilma Deering (Erin Gray) in the…
Moonfall (2022) – Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich seems to really enjoy putting global destruction, and cardboard characters on the screen, and Moonfall is no different, but unlike 2012 , and Independence Day: Resurgence this one actually like a lot of fun, though there’s a bit of a stumble with the last third of the film, though there may have been…
The McPherson Tape (1989) – Dean Alioto
The idea of alien abduction has always gotten under my skin and made me anxious, and occasionally freaked out. Other corners of the horror genre can freak me, but I can usually deal with it easily, processing it and enjoying it for what it is. But there’s something about the concept of an intelligence so…
M*A*S*H (1981) – The Life You Save, and That’s Show Biz
Alan Alda directs the final episode of the ninth season, which he co-wrote with John Rappaport and had an original airdate of 4 May, 1981. While all the medical staff are given administrative duties around the camp, which illustrate how inane some Army regulations can be, Winchester (David Ogden Stiers) has a trial of the…
