Jamie Hankins is dating Keri Johnson. The leader of a notorious road racing gang has claimed Keri for himself, however, and decides to eliminate the competition. Jamie is brutally murdered and his body set ablaze in a fiery car crash. Now, Jamie was no good guy in life, and upon his arrival in Hell, he makes a pact with the devil to exchange the souls of every gang member responsible for his death, in exchange for his own soul’s release.

Jamie returns to Earth as Jake; the driver of the hottest car ever built. One by one, he eggs members of the gang into races, where he emerges victorious and the loser ends up dead; his eyes missing. This is a sure sign they have been sent back to Hell. Each time a gang member is killed, a mysterious brace disappears. Once the last member is dead, the final brace is gone, and Jake/Jamie is free once more.

It was adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt. It was also made into a TV movie in 1989, based on a screenplay by the distinguished film and television writer Nigel Kneale, best known as the creator of the Quatermass science-fiction serials.

The stage play was first performed at the Theatre-by-the-Sea in Scarborough, UK in 1987. It was very well received and moved to the Fortune Theatre in London’s West End in 1989 where it still runs today, as well as at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley. The stage play is notable for having a very small cast, but it remains a popular and chilling theatre experience.

Watcher deals with a family moving into a nice new home near the woods. Bette Davis, the previous owner of the house, still lives on the grounds and becomes interested in the older daughter, Jan, who reminds her of her daughter who had disappeared under bizarre circumstances in the woods many years ago. Jan starts to notice bizarre goings on with the woods like flashing lights, eerie messages from her younger sister, and images of a blindfolded girl who seems to be begging for help. This starts Jan on an investigation to find out what happened to this girl and how to help her, whether she’s alive or dead. This movie was quite good, and with alot of the plot points I can’t help but think that recent movies like The Ring, Stir of Echoes, or any of the other billion movies that deal with a ghostly child, have in some part been influenced by this movie. This manages a great sense of spookiness throughout with practically zero violence or death.

You’re not gonna be lying trembling under a blanket with fear crying for mommy or anything, but to create spookiness with what is practically G-rated material is impressive. Then in the last five minutes or so of the film, there’s a big zinger thrown at you that shifts the entire plot. This twist, which jumps right into sci-fi almost, may seem a bit corny, but you gotta admit it’s original. This forgotten classic from the Wonderful World of Disney is well worth checking out.

Like any great theme ride, you must have a feature, or in the case of this movie….Three! Ozzy “The Self-Proclaimed Prince Of Darkness” Osbourne as a Baptist Preacher protesting the very music which he helped to make famous throughout the world was a total hoot! I laughed until I cried in seeing him “dolled up” in such a ludicrous role. Gene Simmons, of KISS fame, as “Nuke”, an overworked disk-jockey whom befriends the anti-hero in this film was an absolute pleasure (must have been his vacation).

Then there was the performance of Tony Fields as the “Devil Worshipping” rocker who comes back from the dead to gain revenge on a small town that refuses him a gig at the local High School’s Halloween Dance, total hillarity! While the primise of this film are totally ludacrous, the music spells out the time in which this film was made. Poinient and precise is all I can say about the soudtrack which was masterfully performed by the band Fastway!
If one listens to the soundtrack closely one can get the meaning of each and every song!

The soundtrack follows in the footsteps of the band W.A.S.P. and thier movement against the “Washington Wives” and all of those “Parental Advisory” stickers we now see on music and movies today. Censorship in any format is wrong and this “Horror Parody” proves as such!

The film tells the story of a writer, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), who accepts the job of the winter caretaker at a hotel which always gets snowed in during the winter. While his family looks around the hotel during closing day, the psychic hotel chef discovers the psychic abilities of Jack’s son Danny, and Danny’s ability to detect ghostly presences in the hotel. In the chef’s family, this ability is called “shining”. When the hotel becomes snowbound, Jack Torrance is driven mad by the ghosts in the hotel, and he tries to murder his wife and son.

Initial response to the film was mixed, and it performed moderately at the box office. Subsequent critical assessment of the film has been more favorable, and it is now viewed as a classic of the horror genre. The novel’s author Stephen King had very conflicted feelings about it (see Reception and Comparison with the Book) which have oscillated over time. He produced a TV mini-series remake in 1997.

Plot

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) arrives at the Overlook Hotel for a job interview. Manager Stuart Ullmann (Barry Nelson) warns him that the previous caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and himself during the long winter in which the hotel is entirely isolated. The hotel itself is built on the site of an Indian burial ground. Jack’s son Danny (Danny Lloyd) has had terrifying premonitions about the hotel. His mother, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), tells a visiting doctor about Danny’s imaginary friend ‘Tony’, and that Jack, her husband, had given up drinking because he had physically abused Danny after a binge.

The family arrives at the hotel on closing day, and is given a tour. The elderly African-American chef, Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers), surprises Danny by speaking to him telepathically and inviting him for an ice cream. He explains to Danny that he and his grandmother shared the gift; they called the communication “shining”. Danny asks if there is anything to be afraid of in the hotel, particularly Room 237. Dick tells Danny that the hotel has a certain “shine” to it and many memories, not all of them good, and advises him to stay out of the hotel rooms.

A month goes by; Jack’s writing project is going nowhere, Wendy is concerned about the phone lines being out due to the snow storm, and Danny is having more frightening visions. Jack tells Danny that he genuinely loves and cares for him, and that he would like to stay in the hotel forever.

Danny’s curiosity about Room 237 finally gets the better of him when he sees the room has been opened. Meanwhile, Jack confesses to Wendy that he’s had a nightmare in which he killed her and Danny; immediately after this, Danny shows up injured and visibly traumatized. Wendy thinks Jack has been abusing Danny again. Jack wanders into the hotel’s Gold Room where he meets a ghostly bartender who serves him alcohol. Jack complains to the bartender about his difficulties in his relationship with Wendy. Wendy shows up and apologizes for accusing Jack, explaining that Danny told her a “crazy woman in Room 237″ was responsible for his injuries.

In Florida, Dick Hallorann gets a premonition that something is wrong at the hotel. Jack investigates Room 237 and has an encounter with the ghost of a dead woman there, but tells Wendy he saw nothing. Wendy and Jack argue violently about whether Danny should be removed from the hotel, and Jack returns to the Gold Room, now filled with ghosts having a costume party. Here he meets the ghost of the previous caretaker, Delbert Grady (Philip Stone), who tells Jack that he has to ‘correct’ his wife and child.

Danny starts calling out the word “redrum” frantically, and scribbling it on walls. He goes into a trance, and withdraws; he now says that he is Tony, his own “imaginary friend.” Jack sabotages the hotel radio, cutting off communication from the outside world, but Halloran has received Danny’s telepathic cry for help and is on his way.

Wendy discovers that Jack has been typing endless pages of manuscript repeating “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” formatted in various ways. Horrified, she confronts Jack, he threatens her and she knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat, locking him in a storage locker in the kitchen, but Grady releases him.

Danny has written “Redrum” in lipstick on the door of Wendy’s bedroom. When she looks in the mirror, she sees that it is “Murder” spelled backwards. Jack picks up an axe and begins to chop through the door leading to his family’s living quarters. In a frantic maneuver, Wendy sends Danny out through the bathroom window but Wendy can’t escape the same way because the window sticks half-way. Jack then starts chopping the bathroom door down with the axe. When Jack has almost hacked his way through, he pushes his face into the splintered wood and calls “Here’s Johnny!” with homicidal intent. As Jack unlocks the door, Wendy swipes at his hand with a butcher knife; Jack backs off and starts prowling around the hotel. Hallorann enters, but is killed by Jack, who then chases Danny into the hedge maze. Danny manages to evade his father by walking backwards in his own tracks — a trick formerly used by Native Americans. Wendy and Danny escape in Hallorann’s vehicle, while Jack freezes to death in the hedge maze. The final shot of the movie is of an old photograph taken at the hotel on July 4, 1921 in which Jack Torrance is clearly visible while Midnight, the Stars and You is being played through the hallways.

Heather O’Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein were the only original cast members to return. However, the former died before production had finished.

Plot

Between the second and third films, the Freeling family has sent Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) to live with her Aunt Pat (Nancy Allen) (whom Carol Anne insists on calling Trish, a common nickname for Patricia; this is important later in the film as a way of identifying an impostor Carol Anne) and Uncle Bruce Gardner (Tom Skerritt). Along with Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle), Bruce’s daughter from a previous marriage, they live in the luxury skyscraper of which Bruce is the manager. Pat is the sister of Diane, Carol Anne’s mother. Carol Anne has been told she is in Chicago temporarily to attend a unique school for gifted children with emotional problems (though Pat thinks it’s because Steve and Diane just wanted Carol Anne out of their house). Pat seems to have no idea about the events of the first two films, just noting that Steven was involved in a bad land deal.

At school that day, we find that Carol Anne has been made by her teacher/psychiatrist, Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire), to discuss her experiences from the first and second movies for a number of months, and this has had the effect of bringing Kane back from the limbo he was sent to in the second film. Dr. Seaton, having never experienced the supernatural, believes that Carol Anne is simply a manipulative child who has created something of a mass psychosis within her family, falsely making them believe they were attacked by ghosts. Kane (Nathan Davis) makes his presence known by draining the high rise of heat, and taking possession of the character’s reflections in mirrors, causing the reflections to act independently of their counterparts in the real world.

When Carol Anne is left alone that night, Kane attempts to use the mirrors in her room to capture her, but she escapes with Tangina’s help. Also during this period, Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) also realizes that Kane is back, and travels cross country to protect Carol Anne. Donna and her boyfriend, Scott, see a frightened Carol Anne running through the high rise’s parking lot, and move to rescue her. However, before they can, all three are taken to the Other Side by Kane. By this point, Tangina and Dr. Seaton, are both on the scene, along with Trish and Bruce. Dr. Seaton believes that Carol Anne has simply staged the entire thing, while Tangina tries to get her back. Scott is seemingly released from the Other Side through a pool in the high rise, and Donna reappears after Tangina is taken by Kane disguised as Carol Anne. Scott is left at his home with his parents. No one seems to notice at this point that the symbols on Donna’s clothing are all reversed from what they were before she was taken. As Dr. Seaton attempts to calm Donna, Bruce sees Carol Anne’s reflection in the mirror and chases it while Pat follows. Dr. Seaton is not far behind, and he believes he sees Carol Anne in the elevator. This turns out to be a trap though when Donna appears behind him and pushes him into the empty elevator shaft. It is revealed at this point that Donna did not actually come back, but rather the person who came back was an evil undead reflection of Donna who then vanishes back into the mirror, with an evil reflection of Scott at her side. Pat and Bruce try to find Carol Anne, but Bruce is captured and eventually Pat is forced to prove her love for Carol Anne in a final face off with Kane.

The ending is somewhat unclear, but Tangina manages to convince Kane to go into the Light with her, and Donna, Bruce and Carol Anne are returned to Pat. Scott’s fate is never revealed, whereas we can assume he may be still trapped on the Other Side. The final shot of the film does make clear that Kane was not defeated; we see a long shot of the building, and then lightning hits it. We then hear Kane’s laugh.

Plot

This sequel explains in much greater detail why Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) was targeted in the first film. As it turns out, the Freelings’ house in the first movie was built over a massive underground cavern that was the final resting place of a utopian cult that died there in the early 1800s. This cavern was below the graveyard that wasn’t relocated in the first film. The cult was led by Reverend Henry Kane (Julian Beck), a power hungry zealot anxious to control the souls of his followers in both life and death.

Kane told his followers that the end of the world was coming, and they dutifully followed him into the cavern. However, the day he predicted it would all end came and went, but he never let his “flock” out of the cavern, and eventually, they all died. Since his death, Kane became the Beast, which absorbed the spirits of its followers.

The second film begins one year after the events of the first film, with the discovery of this cave by a ground crew, and its existence is revealed to Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), the psychic from the first film that “cleaned” the house that is now missing. She also tells Taylor (Will Sampson), an American Indian shaman whose connection to Kane is hinted at but never fully explained (when Kane comes to the Freelings’ home and tries turning Steve against Taylor, Steve (Craig T. Nelson) acknowledges that Taylor is there by name, and Kane quietly laughs and says “So that’s what he calls himself now”). After investigating the cave for himself, Taylor realizes Kane has located Carol Anne and goes to defend her.

The Freeling family have relocated to Phoenix, Arizona and now live in a house with Diane’s (JoBeth Williams) mom, Jessica “Gramma Jess” Wilson (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Having lost his real estate license, Steve is reduced to selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door while filing repeated insurance claims to cover the missing home. Grandma Jess is highly clairvoyant, and reveals that Diane and Carol Anne are too. Luckily, Grandma Jess is powerful, and it is her life force that protects the family from Kane and the other spirits, as long as she remains alive.

Eventually, Grandma Jess dies from natural causes, but not before telling Diane one last time that she’ll always “be there if you need me.” With Grandma Jess out of the way, Kane now has a clear path to get to Carol Anne. Taylor shows up just as Kane begins his first assault on the home. Unable to get in through the television as the family has removed all television sets from the home, Kane’s minions are forced to find another way in, this time through Carol Anne’s toy phone. The attack fails, and the family gets out of the house fast. Taylor introduces himself and convinces them that running would be a waste of time since Kane would only find them again, and they return to the house, which Taylor has made safe for the time being.

Kane himself shows up at the home one day and demands to be let in, but Steve stands up to him with Carol Anne’s help and refuses. Taylor congratulates him for resisting Kane, and then takes Steve out to the desert and gives him the power of smoke, an Indian spirit that can repel Kane. Tangina Barrons shows up at the house and helps Diane to understand the history of Kane and how he became the Beast that is now stalking the family. Taylor warns the family that Kane is extremely clever, and will try to tear them apart.

One night, Steve lets his guard down and gets drunk, swallowing a tequila worm that is possessed by Kane. Kane temporarily possesses him and harasses his family. He attacks and tries to rape Diane, who cries out that she loves him. Kane cannot stand this display of love, and Steven vomits up the worm possessed by Kane, which grows into a huge monster. In this form Kane attacks Steve, who uses the smoke spirit to send him away. The Beast (Noble Craig) then decides on another assault, and this time, the family decides to confront the Beast on his own turf, the Other Side.

The Freelings return to Cuesta Verde, their neighborhood from the first movie, and upon entering the cavern below their former home, Kane immediately pulls Diane and Carol Anne over in to the Other Side, and Steve and Robbie (Oliver Robins) jump in after them through a fire Taylor has started.

In the Other Side, Diane, Steve and Robbie unite together but Kane grabs Carol Anne. Taylor gets a charmed Indian lance into Steve’s hands, and Steve assaults the Beast/Kane with it. In the process, Carol Anne nearly crosses over into the afterlife, but Grandma Jess’s spirit appears and returns her to the family, keeping her earlier promise to always be there for the family. The Freelings then return safely to this side, and thank Taylor and Tangina.

The film is often referred to as cursed because of the murder of Dominique Dunne and early death of Heather O’Rourke, as well as the fact that actress JoBeth Williams has pointed out in television interviews that she was actually told that the skeletons used in the well-known swimming pool scene in the first Poltergeist film were real. This has been the focus of an E! True Hollywood Story on the Poltergeist Curse.

Plot

A group of seemingly benign ghosts begin communicating with five-year-old Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O’Rourke) in her parents’ suburban California home via static on the television. Eventually they use the TV as their path into the house itself.

First, there are a few signs that the ghosts have arrived: Carol Anne carries on a seemingly one-sided conversation with a TV set that’s turned on but has no signal; soon thereafter her pet bird dies; an earthquake occurs that only the Freelings feel; Carol Anne announces, “They’re here.” The next morning, glasses break at breakfast, forks bend by themselves, and when the mother, Diane (JoBeth Williams), asks Carol Anne, “What did you mean? Who’s here?” she answers, “The TV people.” At first the ghosts play harmless tricks and amuse the mother, including moving and stacking the kitchen table chairs. Of course, Diane must convince Steven (Craig T. Nelson) that night by showing him. He then announces that “Nobody goes into the kitchen until I know what’s going on.”

During a terrible thunderstorm, a gnarled tree comes to life and grabs Robbie (Oliver Robins), Carol Anne’s brother, through a window. However, this is merely a distraction used by the ghosts to get Carol Anne’s parents to leave her alone. Like a wind tunnel, they take Carol Anne through her bedroom closet into their dimension. Robbie is rescued, and the family believes that a tornado caused the trouble, until they realize that they can’t find Carol Anne. They search the entire house including the new swimming pool until Robbie hears Carol Anne through the T.V.

Steven reluctantly calls on a group of parapsychologists from UC Irvine: Dr. Lesh (Beatrice Straight), Ryan (Richard Lawson), and Marty (Martin Casella), who are awestruck by the manifestations they witness. With the parapsychologists present, the Freelings show them things they’ve never before seen. They open the door to the children’s room to reveal toys and other objects flying around by themselves and disembodied laughing voices reverberating throughout the room. Previously, one of the parapsychologists described a Matchbox car taking seven hours to move seven feet, calling it “[F]antastic. Of course, this would never register on the naked eye.” After they see the Freelings’ house, they are all humbled.

Over coffee (and a coffee urn that moves by itself), the parapsychologists explain to the Freelings the difference between a poltergeist and a haunting. They determine that indeed, it is a poltergeist they are experiencing.

It turns out that the spirits have left this life but have not gone into the “Light.” They are stuck in between dimensions, watching their loved ones grow up, but feeling alone. Carol Anne—born in the house and only 5 years old—gives off her own life force that is as bright as the Light. It distracts and confuses the spirits, who think Carol Anne is their salvation. Hence, they take her. (A different explanation was given in the second film).

What is also in the other dimension is a malevolent spirit, what the parapsychologists call “The Beast”. It likes that the spirits are confused and lost, and uses Carol Anne as a distraction so they cannot move on into the Light. After the group witnesses several paranormal episodes where they hear Carol Anne talking to Diane through the TV, see spirits, and hear the pounding footsteps of the spirit—which subsequently injures Marty—the parapsychologists leave, admitting they need more help. Carol Anne’s elder sister Dana (Dominique Dunne), shaken and overwhelmed, leaves to stay with friends. The Freelings also send Robbie to his grandmother’s house for his safety.

When the parapsychologists return, they bring a spiritual medium, Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), who informs Diane that her daughter is “alive and in this house.” She also explains the malevolent spirit in the house to Diane, saying “it lies to her and tells her things only a child can understand. To her, it simply is another child. To us, it is the Beast.”

They realize the entrance to the other dimension is through the children’s bedroom closet. By tying a rope around a live person who can enter, and presumably exit the other side, with enough time to grab Carol Anne, they could bring her back. Diane is the only choice to go. What happens next is a terrifying sequence where Diane gets Carol Anne and Tangina coaxes the agonized spirits away from Carol Anne to the real Light (during this, Steve panics and pulls on the rope, causing the Beast to appear right in front of him). Diane falls through the living room ceiling clutching Carol Anne and bearing new streaks of grey hair, presumably from fright; both Diane and Carol Anne are also covered in ectoplasm. After both are revived in the downstairs bathtub, Tangina pronounces that “this house is clean.”

Unfortunately, though the spirits have seemingly moved on, the Beast hasn’t, and wants revenge. On their final night in the house, when they are almost packed up and ready to go, the Beast returns to reclaim what he believes is his: Carol Anne. This time, the Beast does his own dirty work and comes after Carol Anne personally.

While Robbie and Carol Anne are getting ready for bed, Robbie’s clown doll comes to life and pulls him under the bed. Diane, in the other room hears her son’s screaming voice and tries to investigate but is pulled against the wall and ceiling by an unknown force. Robbie manages to defeat the clown doll but a strange, mouth-like portal appears in Carol Anne’s closet and attempts to suck the children in.

Diane tries to get to her son and daughter but runs into the Beast himself, in the form of a snarling, skeletal demon. He blocks Carol Anne’s and Robbie’s door and lunges at her, causing her to fall down the stairs. Diane runs to the backyard to seek help from her next-door neighbors, but slips into the new pool which is now infested by skeletons. Her neighbors hear the commotion and arrive to help Diane out of the pool, but they refuse to enter the house with its windows now blazing with ghostly energy, so Diane runs back into the house alone to get Robbie and Carol Anne.

Through skill and luck, the Freelings finally escape the house, but not before the anger of the Beast reveals the reason for the spirits being there in the first place—coffins and bodies begin exploding out of the ground throughout the neighborhood. When the neighborhood was first built the real estate developer Steven worked for moved a cemetery that was on the location, but in reality in order to save money they moved the cemetery headstones but left the bodies, building houses right on top of them. As the Freelings flee down the street in their car, the Beast is so angry that the house implodes into the other dimension as stunned neighbors (including Steven’s boss) look on. The movie ends as the family checks into a Holiday Inn for the night. Not wishing to tempt fate, Steven pushes the television set outside their room.

The story involves a French anthropologist who is an expert on nomads. He stumbles across a group of urban nomads who turn out to be more than he expected. It was a sleeper hit, becoming better known after its release.

Plot

The Beginning

The movie begins with the violent and painful death of its protagonist, French sociologist Jean-Charles Pommier (Pierce Brosnan). The moment he dies in the Emergency Room of a Los Angeles city hospital the physician treating him, Dr. Eileen Flax (Lesley-Anne Down), becomes possessed with his memories.

Dr. Flax relives every moment of Pommier’s life until the moment of his death.

Pommier’s Story

After travelling abroad and studying the spiritual beliefs and religious practices of primitive peoples, Pommier finally settles down with his patient wife Niki (Anna Maria Monticelli) in Los Angeles to teach at UCLA.

His home in the suburbs is vandalized one night by a gang of street punks who travel about in a black van. They are very interested in his house and he finds that they have built a macabre shrine in his garage to a murderer who recently killed two girls who lived in the house. He then starts to study them because they are an urban nomad culture that is strikingly similar to the ones he has studied.

He begins to observe them, following them around and covertly taking their pictures. He develops the pictures and is puzzled to find that they don’t show up in them.

Then he begins to realize that they are actually the Einwetok, demonic Inuit trickster spirits that take human form, commit acts of violence and mischief, and who are attracted to places of violence and death. Now that they are aware of him, they plan to claim his soul to keep their existence a secret.

The film was produced and written by Frank LaLoggia, a native of nearby Rochester, NY. Starring were Lukas Haas, Alex Rocco, and Katherine Helmond.

Plot

A young boy is locked in his school’s cloak room on Halloween night by some school bullies. While he waits to be let out, he witnesses a ghostly murder, and is nearly killed himself when the murderer returns for something he left behind. The boy then befriends the ghost of the young girl he saw killed, and works to figure out who killed her before they can kill again, and to bring some solace to the mysterious lady in white who roams the town in which he lives.