Editorials
10 Slasher Episodes of Horror Anthology TV Perfect for Halloween
Tales From the Television looks back at standalone episodes from various TV anthologies. Each collection of stories, every one based on a specific theme, is proof that even the small screen can deliver big frights.
Sudden footsteps appear as someone walks alone on a pitch-black night; a babysitter is startled by the intrusive ringing of a phone call — these scenarios are fundamental to many classic horror movies where homicidal maniacs are on the prowl for new victims. Although they’re more infrequent on television, they do appear from time to time in your favorite programs.
The slasher formula isn’t always suitable for the small screen; time is an important factor when writing these kinds of stories. Stretching an already-thin premise out to a certain amount of episodes can be taxing on both writers and audiences. However, traditional anthology series have managed to break the routine down into shorter, streamlined stories that pay respect to slasher movies.
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962): “An Unlocked Window”
Based on a story by Ethel Lina White — whose novel The Wheel Spins is the basis for Hitchcock’s 1938 movie The Lady Vanishes — and directed by Joseph M. Newman, “An Unlocked Window” is one of the most harrowing and brilliant episodes in all of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; the twist ending alone will catch many viewers off guard. The episode was remade as part of the 1985 revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
“An Unlocked Window” sees a pair of nurses becoming more and more paranoid after hearing news of a serial killer attacking women in the area. As a bad storm brews, the ladies suspect the murderer is actually outside the house they work at.
The Hitchhiker (1983): “The Killer”
This thriller anthology’s nomadic, tight-jeaned host guides us to the Kinderly family, whose home is visited by a deadly intruder one fateful night. Meg’s parents and siblings are set to go on a trip without her until someone breaks into their mansion and starts to kill each of them, one by one. Meg, who is in a wheelchair because of her medical condition, is finally left to fend for herself.
“The Killer” is a thoroughly suspenseful story topped off with an explosive ending that will undoubtedly raise a question or two.
The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985): “The Lonely One”
This episode aired during the show’s final season, and it’s based on several chapters from the titular author’s novel Dandelion Wine. In the particular subplot, a town so happens to have a serial killer lurking about. The television adaptation sees the character Lavinia (Joanna Cassidy, Blade Runner) letting her arrogance stand in the way of her own self-preservation. While everyone else is on edge about the killer, Lavinia insists she and her friends should walk through the ravine; this is where the latest victim was recovered. After their night out at the movies, the women part ways and Lavinia foolishly enters the same shortcut all by herself.
Like other episodes, “The Lonely One” ends with no actual resolution. Even so, the final scene is effective and rewards the viewer’s patience.
Amazing Stories (1985): “The Amazing Falsworth”
Although it failed to attract big ratings, the original Amazing Stories remains a benchmark of anthologies. Steven Spielberg’s series was diverse in genres and cinematic in appearance. The first season delivered one of the show’s finest, “The Amazing Falsworth,” where a psychic magician (Gregory Hines) detects a serial killer among his audience. Yet due to his being blindfolded at the time, Falsworth has no idea what the culprit looks like.
Spielberg conceived the story and Mick Garris penned the teleplay; Peter Hyams (The Relic, End of Days) directed the masterful and award-winning episode. With a touch of both giallo and neo-noir films, “The Amazing Falsworth” is a taut whodunit with a clever twist ending.
Freddy’s Nightmares (1988): “Do Dreams Bleed?”
Unlike Friday the 13th: The Series, Freddy’s Nightmares bears a direct connection to the movies it’s spun off from; Robert Englund reprised his role and became the host of this anthology. The episodes all took place in Springwood, which is now a sort of epicenter of evil influenced by Freddy’s power. Even though some stories were standalone, others spawned sequels down the line during the show’s two-season run.
“Do Dreams Bleed?” sees Freddy getting some competition when a masked killer nicknamed the Springwood Chopper appears. One student becomes involved all thanks to his psychic dreams, but then he’s pinned as the Chopper despite evidence suggesting otherwise. The second half of the episode focuses on the girlfriend who may be the key to unlocking this mystery.
Tales from the Crypt (1989): “And All Through the House”
The second on-screen adaptation of this story from EC’s The Vault of Horror is the one most people are familiar with; the first was in Amicus’ 1972 movie Tales from the Crypt. The television version has the same story: a wife kills her husband on Christmas Eve just before an escaped murderer dressed as Santa Claus shows up.
While both interpretations of “And All Through the House” play up the jolly maniac’s presence, the source material barely showed him. Robert Zemeckis and Fred Dekker’s episode instead magnifies the cat-and-mouse element by having the protagonist fight off the killer Kris Kringle at every turn. The comic’s dark wit is also more apparent in this distinctive episode.
Chiller (1995): “Number Six”
This short anthology series was co-produced by Lawrence Gordon Clark, whose most recognized contribution to British television horror is the long-running series of telefilms collectively called A Ghost Story for Christmas; Chiller packs a similar tone but in a more urban setting. In the episode “Number Six,” a town is anxious because five local children have been murdered. And as a baffled detective seeks clues from other children’s drawings, the sixth victim is selected.
Chiller smoldered rather than blazed with its five stories. “Number Six” is no exception, but its procedural approach to folkloric horror is a successful one. The episode more than earns its dire and downright creepy conclusion.
Night Visions (2001): “Rest Stop”
Yves Simoneau (Mother’s Boys) delivered one of the nastier stories in Fox’s anthology Night Visions. As host Henry Rollins warns, the characters’ “time is running out” after they pick up a handsome hitchhiker (Scream 2’s Jerry O’Connell). A fun road trip takes a wrong turn for four friends when their driver (Amy Jo Johnson of Power Rangers fame) insists they give a charming hitcher a ride. Her kindness is not rewarded as she and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) are stalked by unseen maniacs while visiting a rest area along their route.
The episode predates the aughts’ onslaught of splatter heavy horror like Hostel, but as a precursor, “Rest Stop” is surprisingly accurate about the genre’s imminent changes that same decade. Another slasher-esque episode worth watching in the series is “Dead Air” where Lou Diamond Phillips plays a radio host who is menaced by a deranged caller.
Masters of Horror (2005): “Pick Me Up”
The late director Larry Cohen and writer David J. Schow (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) crafted this delightfully garish and barmy episode of Mick Garris’ Masters of Horror. After a bus breaks down, the passengers and driver are hunted by two different serial killers; they then fight over the last victim (The Craft’s Fairuza Balk).
With the series released smack dab in the middle of the torture-horror era of the 2000s, many episodes in this anthology were gratuitous when it came to wanton violence. “Pick Me Up” is not one of the goriest entries in the show, but it’s not exactly dry, either. A familiar story is tweaked just enough so viewers are left guessing what will happen up until the very end.
Inside No. 9 (2014): “Private View”
At an art exhibition held inside a neon-lit, East London art gallery cluttered with mannequins, a group of select people is murdered, one after another, by a mysterious, black-gloved killer who bears a personal grudge against the other attendees.
The third season of Inside No. 9 finished with a clever stab at the pretentious world of art. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s story borrows from an array of sources like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, the film Theatre of Blood, and various giallo and slasher movies. “Private View” maintains the show’s trademark sense of humor while also mustering up some proper suspense.
Editorials
Before ‘The Odyssey’ There Was ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ and Ray Harryhausen’s Legendary Monsters
Greek mythology is the talk of the town, or at least of the internet at the moment, and with good reason. Christopher Nolan’s retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey opened this weekend in theaters and, as of this writing, is on track to rake in $120 million in the U.S. and $250 million worldwide.
That’s quite a feat for an R-rated sword and sandal epic based on a story that was first put to papyrus over 3,000 years ago. Of course, mythology has been a film standard practically since the beginning of the medium and has proven to be fertile ground for storytellers. One of the great tellers of these tales is not a writer or director but an innovative special effects master and producer, Ray Harryhausen, and among his greatest achievements is Jason and the Argonauts (1963).
The story of Jason and the quest for the golden fleece predates the Homeric period by a generation or two, and there are certainly similarities to the later works, specifically The Odyssey. Both are seafaring adventures captained by men of both strength and wit. Their crews are filled with colorful characters as well, including Hercules and Argos in the Jason tales and Eurylochus and Polites among Odysseus’s men. Both encounter the beautiful and bizarre on their journeys. The major differences are in tone and theme. The Odyssey is a more contemplative piece about men of war finding it is practically impossible to truly return home.
Jason and the Argonauts, especially in the hands of Harryhausen, producer Charles H. Schneer, director Don Chaffey, and writers Beverly Cross and Jan Read, is a tale of adventure, romance, betrayal, gods, and perhaps above all—monsters.
Strictly speaking, nearly all the Harryhausen films are fantasy films, but all are filled with some of the most incredible monster creations in all of cinema. Telling mythological stories was a way of making monster movies that parents would not object to their children seeing. That whiff of the movie-going experience being educational gave him license to bring to life dozens of indelible creations, starting with The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in 1958 all the way to Clash of the Titans in 1981. So, rather than spoil the story of Jason and the Argonauts, I will be focusing on its main attraction, its unforgettable monstrosities.
Talos: The Bronze Giant That Changed Movie Monsters
After Jason (Todd Armstrong) and his crew set off on their quest aboard the Argo, they quickly find themselves running out of food and water. Calling upon the help of his protector Hera, Queen of the Gods (Honor Blackman), Jason is guided to the Island of Bronze but warned not to take anything from the island but food and water. While chasing a herd of goats, unlikely pals Hercules (Nigel Green) and Hylas (John Cairney) discover the gargantuan bronze statues of the gods and Titans created by the long-departed Hephaestus.
In the base of the statue of Talos, they discover the treasure trove of the gods, and Hercules decides to take a giant golden needle that he intends to use as a javelin. Of course, this awakens Talos, who pursues them back to the Argo.
Talos was one of Harryhausen’s favorite creations, and he reveled in giving life to the stiff movements of the man of bronze. In one sequence, Talos blocks the narrow waterway that is the only means of escape and plucks the Argo out of the sea as though it were a toy, shaking the crew overboard and breaking the mast in two. Jason once again asks Hera for help, and she advises him to “look to the ankles” of the statue. He spots a kind of hatch on the heel of the giant and, after much struggle, removes it, releasing a flow of steaming liquid that is apparently the driving force of Talos, who weakens, cracks, and falls to the beach, breaking into pieces.
Echoes of this scene can be found in all kinds of stories from Achilles’ heel to the small vulnerable spot on Smaug’s belly in The Hobbit, to tangling the legs of the Imperial AT-AT’s in The Empire Strikes Back. Even the Death Star has a touch of Talos to it.
Harryhausen’s Harpies and Hydra Bring Ancient Myth to Life
Next, the Argonauts encounter the old man Phineas, played by Patrick Troughton of Dr. Who (he played the Second Doctor) and The Omen (1976) fame. As punishment for sins that go unnamed in the film, Zeus torments Phineas day and night with harpies who steal his food and leave him only scraps.
The harpies are flying, blue, rather demonic-looking creatures complete with bat wings and horns. They look something like living gargoyles and are masterworks by Harryhausen. The crew lures them into the ruins of a temple and covers the entire structure with a net before releasing the top and snaring the harpies. The stop-motion work in this sequence is some of the best Harryhausen ever created and is seamlessly placed into frame with the live-action elements, as was among Harryhausen’s greatest strengths.
The special effects of the film use every tool available at the time, as demonstrated by the next major effects sequence, “the clashing rocks.” The sequence utilizes stop motion, miniatures, rear projection, location and stage work with the actors all blended together, sometimes into a single shot. The clashing rocks are more-or-less a rock slide, but combined with the destruction of a different ship that tries to make passage between the rocks and the knowledge that Hera is now forbidden to interfere with Jason’s fate, real stakes are afforded to the scene. Hera pulls a fast one on Zeus (Niall MacGinnis), however, which allows Triton, king of the Mer-people, to rise from the sea and stabilize the rocks, giving the Argo safe passage.
The crew then rescues Medea (Nancy Kovack) and heads to their final destination, Colchis at the end of the world, where Jason and the Argonauts are welcomed by King Aeetes (Jack Gwillim). Eventually, after a betrayal and turn of events, Jason finds the golden fleece, which is guarded by another great Harryhausen monster, the Hydra, a multi-headed serpent. The most famous aspect of the Hydra, growing back two heads for every one cut off, is not depicted here, but the sequence is still harrowing.
Jason fights the dragon with his sword and at one point is wrapped in its tail, depicting Harryhausen’s love of intercutting and interrelating his stop-motion creations with actors and other live-action elements. The sequence also demonstrates that the artistry of Harryhausen and the craftspeople in his workshop was not limited to fantasy creatures; they were also masters of recreating believable human figures.
Why Harryhausen’s Monsters Still Feel Alive
Perhaps the most famous Harryhausen creation, the one that has had the greatest lasting influence, is what is called in the film the “children of the hydra’s teeth” and the “children of the night” by Aeetes, who calls on the goddess of darkness Hecate to bring them to him. Fire rains down from the sky and reduces the hydra to a skeleton. Aeetes orders his men to gather its teeth, which he collects in a helmet and, cornering Jason and his men, sows on the ground like seeds. Reanimated skeletons of dead soldiers rise up out of the ground and attack the Argonauts in what is certainly one of the most iconic sequences in all of fantasy cinema.
It is an expansion of a similar scene in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in which the fearless sailor fights a single skeleton, but this time there are more than half a dozen reanimated warriors complete with the famous “Harryhausen brow,” in which the empty eye sockets are given a sinister frown. Even today, the sequence is thrilling. Though our technology has given us tools that look more realistic, there is a magic in stop-motion that remains unmatched despite all our advances in CGI.
This sequence has directly influenced many movies over the years, but for the horror crowd, the clearest examples are Freddy’s skeleton fighting Donald Thompson (John Saxon) in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and the deadite army in Army of Darkness (1992). The animators even included the slouch of the “children of the hydra’s teeth” in the Nightmare 3 scene, and Sam Raimi insisted the Army of Darkness skeletons all have the Harryhausen brow.
Beyond these films, Harryhausen’s work has had a massive influence on horror, fantasy, and science fiction films for decades, while also making an indelible mark on popular culture at large. Among his acolytes are stop motion genius Phil Tippett, and filmmakers including Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Milius, Don Coscarelli, and many others. The fingerprints of Harryhausen can in many ways be seen even in Nolan’s The Odyssey, which relies on tricks from throughout film history rather than only more recent innovations like CGI.
Above all, Harryhausen was a storyteller who sought to make audiences fall in love with the great adventure stories that have been with us for thousands of years. These stories speak to the heart of our humanity in ways that will always feel fresh when told in innovative ways. Harryhausen also always had in him the true joy of creation. Bringing his monsters to life was a long, sometimes tedious, process, but Harryhausen clearly understood that all that time and attention to detail would imbue every creation with humanity that cannot be replicated by taking the easy way around.
Despite the limitations of budget, star power, and other resources that his films often lacked, that love of storytelling always shone through. Perhaps that is why his creations endure along with the kinds of ancient stories he so loved to tell.
At their heart, they are one thing above all—deeply and undeniably human.
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