NIGHT GALLERY / "Big Surprise" - 1971

Here's a big surprise for a Friday, the story and teleplay was written by Richard Matheson, it stars our pal John Carradine as Mr. Hawkins, Vincent Van Patten as Chris, Marc Vahanian as Jason and Eric Chase as Dan.

Here are Chris, Dan and Jason, they are walking home after school, makes me wonder where the heck they live!

The boys have to pass by creepy old Mr. Hawkins place, he comes out to greet them and tells them to come closer, he has something to tell them.

Chris is the only one that dares to go up and see what the old man wants. Mr. Hawkins ask Chris if he knows where to find an old oak tree near there, he says he does. Then he tells Chris to take ten paces from the tree and dig four feet down, and...

He'll get a Big Surprise!

When the Mr. Hawkins starts laughing, Chris splits and runs back to his friends where he tells them what the old man said. 

Jason and Dan think that Mr. Hawkins is playing a trick on them but they finally agree to join in on the quest, Chris says there might be a treasure. So, they start digging away.

They dig and dig and dig and dig, but they find nothing...

Then, Jason says that, lookit, we've dug down four feet and haven't found anything. Chris says that it's not four feet yet, let's just keep digging!

Jason's not buying it and tells Dan to go with him and get something to eat at his house, Jason and Dan take off running, they've had enough..

Chris notices that the weather's changing, a wind has come up and things seem to be getting a little creepy.

Undaunted, Chris keeps digging for the imagined pay off, a treasure.

And he finally uncovers a big wooden box with a lock on it, he takes the shovel and knocks the lock off and starts to open the lid, when...

It begins opening on its own!

The box is now fully opened and Chris is completely horrified by what he sees!

SURPRISE!!

Well, there you have it, kinda corny episode, but we love John to pieces, here at The Dungeon! Eegah is up tomorrow with more who knows what, just for you.

AMERICAN SATAN - "Let Him Burn" (2017)

 

It's Wicked Wednesday down in The Dungeon and tonight's post strawberry moon extra-special feature is................

 

......."American Satan!"

Okay, so you can see from the start that there are differences in opinion about where this is going!

The other morning I was watching Gordon Ramsay's show called "Scrambled," that had Rowdy Rhonda Rousey on it, and that one was followed by one that had a gorgeous and funny gal in it by the name of Olivia Culpo.  besides being Miss Universe in 2012, was also an actress, so when I looked on IMDB, I found out that she was in this movie called "American Satan," and that's how we ended up here! The likeness on the record album doesn't do her any justice at all!

At first I didn't even recognize Malcolm McDowell, but after I did, it seemed perfect that he would be playing the Devil tempting a rock and roll band, especially if you've ever seen the movie "Get Crazy!"

So that's it! "American Satan" is your basic 'sell your soul to the Devil' story, and then sit back and see what happens!

You wanna play at "The Whiskey," then you better get out there and sell some tickets!

"American Satan" is a film made by Ash Avildsen about a band called The Relentless. There's a soundtrack album you can buy for the movie, and there's also an album out there by The Relentless, but since there's no real band called The Relentless, it's more like "Cow Pie" by The Masked Marauders!"

The always enjoyable Mark (Sons Of Anarchy) Boone Junior has the role of the big shot record producer Elias!

Ash Avildsen is no stranger to making movies, his Father John G. Avildsen was the Director of some minor movies like "Rocky," and "The Karate Kid," even though apparently they had a zero relationship. Ash Avildsen is also a songwriter responsible for some of the songs in this film, and is also the founder of the primarily Heavy Metal Sumerian Records label, that has bands like my new favourite Starbenders on it!

The lead character in "American Satan," and The Relentless is named Johnny Faust, and is played by Andy Biersack who is a real musician in a real band called Black Veil Brides, who just happen to also be on the Sumerian Records label.

The first half of the movie is pretty good. Johnny's a good guy with a sweet girlfriend and a bunch of goofy band mates. The music is all good too, and then it all goes dark! 

The band gets more and more popular, but more and more bad things also keep happening!

The second part of the film is all sex, drugs, rock and roll, and trouble, lots of trouble!

Olivia Culpo is Johnny's girlfriend named Gretchen. They had a nice love story going until he screws it all up!

The other woman in Johnny's life is Lily Mayflower, the bass player in the band, as played by trans actress Jesse Sullivan.

Just about the time I was getting tired of this film, they threw in Big Time wrassler Bill Goldberg as the band's new road manager Hawk. Multiple Champion Goldberg is the master of moves like the 'Jackhammer,' and the 'Pumphandle Drop.'

The band's life is going up in flames, and at the same time their single is going up the charts!

This movie is crazy! Even though Andy Biersack was a singer with Black Veil Brides, for some reason, they decided to use song vocals for his character by Remington Leith, the lead singer in another Sumerian signed band named Palaye Royale, instead. 

And just as I suspected, Olivia looked great throughout the whole ordeal!

There's also another beauty, Denise Richards as Johnny's Mother, and too many other characters to list, so you're just going to have to watch it for yourself if you want to find out.

You can find "American Satan" streaming all over the place. 

I watched it in all it's glory on this Plex site!

AND...........

Now I just found out that Ash and company made a spinoff TV show last year called "Paradise City" using many of the same characters, but a different story line, that streams on Amazon Prime for eight episodes! Rock on!!

NIGHT TIDE In Color - 1961

Here's another recently colorized horror movie about a young Navy recruit who meets a dark haired woman while he's on shore leave. He finds out that she plays a mermaid at the local carnival, and after a few strange occurrences, he starts to believe that she is a real mermaid that kills her suitors during full Moon cycles.

It stars Dennis Hopper as Johnny, Linda Lawson as Mora, Gavin Muir as Captain Murdock, Luana Anders as Ellen, Marjorie Eaton as Madame Romanovitch and Tom Dillon as the Merry-Go-Round owner.

We get a taste of jazz at the local beatnik club as Johnny enters the scene, there to relax and enjoy the music. He meets Mora and is having a conversation with her when a mysterious lady appears and speaks to Mora in a strange tongue. She gets up and leaves the club in haste.

Johnny follows her, stops her to talk with him, walks her to her place and gives her a kiss. The next day they're having lunch at her place! They're attracted to each other.

Later, she takes him to the place where she works as Mora the Mermaid, hey, it pays the bills.

Johnny's a friendly sort of person, while wandering around to carnival, he meets the owner of the Merry-Go-Round, his daughter Ellen and card reader Madame Romanovitch. Johnny tells them that he's seeing Mora and things get weird. Ellen tells him that Mora's last two boyfriends ended up dead! Johnny's confused.

Later he goes to talk to Mora's boss, Captain Murdock, who has some advice on dating Mora. It's about her history and he warns Johnny that he's in danger, Mora's not normal and is capable of doing him harm!

The bad news just keeps piling up, Madame Romanovitch has given him a reading and she also expresses concern about his safety. All the information is starting to play on his imagination about his relationship with Mora.

That night at Mora's place, Johnny's resting on a sofa waiting for her to come out of the bathroom. She comes out and starts kissing him and things get horrifying fast!

Johnny struggles to get free of some horrendous tentacles, he screams out and suddenly the tentacles are gone, and so is Mora.

He sees wet footprints on the floor leading out to the beach and follows them, where, he finds Mora crying out, holding onto a pier support pillar. He gets to her and carries her back to her place, she falls asleep.

The next day she wants to go scuba diving with Johnny, she wants to show him the underwater reef. Johnny's puzzled and doesn't really want to go for a dive, but he gives in...

So, they go diving, and keeping in mind it's a full Moon cycle, she cuts Johnny's air hose and leaves him to try and get to the surface before drowning! Mora then calmly swims back to shore.

Johnny barely makes it to the surface, then has a big freak out, he realizes that Mora just tried to kill him. He quietly sits in the boat for hours contemplating the event before going back to shore.

Back at his hotel room the next day, Johnny sees an ad telling the public about the events to go see at the carnival, including Mora the Mermaid.

So, he goes there in disguise to check out Mora's act.

Johnny goes inside to see Mora, and he starts getting all emotional, he can't believe how things have turned out...

Then, Captain Murdock shows up and tells Johnny that he must kill him in order to protect Mora from the authorities!

But, his bullet hits Mora's aquarium, causing it to shatter and pour the contents onto the floor, Mora lands on top of the captain, what the Hell!

Mora is dead, Captain Murdock explains everything to Lt. Henderson and Johnny. It goes like this... Mora was not a mermaid! No, she just fully believed that she was, and he killed her other two boyfriends to protect her from the real world, I guess. Hey, Mora thought she was a Mermaid, but she was really a Red Herring!! This in one strange 83 minute movie!