frightflicks

It’s true that, for the most part, these days I’m not watching horror flicks with my kiddoes around. I have to do it late at night after they’re asleep (which is sometimes very late) and frankly, I just don’t have the “grapes.”

It stinks … but there is a lot to parenting that kicks ass, so I’ll deal with it.

Most of the horror movies I know and love were made in the past, but not all of them were in the 90’s when I was hitting the theater as a teen - or after ‘77 when I was born. Many of them were tempered favorites of the ages … Alice Sweet Alice, Monkey Shines, the Beast Within. The Thing.

It seems that each decade has it’s own flavor of horror. I’m here so you can sample a taste, not just hear about the lastest remake blockbuster.

That’s why you should bookmark me, keep coming back for more, subscribe to my RSS feed, etc. That, and to find out what’s in store for the loyal, dedicated readers of a Frightfully fun blog with some mysterious twists all its own.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, the kids are outside playing. It’s time to put a movie on…

Late one night, or actually early one morning, I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I clicked on the tube, and stumbled across a black and white movie featuring a baby-faced young blond actor. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it … and then, was it really? Yep, Dennis Hopper like I’d never seen him.

Cute. Innocent, even. And lovestruck to the point of potential madness. Delicious!

Having caught the movie several minutes in, I didn’t quite know what to expect. Soon enough there was a mysterious gypsy reading his cards, a coffee house girl warning him against his “one true love” and a beautiful, scantily clad woman with a thick accent … who turned into a murderous octopus during a dream. I couldn’t give it up.

Some of the older horror movies rely on an easily shocked audience and bad costuming, and while there is just a smidge of that in Night Tide, this really is an intellectual movie. You hope, you fear, you question. Harkened to the likings of The Twilight Zone, this really is a story that will stay with you.

Dennis Hopper plays navyman, Johnny (of course it would be “Johnny”) Drake, who meets a tempting and mysterious carnival worker while on leave. Mora (Linda Lawson) works as a mermaid in a sideshow act, but when her lovers keep turning up dead, folks begin to wonder if she’s more than just an act.

Teasing and genuine, you’ll enjoy this sumptuous black and white delight from Hopper’s early career. I know I did.