Scary Movies (Part II)

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Today, I'm examining the scary films that are scheduled to be shown on the Independent Film Channel for Halloween.

But IFC (unlike Turner Classic Movies) doesn't seem to be devoting a specific day (or, in TCM's case, two specific days) to showing nothing but horror movies.

And IFC appears to allow a little more leeway in designating a film as a scary movie than TCM — at least judging from the films that are scheduled to be shown in two weeks.

Like Bill Clinton's famous declaration that "it depends on what your definition of 'is' is," with IFC, it depends on what your definition of "horror" is.

• For example, on Halloween, IFC will show a movie called "The Honeymoon Killers," a black-and-white 1969 film that was apparently based on a true story.
  
  More correctly, I suppose, the film is categorized as a thriller — and, on an unrelated note, Martin Scorsese originally was to be the director of the film, but he was fired after a few days because he was taking too long with his set-ups.
  
  Still, true crime stories are part of the Halloween experience for some people. If you're one of those people, make a note that IFC will show "The Honeymoon Killers" at 7 a.m. (Central).


• IFC will show another thriller (this one of the gangster variety) on Halloween — "Miller's Crossing" — at 10:20 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. (Central). It's a Coen brothers film from 1990 that stars Albert Finney and John Turturro.


• Looking for more traditional Halloween fare? "Eaten Alive" from 1977 may be more your style. It's about a psychotic redneck who feeds people who upset him to his pet crocodile. IFC will show it at 6:15 p.m. (Central).


• "The Burning" from 1981 may fit the bill even better. In addition to being (apparently) one of the best slasher films of the '80s, the film also features early appearances by Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter, as well as a memorable score by Rick Wakeman (who played key roles in creating, among others, Yes' classic albums "Fragile" and "Close to the Edge" in the early 1970s). It will be shown at 7:55 p.m. (Central).


• "Hanzo the Razor: Who's Got the Gold?" from 1974 is part of a trilogy about a Japanese lawman. I haven't seen it (or any of the other films in the trilogy), but I've read that it's the strangest one of the films about Hanzo the Razor — who apparently tracks embezzlers to a haunted castle.

Actually, Thursday night, Oct. 30 — the night before Halloween — may be your best bet on IFC.

• Although not a typical horror film, "Fargo" (another Coen brothers entry) gets things started with its satirical thriller tale set in snowy Minnesota.
  
  The film comes on at 5:45 p.m. (Central).


• At 8 p.m. (Central) — and again at 1 a.m. (Central) — "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child" from 1989 will be shown.
  
  I have a friend who (for lack of a better term) is something of an aficionado of the "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" flicks. He tells me the special effects in this one were good, but the "Nightmare" series was getting old by the time its fifth installment came out.


• It is followed, at 9:30 p.m. and again at 2:30 a.m. (Central), by the next chapter in the "Nightmare" series — "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" — which came out in 1991.
  
  Don't be fooled by the title. There were more sequels to come. But apparently they were better. My friend told me this was the worst film in the series. I guess there was nowhere to go but up.
  
  If it weren't bizarre enough, it features Tom and Roseanne Arnold as a childless couple. Go figure.


• Things get better on IFC for horror fans at 11:15 p.m., when 2001's "Ed Gein" comes on.
  
  Steve Railsback stars as the title character, a real serial killer whose life story served as the inspiration for Hitchcock's "Psycho" and the character Buffalo Bill in "The Silence of the Lambs."

I Recommend ...

Four years ago, "Shrek 2" made more than $900 million worldwide, nearly half of that in the United States and Canada alone.

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" brought in nearly $800 million worldwide. "Spider-Man 2" netted more than $780 million, and "The Incredibles" tallied more than $631 million.

Other box office hits were "The Passion of the Christ," "Meet the Fockers" and "Ocean's Twelve."

And there were other, critically acclaimed films that didn't bring in the really big money, like "Million Dollar Baby," "Ray," "The Aviator," "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Sideways," as well as just plain popular, entertaining films that performed respectably well at the box office.

With all that going on, it's understandable if some worthwhile films slipped under your radar.

One such film may have been "C.S.A.: Confederate States of America," a "mockumentary" about an alternate reality, in which the South won the battle of Gettysburg and went on to win the Civil War.

Four years ago, "C.S.A." slipped under my radar, but I was fortunate enough to catch it in a somewhat rare broadcast on IFC, the company that acquired the rights to the film after its disappointing initial theatrical run.

The story is told from the perspective of a foreign documentary filmmaker (apparently modeled after the BBC). It is presented as a domestic broadcast of the documentary, which apparently has generated a great deal of talk in the "CSA" but has been blocked for a couple of years over differing interpretations of events and policies and is aired with disclaimers.

In a satirical — and sometimes disturbing — way, the film examines what North America might have been like if the South had defeated the North.

In this alternate reality, slavery and cotton make the South an economic power. Abraham Lincoln becomes a fugitive after the war ends — and ultimately lives four decades longer than he actually did.

In the 20th century, the South forms an alliance with Hitler and the Nazis but rejects the "final solution," opting to enslave vanquished ethnic groups and prosper from their labor instead of destroying them.

Punctuating the story are commercial breaks, featuring parodies of actual commercials for products and services that had racist implications.

The film's writer/director, Kevin Wilmott, is a black man who teaches film at the University of Kansas. Nearly two dozen of his students contributed, in one form or another, to the production of the film — some on camera, others behind the scenes.

The film struggled at the box office during its initial run, then the rights were acquired by the Independent Film Channel and Spike Lee assumed the role of executive producer.

IFC doesn't seem to show "C.S.A." very often, but IFC will show it four times this month, starting this Friday at 8 p.m. (Central). I recommend it as one of the most inventive films I've seen in a long time.

It is also scheduled to be shown

• Monday, Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. (Central),


• Saturday, Oct. 25 at 9:45 p.m. (Central) and


• Sunday, Oct. 26 at 3 a.m. (Central).

Don't miss it.

A Film Festival

In a way, it seems that this is the perfect time to launch an entertainment-oriented blog.

Why? Because in the next couple of weeks, Turner Classic Movies and the Independent Film Channel will be showing 15 of the films from the American Film Institute’s revised list of its Top 100 movies from the last century.

As well as a few movies that were on the original list but were dropped from the revised list.

American Movie Classics also will be showing a film from the list, but I have to include a personal word or two of warning about watching movies on AMC.

Unlike TCM and IFC, AMC interrupts its films with commercials — and the films are edited, so if some of the language in the original is a little too salty or some of the scenes are a little too revealing, they'll be cut from the versions that are aired on AMC and you'd be better off renting the movie.

Language and nudity aren't the only things that get cut, just the most obvious ones (clearly, the older a film is, the less likely it is to include either). There have been times when I've been watching a film on AMC, and I have realized that something has been edited for no apparent reason — except, perhaps, to make sure the film fits its allotted time slot.

(And, although I must admit that I don't watch AMC as much as I used to, my recent observations are that it does not try to replicate the theater experience by showing its films in the letterbox format.

(Older films — those that were released before 1953 — weren't made in the widescreen format, but you may want to take that caveat into consideration if you're watching a more recent film and the letterbox format is critical to your enjoyment.)

And, with that, it's on with the shows!

(Incidentally, most of these movies are being shown on TCM; thus, the showtimes refer to TCM's schedule. If the film is on IFC or AMC, I've tried to mention it. But the vast majority of these listings are on TCM.)

On Saturday, TCM will show:

• "Bringing Up Baby" at 7 a.m. (Central). It is ranked #88 on AFI's list.


• "The Maltese Falcon" at 5 p.m. (Central). It ranks #31.

On Sunday, you can see:

• "The African Queen" at 3 p.m. (Central). It ranks #65.

On Monday, TCM will show a three-movie jackpot from AFI's list:

• "In the Heat of the Night" at 8 p.m. (Central). The film ranks #75.


• "West Side Story" at 11 p.m. (Central). The film ranks #51.


• "The Apartment" at 1:45 a.m. (Central). The film ranks #80.

And AMC will show "The Bridge on the River Kwai" at 6 a.m. (Central) on Monday. It was ranked #36.

On Tuesday, TCM will show:

• "High Noon" at 11 p.m. (Central). The film ranks #27.


• "Psycho" at 2:30 a.m. (Central). The film ranks #14.

On Wednesday, you can see:

• "King Kong" (the 1933 original version) at 12:15 a.m. (Central). The film ranks #41.

(By the way, just in case you'd like to make a comparison, AMC will be showing the 1976 remake of "King Kong" the next night at 9:30 p.m. Central — and, again, at 1:30 p.m. Central on Friday.)

On Thursday, you can see:

• "A Night at the Opera" at 10:30 a.m. (Central). The film ranks #85.


• "Vertigo" at 2:30 p.m. (Central). The film ranks #9.

A week from Saturday, you can see:

• A repeat of "High Noon" at 5:30 p.m. (Central). As stated earlier, the film ranks #27.


• "Casablanca" at 2:30 a.m. (Central). The film ranks #3 (behind "Citizen Kane" and "The Godfather").

And we get another three-film jackpot a week from Tuesday night:

• "The Graduate" at 7 p.m. (Central). The film ranks #17.


• "Bonnie and Clyde" at 9 p.m. (Central). The film ranks #42.


• "In the Heat of the Night" will be repeated at 11 p.m. As I mentioned earlier, it ranks #75.

It’s worth mentioning that "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" will be airing at 1 a.m. (Central) a week from Tuesday night. The film originally was ranked #99 when AFI released the list in 1998. But it dropped off the list when a revised version was released in 2007.

Even if "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" isn’t on the list anymore, it’s well worth the time to watch Spencer Tracy in his final film role.

TCM will show another film that was dropped from the original list — "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" — Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (Central). (By the way, before TCM shows that film, you can see perhaps the worst film ever made, "Plan 9 From Outer Space," at 1 p.m. Central.) "Close Encounters" was originally ranked #64.

While I’m on the subject of films that were dropped from AFI’s original list when the new list was released for its 10th anniversary, IFC will be showing "Fargo" Wednesday at 8 p.m. (Central) and again at 11:45 p.m. (Central).

It was ranked #84 on the original list, but it was dropped from the revised list.

"Raging Bull" went in the other direction. It went up in the rankings from #24 to #4. IFC will show it next Sunday at 7:45 p.m. (Central) and 2 a.m. (Central).

And, as usual there are films that will be aired in the next couple of weeks that I believed should have been on the list but didn't make it.

For example, I think "The Fortune Cookie" is one of the funniest Walter Matthau-Jack Lemmon films ever made, but it didn't make the list. Judge for yourself. TCM will show it Thursday at 4:45 p.m. (Central).

"Meet John Doe" was perhaps the wittiest Frank Capra film, but it wasn't on the list, either. TCM will show it on Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. (Central).

(I can't mention "Meet John Doe" without making an observation. Are you old enough to remember Ronald Reagan refusing to be cut off while trying to address a crowd during the 1980 New Hampshire primary campaign? If you are, then you need to watch this film. There's a scene in "Meet John Doe" — filmed 40 years earlier — in which Gary Cooper did the same thing Reagan did. Was life imitating art?)

And "Paper Moon" was a great film about Depression-era grifters, but it, too, failed to make the cut. TCM will show it at 7 p.m. (Central) Saturday.

IFC will be showing some films that I believe should have been on AFI's list as well.

I think "A Hard Day's Night" is a lot of fun to watch, as well as being historically important for showing The Beatles having some fun with their newfound celebrity. IFC will air it Saturday at 6:30 p.m. (Central), again at 5:30 a.m. (Central) on Sunday morning and again at 12:30 p.m. (Central) on Sunday.

On Tuesday, IFC will show "My Left Foot," a 1989 film about a cerebral palsy victim that pulls no punches, at 6:35 a.m. and noon (Central). It's tough to watch at times — but it's ultimately rewarding.