Don’t Go To Sleep!
Okay, so most of you won’t be able to make room for this on a Tuesday night, but hopefully you’ll keep it in your pocket for a stormy Sunday!
Suggested by Daviel McKaye, here’s Don’t Go To Sleep, a made-for-TV movie from 1982. I live for creepy old TV movies. Even the ones that aren’t super hot are just such great background noise during the season.
Daviel adds: “There’s something about TV movies from the ’70s and ’80s that really interests me. Their relative obscurity imbues them with a certain mystique, as so many people find themselves trying to remember their favorite late night movies decades later that may have only aired once or twice during their childhood years. There’s a certain endearing quality to them as they often tread the line between cheesy and charming very delicately, or sometimes not at all.
“In this TV movie, Dennis Weaver and Valerie Harper star as the parents who move their family to a new house to get a fresh start after the tragic death of their oldest daughter. Soon after they arrive, the youngest daughter starts seeing eerie visions of her dead sister urging her to take revenge on the family she feels wronged her in life. As the body count starts to pile up, the movie keeps you guessing whether the ghost is real or simply a manifestation of the young girl’s fractured psyche… right up until the memorably creepy twist ending.
“I think what draws me in the most is the warm, dreamlike quality of the ghost scenes which often comes across as being strangely at odds with the sinister nature of the apparent apparition.”
Sounds solid to me! Enjoy, now or later!
Halloween H20 Documentary!
I’m still a huge fan of Halloween H20. If I had a friend who was kinda/sorta interested in trying out a Halloween movie, but wasn’t really into movies of that nature, H20 is the one I’d pitch. It’s a good film, but it’s also such a breezy, easy watch.
With that, here’s Blood Is Thicker Than Water, a 2013 documentary all about Halloween H20. This video was one of many delightful suggestions from Vhslvy, who we’ll be hearing from again once the Countdown gets started!
The Return of Swamp Thing!
As mentioned, I wanted to start populating After Dark with spooky vids early, so new folks won’t be looking at months-old posts when I start “advertising” this place again once the Countdown starts. (In exactly one week! Wheee!)
You guys came through with another killer batch of suggestions for the 2019 season, including this one, from Jason H:
Behold, The Return of Swamp Thing, from 1989. It’s another one of those movies that’s “officially” free of charge on YouTube, even if that probably means that it won’t be available for a particularly long time. Seemed like a great pick to get our Halloween preseason started, as it bridges summer and autumn perfectly!
Jason adds: “I remember being a big Swamp Thing fan back in the day, into the cartoon series when no one else was, and this movie in particular over its more somber prequel. The Wes Craven original is probably a better movie, but there was always something about the Troll-esque transformation scene at the end that I found upsetting as a kid. Still do, actually!”
Spooky Suggestions Time!
Well, the Halloween Countdown is almost here. Starts 8/30, as most of you know!
That means poor ol’ Dino Drac After Dark will soon spring back into life in a very big way.
For at least the first few weeks, we’ll go with new updates every night. I’ll judge the interest level at that point, and determine if it’d be better to scatter a few new posts throughout the week instead.
Either way, there will be a lot of updates to this section during September and October, so I’m gonna need some SPOOKY VIDEO SUGGESTIONS again!
I’m looking for vids to run on After Dark throughout the Halloween season, so obviously, they should have some tie to it. They don’t have to all be horror movies or spooky cartoons or whatever — just things that “feel right” for the season. Random TV episodes, weird documentaries, video game playthroughs, anything you can dig up!
Please email me your suggestions. Fastest way is dinsoaurdracula at gmail. Email should include:
1) Title of video.
2) Link to video. (YouTube preferred, but Dailymotion is okay, too.)
3) Name you want to be credited as.
4) A 1-2 paragraph description if you feel like adding your own thoughts/memories/whatever. This isn’t mandatory, but I’m happy to include it if you want!
You can also suggest survey topics or whatever else can cover a night on After Dark!
If you submitted videos for a prior season and I never ran them, I do still have those emails and will look back at ’em this year, too.
Thanks in advance to all who participate!
PS: I’ll post a reminder once the season starts, but since the videos that run during the season will mostly be suggestions from After Dark visitors, let’s make it a policy to be nice. If you’re not in the mood to watch the video of the night, or if you’re just “ehh” about it, that’s fine — you’re free to talk about whatever in the comments, as usual. Just avoid acting dismissive towards the vids, because if they’re here, it means they meant something to someone! Think of them as seasonal background noise, at worst!
PPS: Because I’ll be plugging this place once the Countdown starts, I’ll probably start running spooky vids on here about a week prior to the Countdown. This way new peeps won’t be seeing this post, let alone posts from three months ago, when they hit the page!
