Forgotten TV: The Last Completely New Episode of 'The Outer Limits'

 The 7th lowest rated Episode also comes from Season 7.

It's also the last Episode that is not, in some way, a Clip Show.
So, I guess the 2nd to last Episode is one too? 
I'm sure we'll find out soon.

For now, let's look at the Episode known as...

A woman- SNL's Nora Dunn- is just trying to live a normal life.

That all changes when a story about her ends up in a local tabloid.
The story?

She was abducted by Aliens 17 years ago!

They experimented on her and life moved on.

Oh, and these guys are Stock Footage from a Season 1 Episode.
This is also the final Episode to explicitly be about Aliens in the Series.

Her Daughter- Katherine Isabelle?!?- has had a hard time with the whole thing, especially Mom waking up screaming all of the time.

With the story out, there's even more tension.

She's been confiding in her English Teacher and things have generally been improving in the last year.

What could go wrong?

Oh right- the guy is actually one of the Aliens!  He's here to take Isabelle because she is a product of the abduction.

Somehow Mom never pieced one and two together.

His plan ultimately fails when Mom frees the Daughter from the necklace and stabs the guy, making him slowly morph into a Grey...and then a puddle.

A decent bit of melodrama that leads to a decent conclusion.

For starters, Dunn and Isabelle both do really good jobs here.  They feel 'natural' and I believe that they are Mother-Daughter.

The Abduction Scenes are done well, with a different glow (see below), edited into quick shots (to show missing seconds of memory) and lots of implied bad stuff.
Season 7 was apparently the one with no 'bad stuff' like Nudity and implied sex.

Dunn's flashback double is quite convincing too.

The final segment is a bit too rushed for me.  We get the twist, the full reveal, the rejection, the fight and then the death.
I would also love to know how things followed up with them, given that the Teacher is now goop.

Did they move?  I want to know!

Regardless, this isn't a bad Episode per se- just one that is light on the hard sci-fi and heavy on the melodrama.

Next time, we jump back to Season 6.  Will this one be an indictment of GMOs before everyone really knew what they were?  See you then...

Tubi Thursday: Hell Night (1981)

 With School out now, let's look back at the dangers of, well, School.
Specifically, a Frat/Sorority tradition that goes terribly wrong!

This is...

A quartet of young people- including Linda Blair and Dick Van Patten's son Vince- are locked in a spooky house for the night as their frat/sorority inititiation.

I think the fact that Vince is dressed as Robin Hood after his Dad was in When Things Were Rotten is probably a coincidence.

They split into two duos, since Vincent and the other girl- Suki Goodwin- are horny teens.  Naturally.

Blair and Peter Barton's Jeff talk about class warfare and such until...

...spooky stuff starts to happen.

It turns out that the people who made them stay set up 'scream boxes' and rigged up stuff like projectors to make ghosts appear.

Boy, this Lobby Card makes you think that this is a Ghost Film.
It's not.

Something- or someone- is killing off the people behind the pranks and scares.

It all relates to a crazy, impossible story of a Dad that killed off of a family of mutants in this House.

The killer (or killers) is kind of slow at this, mind you, and likes to spend about five minutes sneaking up on each victim.

No rush, man- you can fill up the 1 hour and 42-minute runtime.

Can Jeff- who sadly doesn't have the titular Powers of Matthew Star in this one- and Blair survive the night as the body count rises?

Can they stay dressed like this to make every promotional image look like a Gothic Film?

To find out, stream it now.

A solid Film that could do with a bit of Editing to deal with its pacing issues.

The Film is honestly better than I was expecting.  In part, I get it confused One Dark Night, which doesn't help.

In any event, the Film looks great, has a simple premise and really delivers on the setup parts of a Slasher Film.

In many ways, it hits the same beats as Slashers were all starting to hit at this time.

At its best, it milks maximum tension from each setup.  At its worst, it lingers on long shots past the point that most modern viewers will get bored.

The Film also has a subtle message about how 'lower class' people can often have very useful skills (like Blair) that save their lives.
Snooty rich guys- less so.

Hell Night is a solid recommendation for fans of early Slashers and '80s Horror.  It will really pull you in.

A Film that is honestly way more engaging than you might think.  Then again, Frank Darabont worked on it, so...that tracks.

'90s Fun?: Ninja Scroll (1993)

 A Film that I remember being crazy and bloody when I was younger.
As an older man, am I a fan of this still?

This is Ninja Scroll, the 1993 Anime Film that inspired many, many people.

The Plot involves a crazy conspiracy involving multiple ninjas and some gold.  Meanwhile, a stoic jerk named Jubei is dragged into things.

As luck would have it, the whole thing ties into a person from his past and he's a badass Samurai.

Can he work with a lady Ninja and a creepy Master to save the day?
Does this one hold up?

To find out, read on...

A mysterious man- Jubei- is attacked by two strangers on a bridge.

He takes them both out, but the 2nd man was apparently in a wooden body suit.

The tiny man's attempt to shoot Jubei fails and we never see the tiny man again.

A bunch of ninjas are sent into the Woods to look for bad guys, only to be killed by two powerful Ninja.

The main one is a giant, rock man with Thanos' double blade from Endgame and chops up so many people that it rains blood.

He kills the lead guy and captures the lead lady.

He does bad stuff to her (which is plot relevant TBF) before Jubei shows up to help her escape.

I don't think that I need to blur this, right?

Jubei doesn't agree to help her and they go their separate ways.

The stone guy attacks Jubei this time and Jubei kills him as he's affected by a strange malady.

He chops off the guy's fingers and his own blade hoists him Friday the 13th: Part IV style.

She poisoned him earlier when he, well, you know.

Jubei is greeted by Cliche Creepy Old Master Guy, but still refuses the Call to Action.

He's attacked at an Onsen by a lady who can animate her tattoos.
This (and the stone guy) clearly inspired Elektra.

The key thing is that he's poisoned by the lady and must work with the Master.

He joins forces with the Ninja who knows that something big is going to happen.

Jubei hears the name 'Gemma' and flashes back to when he killed the guy for being a corrupt a-hole.

On the way to where a bunch of gold is coming in, they keep getting attacked by different Ninjas with different powers.

That's Act 2 for you, complete with a blind swordsman (not Zatoichi), a shadow guy and this guy who is apparently a Human Wasp's Nest!

Please don't think about this too hard.

The trio prepare a plan to stop the theft of the gold, but it falls apart when the bad guy appears in disguise.

It's Gemma!
He's...just the guy from Fist of the North Star then?

The Ninja lady dies- ending her Arc of nearly dying to save Jubei multiple times- and the Master takes out the last remaining henchman.

Jubei fights Gemma and learns that he has the power of immortality!
He'll just keep coming back.

So, Jubei just cuts him and lets the melting gold on the ship coat him until he sinks to the bottom.
Off to the Sequel (which is incomplete).

The End.

It's a bloody good love letter to the best (and worst) of 1990s Anime and Animation in general.

This Movie still looks pretty amazing, even on a DVD from 1998.  Every frame was made specially (or so they say) so there is no repeat animation or filler.

The Film is very dynamic and it is easy to see why the Action inspired people like The Wachowskis (to the point where this Director worked on The Animatrix).

Plot is somewhat of a different Story as it is a pretty loose collection of melodrama, action and convenience.  It's not terrible, but most Reviews talk/talked about the Action and Style.

It is absolutely not for everyone with all of the blood, severed limbs and all of what happens to the lead Ninja lady.

Ultimately, older me can appreciate all of the work and style put into the insanity.  That said, the main Villain is kind of...odd.

Next time, I jump to my Digital Library to talk about an OOP TV Movie.  It has everyone's favorite Monsters, but also nobody ever seems to remember it except for me.  Stay tuned...

Shudder Day: 'Tales from the Crypt' - 'Only Sin Deep'

 Let me continue to cover this Anthology Show with more from Season 1.

In the 4th Episode, a woman is obsessed with her own beauty.
This won't end well.

Sylvia Vane (Lea Thompson) is a Hooker who is obsessed with herself.

She also wants to be rich.

And yes, her last name is Vane.
She's either in a Horror Show or a future Batman Villain.

She kills a Pimp who offends her and tries to get a way out by pawning his jewelry.

Desperate, she agrees to trade her beauty to the Pawn Shop Owner.
She must pay him back in 4 months.

With this money, she glams herself up and goes to meet a man at a fancy party.

The man- Brett Cullen- falls for her and everything is great.

She has everything she's ever wanted.

What could go wrong?

Her beauty starts to fade and she has no idea why.

She finally figures out why and pays the guy back...too late.

She needs more money, so she robs the guy she was with for all of this time.

He comes home and she kills him.

She tries to buy her beauty back, only to learn that if she gets it, she'll be convicted for murder and be executed.

What a choice.  The End.

A pretty simple tale of vanity, greed and anger.

These are never complex tales.  There's almost always a simple moral and ironic twist or two.

What matters is how they do it.

This one works thanks to Leia Thompson fully committing to the role.  She's willing to play against type and the Episode benefits from that.

Howard Deutch was the Director and is actually married to Thompson (they married the same Year that this Episode was made).  He gets a good performance out of her and the rest of the Cast.

The makeup work sells things without being too over the top.  Good stuff.

A good production and there is worse make-up work when it comes to stuff with Lea Thompson in it...

Next time, one of the most reliable Character Actors of all time is here.  This tale of obsession will also not end well.  See you then...

Forgotten TV: 'The Outer Limits' Presents a Season 1 Clipshow!

 We are now at the 5th lowest rated Episode of this Series.

Is it bad?

Well, in case you didn't read the Title, this one...

...is a glorified Clip Show.
We are just at the end of SEASON ONE, people!

The Framing Device is this guy getting a meeting to talk about the dangerous threat of aliens...

...to some sort of select Government Committee.  
What's their name?  What do they do?

Never explained.

Regardless, our guy has connections and he's going to tell them all about recent events like...

That's a young Lochlyn Munro on the left btw.

The first Episode- Sandkings- and how they might actually still be around.

This is all just a theory of his, mind you.

He sets up clips from other Episodes so far this Season.

We get the 'sexy' Episode with Alyssa Milano taken over by an alien spore.
They brought to prop, so...yea?

We get what was literally the previous Episode- Birthright- about a guy who's actually an alien and he didn't know it.

Plus this Episode about a House that absorbs/eats people.

It apparently has an even younger than last time(s) Ryan Reynolds in it, as shown by his weird CGI outline here.

There's also Clips from 'The Voyage Home,' which was also in the previous Clip Show Episode I covered.

As part of the rebuttal to his testimony, one of the Committee tees up clips from 'Corner of the Eye,' which is then explained as being Aliens too.

After presenting his case, the Committee says that they will not file his report.  The guy flips and grabs a gun to shoot (and kill) the head of the Committee.

He's convinced that he was an alien.  He's not.

After he's dragged away, we learn that Munro and the stern woman on the group actually were the whole time.  The invasion continues!

The End!

I'm both annoyed and marginally impressed.

The former is because the Season is ending with a Clip Show.  This format gives them a chance to so many disparate and unique Stories.

The best we got to end an impactful Season...was this?

As for the other part, I will give them credit for being selective.
The Theme is Aliens, so they skipped over Episodes like 'Mary 23' and 'I, Robot' instead of trying to make them work.
This also means that all of Season 1's Alien Episodes are canon to each other...at least in relation to this one.

The Finale Clip Show was simulations- they didn't even try.

Having Don S. Davis in your Episode also keeps you slightly above a failing grade.

It is likely the most skippable Episode of the Season and its twist was extremely obvious.  What's less obvious is why they posed this Picture like the Stars of some sort of ABC Sitcom...

Next time, I skip the 6th lowest rated Episode (as I already covered it).  Let's instead jump to #7 and it's from Season 7 to boot.  See you then...

'00s Fun?: Scary Movie (2000)

 With a sixth Movie out now (as of time of writing), why not go back to the first one?

This one is also called Scary Movie, which makes sense- it's the first one. 
Given how much of Scream 6 they seem to be parodying in the new one (and 5 was the one without no number in the Title), why not just have the 2026 version be Scary Movie 6?

I know that I'm thinking about this way more than anyone should.

In any event, this Parody Film is the combination of 2 different Parody Scripts both licensed by Miramax- Last Summer I Screamed Because Halloween Fell On Friday The 13th (by the Wayans Brothers) and Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween (by Friedberg and Seltzer).

The Wayans Brothers claim that NOTHING was used from the latter- they had 2 more Writers also work on the final product- but the duo is still credited (and marketed their terrible, Parody Films on this merit).

This was the big break for Anna Farris, who was supposedly about to leave Hollywood before she got Cast.
Jon Abrahams (who plays the Skeet Ulrich role) would actually end up in a handful of *actual* Horror Films following this, including the House of Wax and Friday the 13th Remakes.

The big question- does this hold up at all?  Are the topical jokes still good?  Were they then?

To find out, read on...

The Film features a Cold Open with Carmen Electra (like Scream). 
The Actress would go on to be in two of the '____ Movie' Series Films.  Joy.

The actual Opening proper features Farris as Cindy in basically a shot-for-shot redo of Sydney's, just with jokes about an electric fence to protect her virginity and apparently her Dad being a drug mule (who vanishes until Act 3).

The School is aflutter as Cheri Oteri (as Courtney Cox) is exploiting the death (and causing one of her own, with zero consequences) for Ratings.

We meet our group of Leads, including a peak fame Shannon Elizabeth and Regina Hall...who was just in the Film that won Best Picture this year?!?
Life is sometimes crazier than fiction.

They all share a secret of killing this Fisherman guy.

It is I Know What You Did Last Summer, but with the joke being that he wasn't actually dead when they tossed him into the Ocean.

This also stops mattering before Act 2.

The killer is still on the loose, taunting Cindy in her House.

Unfortunately, he's terrible at hiding.
That's the joke.

In what is arguably the most dated joke (and this Film has about 500 that could apply), the killer calls Marlon Wayans' Shorty (whose sole joke is He Loves to Smoke Pot) and it turns into the Wassup Commercial.

There are way too many of these out there.

Shannon sees her boyfriend- Guy who randomly appears in everything Lochlyn Munro- killed during her Talent Contest.

In spite of that, she's not scared of the same killer the next day and just sasses them until her head is cut off.

Cute background joke, at least.

Oteri's Reporter pops up a few times throughout the Film, but stops appearing after she tries to interview the killer while he's working.

She runs into the Woods and they parody The Blair Witch Project for 10 seconds...and that's it.

I guess see you in the new one?

The Cast is whittled down through various parodies- as well as a random fat girl at a Party.

We get the reveal with Not Skeet and Shawn Wayans, but they are then killed by the (I guess) other killer.

This leads to the most famous part of the Film- the Matrix parody.

The killer escapes- knocked out a window and vanishing like Michael Meyers- and Cindy still can't figure things out.

We then get a *timely* parody of The Usual Suspects and learn that Doofy (the 'mentally challenged' parody of David Arquette's Character) was just pretending.

He ditches his disguise and drives away.
Cindy is then hit by a bus, but she'd return for Scary Movie 2-4 and now 6.
The End.

I definitely don't love this as much as teenaged me did.
To be fair, that guy wasn't exactly in love with it either.  I didn't actually own the Films until 2026 (in a 3-pack for $3).

So many of the jokes are just the same idea done over and over again.  You get stuff like 'Ray is obviously Gay' about 30x and 'Shorty loves Pot' about 42x.

The other random sight gags fight for time and are, honestly, usually better than the standby jokes.

An odd bit was apparently cut between the Theatrical and Video release. 
A joke about Gwyneth Paltrow (while Hall is seeing Shakespeare in Love) was deemed 'too mean' by everyone's favorite Producer Harvey Weinstein and changed in ADR.

2026 me has to remember that this was made for a 2000-era audience that had just seen 3 Scream Films and 2 IKWYDLS Films. 
Also, that jokes about people being high, a jock being gay and Doofy being, well, what he was considered the funniest things in the World.

To be nice, this one's Plot is a bit less scattershot than the 525,600 Parody Films to follow (like Epic Movie cutting from a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Scene to a Superman Returns Parody).
They joke about not having a Plot, but sort of try here.

If you're into the raunchier humor and don't mind stuff that's just gross for grossness' sake, this still is worth a look.
As long as all of the Cameos don't feature now dead people.  Right, Prince Parody and...

RIP James Van Der Beek

Next up, let me jump back to the 1990s and over to Japan.  Is this iconic Anime Film as I good as I remember it being over 20 years ago?  Stay tuned...