No movie tonight, but I did watch a scary episode of "Ghost Story" that starred James Franciscus as a man who is having premonitions about the death of his young daughter. This is not to occur for at least 20 years, as his daughter is a small child and in his premonitory dreams he pictures her as an adult. When she calls out to him for help, he wakes up, badly shaken, and his little daughter (only five years old in real life) asks him what is wrong. Pretty creepy, right? Well anyhow, he calls his ex-wife to tell her about it. She is played by Elizabeth Ashley, a very dramatic actress with a distinctive look who was in a lot of TV shows in the 70s and 80s. At first she gives him grief about his "obsessions" as she terms them, meaning his psychic visions. He retorts that he he's had them all his life, including one that occurred just before his father died. Had he heeded the message in this dream, he tells his ex-wife, his Dad would be alive today. And he'll be damned if he is gonna ignore the dreams about his daughter.
So out of the blue, even though he has a career as a corporate lawyer, he takes off on a drive to Wyoming, where in one of his dreams he has seen the name of a small town where the premonition is to take place. Now, his ex (Elizabeth Ashley) thinks he's nuts......until she has a dream of her own.
Before too long she has joined him in the small Wyoming town, where he is now seeking out a man whose name his older "dream daughter" has conveyed to him.
Franciscus finds a man by that name in town, but he is in middle age. His daughter's killer is young, and the dream is two decades in the future.
This means that the killer will be the man's son, with the same name - "so-and-so junior" - but he hasn't even been born yet...... :(
Good Lordy Moses. Now we are totally freaked out, you and me both.
The "Ghost Story" series has had great acting in all four episodes I've seen so far, and producer William Castle does a great job with atmosphere, using the very effective technique in these kinds of stories where the outside world ceases to exist. In each episode there are only a handful of characters who are left to resolve things on their own, and each actor brings a different quality of tension to his or her role, or compassion or deception. In this episode was another very good TV actress from the 70s named Meg Foster. She was very young here, though instantly identifiable because she has these icy pale blue eyes that look like she must be wearing colored contacts. She was talented in histrionics, and in this episode she plays the young woman who will eventually have a baby son who will grow up to be the killer of James Franciscus' daughter.......in his dreams.
One thing to note that is impressive from a story point of view is the ability of the screenwriter to assemble all of these ingredients into a coherent plotline, and to not only have it make sense but to elicit scares and a sense of foreboding throughout the show's fifty minute length. This is not easy to pull off, and there are several characters whose threads I haven't even mentioned, who fill out the periphery.
So there you have the core elements of what makes "Ghost Story" successful. First and foremost, top notch actors in every episode. Secondly, a "closed world" atmosphere, in which only the involved characters exist inside their entwined predicament. There is no "normal" outside world to turn to for help. This creates a claustrophobic effect in horror. Third, only the very best screenwriters must be hired to maintain quality. It is noteworthy that the IMDB for "Ghost Story" lists the legendary Richard Matheson as the creator of the series. I haven't the time to go into Matheson's history or his influence on horror and science fiction writing, but it is enough to say that he was a contemporary of Rod Serling who wrote several episodes of "Twilight Zone" and that he was an acknowledged influence on Stephen King. He also did a lot of stuff besides that, including writing "I Am Legend".
Well, it's a fantastic show all told, and most importantly it has the quality of abject weirdness that to me is just as important as the horror. It's not enough to be scared; you've gotta be weirded out, too. ////
Tomorrow night we will be back at the movies and we'll have more music to discuss as well.
See you in church in the morning and don't forget to wear green........or (pinch pinch).... :):)
Lots of love til then. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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