Fear in the Night

I managed to do another thousand words of NaNoWriMo last night. Less than usual but I wasn't really feeling into it yesterday. Later on I watched a 1972 movie called Fear in the Night, directed by Jimmy Sangster. It's about a young woman (played by Judy Geeson) who is attacked by a mysterious assailant with an artificial arm. Later, she and her teacher husband go to a remote, deserted rural school, where she meets the creepy headmaster (played by Peter Cushing) who has an artificial arm, and who wanders around the deserted school corridors in full headmaster regalia playing tape recordings of classes in the empty classrooms to preserve the illusion that the fire-damaged school is still in session. At the school, the woman is again attacked by a mysterious, one-armed figure. Of course she immediately suspects the headmaster, but there is a twist. It was actually a pretty neat thriller.

Fortean Times magazine came yesterday, featuring this month articles about the British thriller author Dennis Wheatley, who was massively successful in the 1930s to 1970s but is almost completely unknown now, and also an article celebrating fifty years of The Twilight Zone.

I woke up and I still wasn't feeling well. I was really feeling the area where my tooth was taken out and I've still been taking painkillers. I took Monday and yesterday off work on sick leave and I've booked for the rest of the week off on annual leave so, hopefully, I'll be able to do something fun later on in the week, but for now I'm having another quiet day at home.

Distorted DVDs

Last night I was watching my new Peep Show DVDs, but halfway through the fifth season DVD the picture was completely wrecked by distortion, which I was really annoyed about.

Later on last night I was watching a 1971 "Hammer Horror" film called Countess Dracula, directed by Peter Sasdy. In seventeenth century Hungary, an elderly countess (played by Ingrid Pitt) discovers that bathing in the blood of young women can temporarily restore her youth and beauty. She ends up becoming a serial killer, murdering countless victims so she can romance a young soldier, by pretending to be her own daughter (who she arranges to have kidnapped by bandits). The film was loosely based on the legends surrounding real life Countess Elizabeth Bathory (the so-called "Blood Countess") who was one of the inspirations for the story of Dracula. Like most of the Hammer Studios films it was very lavishly designed, if on a low-budget. It was quite fun.

I was up quite sharp this morning because, before going to my parent's house (as usual for a Sunday), I went along to the Cameo Cinema with my mum to see a preview of a French film called I've Loved You So Long, directed by Philippe Claudel. The film stars Kristen Scott Thomas as a woman who is released after fifteen years in prison for murder, and moves in with her younger sister and her family, as she tries to start a new life. It's very well-made, if not hugely original, and is very well-acted.

I stopped off afterwards and exchanged the Peep Show DVDs, before heading back to my parent's house. Sunday lunch was chicken, peas, potatoes and white wine sauce, followed by rhubarb and gooseberry crumble. The new issue of Fortean Times (the Journal of Strange Phenomena) had arrived during the week, and it was pretty entertaining. It was warm and dry enough to sit outside, which made a nice change.

When I got home I checked the Peep Show DVDs, and this time there was distortion on the fourth season disc! Luckily it seemed to only be effecting the main menus rather than the episodes, but I won't know until I've checked them all the way through. I was really, really annoyed! It's not the first time I've had to replace Peep Show DVDs, I don't know if there is a problem with the company that manufactures them or something.

One thing I noticed while transcribing my old paper journals onto the computer, is how little things have changed since 1999. If you substitute "college" for "work" it's pretty much exactly the same. Things never really seem to change that much. I suppose they can, but it's very difficult. I've got about thirty-seven volumes of diaries and journals that I've been keeping for about nineteen years. There is probably something very odd about my need to document every aspect of my pointless, dull life.

Hammer House of Horror

Last night I was watching Hammer House of Horror on TV. This week's episode was called "The House That Bled to Death". It was about a family that move into a normal looking suburban house, where a murder was committed several years previously. Of course, it's not long before the family are plagued by strange and gruesome happenings, culminating in a memorable set-piece where they are hosting a children's party, and while all the kids are eating, a pipe bursts and sprays blood all over the table. That sequence was nominated as one of the 100 Greatest Scary Moments in a TV poll a few years ago. The episode itself is basically like The Amityville Horror compressed to about an hour. After that I watched a couple of episodes of Tales of the Unexpected, in which a nervous businessman (played by one-time Doctor Who Peter Davidson) who waits for a visit from a call girl in a hotel gets involved in an amusing case of mistaken identity. In the second episode a verger is fired from his job because he can't read or write and sets up a successful chain of tea-shops.

Today has been fairly quiet at work, but I managed to get away quite sharply, so that was good. The weather also seems to be starting to brighten up a bit now.

Of course, today is Saint Patrick's Day, one of the guys working at my desk at work is Irish and he announced on Friday that he was going to be off work today. When he was asked why he replied: "It's St. Paddy's Day. It's my national duty to get drunk."

Another Ordinary Day

I was watching an episode of Hammer House of Horror last night called "The Thirteenth Reunion" about a journalist who goes undercover to investigate a sinister health spa where the clients have a habit of dying off. It wasn't too bad.

Today was very quiet really. Just another ordinary day at work!

More From "The Twilight Zone"

Last night I watched a few episodes of the second season of the original series of The Twilight Zone. The episodes I saw were: "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" about four criminals who rob a million dollars worth of gold and decide to freeze themselves for a hundred years before they spend it, "The Silence" about a man whom makes a wager with a talkative acquaintance that his chatty friend can't remain silent for one year, "Shadow Play" about a man on death row who is convinced that the world is a dream which will end if he is executed, "The Mind and the Matter" about a misanthropic office worker who manages to will away all the other people from the world, "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" about a group of bus passengers stranded in a diner by a snow storm who come to suspect that one of them is an alien and "The Obsolete Man" about a librarian who is about to be executed in a dystopian future but manages to get his revenge.

I also watched an episode of Hammer House of Horror called "Charlie Boy" about a man who inherits an African statue from his uncle, only to discover that it has the power to cause people's deaths. It wasn't bad, but not very scary, perhaps due to the funky seventies soundtrack that made it sound more like an episode of Starsky and Hutch.

It was another dull day at work. However, I have sent off to resubscribe to Sight and Sound for the coming year. I've chosen the DVD of Ordet as the free gift.

Hammer House of Horror

Last night I saw an episode of Hammer House of Horror. The story was called "The Two Faces of Evil" and was about a family on a drive through the country, who pick up a hitchhiker in a storm. Almost as soon as he gets in, the hitch-hiker attacks the husband causing a severe car crash. Recovering in hospital it turns out that the family have survived, without serious injury, except for the father who was attacked by the hitch-hiker. The attacker himself is dead. However, as they are recovering, the wife starts to notice strange things in her husband's behaviour, which makes her think that her husband may be posessed by the spirit of the hitch-hiker. It was pretty good, if not very scary.

I also saw an episode of Tales of the Unexpected. That story was called "William & Mary" about a woman whose hated, academic husband has recently died. Shortly afterwards she discovers that he has in fact survived - as a disembodied brain in a metal box. It was pretty good.

It was a very dull and average day at work, and I have still had no word from Michele! I just wish I knew what was actually going on.