My Movie Journal is Better Than Yours

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Notes History

Date Viewed	Venue	Note
11.08.14	DVR	This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2014 I'm a tad more versed in Amicus than I am in Hammer but I'm still not exactly an expert. When I saw these coming on TCM before Halloween I thought they'd be a fun addition to this fest and I was right. This one is structured around a carnival attraction where Burgess Meredith plays a character named Dr. Diablo who, for five pounds, exposes patrons to a figure of Atropos and her shears of fate. As each person gazes at the shears they see some dark glimpse of what lay ahead. Some of these were more effective than others for me. Ok the only one I really liked was the last where Jack Palance plays a Poe fantatic visiting Peter Cushing's private collection of Poe memorabilia. The rest of them waver from familiar (a witch in the form of an evil cat forces a man to kill) to ridiculous (an evil piano gets jealous of some girl and ends up pushing her out a window). In the middle is a vaguely Ira Levin-esque tale of the secret behind Hollywood's biggest stars. The whole thing is written by Robert Bloch. This was fun but also serves as a good example of what I like and hate about anthologies. At least one is always a pain to get through but they're all short and keep it moving. Let's keep it going with one more shall we?