VisionTV goes over to the dark side - but just for one night - with a special Halloween celebration of all things frightful: |
| |
|
|
The Origin and Evolution of Halloween
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 5 p.m. ET, 60 mins.
Believe it or not, most of our present-day Halloween customs are actually remnants of pagan new year traditions originating in England. As this documentary reveals, the Druids believed that at the Fall Equinox the worlds of the living and the dead came together, and they marked the occasion with bonfires, sacrifices and fertility rituals. With the coming of Christianity, the Church sought to eradicate pagan beliefs, but the traditions survived and adapted, and eventually came to North America with the wave of Irish settlers in the 1840s. Today, few of us have any idea what Halloween is really about. But in the last couple of decades, a growing interest in pre-Christian religions has led some North Americans to create new Halloween celebrations evoking the ancient pagan traditions for honouring the dead.
|
|
|
Mysterious Island (1961)
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 6 p.m. ET, 2 hrs
In this classic creature feature adapted from the novel by Jules Verne, a group of Civil War POWs makes a daring prison break in a hot air balloon, only to crash on an uncharted isle, where they are menaced by giant animals, fearsome pirates and the megalomaniacal Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom). Stop-motion animation master Ray Harryhausen created the special effects. |
|
|
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) - Complete and Uncut
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 8 p.m. ET, 3 hrs
A creepy classic. In a crumbling Los Angeles mansion, deranged former child star Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) tends to her wheelchair-bound sister Blanche (Joan Crawford), an actress whose career eclipsed Jane's before a mysterious car accident left her crippled for life. When Jane learns that Blanche intends to have her committed, she begins terrorizing her helpless sister while plotting her own triumphant comeback. Director Robert Aldrich, the master of melodrama, pulls out all the stops, and his leading ladies - who loathed each other, by the way - soar right over the top with scarcely a look back. (Blanche: You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to me if I weren't still in this chair Jane: But ya are, Blanche! Ya are in that chair!) Sick, twisted and brilliant. |
|
|
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 11 p.m. ET, 2 hrs
When a former tennis pro (Ray Milland) learns that his wife (Grace Kelly) has been unfaithful, he plots the perfect murder. Or so he thinks. The only Alfred Hitchcock feature ever filmed in 3-D, this dark chiller is a model of moviemaking economy. |
|
| |
|
|
|
