OLD SCHOOL APRIL WEEK FOUR: THE CONCLUSION

 IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPREHEND OLD SCHOOL APRIL IS OVER.  I readily admit I basically sucked this time around.  Last April, I didn't join until about the middle of the month and I got more read and watched than this whole month. I mean, I didn't even get any more GOOSEBUMPS books read in the final week and they're SHORT!!!  Well, I did manage to get a few booky-sized books read, though.

I did get a POINT HORROR book read; well, a POINT HORROR UNLEASHED book, anyway, and that certainly counts.  THE HANGING TREE by Paul Stewart was a very interesting read and I liked it.  Basically there's an evil, cursed tree out in the woods in an area which protestors are trying to prevent being levelled for a bypass.  Also, it takes place in England (as does another of the three books I read this week).  I'm not sure if POINT HORROR UNLEASHED was a U.K.-only paperback series or if it was over here in the States too.  I was a pretty good book and fulfilled 10 prompts, Jack:  Retro/Vintage, Time Warp, Teen Witch, Throwback, Ferngully, Monster Squad, Goonies, Back to the Future, Once Upon A Forest and Nirvana/Grunge.  This guy on the cover actually did appear towards the end of the book; a sort-of evil, reptilian monk ghost.  Or something.

The second book I read this week was GHOSTS AND THINGS edited by Hal Cantor.  This is a Berkley paperback from the year 1962 and contains the following classic horror short stories: 

"The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" by Henry James;

"Caterpillars" by E. F. Benson;

"Markheim" by R. L. Stevenson;

"The Ghost Ship" by Richard Middleton;

"The Novel of the White Powder" by Arthyr Machen;

"Night Doings at 'Deadman's: A Story That Is Untrue" by Ambrose Bierce;

"Running Wolf" by Algernon Blackwood;

"The Music on the Hill" by Saki;

"Phantas" by Oliver Onions;

"The House" by Andre Maurois;

"The Lovely House" by Shirley Jackson

I picked this up last year (obviously used) and it fulfills 8 prompts:  Retro/Vintage, Yearbook, Teen Witch, Free Willy, Mini-Me, Monster Squad, Britpop and Nirvana/Grunge.

The last book I read this week was WORMS by James R. Montague.  This is obviously a pseudonym meant to evoke the master ghost story writer M.R. James and is hiding the identity of the actual author:  Christopher Wood (who wrote the screenplay for THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, MOONRAKER and REMO WILLIAMS:  THE ADVENTURE BEGINS).  I really enjoyed this one and this is the OTHER British book (although, come to think of it, GHOSTS AND THINGS has a lot of British authors in it as well).  Here we have a henpecked guy who vacations with his nagging wife up on the Norfolk coast.  Now, I'm with him.  The constant rainy, overcast, wind-blown and remote town is my idea of paradise and I would want to bump off my wife and move there permanently too.  Will he do that???  Well, you'll have to read it and see and I highly recommend you do since it's a great book.  But oh yeah, there are also billions of disgusting red worms all about the place and they REALLY make their presence felt in the final third of the book.  The writing and characters held me in rapt attention throughout and I loved it!  This older book I read in the lovely Valancourt Books reprinting.

Next we have the movies and I was very light on those as well.  Only 3 got watched (and one's a short)!  First, I took a chance and joined in on the OSA tradition where Kelsi and some others rewatch TEEN WITCH every Old School April.  I had never seen it before and it was exactly what I thought it would be:  a cheezy, late-80's, silly teen rom com with witchcraft in it.  As these things go, it was kinda cute and had just enough funny stuff to keep me interested!  Robyn Lively is the teen witch and, I just have to say that Joshua John Miller is the oddest child actor I've ever seen in my entire life!  I'm mean, hell!  He appeared in a lot of stuff back then but nowadays I know him for writing the great 2015 horror comedy THE FINAL GIRLS.  Also popping up in the cast are welcome additions Marcia Wallace (from THE BOB NEWHART SHOW), comedian Shelley Berman, Zelda Rubinstein (from POLTERGEIST) and Dick Sargent (the second Darren from BEWITCHED).  

Next up was a rewatch of one of my favourite kids movies of all-time:  MATILDA directed by Danny DeVito!  I love love LOVE this movie and it's been years since I watched it so I thought OSA was the perfect opportunity.  I thought the same about a GOODFELLAS rewatch (that was even a host rec) but never got my new 4K of it watched for OSA!  Crumbs!  Anywho, MATILDA is a classic and that's all I can really say about that one.

Finally was the short I mentioned:  HARDWARE WARS from 1978 directed by Ernie Fosselius.  This is another one I hadn't seen in years but the new MVD Rewind blu ray of it arrived just in time for me to watch it for OSA!  Now, the first time I saw this 13 minute epic was actually back in 1978.  For some reason,  my Middle School decided to gather my class into the library, set up a projector and showed us HARDWARE WARS.  I assume it was just a treat due to the phenomenal popularity of STAR WARS.  It was awesome being a 12 year old STAR WARS fan and getting out of class to see a funny parody of it.  And this IS still funny after all my subsequent viewings and all these years later.

And then there's my TV viewing.  Yeah.  Fail.  All I got watched was a couple episodes of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY.  So yeah, despite my sad little showing, I still loved participating in OLD SCHOOL APRIL for the second year in a row.  I'm looking forward to next April with the hope that things will not be so chaotic and I'll be able to have a better showing next year!  As soon as Kelsi tallies up the points and let's us know which team won, I'll add it to the bottom of this post.

And it is with great pleasure that I congratulate the SILVER SNAKES for winning this year's Old School April!!!!