remember this movie?

[fannishliss]

Okay, so a few days ago I wrote this story for tracy_lousia, for which I kind of riffed on a trope from a movie I saw about a million years ago which I finally located this morning after HOURS of diligent research. 

AND HOLY CRAP THE BABY IN THE MOVIE HAD ORANGE BLOOD, A LOWER BODY TEMPERATURE AND TWO HEARTS!!!!!!
O_O

The movie was called The Stranger Within, and sure enough, it was written by Richard Matheson, of Night Stalker fame. Do you think he had seen Doctor Who?  It had been on TV for like ten years by that point, and he was a tv scriptwriter with a penchant for monsters.

Wow.  Now I REALLY want to watch it again.  They made some really creepy psychological movies in the 70s. 

ETA: I found another review with additional pictures. The reviewer also came to the conclusion that Gallifreyans were involved!!  :P  The home planet has two suns.... and orange seas....  No silver trees are mentioned!! I think the Master is involved in this story.  o_O


You have to realize that I was a tiny, tiny, tiny scary movie addict. During the early seventies there were these fantastic scary movies that aired as the ABC Television Movie of the Week.  We lived out in rural West Virginia, and we got only one tv channel, and it was ABC tv.  On movie night I would stay up late on the couch with my blanket over my head and watch these things, and they are buried DEEP in my brain.  Just to give you a picture of how little I was, I was born in June of 1968.....

• The Night Stalker (1972) -- this is the earliest one I clearly remember, but it may be because it was picked up as the pilot for Kolchak series that I completely loved.
• Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) -- yes, I totally remember this. It is the basis for the recent remake by whatsisname scarypants del Toro
• Isn't It Shocking? (1973)  holy crap this was scary.
• Satan's School for Girls (1973)  I'm pretty sure I remember this, kind of dimly. 
• The Night Strangler (1973) -- again, this was a Kolchak story.
• The Six Million Dollar Man (1973) -- my first fandom!!  I wanted to marry Lee Majors!!
• Heat Wave! (1974)  ???  the synopsis for this is insane.  I can't imagine legitimately pitching this movie. 
• Killdozer (1974)  see my icon!!!
• Killer Bees (1974) YUP.
• Locusts (1974) okay not as scary as bees, but still, how they swarm!!  they did Ants in 77 with It Happened at Lakewood Manor.
• Planet Earth (1974) okay, John Saxon was SO HOT in this.   and i was SIX YEARS OLD.  Gene Roddenberry made this movie about women taking over and keeping men as pets. Be a good boy John and eat your tasty gruel.  it'll make you compliant!!!
• The Stranger Within (1974) THIS IS THE MOVIE HOMGZZZZ
• The Trial of Chaplain Jensen (1975) --okay, so I don't remember this one, but is it a J2 fic or what!!!
• Trilogy of Terror (1975) -- the scariest thing ever!! this little devil doll went after Karen Black and I was like EEEEEEEEEE!!

Comments

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, it's good that I'm consistent. It always makes me feel slightly stunned when I realize that there was this one guy (Richard Matheson) producing so much of the pop culture that affected me so deeply as a kid. wow!!! and he was elected into the sf hall of fame last year. cool! now more people should read my creepy little story, since it turns out to have such an awesome provenance!!!

But really, I mean, the parallels between Gallifreyans and the alien babies in this movie:
1. the mom's body temp lowers by ten degrees
2. the baby has two hearts
3. the mom appears to have a psychic link with the baby and speedreads entire books to it
4. she drinks cup after cup of coffee (lacking tea I guess!)
5. her BLOOD TURNS ORANGE.
6. she paints an alien landscape!!!!! if only I could remember what it looked like.
7. she starts speaking a mystery language!

Contentedly she and the other moms take their babies and go with the aliens, never to return!

So apparently, Gallifreyan babies only need five months to gestate, according to Matheson, and the mom's body will change to accommodate the young. Good to know! There is a great deal more fic to be written about this. :D

You might think that since dude had written for Star Trek, he was riffing on Spock as a human/alien hybrid... but Spock's blood is green and his body temp is warmer than a human's. Though still with two hearts. :)

[jer832.livejournal.com]

I'd be more inclined to believe that Roddenberry was riffing on Matheson. From things I've heard and read, most of the real writers (yes, my prejudice is showing here, but not against TV writers at all) were badmouthed by ST people... Sturgeon can't write for TV, he had to be rewritten... and similar for others like Matheson. Harlan was completely rewritten, and he was thrown off the set, not allowed to return, for complaining about them ruining his script (which they did; I've read the original City on the Edge of Forever).

Please help me out with the orange blood; I missed that reference.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I loved Sturgeon's original story that Killdozer, the novella "It"... I had the comic book and vaguely remember the tv movie that the comic book was based on... these ideas seemed to circle round and round. I reread the original story recently and it was super. Guillermo del Toro should take on Killdozer next!

I have no idea who first came up with two hearts. It's very possible that Matheson did come up with it first... I haven't yet been able to track down his original short story, but I hope to soon...

... and I think I will actually buy the dvd so I can rewatch this movie. It was such a huge part of my imagination as a kid with many of these other stories.

RE: the orange blood.... that's how I remember it, but I could be wrong.... according to one of the more detailed reviews of the Stranger Within, the mother's blood chemistry "changed" but I had a strong memory of it being orange.... then it does turn out that the oceans of the originary planet are orange. In doing a lot of research on the Doctor's physiology, he has a slight terra cotta or dark orange cast to his blood.

What a lot of fun old movies those were. Though i did not have the courage to go and watch Del Toro's remake of "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" -- the original terrified me for years!! :P

[develish1]

I'm two years older than you, and yes I've seen almost all of those too, along with far too many more that I probably shouldn't have been watching at that age, lol

As for Matheson himself, these immediately spring to mind for me, and yes, I know most were made before I was born;

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1955)
House of Usher (1960)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
The Last Man on Earth (as "Logan Swanson", based on Matheson's novel I Am Legend)(1964)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
The Legend of Hell House (based on his novel) (1973)

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Now my eyes are opened to Richard Matheson, it's pretty amazing!

I have to go back and watch "the enemy within" -- one of the best eps of classic Trek!!!

[jer832.livejournal.com]

Twilight Zone. (Remember Nightmare at 20,000 Feet?) He was one of the three big talents. By the end of the teaser, you can tell if the show was written by Serling (no one ever gets close to his voice), Matheson, or Robert Block.

He also wrote Duel, which stars a bf truck and a hapless little vehicle it's barreling down on, and the poor guy driving that latter.

His short stories are still in print, as, I believe are his TZ scripts.
Somewhere in Time is a cool novel about a man who falls in love with a photo of a woman long gone, and then... I think that starred Christopher Reeves. The book on which it is based is worth reading for any hopeless romantic.
I Am Legend is a very important work in the lore of vampires (I guess I'm supposed to say no vampire shimmers?) I thought Vincent Price's version was awful until I saw Charlton Heston's... and I refused to see the last one. The novel is an absolute MUST.

It's hard to find the old "classics". I don't have cable, so you all are lucky, whatever you can see.

We had to lie to our mother or sneak out to watch the movies when everyone was asleep. Ah, the good old days!

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

Omg, KILLER BEEEEEEEEES! *dives under the couch*

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

IT'S AFRICANIZED BEES GOD DEAN!

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU CALL THEM, SAM, JUST GET THE FRIGGIN BLOWTORCH!

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I CAN'T! IT'S COVERED WITH BEEEEES!!!

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

GROW A PAIR!!!

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

and a partridge in a bee tree!

[datenshiblue.livejournal.com]

I remember some of those, but not the Stranger Within. Now I want to seeeee.

Another Roddenberry movie post ST which was my fave of the three made during that period was The Questor Tapes. I had a crush on Robert Foxworth after that, of course. And who doesn't love angsty androids???

My fav Matheson will always be the Legend of Hell House. :)

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I love angsty androids!! I wrote my dissertation on Mary Shelley! (Frankenstein's Creature = the Original Angsty Android!)

I found bits of this movie on youtube.... most intriguing was the hypnosis scene where she ventriloquizes the baby. D:

I still think there are too many coincidences for there not to be some connection with Dr. Who. Who knows, maybe the BBC team were big fans of Matheson! I think the stranger within is based on his story Trespass which was from much earlier. :D

[tracy-lousia.livejournal.com]

Just seen this post and think I'm bizarrely chuffed that my prompt has caused you to go search out film info. I'm 6 yrs younger than you so the only one I kinda remember is the Killer Bees, OMG that was scary. I still don't like anything buzzy (except sonic screwdrivers, oh course, lol) I might have to look into some of those others. Thanks again for my story.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I have been wondering about this movie for AGES. So finally I was like, ALL RIGHT I WILL USE MY GOOGLEFU UNTIL I FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HECK THIS MOVIE WAS!!!!! and it turns out it is by this awesome acknowledged master who WROTE THE NIGHT STALKER!!!!! and also the evil doll movie!!!! So I was pretty happy with the results of the research -- while at the same time being COMPLETELY SHOCKED at how many details of the Stranger Within were absolutely Whovian. o_O

To me the whole 1970s were typified by the Killer Bees mania. I remember playing Killer Bees on the playground!! :D


Uhura is just reminding The Enemy Within!Kirk she does know how to use that knife!!!

[tracy-lousia.livejournal.com]

Lol, Uhura was ace :-)