The summer season of 2001 was a quite dry season for the horror style, no less than on the large display screen. So, insatiable followers resembling myself needed to look elsewhere to fulfill their cravings; the straight-to-video sector was at all times a enjoyable gamble, and the rising ubiquity of DVDs had led to the re-release of many basic and cult horrors. But through the summer season in query, it was on tv the place I felt probably the most indulged. Hiding in plain sight on Fox’s schedule was the all however forgotten Evening Visions, which has since turn out to be one in every of my favourite ever anthology sequence.
Evening Visions was a fortuitous discover that I by no means would have found had I not been channel-surfing. Often my summers at house entailed catching up with favourite exhibits through reruns, or much less usually, giving one in every of these seasonal slot fillers an opportunity. Selecting the second possibility got here with the sure danger of not seeing a summertime sequence once more as soon as the autumn lineup commenced. Nonetheless, there was no resisting the rapid sting of George S. Clinton’s rating when draped over Evening Visions’ opening. That hypnotic sequence had me journeying towards my worst nightmare but.
Fox’s mishandling of Evening Visions is not any secret; it was first reported that the premiere had been moved from the autumn of 2000 to the next January, just for it to then be delayed once more, this time till mid-summer. The community, which was going by inner adjustments, was now sitting on Evening Visions after beforehand expressing hope. As soon as the present did come up for air, critics had combined ideas; Selection led the extra favorable aspect by deeming the anthology “too good to get misplaced within the land of summer season reruns.” Regardless, Fox buried the present with no probability of rescue.
Picture: A preview of “The Occupant” at first of Evening Visions.
On the time, this callow viewer had no concept that Fox was burning off Evening Visions. And are available that September, it was gone, leaving a number of episodes unseen till Syfy (née the Sci-Fi Channel) acquired the sequence a yr later. No extra new episodes had been produced, however no less than the unaired ones had an opportunity to lastly be seen. Anybody who missed that run of repeats would get one other probability with Chiller, the now-defunct and horror-centric cable channel that resurrected each Evening Visions and fellow Fox casualty FreakyLinks.
Joe Dante’s “The Occupant” is one in every of a number of Evening Visions episodes which have stayed with me over time; one other must-see, I need to point out, is the vengeful folk-horror providing “Bitter Harvest.” As for this one, it and the psychological haunter “Renovation” had been each written by Evening Visions creators and showrunners Dan Angel and Billy Brown. Collectively this pair explores dissociation as a method of self-preservation. In “Renovation,” Angel and Brown drive Gil Bellows’ character to relive his childhood trauma in probably the most brutal method doable. To overlook was his greatest technique of survival. In the meantime, “The Occupant” would look like a gentler method to the identical overarching theme, on the truth that its protagonist’s state of affairs by no means quantities to violence, but Angel and Brown, together with director Dante, nonetheless do lasting hurt with this entry. Dare I say, greater than the previous episode.
Bridget Fonda’s character Mary Hughes is, as Evening Visions host Henry Rollins says with chillingly terse supply, “afraid to be alone” after her divorce. The next half of Rollins’ two-sentence horror story — “now she’s terrified that she isn’t” — has the sound of a basic setup. And for whereas, “The Occupant” follows the footsteps of comparable tales about imperiled ladies. It quick approaches abnormal and meandering, then unexpectedly, the episode is flipped on its head, inflicting Mary’s preliminary panic to be reimagined. How the writers and director deal with the aftermath of that twist within the tail, nevertheless, is why this episode sits so excessive in my rating.
Picture: Bridget Fonda’s “The Occupant” character exhibits a police officer the used plate sitting on her countertop.
In what was supposed to be the pilot’s second story, earlier than Fox requested a swap, “The Occupant” begins off on a well-recognized be aware; Mary is house alone at night time when she suspects somebody broke into her home. Her solely proof, although, is the used plate sitting on her kitchen counter. Mary swears to the responding cops that this plate was not there earlier than she dozed off, however as to be anticipated, the 2 males are incredulous. You the viewer, however, are inclined to aspect with Mary, seeing as you noticed what she noticed — a small however express disturbance in her atmosphere.
Earlier than the episode exhibits its hand, Mary’s paranoia appears legitimate. She comes house from her transient night time out, a lonely dinner consisting solely of wine that she can’t even pay for, and realizes two gadgets in her room have been moved or bothered. A costume initially hung up within the closet is now laid throughout a chair, and a tube of lipstick is uncapped. The episode was fast to indicate these things of their prior states in order to substantiate Mary’s story and keep your belief, but when she overhears somebody downstairs — the boiling of a tea kettle within the kitchen, and the TV is on — the episode presents an simply neglected clue. Mary’s unwelcome visitor is watching, of all issues, Home on Haunted Hill. The characters in that 1959 horror movie are deceived and manipulated to the extent the place they’ll now not belief what they see or hear. The one query now’s, are you or Mary the one being misled?
At first, “The Occupant” performs out like a clear thriller the place nobody — from the disbelieving police to the apathetic ex-husband — believes the girl’s claims till it’s all too late. There may be even the inclusion of a faux-concerned male admirer and potential stalker (Dion Luther) to assist validate that uninspired logline. And because the episode continues to unfold, there are scenes that come throughout as irrelevant to the story, together with Mary attempting to pawn a cherished piece of knickknack as a result of, as made evident throughout her awkward dinner, she is flat broke. The query of how these occasions all relate to Mary’s extra pressing drawback is sure to return up. The reply is simply revealed within the episode’s final couple of minutes, nevertheless, the readability it offers is startling and properly value your persistence.
Picture: Bridget Fonda and Johannah Newmarch’s characters in “The Occupant” lastly meet.
Given its simple and seemingly uncreative execution early on, the ending got here as an actual shock. Within the final act, Mary assumes the place of the various stalked ladies in suspense tales in all places; she hides and waits for assist. Lastly, what seems to be to be Mary’s assailant attempting to get her seems to be the exact opposite. After being coaxed out by the police, Mary comes nose to nose along with her supposed house invader; there behind the cops stands one other lady, Priscilla (Johannah Newmarch), who then says with darkish affirmation: “I advised you there was somebody residing in my home.”
“The Occupant” might be thought-about a extra trendy companion piece to a different anthology story I favor, “The Home” (1970) from Evening Gallery. Each cope with ladies who, with out their realizing it, are haunting homes or different ladies. Within the case of Evening Gallery, Joanna Pettet’s character is absolutely haunting herself. “The Home” was loosely tailored from an André Maurois short-short — the identical supply materials might have impressed the so-called factual Past Perception: Truth or Fiction section “Dream Home” (1997) — and finishes as a surreal thriller. As for this Evening Visions episode, the end result is grounded and conclusive, regardless of the minimal rationalization on the finish. You possibly can deduce why and the way Mary obtained thus far with none extra particulars.
Joe Dante’s earlier outings in TV anthology, specifically episodes of Wonderful Tales and The Twilight Zone (1985), dealt largely within the uncanny (“The Shadow Man” and “Boo!”), whereas “The Occupant” — alongside together with his different Evening Visions contribution of “Quiet Please” — toys with actuality and notion. The directorial restraint Dante applies right here feels out of character for him but completely acceptable for the sort of story. He does, nevertheless, present indicators of poetic aptitude as Fonda’s character retreats not solely into her bed room closet but in addition her delusion. Because the hiding Mary quakes in terror, the sunshine peering by the slits of the louvered closet door hits her face, making an attempt to thrust back darknesses each precise and symbolic. That remaining plea to wake Mary up from her troubled perspective is, finally, ineffective. Dante expresses the dismay of stated outcome by returning Mary to the darkness, this time within the backseat of a police automotive.
Picture: Joanna Pettet’s character in Evening Gallery’s “The Home.”
Again in an interview from 2000, Dante introduced up Evening Visions as a latest mission of his; he talked about the inevitable paring down of his work. “It’s exhausting to inform a narrative in 20 minutes, an honest story that has characters and suspense and room for all these moments you need,” he stated with a be aware of concern. What Dante submitted was condensed for time, however as an statement from somebody who enjoys their scares in segments, the typical anthology story tends to carry out higher as a nebulous, get-in-get-out expertise.
This episode’s longevity stems from the coda, though not as a result of it’s astonishingly intelligent or distinctive. No, the revelation of Mary inhabiting her former house, out of a unconscious need to disclaim her unlucky actuality, is upsetting. That alarm resonates extra as Priscilla, the present occupant of the home, watches the unhappy and delusional Mary being taken away; there’s a look on her face that doesn’t fairly register as one in every of fright and even disgust. Quite the opposite, there may be an unsettling sense of recognition within the ladies’s eye contact. Reinforcing that reflectiveness is how the police handled Priscilla — a relatively extra put-together lady — no in a different way than the much less dependable Mary. No doubt, there may be additionally the concern that, someday, Priscilla might discover herself in an analogous place as Mary. Sure, certainly, “The Occupant” takes the social cautionary story to a complete different degree by demonstrating how anybody is just some incorrect turns away from their snapping level.
The fantastic thing about anthologies like Evening Visions is the variability to the tales. Every little thing proven in these 26 episodes falls below the umbrella of horror, albeit some greater than others. From a complete city scared into submission by a music-hating entity, to a ship’s cargo being chock stuffed with cannibals, the sequence was sometimes simple with its depictions of horror. Then there have been these different occasions the place the present’s psychological assortment felt probably the most ruinous. Such is the case with “The Occupant,” one explicit story I’ve been dwelling on increasingly more in my grownup years.
Evening Visions is now streaming on Plex.
Picture: A poster for Evening Visions.
