Recap #87 – Lights Out by Bernard O’Keane

Title: Lights Out

Author: Bernard O’Keane (aka Bernard Yee)

Series: Baby-Sitter’s Nightmares

Published: August 1995

Tagline: It only comes out at night . . . [Well, that’s a lie . . .]

Description: A thirst for blood.

Something is coming for Moira.

Something hungry.

Something evil.

Something that can’t be stopped . . .

Nostalgia Time!

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Well, guys, it’s time for the second recap of Babysitters In Peril month here at Oh God Why?! Nostalgia Reviews! This is book three of four total books in the Baby-Sitter’s Nightmares series. The only connection any of these books had to others in the series is that they all featured babysitters . . . in peril. I own all four books, but haven’t gotten around to reading the last one yet, however I can say that the three I have read are all top-notch stories. I have no idea why the series didn’t continue. There were a lot of series like this in the 90s that got buried under Point Horror and Fear Street, and it makes me sad. I’d love to bring more attention to some of these high-quality but short-lived series.

About this book specifically, both it and my favorite in the series, The Evil Child, came from my basement box of teen/childhood books. All I remembered about it was a camping trip, and a genetically engineered dog. Not that you’d surmise any of that from the back-of-book description. My one complaint about these books is that whoever wrote the copy for the back did a fairly shit job of it.

After rereading this for the first time in probably close to 25 years, it’s basically Man’s Best Friend meets Watchers lite. It’s a solid, entertaining story in its own right, and I’m happy to be diving into this one, especially after dealing with Stine last time out.

Note: Content warning for animal death (in addition to human death).

Recap #73 – Shakma (1990)

Title: Shakma

Directors: Hugh Parks and Tom Logan

Released: Oct. 5, 1990

Tagline: The world’s most aggressive primate . . . just got mad. [I would argue that Man is the world’s most aggressive primate . . .]

Description: Students are trapped with a testy baboon while playing a fantasy game in a research building. [I mean, this is completely accurate while giving you no sense of what the movie is actually like. Which is why I prefer my own description from my Celebration of 90s Horror post:  “Look, sometimes you just want to watch Roddy McDowall accidentally turn a baboon into a frenzied killing machine that proceeds to attack Tina from A Nightmare on Elm Street and her merry band of LARPer buddies who have for some fucking reason decided to lock themselves in the lab to play their role-playing game, okay? And there’s nothing wrong with that.”]

 

Nostalgia Time!

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I basically told the very abbreviated version of how I came to watch this movie for the first time in the intro to Dove’s and my Seed of Chucky recap, and honestly there’s not much more to it than that. I was on OKCupid at the time (this was a few years before Boyfriend and I got together), and asking people what their favorite bad (or weird) movie is was my favorite conversation starter. It was listed on my profile under the line “You should message me if . . .” and I continued it . . . “you want to tell me what your favorite bad movie is!” It didn’t always turn out the way I expected. For instance, there was one guy who very angrily messaged me to bitch about some movie he fucking hated and thought was the worst thing he’d ever seen, completely missing the point of “FAVORITE” bad movie; and another woman who just messaged me “Short Circuit 2.” That was her whole message. No hello, how you doing, nothing. Just, Short Circuit 2.

Dating sites are fucking terrible, and anyone using them has my sympathy.

But, there was one guy I had a lot of fun talking to about terrible, hilarious horror movies, and he was the one who recommended Shakma. I watched it, liked it fine, then promptly forgot about it until recently, when I watched it again and ended up thinking that maybe it’s not a “good-bad” movie; maybe it’s just . . . a good movie? I mean, yeah, it’s cheesy as hell and hits all the 80s tropes (yes, it was released in 1990, but it’s definitely an 80s movie), but it’s decent. It can be enjoyed without MST3K’ing your way through. Although that’s always the most fun way to watch any movie, in all honesty.

Note: Due to the presence of Roddy McDowall (and the weird competition I’ve devised in my head to make him surpass Brad Dourif as the most recapped actor on this site; I dunno guys, my brain is a weird place) and a baboon in this movie, I of course scoured the internet for Planet of the Apes memes to use here. There are fewer than you’d think, and a shocking number of them are really racist. Or maybe that’s not so shocking. I dunno. People suck. Maybe baboons should kill us all while we’re playing D&D.