A Haunting: 60 Minutes of Creepy

On a lazy day at home I'm prone to leaving the TV on while doing house work or polishing up that novel (AKA sipping tea on the couch in my PJ's), and whatever happens to be on stays on. Saturday was a lazy day. The show was "A Haunting," not necessarily my normal fare but there was some real crap everywhere else I looked on the ol' dial.

It's a straightforward - benefit of doubt - dramatization with sexy actors, and the real people usually getting the silhouette treatment to protect their identity. I don't know about you but if I ever have to face off against monsters from the underworld in my own damn house I could give a shit what the neighbors think. That's like stubbing your toe, on the way to the hospital with a gunshot wound, and doing the Jack Tripper jumping around for 10 minutes on one leg going, "Oo, ah, oh, ouwiie, MU-THER LUVER!" Worried about the kids getting teased? Teach them this little comeback and they should be fine, "Yeah that's my mom on TV kicking some angry spirit ass. You want to make sumptin' of it? After what I've seen I got no problem cuttin' your heart out, burying it in my backyard and waitin' for your ass to try and haunt me - just so I can watch you get your ass exorcised!" I've glanced at this show in the past but never really found it very interesting and after the first 2 or 3 episodes I loafed through I still felt the same way but then like a slap in the face came "The Presence."

...if every episode were this good the show could give "Heroes" a run for its money.

As most people (with 1/18th Indian blood to boot) will tell you, I have had my share of creepy unexplained experiences and though I would have preferred them to have been of the flying saucer kind they have been of the creepy ghost kind instead. I don't want to go into "Kelly Park Night of 1000 Cats" right now but it was enough for me to carry a grain of salt in my breast pocket for just such incidences. I'm not jumpy either but when the creepy stuff started happening it worked. I don't know how much can be attributed to the special effects team and how much to the directing and acting but it was actually scary. The blood flowing down the walls was great and when they got to the floating head breathing in the teenage daughters ear I put down the tea and picked up the brandy. A few minutes later the phone rang and whoops, there went the brandy.

The last thing I saw was a dude (the new husband I believe) doing one of those popping up straight from the ground things made famous in that crappy Dracula movie a few years ago (made me say - Whoa!) and the effect looked better here. I hit record and will wait until there's someone else in the house to finish it!

A big congratulations to the team that put this episode together - the actors, the directors, the special effects team, the writers (or victims, gray line and all) you showed what was possible on a show like this and if every episode were this good the show could give "Heroes" a run for its money. If you're ever flipping through the channels and you see this episode on; stop, turn on all the lights, grab someone prone to jumping into your lap, pour a couple glasses of brandy into those large lead goblets in the cupboard that have the etchings on the side that might just pass for crosses in a pinch and call it a night.

Today will be another one of those lazy days but I think I'll steer clear of anything spooky, hmm, it looks like "Taxi" is on and - oh look so is "Jersey Girl." Those should be safe!