Are You In The House Alone?: A TV Movie Compendium 1964-1999

“…The Networks didn’t need it great, they needed it Tuesday…” (Jeff Burr Foreword)If you grew up in the ‘70’s the Tuesday Night Movie of the Week was a household event and “Are You Alone in the House” celebrates those indelible TVM memories and nostalgia. This book is a must-have for film geeks and I would venture to bet Quentin Tarantino has a copy on his film shelve library and you should too. Amanda Reyes's book was well-referenced, and I was personally surprised, and reminded, about how many of these movies I have seen growing up and how important, influential, and entertaining this format and period of filmmaking was for home entertainment.Some of the films were campy or Drive-In quality, however many still hold up and remain classics to this day, such as “Helter Skelter,” “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones,” “The Night Stalker,” “Dual,” “Gargoyles” and yes, of course, the apotheosis of the TVM… “Trilogy of Terror” (probably seen it 50 times in my life). Many tackled tough and taboo subjects.Linda Blair in “Born Innocent” and “Sweet Hostage.” Stockard Channing in “The Girl Most Likely To…”Barbara Eden in “The Stranger Within…” And Eve, Portrait of a Teenage Runaway… (The darker side of Jan Brady)Please Note: This is not a definitive collection, as Editor Amanda Reyes points out, it would be impossible to review every film which unfortunately many are still not available for streaming or on DVD.Are You Alone in the House unites readers and transports fans back to a period of time when we still anticipated and waited and when not everything was on-demand. The telefilm format brought big talent to the small screen, broke barriers, and type-casting. Actors are still returning to the smaller screens with Netflix and Amazon, but it’s different now as it was a different vibe then and I was glad to be there on Tuesday nights.Thank you, Amanda, and the contributors, this was a great read and reference book.

Made for TV movies have generally received a bad reputation over the years as being cheap and subpar to theatrical films. However as this book helps to prove there are a treasure trove of honestly great classic TV movies to be sought after online and on DVD etc.Edited by Amanda Reyes who is shedding some light on the fact these movies are becoming long forgotten and hopefully fans of TV movies can help spread the word of rediscoving or possibly discovering them again from the very first time.Featuring Amanda's own reviews and reviews from many others this book is the perfect way to compile great lists for TV movie get togethers or possibly a rainy day binge fest! You may end up seeking out movies featuring Harrison Ford as a Biology Teacher that aired in May of 1977! A Wes Craven classic about a satanic Susan Lucci offering the best of the 80's material world for Robert Urich's family. Lynda Carter volunteering on a helpline that leads to suspense! Or a battle of family friendly tv show icons like Melissa Sue Anderson of Little House on the Praire and Mary Beth McDonough of The Waltons in a showdown of high school witchery.You'll discover so many other great films! The book is a must for tv film lovers or even just those finding out about such movies! Seek out Amanda Reyes and her other TV movie loving companions Daniel R Budnick and Nathan Johnson on her Made for TV Movie Podcast for more great TV Movie Discoveries and fun trivia!

This starts with 13 essays that are hit and miss and one will not learn much that is new from them, the first two seem to serve as lengthy intros. The reviews come in sections. The first covers 9 Stephen King related TVMS, including mini-series. The second covers mini-series that are usually movies that aired in two parts. Only 8 are covered, starting with The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978) and ending with World War III (1982) The third covers 1964-1979. The 1964 one, See How They Run (1964) does not have it's own entry. The reviews start with Are You in the House Alone? (1978) and Assault on the Wayne (1971) and ends with Wild Women (197) and You'll Never See Me Again (1973). Many are of the horror genre, a few surprises are Call to Danger (1973), The Cloning of Clifford Swimmer (1974), Cotton Candy (1978), Ebony, Ivory and Jade (1979), Escape (1971), The Girl Most Likely To... (1973), Goodnight, My Love (1972), Hey, I'm Alive (1975), Men of the Dragon (1975), and The Tenth Level (1976). The 1980-1989 section starts with Amityville : The Evil Escapes (1989) and ends with Victims for Victims : The Theresa Saldana Story (1984). The 1990s section starts with Co-Ed Call Girl (1996) with Tori Spelling and ends with Twisted Desire (1996) with Melissa Joan Hart. The final section starts with 12 Angry Men (1997) and ends with Witch Hunt (1994). I noticed that a few reviews have complained about so many titles missing but this is not a book that was ever meant to include every TVM, instead it covers a selection of titles of select genres. Some of the titles such as Fantasies (1982), Hotline (1982), Cave-In! (1983), House of Frankenstein (1997), and Twilight Zone : Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) do not get covered in depth in other books. And, frankly, books that are supposed to be more comprehensive such as David Deal's Television Fright Films of the 1970s and Fraser A. Sherman's Cyborgs, Santa Claus and Satan : Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Made for Television also have many missing titles. But, this book does serve as a good companion to those two. Each entry has basic credits, a one sentence synopsis in bold letters that is followed by more story info, commentary, and a few interesting facts. There are also a lot of monochrome pics, including ad art. If this had more titles and if the essays were better, my rating might have been higher. Still, it is a fun read and there are a number of under watched TVMs, as well as some faves such as Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) covered. And it's cool to see ad art for Deadly Lessons (1983), Bridge Across Time (1985), Look What Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976), The Norliss Tapes (1973), Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), Tribes (1970), Bates Motel (1987), Fallen Angel (1981), Hotline (1982), Night Terror (1977), Death Car on the Freeway (1979), The Beasts are on the Streets! (1978), Dr. Strange (1978), Five Desperate Women (1971), Fatal Vision (1984), Guyana Tragedy : The Story of Jim Jones (1980), Born Innocent (1974), Crowhaven Farm (1970), Go Ask Alice (1973), Murder by Natural Causes (1979), The Last Dinosaur (1977) and page 272 has ads for all 3 Stepford sequels, and each one has it's own entry.

I was born in 1973 and grew up watching a lot of these films. This book is a great resource and it is fun to track down some of these films on Blu-ray, DVD and YouTube. Awesome nostalgia!

....the only downside is that it is an American book so features quite a few movies that never made it over here, although the Stephen King section have all been shown here many times, it is a well written book by a group of people who clearly love these movies even the very bad ones, there are quite a few that I would like to see but they have been unavailable for a while now, maybe youtube and google will show those ones up.This is a sizeable book and gets broken up into decades and obviously it is the earlier decades that I will struggle to find in stores, but it was nice to read about them and knowing that the sequel to When A Stranger Calls is actually a stronger film certainly motivates me to look out for more obscure TV movies.

Tolle umfangreiche Quelle aus einer Zeit als sich die Sender noch mit anderen zusammen getanhaben um eigene Filme zu schaffen, unabhängig der großen Studios. Die Autorin versteht ihrenJob. Bin sehr zufrieden. Das beste Kompendium in diesem Bereich.

Stunning book,expertly put together that took me way back to all the TV Horror flicks I would stay up late to watch when I was young.Painstakingly researched and well worth your time.