The other day Brian F posted his great atmospheric snaps of Wildwood pier and rides in the New Jersey night.
It reminded reader Mish of the opening to TV's Journey to the Unknown from 1968 and I agree, its one creepy eerie fairground with a hauntingly whistled theme!
What do you think?
Episodes of this old nerve-tingling series on You Tube.
Another ghostly fairground appeared in Herk Harvey's 1962 weirdster Carnival of Souls. I've seen a colourised version of this film but I have to admit for pure atmosphere I prefer the black and white original, available gratis on You Tube.
One of my fave fairground takes appears in the opening titles of The Lost Boys, that vampire-fest starring the Two Coreys [Haim sadly died in 2010, Feldman still around] and one Keifer Sutherland from way back in 1987.
There is something eerily sorrowful about the whole idea that young immortals hang around their town's fairground. Yes, I suppose that's the Lost in the title, a reference to Rufio and the gang in Peter Pan, trapped in Neverland forever.
The theme Cry Little Sister has stuck in my mind ever since first seeing this flick in the late Eighties.
Thou shalt not fall! Remember?
Do you like the Lost Boys?
To round off this ride on the fell rim of night here's a tale from my own neck of the woods, the sad demise of Lancashire's own Disneyland, the medieval theme park Camelot.
As if built from straight from the pages of Michael Crichton's Medieval World, Camelot, with castles and candy floss, rose from the earth in 1983. I'd already left Lancashire for pastures new so I never got to sample the delight's of this northern treat in Chorley.
Alas, like the aging knights of the round table themselves, Camelot went to seed and closed its drawbridge in 2012.
Abandoned, Camelot has become a magnet for the curious. You Tube is bristling with urban explorations into its decaying splendour. Here's a more professional look behind the scenes from TV's the One Show.
Have you an abandoned park or fairground near you? Have you ever come across one readers?
Fascinating, freaky, fairground finds, Woodsy.
ReplyDeleteBring on the Killer Clowns !
Mish.
Yay! Its a whiteknuckle ride Mish! Never seen the Killer Clowns. Another one to check out!
DeleteAlong with 'Funhouse' perhaps.
ReplyDeleteMish.
Ah yes, with the monster man. I also have Slayground!
DeleteFunhouse being one of the infamous Video Nasties banned by the Director of Public Prosecutions in Britain in the early 1980s, but again available uncut with a 15 certificate.
ReplyDeleteYes, it hardly warranted legislation and video shop owners going to prison did it! There's worse on the telly now!
DeleteI'm so glad you posted the Opening to Journey to the Unknown, it was always for me part of what has become known these days as a "Haunted Childhood" (Google it!)
ReplyDeleteMy creepy funfair moment came when I got to head up the "Gadgets Gizmos Dept" on the 1988 reboot of Mission Impossible "Filmed around the world -without leaving Brisbane"!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission:_Impossible_(1988_TV_series)
As I drove up from the airport I saw a traditional funfair on the beach. As I got closer it looked kind of daggy. It wasn't until much later, when I saw a crew screening of one of the finished episodes that I realised just how daggy it was and how perfect for the story they wrote around it!
Serendipity working at its best Looey. It must happen a lot during film making, the perfect spot just appears in front of you. There is something strangely nostalgic and other-worldly about funfairs isn't there and abandoned ones are even moreso. I had to look up 'daggy' but yes, its a good description. As for haunted childhoods I can imagine it refers to the monster craze of the 1960's, which was my world too. Googling it took me to other meanings where kids had met ghosts too! Yikes! I like the idea of classic monsters but I certainly don't want to meet a 'real' ghost! I don't recall the 1988 Mission Imp reboot but having just read your link its interesting how the Writers strike in the US sent the team to Oz. Serendipity! Did you get to meet Peter Graves at all? Which gizmo's did your team make?
DeleteThe new Mission: Impossible screened in NZ. Phil Morris, the son of Greg Morris from the original Mission: Impossible played the son of his father's character on the show, which was a nice touch. I well remember the episode where Jim Phelps receives his 'secret' briefing in the cockpit of a F-111 jet. Yes, the F-111 was flown at the time by both the US Air Force, and the Royal Australian Air Force, but although US markings had been applied to the RAAF aircraft, it was still carrying its Australian squadron markings and fin flash - American aircraft do not have fin flashes, so that looked pretty silly. I do realise most people would not spot that, but being an aviation enthusiast I did. A pity the series was so short lived, as I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeletevery interesting Paul and good observation!
DeletePaul Adams; the Art Department did a lot of repainting things to make them look American! There was a Ford Bronco that kept changing colour from episode to episode!
ReplyDeleteOur motto was "Get 'em done in eight, Mate!" which referred to the days allocated to shoot each episode!
Of course during production, we'd be working on the current Ep, prepping the next and doing pick ups for anything up to three previous shows, all at the same time!
I made the message box amongst many other things and I always intended to update it as the show progressed, but I never had enough spare time to do that.
My favourite design was the knock-out dart guns which looked cool when folded and the actors got very adept at flicking them open with a flick of the wrist.
Phil Morris was great to work with, you'd take him a gizmo, explain how it was meant to work and he'd instantly handle it better you did!
I also got to meet his Dad, Greg Morris on the Golden Serpent episode. Greg was one of my inspirations when I watched the original show as a kid. Unfortunately, like many actors he had problems in later life and it was sad to watch him struggling. When Phil's character had to cry over his film father, I could sense that the emotion was genuine.
My wife and I squirreled away the money we earned on M:I and built the house we live in to this day (we always refer to it as "the house that Jim Phelps built"!
BTW, I also worked on the M:I 2 movie and got to meet Tom Cruise -but that's another story!
Woodsie, I made a mistake when I said haunted childhood, I meant to say Haunted Generation.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link that explains what I was referring to and I think there's a bit of all our childhoods in the general concept...
https://hauntedgeneration.co.uk/
Wow Looey, what an article! I'll have to spend some time browsing through it! There's mention of fairies I see. The Cottingley in the famous Cottingley fairies isn't too far from Moonbase , in Bradford. They're pretty darn good snaps for a 16yr and 9yr old in 1917. Thanks for haunted link. I see what you mean.
DeleteThank you, that was most interesting. Many shows would not have bothered re-painting that Bronco from episode to episode, simply assuming no one would notice from week to week. Wording on up to five episodes at the same time sounds very complicated.
ReplyDelete