PHIL IN THE BLANK: Showtime for Halloween

Time goes by pretty quickly especially around this time of year, but I managed to enjoy some Halloween ambiance this year.
The movie “Halloween,” for one. The 2018 version picked up after the first one, which was made in 1978, as if none of its nine sequels/reboots ever happened. That was good for me because I never saw more than a couple minutes of any of them when they happened to be on television when I was watching.
I also watched the first one on television, but all the way through, as a kid home alone in the basement, which is where the TV was kept.
It scared me tremendously, Michael Myers walking around in his mask with his knife, getting up after he should have been dead, decorating his victim’s room in horrifying but also creative ways to frighten Jamie Lee Curtis.
This year’s version didn’t scare me. The tense cat-and-mouse scenes this time just made me wish they’d get on with it.
It was actually kind of heartwarming, seeing Curtis back up on the screen in her role from 40 years ago, along with Nick Castle, the original Michael Myers, also up there with her for at least some of their scenes.
Seeing the actors hard at work, backed up by all the directorial and production crews, brings to mind Clarkston Village Players’ Halloween/fall show, “Frankenstein.”
Excellent work by the actors and crew in this show as well, with a wonderfully manic performance by Steve Brauer as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Cass Vizcarra as his engaged-but-unfortunately-to-Victor-Frankenstein fiancee Elizabeth, and Austin Miller as his assistant-but-not-Igor Dr. Henry Clerval.
Great chemistry between all of them, along with Debbie Kramer as Frau Frankenstein, Eric Easterday’s Inspector Ernst, Karen McClellan’s Sophie, and Calista Kramer’s Justine.
Jim Pike plays the creature created through science and lots of grave robbing as Mary Shelley’s articulate version, rather than Boris Karloff’s mute. He’s a sight to be seen and heard.
The show runs weekends through Nov. 10. Get tickets at 248-425-5842.

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