WINTER KILL a good movie-of-the-week

The major networks, mostly ABC, then NBC, and sometimes CBS, financed or purchased from the major Hollywood studios, low-budget but good quality production values, 90-minute movies that were televised as movies-of-the-week during the 1970s. While these movies aired throughout the 70s, the so-called Golden Age of televison movies-of-the-week ran between 1969 to the end of 1974. Dominating the movie-of-the-week genre during those six years included gothic suspense thrillers frequently based on supernatural, occult, and crime/action elements.

Television aficianados in their late thirties and older will certainly remember the gothic suspense horror milestone weekly tv movies such as, Crowhaven Farm, A Howling In The Woods, Something Evil, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, Horror at 37,000 Feet, How Awful About Allen, When Michael Calls, The Norliss Tapes, Moon of the Wolf, and many other notables.

These television movies did not rely on expensive sets and special effects, hence the emphasis on character and effect use of characterization and drama, atmospheric setting and lighting, and highly effective use of suspense, surprise and plot twist. Many older viewers fondly remember being completely and delightfully scared despite the almost total absence of blood and gore. On-screen violence was dramatically limited and PG to PG-13 in nature. Sex and adult situations were also very limited. FCC standards were still highly strict in the early 70s and television viewing limited adult material even more.

By the end of 1974, the genre had pretty much run its course. The Vietnam War ended for the U.S. in 1973 and the country was ready to lift its dark mood, perhaps reflected in the somber moody plots of the early 70s tv movies. Horror, monster, and suspense thrillers would continue individually for the next few years but the atmospheric, moody, suspenseful gothic dramas of the early 70s were gone. By the end of 1977 these movies would be nearly gone for good. The country was about to enter the disco era with its jazzy, happier dance music. The time of Charlie's Angels, Starsky and Hutch, Different Strokes had arrived.

WINTER KILL represents a related genre in the early 70s. It was more of a crime/suspense thriller without any gothic, supernatural, or supernatural-like plot background elements so common between 1970 and early 1974. It was yet atmospheric in its selection of quaint, scenic, winter-sports mecca, Big Bear, located at 7,400 feet altitude northeast of downtown Los Angeles. A mysterious masked intruder with a personal agenda of vengeance stalks different individuals residing in Big Bear City and executes them with a shotgun at close range. It is a straightforward crime suspense drama unique for its scenic location and small town feel that makes it feel smaller and more personal.

For those 1970s aficianados of television movies interesting in seeking more information, I can recommend a book that I purchased myself one week ago. It is titled, " Television Fright Films of the 1970s ", by author David Deal; McFarland & Company, Inc, Publishers; Jefferson, North Carolina, and London; 2007. It's very well-researched and written and you will be very entertained on the information listed within. Be advised though, the book is not cheap. You have to be really nostalgic as I am and truly desire the information. Once you go through the book, however, I think you will be happy to have it.