Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries "The Mystery of Witches' Hollow" #1.3 (1977) (TV)

Better than the first Hardy Boys episode15 February 2017

Fenton Hardy sends Frank and Joe to a place called Witches' Hollow to check on man named Captain Maguire. When they arrive, however, they find that Captain Maguire has mysteriously disappeared. With a lot of other strange things going on in Witches' Hollow, the boys (naturally) decide to investigate.

The Mystery of Witches' Hollow is one of those episodes that features plot devices that appeal to me. A local legend of a witch, supposedly haunted woods, strange noises at night, and a large cat on the prowl – it's these type episodes that I prefer. These are the episodes (and I'm not giving anything away) where you know that someone is using a local legend and everything surrounding it to scare people away so they can go about their illegal activities undetected. It's the basic Scooby Doo plot structure. And it works on me. The Mystery of Witches' Hollow has the added bonus of featuring a few really creepy, almost frightening (well, frightening for The Hardy Boys – I mean you know it's all going to turn out okay), scenes. My biggest complaint is that some of the nighttime scenes are so dark, it's difficult to see what's going on. Maybe it was the copy I was watching, so I won't take too much away from it. Also, at the end, the hows and whys of what the baddie was up to is a bit muddy with the final moments feeling rushed. Still, overall, the episode is a fun one and a fair sight better than the first Hardy Boys' episode in the series.


6/10


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