The Strange Spell of Screamin' Jay Hawkins

He learned classical piano and wanted to be an opera singer, and was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska. And one drunken night in 1956 he recorded a song that you always seem to hear around this time of year.

I found this documentary while looking for another documentary about Ghoulardi. Watching it left me...Spellbound...

Happy Happy Halloween!

Celebrate in your own way.

Thunder of Gigantic Serpent (1988)

Enjoy the 80s direct to VHS giant monster classic complete with Greek subtitles!

The scariest is always last....

Whenever I do this, I always save my scariest, most horrifying, spookiest post for last. This year is no different; in fact, this year, it's the post that could SAVE YOUR SOUL.

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Did you know there are people out there who give out Chick Tracts instead of candy on Halloween? Yeah, that happens. If we go back to my old neighborhood, I could point out the house that did that to us as kids. He was hated more than the guy who gave out raisins or pennies with needles in them.



Take a gander at the story presented here. You can compare this to the tract itself (no, I am not giving Jack Chick any web hits, so you're safe).

I assure you, the laughable production values pay perfect homage to the source. Consider yourself saved.

Gallery of Horror (1967)

Besides John Carradine, this flick also boasts Lon Cheney Jr. and Roger Gentry!

This is a hilariously bad movie. I really had some trouble getting through "The Witch's Clock", but once you crest that hump, it's smooth sailing.

Also: it's got a character named "Alucard", so there's your cheap anime connection.

The Friendly Ghost

Is it me or does Casper look like he could lose a few pounds?

The Cobweb Hotel

Is it okay if I cheered for the Spider?

Ghoul Friend

Almost as disturbing as the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons. Highly recommended!

The Headless Horseman

Ub Iwerks and Carl Stalling and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Spooks

Enjoy some Ub Iwerks Spooky.

Mad Monster Party

They should play this every year.

Jitters and Jitterbugs

Hellzapoppin!

Amicus Productions

You know how much blood is in this movie? It will surprise you.

Amicus productions put out several horror anthology flicks, and we've got the last weekend of Horvent (my name for the Advent for Halloween) coming up. Maybe you'll have a party. Here are some movies I can suggest.

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I have no idea why the trailer is in black-and-white; the movie isn't.



Anything with David Warner in it is good. Except Time After Time.



See that little dance Christopher Lee does when the hand grabs him? I did that once. A gecko had run up my pant-leg.



BURGESS FREAKIN' MEREDITH. Nothing more need be said.



I like ending on Vincent Price. Sadly, this movie also features musical numbers and they're very 80s. BUT! Go about 3:00 in on this clip:



Seamless....

One Step Beyond (1959)

Before the Twilight Zone--before The Outer Limits--there was One Step Beyond. It was a series that specialized in stories of "the uncanny".

More importantly, it gave us the title for this song:



Oh, 80s. You're so wacky. Let's try that opening theme again with the theremin.



Yeah! It's the closing credits for "Outer Limits"! Big surprise. Let's see what else they have going on.

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So, I heard that new "Carrie" movie came out. How is that?

Hammer House of Horror (1980)

Oooooooh, it's Hammer, so you know it's good.

Apparently, in 2003, this show pegged number 50 in the 100 scariest moments, and when Channel 4 aired the list, the clip (at 1:26:05) was the party from "The House that Bled to Death". I've got to say, that scene made me laugh so hard, I had hot chocolate spiked with rum shooting out of my nose (the rum is what hurt).

Nonetheless, it's a good series with some truly creeptastic moments. And you can get it on DVD. Awesomesauce! It's well worth it.

Here; let me show you what I mean.

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Moral of the story: Do not trust Peter Cushing.

Nightmare Cafe (1992)

Yep, we're all about short-lived series over here. Nightmare Cafe is just one of them.

I'v echecked to see if you can get this on DVD, and it looks like it came out once but has since gone out of print. No luck renting that, then! However, if you can stand to watch them in 5-minute bursts, it's on YouTube. I'm not posting links; I'm just letting you know it's out there.

What's really remarkable about the show, besides its short run of five+pilot, is the amazing amount of talent that worked on the show. Having gone through a couple episodes, I don't know why it was cancelled.

Now, a story!

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This happened to a friend of mine who was working a convention. She was in the middle of breaking down her booth when she saw Robert Englund walking by and mentioned to him that she'd seen Nightmare Cafe and enjoyed it very much. He put his arm around her and offered to buy her a drink. She had to turn him down because she was breaking down her booth.

IF YOU CAN BELIEVE THAT.

London After Midnight

It's not an anthology, but I just wanted to share this one. That face is so iconic.

Escapes (1986)

Tales from the Darkside (1984)

Oh, that theme music.... This show always came on in the middle of the night, after my family had gone to bed, so I hardly ever got to share it with anyone.

I discovered this was a common affliction when, in mentioning it to a friend, she exclaimed, "It IS real!" You see, she had never gotten to watch it with anyone else either. It was just one of those things you watched by yourself, in the dark.

George Romero released this on us in 1984. He'd done pretty well with his movie Creepshow and the small screen was a fine way to cash in. The cycle was completed with the 1990 release of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, which featured its own version of the Snow Maiden story (but with gargoyles! What a twist!).

You can actually get all four seasons and the movie on DVD. However...

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(Here's part two.)

I do want to share this one with you and it's an awful quality transfer, so I don't feel bad about posting it. This comes with a story:

On one of the extraordinarily rare cases when someone watched this show with someone else (namely, me and my mom), it was an episode with Divine in it. There's his name, right there, in the opening credits.

Mom started laughing. "Divine! Oh my!"

I asked who Divine was. "Oh, you'll see," she said.

So when Divine showed up, my mom said, "Oh," and "That's not right," and "Well, I guess it is him." And when I asked what the deal was, she said, "He looks completely different. Nevermind."

And, yes, that is David Gale, with more than just his head, as the dad.

Funny thing, when Divine says, "Nothing like Tibet! They are Reformed! We are Orthodox!" it just tells me they're Red Hat sect Buddhists, not Yellow Hat. That's a thing. Go look it up.

Nightmares (1983)

Oh man, it was a sleeper alright. Parts of it were an absolute snooze-fest. But, you can't rent it, so you know what that means!

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There were some stories for the TV Darkroom that were just too...dark? Gorey. Expensive to film. If you'd seen Darkroom, you'll see a lot of the same names attached to this project. Christopher Crowe was all over this baby.

This is not a good movie. It has moments, like the "grasping the areal on the car and then it wiping back and forth" in the first story, "Terror in Topanga", which was cheese blocking but strangely effective.

The second story, "The Bishop of Battle", is the one most folks who have seen this will remember. We were joking about how funny it was that people thought you could make any money as "video game hustler". Well, it was the 80s.

Hey! Check out this fantastic thing A\Very found! (Warning: sound auto-plays.)

For me, the third story, "The Benediction", was the best. The story-telling is tight enough (in context), and Lance puts on a good show. I love the truck bursting from the ground (thanks for spoiling that, trailer). The story isn't too complex or obvious with where it's going and it resolves as it should.

Ugh! Finally we get "Night of the Rat". This is truly terrible. Fresh off the set of Alien, Veronica Cartwright is perfectly hysterical throughout. Richard Masur is a dickish dad, but I keep waiting for him to burst out with a BOOGEDY!!! ....just kidding..... The monster reveal at the end is of such laughably poor quality that it sucks the drama away and leaves the audience feeling cheated. You want to make rats scarey? DON'T SHOW THEM. Heck, I learned that watching During Barty's Party.

Oh man, Beasts was some actual nightmare inducing stuff. That was a great series.