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Posted on 10.31.12 by Widge @ 7:00 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Year Six of 32 Days of Halloween has reached its close. Our special thanks to everybody who's contributed, suggested and just enjoyed this madness that we've been doing for six long years. As always, the final movie night goes to Night of the Living Dead, the original accept-no-remakes zombie film from the mind of George Romero classic. The film that pretty much defined the genre we all know and love. Without this film, you get no Shaun of the Dead, no Walking Dead, and none of your fun zombie video games. So show some respect, grab some popcorn and enjoy. Maybe we'll do this again next year. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.31.12 by Rob Levy @ 1:00 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Many great songs have been written over the last five decades that capture the spirit and frightful spirit of Halloween. However, when it comes down to expressing everything that is macabre about All Hallows' Eve, none of them hold a candle when compared to "Bela Lugosi's Dead" By Bauhaus. In a nutshell, Bauhaus was a massively influential band comprised of brothers Kevin and David Haskins, Peter Murphy and Daniel Ash. The Northampton band formed in 1978 and split up in 1983. Murphy went solo, although he did make an album with Mick Karn of Japan under the name of Dalis Car. Ash, and Kevin Haskins formed Tones on Tail with Glen Campling before settling in as Love and Rockets with David J (Haskins) replacing Campling in the band. David J also recorded several solo albums and collaborated with Alan Moore. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.31.12 by Widge @ 11:00 am
Comments on this: just one. Add your own.  Well, the undead fat lady is about to sing for 32 Days of Halloween. As we've been sifting through the madness of the season, we hope you've enjoyed yourselves. If so, do let us know. That's how we decide if there's going to be a Part VII or not. As always, we try to launch the final day with the various and sundry bits that didn't seem to fit anywhere else. And that seems to sum up our first video, which is part of a training vid that Vincent Price recorded for Sears. Sears Roebuck had The Vincent Price Collection of art available for sale...and no, we're not talking stuff like prints by Giger and Wrightson...Price was a Serious Art Guy. Showing here... Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.30.12 by Widge @ 7:00 pm
Comments on this: 2 so far. Add your own.  For a final night before we reach the Big One, it was hard to pick what to go with. Having hit most of the classics in one form or another, I opted for a cast that provided a serious bang for your buck. And hey, The House That Dripped Blood is an Amicus anthology film as well, so you get multiple stories in one. And with a cast that includes Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Jon Pertwee and Denholm Elliott...you are getting a great amount of bang. Not to mention it's scripted (mostly) by Robert Bloch. And do remember this: rubber vampire bats on strings mean never having to say you're sorry. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.30.12 by Widge @ 6:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  So the news that a House of Wax musical from Tim Burton may have been in the works got me thinking about the drive to have the stage added to the Law of Relative Development...since practically everything is being prepped for a stage production these days. And I decided to go exploring. We've already talked about Carrie and Aliens on ice for example. We've also mentioned before The Fly: The Opera...the opera adaptation of the Cronenberg film which Cronenberg himself directed and Howard Shore wrote the music for. That was 2008...and they've never released a cast album. Back then there weren't really any videos of the songs...but here is a German documentary where they basically take you through an abridged version of the entire show. It looks bloody mental. Suggestion: skip forward a bit and then watch from about fifty minutes in on...because how many opportunities to you get to see a baritone Seth Brundle in full stage-Fly gear entering while crawling on the ceiling upside down? Oh, and singing all the while? Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.29.12 by Widge @ 7:00 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Tonight has been, in the long-standing history of 32 Days of Halloween, a night for vampires. And we're not going for your traditional bloodsuckers...instead we look to vampires from space! Because when your planet needs blood, send somebody out to get take out from the humans. Earth, a blood bank that's open 24/7. Such is the original Not of This Earth. What's weird is that while I knew this had been remade with Traci Lords in 1988...I had no idea it had been remade again in 1995 with Michael York of all people. Also in this original 1957 Corman-directed classic...Dick Miller. Of course. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.29.12 by Rob Levy @ 6:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  In mid 1970s the Saturday morning television landscape consisted of cartoons and a variety of live action series based on action adventures and superheroes. Networks scrambled to take the formula laid out by Sid & Marty Krofft and adapt it for their own machinations. This resulted in the creation of a plethora of cult TV shows that never got to really extend themselves beyond a few episodes or a full season. The networks were antsy and the ghouls in suits had neither qualm nor problem with pulling the plug on a show that didn't get ratings or ad money straightaway. Granted, upon hindsight many of the shows were putrid and really did deserve to go. However almost forty years later some of these shows (Shazam, Isis, Jason of Star Command) have managed to retain a nightmarishly loyal cult following. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.28.12 by Widge @ 11:00 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  There needs to be a technical term for the weird feeling you get when reading a book that was set in the writer's future but now is in your past. For example, I Am Legend was published in 1954 and set in 1976. I was reading it for the first time in the mid-1990s. That feeling. You can get a version of that feeling--but with hilarious results--when watching tonight's pick (brought to you despite many attempts by the power grid to stop us) Phantom Planet from 1961. It's not even the weird and glorious retro costumes and sets--it's the amazing dialogue. Apart from it being, you know, terrible...I think there should be some sort of drinking game for every time somebody throws out a technical term like "recording reproduction unit." Enjoy. And try not to get too plastered. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.28.12 by Widge @ 5:30 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  There's a lot to love when it comes to the classic horror actors of yesteryear. But if there's one guy who doesn't seem to have an end to his talents, it's Vincent Price. In addition to being an actor on the big screen, he performed in a number of one-man performances (his Oscar Wilde show was amazing), he was an art collector and a gourmet foodie to the extent that he released a course of instructional albums on the subject. But he could also sing. And we're not just talking about this, with which most are probably familiar... Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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Posted on 10.27.12 by Widge @ 7:00 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Yes, we posted the trailer last year but now it's time to enjoy the entirety of Roger Corman's take on House of Usher from 1960. The first of Corman's series of films based on (but more simply "inspired by" as time went on) Poe, it has many things to commend it: an awesome array of costumes and sets that are 60s-horror-cinematastic; the script by Richard Matheson; and Vincent Price rocking the role of Roderick with so much gravitas it's amazing any light could escape. Fun as hell, it's amazing--even knowing that it's Corman--that it was shot in fifteen days. (That fact per Wikipedia, which is always right.) Enjoy. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
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