Posted on
10.25.11 by Rob Levy @ 11:08 am  Each Halloween people love to dust off copies of Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. However many do not know that the song is much more then a one hit pop record. It is a significant chapter in America's love of novelty records and an early example of how people in the early 1960s made a record on the cheap and got it to the public beyond the conventional means of the times. In fact "Monster Mash" has more going for it then you may have initially guessed. Indeed, the monster's dance caught on "in a flash" and became a hit with the living and the dead alike for Halloweens to come. "Monster Mash," like many of the pop records of the time (including "The Twist") is filled with mild sexual innuendo ("to get a jolt from my electrode") that the adults and preachers completely missed. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
|
Posted on
10.25.11 by Widge @ 7:42 am  Today is the day we focus on Italian horror, or giallo. And let me tell you a little bit about my selection process. If I can't call up something out of my head (increasingly hard to do, it's a scary place up there...like a Rolodex but with booby traps like something out of Indiana Jones) then I'll flip over to Wikipedia (which is always right) and let it inspire me. And then when browsing through Italian horror films I see a title like Don't Torture a Duckling and get completely derailed. There, that's my process in a nutshell. Your first reaction is probably the same as mine. This can't be a real title. Especially not for a horror movie. But yes, it appears to be real, directed by the Italian horror meister Lucio Fulci. And yes, the title isn't some weird translation thing: running Non si sevizia un paperino (the original Italian title) through Google Translate gives us the English title we have before us. So...right. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
|
Posted on
10.24.11 by Widge @ 9:00 pm  Holy crap but this was fun to read. It's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service. Hope you enjoy it. Find it directly here. Or subscribe to the feed to get all the 32 Days audio. If you're already subscribed to our Needcoffee.com general podcast feed, you already get them, so you're good. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween and Podcasts
|
Posted on
10.24.11 by Widge @ 7:00 pm  It's silent horror feature night on 32 Days of Halloween, and we're specifically looking at the 1927 film from Universal, The Cat and the Canary. Based on a play from 1922, it concerns a dying millionaire who decides that the circling vultures that are his relatives can wait twenty years and then find out what his will says. So twenty years pass and the will reveals that Annabelle, the niece, will get the fortune if she can be declared sane. If not, a mysterious second will will pass the fortune to someone else. So it seems that Annabelle's sanity is in question--not helping matters is the fact that an escaped lunatic called "The Cat" is running around as well. Hijinks most assuredly ensue. And what you wind up with is a very influential film in the horror genre. Enjoy! Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
|
Posted on
10.24.11 by Widge @ 6:44 am  Today is primarily for When Animals Attack trailers, but I enjoy the notion of The Giant Behemoth so much--and he is a dinosaur, so technically he's an animal--so we're throwing it up here. Two things strike me here. One, the monster is attacking London. This is a nice change of pace since we know that monsters normally like to attack Tokyo. But it's basically an American and British co-production and I guess New York City won the coin toss. Two, the titles are really terrible. It's known as both The Giant Behemoth and Behemoth, the Sea Monster. The first title is redundant, since a "behemoth" is gigantic by definition. And the second title makes it sound like "sea monster" is the thing's occupation. Like "Bill the Plumber." "Behemoth the Sea Monster." "Behemoth" could be the thing's name, so fair enough there, but still--were they afraid audiences would fixate on the "moth" portion and expect a giant insect to go after large light sources? Favorite part of the trailer, though, is that the dialogue in spaces sounds more like Lines Written Specifically So They'll Be in the Trailer than anything in cinema history. Enjoy the madness! Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
|
Posted on
10.23.11 by Widge @ 11:57 pm  Another bit of original audio for tonight's selection. We go back to the apocalypse with "Shock Messiahs." Hope you enjoy it. Find it directly here. Or subscribe to the feed to get all the 32 Days audio. If you're already subscribed to our Needcoffee.com general podcast feed, you already get them, so you're good. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween and Podcasts
|
Posted on
10.23.11 by Widge @ 7:40 pm  It's a free form night for movies, and I think it's time for a change of pace. And by that I mean let's go with The Mole People, which kicks off with an opening that looks every other opening featuring a made-up science-y type talking head giving you the lowdown on what's to come. Compare this talking head to that of Criswell from Plan 9 From Outer Space. Except in this case he's an actual English professor, Frank C. Baxter--who would go on to star in a series of education films for Bell Labs. You also have Hugh Beaumont, Mr. Cleaver, and Alan Napier, Alfred from the 1960s Batman TV show. Just remember: "in archaeology, all things are possible." Enjoy! Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
|
Posted on
10.23.11 by Widge @ 4:37 pm  The thing about pop culture (and film in general) is that it's just too big a subject. You can't know everything. Well, maybe you can--I know I sure as hell can't. And I get excited when I see things I've never seen before. For example, since we're at Day 24 now, which has morphed into the day we showcase short silent horror films. And that led me to 1903 and a couple of films by Georges Méliès. You know Méliès even if you don't know him, since "A Trip to the Moon" was his in 1902. Or, as it's known to most folks, "That weird silent movie in which the moon gets a rocket in the eye" (I think that was the literal English translation of the title.) I had never seen the two short horror flicks I'm about to share, however. But what I can't get over is that these were both from 1903. We have 3D digital FX that would make Méliès salivate today, but back then this was all new. How must audiences have reacted? The first film of a train speeding at the camera may or may not have freaked everybody the hell out when first shown, but still, it must have been amazing. So let me just add these two films as an addendum to my moments in cinema history I wish I had been there to see list. And honestly, am I the only who when watching these can't stop thinking over and over again: These films are 108 years old! Seriously, Willard Scott would have said happy birthday to these films in 2003, for crying out loud. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
|
Posted on
10.22.11 by Widge @ 9:00 pm  Time to go back to our friend Saki for a classic bit of short fiction. It's "Sredni Vashtar." Hope you enjoy it. Find it directly here. Or subscribe to the feed to get all the 32 Days audio. If you're already subscribed to our Needcoffee.com general podcast feed, you already get them, so you're good. Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween and Podcasts
|
Posted on
10.22.11 by Widge @ 7:00 pm  Tonight's the night where we bring on the zombies. And by that, we stick to films that aren't very subtle about the undead's inclusion in their festivities. Every year we've managed to find a film that contains, in its title, "...of the Zombie(s)." Or just zombies in some form or fashion. And you know our rule: if it's undead and bleeds, it leads. So here we go. This time around it's Blood of the Zombie, also known as The Dead One. A woman uses voodoo to bring her dead brother back upright in order to kill those she believes are usurping her claim to the family estate. Don't be confused at the opening sequence: it is a voodoo ceremony of some sort and not a beat poetry night, although I have seen the same quality of recitation in both circumstances. Enjoy! Categorized as: 32 Days of Halloween
|
|
|
