31 Days of Halloween - Day 22 - Movie 1

Paul Blaisdell, like many artists, when pretty much unappreciated during his lifetime, only receiving due accolades when he was no longer around to appreciate them. Blaisdell was a monster maker, the creator, builder, and often wearer of a slew of movie monster costumes and puppets in the 1950s. Unlike the monsters made for bigger budget films like "The Creature From the Black Lagoon," the films Blaisdell worked on had shoestring budgets forcing him to create his monsters for as little money as possible. Considering what he was working with, his monsters all turned out to be among the most memorable of their era, even if the hurried filmmaking at the time did not show them to their best advantage. Blaisdell tried to approach his monsters from a scientific perspective, designing them based on their perceived environments of origin, such as a squat alien from a planet with heavier gravity, or a reptilian humanoid from the ocean's depths. These monsters were all imaginatively designed, no matter how cheap looking they may have appeared in the final product. Among his creations are "The She-Creature," "It Conquered the World," "The Invasion of the Saucer Men" and "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" as well as oversized props for "Attack of the Puppet People," "The Amazing Colossal Man," and "War of the Colossal Beast."

With that in mind, it's painful to watch the wretched send-off that American International Pictures gave this man who contributed so much to the success of many of their horror pictures of the 1950s. "The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" (1959) was Blaisdell's last film, and yes he played the monster, but he also got to play himself --sort of.

"The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" has no real plot, but a lot of stuff going on that doesn't become anything. The movie features a club of law-abiding, hot rod racing teens who speak in lots of hipster slang. An adult reporter is writing an article about Hot Rod culture and befriends the group as they search for a new clubhouse and deal with a gang of four juvenile delinquents who seem to have no motivation for bothering the good kids. There are many, many sub-par rock tunes being performed in a row instead of a plot developing. One of the girls, who breaks the rules and has a run in with the law, has a cool mom, and a square dad, and an eccentric aunt with a wisecracking parrot and a haunted house she's willing to let the kids have for their clubhouse if they can de-spook it. The kids have a spooky costume party in the haunted house, and eventually unmask the "real monster" as a high pitched, whiny Paul Blaisdell, tossed aside by AIP after all the monsters he provided, and now shamefully reduced to haunting a house.

There is a ghost, who appears only for the final few seconds of the movie. There's also a sentient, talking hot rod, and a pajama party in what is a really terrible movie to sit through. The climactic race between the good girl and the delinquents takes place off screen, and the haunted house element isn't even introduced until 45 minutes into this 65 minute movie. It's not scary. It's not funny. It's not even entertaining.

Poor Paul Blaisdell, forced by a restricted budget, to wear a modified "She-Creature" costume for its fourth movie, delivers his scripted lines in a pitiful, self-mocking voice without realizing how prescient those lines were. American International Pictures did toss him aside. His work for them after that was mostly concept sketches that were never used.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 22 - Riddle

How did the witch get around after her broomstick broke?




Answer to yesterday's riddle: The ghost doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 22

Today's collage portrait is Jennifer Blaire as Animala in highly entertaining THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (2001).

31 Days of Halloween - Day 21 - Movie 2

"An American Werewolf in London" (1981) really resonated with me when I first saw during its theatrical run back when I was too young to get into R rated movies and had to rely on the kindness of various adults to pose as my parents so I could get into them. It was a refreshing change from the knife, power tool, and garden implement wielding maniacs that were taking over the genre at the time. The make-up effects by Rick Baker, and not just the astonishing man into werewolf transformation, but the progressively decaying Jack really struck me and led to an interest in special make-up effects that has stuck with me to this day. I remember a friend of mine and I recreating Jack's make-up on me using stuff we had on hand like string and acrylic paint and glue. I still cherish the look on the face of the repairman who stepped into my parents' house and came across me eating lunch in that make-up. I rode around on my bike like that for a while, until I realized that something was wrong, and had to get that make-up off (which took over an hour in the tub). It turns out, I'd sealed my pores with the paint and so forth, just like that actress in "Goldfinger."

Two Americans, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are backpacking through northern England when they are attacked by a werewolf. Jack is killed. David lives. David then finds himself repeatedly visited by the undead Jack, who is progressively decayed in each visit, who warns David that he'll become a werewolf at the next full moon, and needs to commit suicide before then so that he doesn't kill anyone, making them undead like Jack. David thinks that his visits from Jack are just bad dreams, and then it's too late, and David transforms into werewolf and sets out on a killing spree. When he realizes that Jack was right all along, he's desperate to keep it from happening again, but cannot bring himself to commit suicide before the full moon rises again.

This movie still really works for me, less so for the special make-up effects than for the fact that it feels like it's populated by real people, not actors. The humor is well integrated and serves at enhancing the reality rather than diminishing it, making the horror elements that much more effective. Watching it now, it seems like there is a lot less humor in it than there was back in 1981. It made me realize how fresh this movie was, because what was deemed then as humorous were the undead characters acting like regular living people, despite their horrible wounds and ghastly appearances. Today, that doesn't seem so weird, but it was innovative back in 1981, an innovation completely overshadowed by the make-up effects.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 21 - Movie 1

It could easily have been another "Night of the Lepus" but "Black Sheep" (2006) manages to have some creepy moments, though it's mix of horror and humor becomes more absurd as it goes, undermining its horror aspect.

A man with a serious phobia of sheep returns to the family farm where his brother buys out his part ownership where he's been genetically modifying the sheep to what's about to become disastrous results. The sheep start attacking and eating the humans. Any human who is bitten, but not killed, becomes a were-sheep. In the end it's the sheep's own flatulence which leads to their demise.

You'd think that mixing humor into a movie about killer sheep would be a necessary approach, and about the only way to meet an audience who'd most likely laugh at a movie played straight with such a premise. The truth of the matter, is that much of the humor in Black Sheep is juvenile and not situational and falls completely flat while also eroding at the horrific intent of this movie. There are a few clever comedic moments, such as the mint jelly thrown in the face of one of the were-sheep acting like acid, but it pulls you out of the movie and gives you the impression that the filmmakers aren't taking this movie very seriously, so why should you?

Could this movie have been scary if it had been played straight? After watching so many ecology movies of the 1970s, such as "Frogs" and the aforementioned "Night of the Lepus" about giant killer bunnies, the answer would seem to be no, but in "Black Sheep" after only one single killer sheep attack, suddenly every other sheep, mutated, or normal, seemed a bit menacing. There was definitely a feeling of dread and unease, which was quickly eliminated by scenes of a sheep driving a truck and the unnecessary were-sheep (which looked pretty good actually, but added a layer to the premise that was just too much). The sheep could easily have pulled off the same level of unease as the zombies did in any George Romero movie had this movie not been so intent on trying to be funny.

I had a lot of fun watching this movie, but it didn't really deliver what I was hoping for in watching it. "Shaun of the Dead" this wasn't. "Dawn of the Dead" it wasn't either.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 21 - Riddle

What's the difference between a ghost and peanut butter?


Answer to yesterday's riddle: Out for a quick bite.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 21

Today's Collage Portrait is the Venusian invader from IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956). This alien monster was designed, constructed and performed by Paul Blaisdell, who nicknamed his creation "Beulah."

31 Days of Halloween - Day 20 - Movie

"Mystics in Bali" (1981) was a real chore to sit through. This was mostly due to the really inane dialogue present in this dubbed print of this Indonesian movie. The editing was also fairly sloppy and in terms of storytelling there seemed to be some unaccounted for jumps in time.

The story concerns a young, vapid, American woman who travels to Bali to learn about their form of black magic called leak (pronounced "leyak") so she can write a book about it. She's already researched voodoo. This woman is about as convincingly cast as a scholar of the occult as Denise Richardson was as a nuclear physicist in that James Bond movie. Her balinese boyfriend helps her get in touch with a Leak queen, essentially a witch hag with really long fingernails and a high pitched cackle that's pretty unsettling. This leak queen takes the young woman on as an apprentice, teaching her things like shape shifting, and then using her to grow younger by sending the writer's head and attached entrails out to bring back blood. Eventually her boyfriend, at the urging of his good magician uncle, realize that the writer and her master must be destroyed, leading to a a climactic battle full of unspecial effects and the most sudden ending in a movie that I've ever seen.

Characters appear suddenly without any explanation as to who they are. As I mentioned, there are large gaps in time. The writer has one shown lesson with her master and the next day (or seemingly so) announces to her boyfriend that she's now a leak master. In addition to the banal dialogue, the two leads are the most passive characters you could find in a movie. The special effects are incredibly crude, especially the energy effects, but the crudeness of the make-up effects actually makes them more disturbing, particularly in the scene where the writer and her master transform into snakes, and to a lesser degree when they transform into pigs. There's a nice bit where the writer starts vomiting up what looks like guacamole and live white mice, which both she and her boyfriend aren't concerned over. While the special effects for when the writer takes her Penanggalan form, with her vampire head and entrails flying off looking for victims, are really poor, there is a moment that outdoes the notorious severed head scene from "Re-Animator." Here the writer's head descends between the legs of a woman in labor and sucks out her unborn child. It's all implied, but is incredibly effective, as we watch the mother's pregnant abdomen wither away to nothing.

The movie does improve at about the two-thirds mark, but that does not make up for what you need to sit through to get there.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 20 - Spooky Bonus

Today is horror icon, Bela Lugosi's birthday. He was born in Lugos, Austria-Hungary in 1882. Now remembered most for his troubled career and the vast number of low quality movies he starred in, his appearance on the screen was always a welcome sight , even in many of these clunkers like "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" (1952). Early in his career he starred in some truly memorable movies such as "White Zombie"(1932), "The Black Cat" (1934), "Island of Lost Souls"(1932), and "Son of Frankenstein" (1939), not to mention his defining role as "Dracula" (1931).

Celebrate his birthday by watching one of his movies tonight.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 20 - Riddle

Where did Dracula take his girlfriend on their date?



Answer to yesterday's riddle: They don't have to worry about the cost of living.



Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 20

Today's collage portrait is Dwight Frye as Fritz in FRANKENSTEIN (1931). The make-up was created by Jack Pierce.

This is an older collage, done around 2002.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 19 - Movie 2

"Chamber of Horrors" (1966) features a trio of crime solving, amateur detectives who also run a House of Wax featuring display after display of unusual murders. These exhibits are often so up to date that some of the crimes had just happened only the day before. These sleuths are currently assisting the police in apprehending Jason Cravette (Patrick O'Neal) a murderer once apprehended, but who escaped execution by chopping off his own hand. Now he has a series of murderous devices which he can screw into the cap covering his stump. He uses these to murder and butcher the men responsible for convicting him, building a corpse out pieces he takes as souvenirs.

This movie starts off with a bang with Cravette ordering a priest at gunpoint to marry him to a corspe. O'Neal turns Cravette into a great villain, making him soft spoken, polite, and completely sinister. Wilfred Hyde-White, Cesare Danova and José René Ruiz (billed as "Tun Tun") are very likeable as the amateur sleuths/wax museum artisans. The rest of the cast is engaging. The gimmick for the villain is also clever, and some of teh wax museum display pieces, like the one shown above, are disturbing.

With so much going for it, surprisingly the movie as a whole felt a bit flat to me. All the wonderful parts did not add up to successful whole. The movie also felt like it was a first outing for a possible franchise. Supporting characters are given implied relationships to the main characters and suggested intriguing back stories, suggesting more was planned for this trio of investigators. The movie also ends with a lead in to another bizarre crime for them to solve. Doing a little digging, it turns out that this was in fact a pilot for a television series based on "The House of Wax." The pilot was deemed too grisly for tv and was released theatrically instead. It's too bad, as this would probably have made an interesting series in the mold of "Wild, Wild, West."

The theatrical version (also present on the DVD) includes a William Castle worthy gimmick; the Fear Flasher! and Horror Horn! a noisy flashing red screen meant to warn you of an impending gruesome moment. If you are brave enough to watch you will see the camera pan away, or the scene cut from Cravette's murder weapons to something else entirely, without the wepon and victim ever coming into contact on screen.

"Chamber of Horrors" is worth watching, but ends up not being entirely satisfying.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 19 - Movie 1

"Mad Love" (1935) directed by Karl Freund is a beautifully shot movie, as is to be expected since Freund (who also directed "The Mummy" ) was a brilliant cinematographer. This movie packs a lot into it's short 65 minute running time, and is populated by an excellent cast of actors led by a sympathetic, yet disturbing Peter Lorre as the insane, but brilliant restorative surgeon, Dr. Gogol.

Obsessed with Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake) a beautiful actress, Gogol uses an unfortunate tragedy to try and bring her closer to him. Yvonne's husband, Stephen (Colin Clive) is a celebrated pianist whose hands are crushed in an accident. Gogol transplants the hands of a recently executed murderer to Stephen's body without telling him, or Yvonne that those hands are anything but his own. Soon Stephen's hands develop a penchant for knife throwing (a skill of their former owner) and he begins to suspect the truth. Gogol uses Stephen's mental anguish and new talent to frame him for murder so that he will be out of the picture leaving Yvonne to him.

This well-crafted drama seems like the perfect Tod Browning vehicle with its aspects of physical deformity and the carnival atmosphere of the Grand Guignol style theater where Yvonne works. The film is full of atmosphere and many bizarre touches. Lorre is truly fantastic in this as the alternately sympathetic and completely unhinged Dr. Gogol, overshadowing the other performers who do manage to hold their own quite well. Frances Drake delivers a layered performance as a woman at once appreciative of Gogol's aid, but repulsed by him as a suitor. Colin Clive gives a a wonderfully nervous performance as a man about to have a nervous breakdown, unfortunately not too far from reality for this fine actor. There are a couple of annoying characters here, the stereotypical drunk housekeeper and the brash, ill mannered American Reporter, but both become essential to the plot, so their presence becomes necessary and can be forgiven.

This is one of the best horror films of the 1930s and should not be missed.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 19 Riddle

Why Don't ghosts have money problems?



Answer to yesterday's riddle: A Franken-steinway.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 19

Today's collage portrait is Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein in "The Evil of Frankenstein" (1964).

31 Days of Halloween - Day 18 - Movie 2

"Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer" (2007) has to have some of the worst DVD cover art around, which is a shame, because it will most likely turn away a lot of people who would otherwise enjoy this movie. This movie had been recommended to me a few times so I decided to give it a shot and am pleased I did so.

When Jack Brooks was a boy he witnessed his family being slaughtered by some sort of monster. Now, Jack is a plumber with some serious anger management problems. He's also taking a night school science class with a kindly professor who becomes the host to an ancient demonic entity set on either devouring Jack's fellow students, or turning them into murderous creatures. It is here that Jack finds direction in life as he strikes back against these monsters and attempts to rescue his classmates.

While the movie begins with some unconvincing natives in an unconvincing tropical setting battling a nicely done cyclops, it didn't take long to pull me in and keep me engaged. Jack (and most of the other characters) may not be particularly likable, but they are convincing, layered characters who feel real, defined by very credible performances by capable actors who actually look like real people. The script was well written. The movie was well filmed and had good music, and the monsters themselves were well done. It was also refreshing to see monster suits, rather than poor cgi creatures, particularly in a film that must have had a pretty limiting budget. There's a 1980s feel to this movie, though it looks better than most movies filmed during that period. Robert Englund sympathetically plays the kindly science professor who is taken over by the ancient entity.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 18 - Movie 1

"The Undying Monster" (1942) concerns itself with a curse on the Hammond family in which a legendary monster attacks only members of this family, leading to their deaths. When a new attack occurs, Scotland Yard is brought in to investigate only to find their investigation openly blocked by the staff and friends of the Hammonds until a new attack reveals the truth about the family curse.

This movie is little more than b-movie fare, yet is elevated to something far more by director John Brahm, and cinematographer Lucien Ballard. The movie oozes atmosphere and features fantastic sets. The movie also features a good cast of actors and likable leads which keep you involved as the mystery unfolds. The monster itself is only seen for a few seconds, but the havoc it creates early in the film, gives it a tangible presence. This is an engaging movie and worth watching.

Announcement

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but this week, Cartoon Network is running a marathon of Marvel's "Super Hero Squad" each morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, will bring a new episode, while kids are at school on the East Coast, and still in bed on the West Coast.

Wednesday's episode: "Night In the Sanctorum" finds the Super Hero Squad homeless for the night and looking for a place to crash. Hilarity ensues as they try to find a place to spend the night, eventually staying at Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.

This episode was written by me, and there is some spooky stuff going on in Dr. Strange's house, so I guess it does fit into this month's Halloween theme.

You can find out more about this episode, the marathon, and the series as a whole here and here .

31 Days of Halloween - Day 18 Riddle

What kind of piano did the monster play?




Answer to yesterday's riddle: To day scare centers.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 18

Today's collage portrait is Ro-Man from ROBOT MONSTER (1953) played by George Barrows with John Brown providing Ro-Man's voice. I have no idea who designed this cool looking monster, though it was probably less designed than cobbled together with what was at hand.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 17 - Movie 2

Since Freddy Krueger was out of the picture tonight (see previous post) for my second movie I chose one that also featured a sinister burn victim. "Mystery of the Wax Museum" (1933) stars Lionell Atwill as Ivan Igor, a brilliant sculptor who devotes his skills towards fashioning realistic wax depictions of historic figures. His business partner wants money, not artistry, and when Igor refuses to debase his art by creating shocking displays like other wax museums, his partner torches the establishment for the insurance money, and Igor with it.

Years later Igor has opened a new wax museum. Scarred and wheelchair bound, he guides other sculptors in doing the work he no longer can. A young reporter with moxie (Glenda Farrell), connects the wax museum to a series of corpse snatchings from the local morgue, while her roommate (Fay Wray) finds herself much closer to the truth of what's happening at the wax museum.

Best known as for being remade as the 3-D Vincent Price movie "House of Wax" (1953), "Mystery of the Wax Museum" is a bit clunky and overfilled with subplots that don't really add any layers of depth to this thin thriller. Atwill has great screen presence as Igor, but it's girl reporter, Farrell who carries the movie. I have to say, I'm not really a fan of her performance, and that hinders my enjoyment of the movie. Fay Wray doesn't have much to do except look demure and pretty and to practice her screaming for "King Kong" released that same year. The burn make-up is very effective. This movie is a quick, entertaining enough diversion, but not one of the masterpieces of horror cinema produced by 1930s Hollywood.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 17 - Movie 1

I had planned to conclude "A Nightmare On Elm Street" week with "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" (1994), a movie whose self-referential post modern handling of the film series appealed to me. However, when I opened the case in my box set, I discovered that it had the wrong disc, making it impossible to watch until I can somehow get that replaced.

Instead, I opted to watch two movies instead. While not an "A Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) has a somewhat similar sounding title. In this movie, the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington, ruler of Halloween Town is bored with organizing Halloween year after year (about this time of year, I can start to understand his feelings). Looking for something new, he accidentally stumbles into Christmas Town and dazzled by what he finds there, decides that this year, he's going to handle the duties of ushering in that holiday. Of course because he, and the fellow residents of Halloween Town, can only see Christmas through their Halloween oriented eyes, they make a mess of Christmas.

This is where I make a confession which surprises almost everyone whenever I let it be known. I don't really like this movie.

I have a lot of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" memorabilia, several large storage bins worth and then some. I love the design of the characters, I like the look of the movie, and the artistry that it took to bring the characters to life. I even think the story itself is a good one. I don't care for the execution of that story. I find the screenplay limp, the dialogue sub par, and the characters themselves really bland. The songs are okay, but not great. Whenever Oogie Boogie appears, I start to tune out, and only manage to remain interested a slight bit more when Lock, Shock, and Barrel enter the movie, which I think is overlong by about twenty minutes.

When this movie first came to theaters, I sat through two showings in a row. I watched it a second time because I couldn't believe that a movie I'd been looking so forward to, that should have felt like it was made just for me, left me so cold. I've watched it many other times, trying to figure out why this movie connects with me on such a superficial level, but fails in any way that's meaningful. I still don't have an answer.

I know this much. I think "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is far more successful at conveying Christmas and the warm feelings of Christmas, than it is at depicting Halloween. In fact, I think it fails spectacularly at getting across a sense of Halloween. The limited grey and white palette, the architecture, the monsters themselves, while being really cool, simply don't suggest Halloween itself. Where's the oranges and greens of the die cut paper decorations of the 1960s? Why aren't there jack o'lanterns everywhere? Where's the crisp fall air and Autumn leaves? Why is the opening montage of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" so much more successful in invoking the feelings of Halloween than a movie set in Halloween itself?

Having said that, I found myself enjoying "The Nightmare Before Christmas" much more this time than any previous time.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 17 Riddle

Where do baby ghosts go during the day?



Answer to yesterdays' riddle: That's the time to go to sweep.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 17

Today's collage portrait is Lon Chaney as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925). Chaney is wearing his own make-up creation.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 16 - Movie

I love the horror genre. I really do. My tolerance for crappy movies is a lot higher in this genre than any other, but there are limits. You can hope for a gem, and be willing to accept a lump of coal instead, but inevitably along comes a movie, such as The Beast of Yucca Flats that you'd rather put out your eyes and ears than ever have to sit through it again. Such a movie was "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" (1991).

This movie starts out promising with a nightmare aboard a passenger plane, then shifting to inside a house dropping out of the sky with "Wizard of Oz" homages to boot, then immediately becomes an excruciatingly boring film filled with uninspired visuals, characters, dialogue, and story. Ten years after the last movie, every child in Springwood has been killed off by Freddy Krueger, except one lone teenager. His sole excuse for being kept alive is so that he can leave Springwood and bring new blood back for Freddy. It turns out that while Freddy was alive and killing other people's children he had a child of his own, who was taken from him once his crimes were discovered and adopted by another family. Now an adult, Freddy needs his offspring to take him out of the dreamscape of Springwood and into a new arena to continue his killing spree. His offspring, along with Yaphet Kotto, fight back leading to Freddy's uninspired demise.

Everything about this movie feels uninspired, the script, the direction, Freddy's so simplified it's barely there make-up, Robert Englund's performance as Freddy, and the inane nightmare murders that are like rejected ideas from "Road Runner" cartoons, only treated less seriously. Freddy has, by this movie been reduced to a clownish buffoon; a playground bully who crumbles at the first instance anyone dares strike back against him. This movie has no tension, or suspense whatsoever, and was an absolute chore to sit through. The cameo by Tom Arnold and Roseanne Barr is lame, pointless and distracting. Alice Cooper also has a cameo as Freddy's adoptive father, and Johnny Depp (billed as Oprah Noodlemantra) plays a teen in a drug awareness commercial playing on a broken television.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 16 Riddle

Why do witches only ride their broomsticks after dark?





Answer to yesterday's riddle: Ghosts are dead men. Patched jeans are men-ded.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 16

Today's collage portrait is Boris Karloff as THE MUMMY (1932). The make-up was created by Jack Pierce.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 15 - Movie

The plot is pretty simple, and Freddy himself seems a bit diminished, but "A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 - The Dream Child" (1989) may be my favorite in the series. It's certainly my favorite of the sequels, and a nice surprise improvement over the previous entry.

Freddy, using dream imagery of his mother, is literally reborn in this movie. Paralleling this event, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) discovers shortly after graduation, that she is pregnant. As her friends start getting killed off by Freddy while she's awake, she wonders how he is doing it, since he's clearly not using her to bring them into her dreams. She soon discovers that Freddy's using the dreams of her unborn son instead. This time, the only way to get rid of Freddy is to uncover the earthly remains of Freddy's mother.

Visually, this movie is the most striking and imaginative of the bunch, The nightmare killing scenarios are a step up from every previous entry, and are highly inventive, particularly the comic book inspired one that is mostly in black and white, and the M.C. Escher inspired sequence. The sets are fantastic, and the special effects are very nicely accomplished. The only lapse in judgement was the one death from overeating which could easily have been replaced with a death by creepy dolls, as seemed to be indicated.

I did get the sense that this movie had a lot of material excised from the screenplay. Characters seemed to come and go with some awkward gaps between appearances, and certain elements seemed to stall before going anywhere. In spite of this I was overall pleased by this movie.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 15 Riddle

What's the difference between a ghost and patched jeans?




Answer to yesterday's riddle: His ghoulfriend.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 15

Today's collage portrait is the Frankenstein monster as portrayed by Charles Ogle in FRANKENSTEIN (1910). He wears his own make-up in this Thomas Edison production which features a pretty cool, inventive creation scene.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 14 - Movie

"A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 - The Dream Master" (1988) is full of exploding glass and late 80s movie soundtrack pop songs but a not very imaginative use of the outlandish nightmare murders in the previous entries. The three surviving teens from the last movie (though Tuesday Knight was cast in the Patricia Arquette role) are murdered off by a resurrected Freddy Krueger. As Kristen is killed, she transfers her power to pull other people into her dreams to her friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox). Now that the last of the Elm Street kids are dead, Freddy uses Alice and her new ability to supply him with fresh souls to kill in dreams. As Alice's friends are killed, she somehow also inherits their abilities as well (and in one dubious example, their wardrobe which mysteriously appears in her dresser drawers). Alice then uses these combine abilities to fight back.

Directed by Renny Harlan, this movie was diverting but unimaginative. The characters were a little more engaging in this movie than the last. The nightmare sets were nothing we hadn't seen to death in the previous entries with the new addition of what was meant to be a tropical beach that looked like it was manufactured and filmed in the colder months. Freddy's killings were almost all identical jabs to the abdomen with his glove, and including a boy who drowns in his water bed very stale and uncreative. Later on we are treated to a girl being turned into a cockroach and a sequence in which all of the souls of Freddy's victims begin to erupt from his body in order to break free. The entire special effects budget must have been saved for these two sequences, as one of the previous sequences saved money by having one of the victims trying to fight off an invisible Freddy, who merely punched back, and didn't even use his glove, until that final abdomen plunge. By now Freddy is in full catch phrase pun mode. "How's this for a wet dream?" He asks the victim of the death by waterbed scene. Freddy does not come off as being even remotely menacing in this movie, which for a horror film is a major crime. In previous entries he was a controlling be anywhere, do anything, kind of boogie man which lent a lot of weight to his prey's desperation to remain awake. Here, he's just an ugly guy in a bad sweater with a knife fingered glove. You get the sense that one good whack on the head with a shovel would be enough to do him in.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 14 Riddle

Who did the Frankenstein monster take to the prom?





Answer to yesterday's riddle: When the horses are neck and neck.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 14

Today's Collage Portrait is Vampira, the first television horror host, played and created by Miala Nurmi (1922-2008). This collage was originally done for the back cover of MAD SCIENTIST magazine.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 13 - Movie

"A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 - Dream Warriors" (1987) was a vast improvement over the previous entry. For one thing it had better writers, and while the direction was pretty no frills, that was enough to make a difference. This movie is set at a mental hospital where a ward full of teenagers who attempted suicide because of nightmares they've been having are being treated. Well, not exactly treated, more like simply watched. No one finds it odd that these kids are all in for the same thing, or that their dreams are similar in nature, until Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), a recent college graduate specializing in nightmares joins the staff. Still, it takes more suicides before Nancy can convince one colleague (Craig Wasson) to let her try to do things her way. We discover that one of the teens (Patricia Arquette) can pull other dreaming people into her own dreams. Nancy has her pull all of the teens, and her, into her dream so that they can fight Freddy Krueger together.

Parallel to this, Craig Wasson learns Freddy's origin story and that his unquiet spirit can only be put to rest by his remains being buried in hallowed ground. This leads to getting Nancy's dad (John Saxon) to reveal Freddy's current resting place, and a battle with Freddy's reanimated skeleton.

Both Langenkamp's and Saxon's characters are reintroduced into the series in a natural way. The rest of the cast involves a nasty, clueless doctor, a mysterious nun, a bunch of uninteresting one-note teens, Dick Cavett and Zsa Zsa Gabor, and a kind, but strict orderly played by Laurence Fishburne. The special effects are a vast improvement over the last movie, and are much more imaginative as well. Plus, you get to see John Saxon fight a stop motion animated skeleton. Intuition tells me that this is probably the high point of the series, and that I won't be finding the same level of satisfaction for the next few nights.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 13 Riddle

What is the vampire's favorite part of a horse race?






Answer to yesterday's riddle: They're both wick-ed.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 13

Today's collage portrait is Jake as played by Wilfred Walter in DARK EYES OF LONDON (1940). The make-up designer for this character is unknown. The movie sometimes appears under the title THE HUMAN MONSTER.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12 - Movie

In the unsubtle "A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge" (1985), Jesse (Mark Patton), a teenager who has just moved into a new house, and presumedly, a new school struggles with his homosexuality. He has a girlfriend, Lisa (Kim Myers), but is desires his male friend, Grady (Robert Rusler). His struggles lead to violence, causing him to kill his bdsm gym teacher. Lisa tries desperately to "cure" him, but Jesse keeps pushing her away. At a party at Lisa's house, Jesse tries to make love to her, but finds himself revolted to be kissing between her breasts. He runs to Grady and begs him to let him sleep with him, then kills him too. He the returns to Lisa's party, resists the temptation to kill her as well, and instead turns his violence against the entire gay male population of his high school, also attending the party before running away. Lisa tracks him down and is finally able to surpress Jesse's gay urges, or is she?

This heavy handed product of its time is chock full of homo-erotic imagery; muscular teenage boys in short shorts, no shorts, briefs, shirtless and sweaty, showering, naked, miming masturbation, wrestling, etc., as well as an opening nightmare in which Jesse is trapped with two teenage girls inside a school bus balanced precariously on top of a phallic symbol over the chasm of Hell itself. As the girls approach him, the bus totters and the phallic symbol crumbles. There is also plenty of steam, fire, heat, sweat, and bursting pipes and beer cans spraying geysers of fluid when ever Jesse's homosexual urges begin to manifest, and plenty of images of disfigurement to let us know how disgusted Jesse finds himself when he gives in to these urges.

Really, that's what this movie is about. Jesse and his family move into the house from the first movie, and Freddy Krueger begins to take possession of him, forcing him to kill, first the gym teacher by stripping him naked and tying him to the pipes in the shower room, then killing him by whipping his bare ass with locker room towels, and Freddy's glove, which he uses for his other murders. Lisa tries to guide Jesse back out of Freddy's control. There are far fewer outstanding nightmare visuals in this movie than the first, but the one that occurs right before Jesse kills Grady is a pretty good one.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12 - Spooky Bonus

In the fall of 1985 I attended an advanced screening of "A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" with Horror Mike Gingold , now of "Fangoria" magazine, then of "Scareaphenalia" fanzine. I don't recall if director Jack Sholder was present but New Line Cinema president, Robert Shaye was there, as Robert Englund, the actor who plays Freddy Krueger in the movie. We chatted with both, briefly and they were friendly.

A day, or two, later I walked into Forbidden Planet, at the time a huge science fiction bookstore which also sold comic books, models, and other related material. This is when it was on the corner of 10th Street and Broadway, not the current, scaled down version. By coincidence, Robert Englund, in full Freddy costume and make-up was in the store promoting the movie and handing out printed signed copies of lobby cards for the new movie. The signature is also printed on the cards, and was not done individually by Englund, as it wouldn't be possible while wearing the knife-fingered glove. (The printed card is shown above).

Somehow he spotted and recognized me from the screening and called me over. I instinctively reached out to shake his hand, and he did the same, realizing and warning me at the last second to "watch out for the claws. They're really sharp." But it was too late, before he finished his warning, our hands met and one of the blades on the glove sliced across the main joint of my middle finger, cutting it. He was very apologetic. It didn't seem too bad a wound to me, but I was astonished that the blades were really sharp on that glove. I thought that was somewhat hazardous for filming, one misstep by one of the actors playing his victims and they could have had a snuff film.

I've never seen Robert Englund in person, and I never watched another one of the "A Nightmare On Elm Street" movies. This is purely coincidental. I was in now way traumatized by the encounter, though I was scarred for life. There, on the joint of my middle finger, visible only when I make a fist is the tiny crescent scar made by one of the blades of Freddy Krueger's glove as it sliced across my finger while I shook hands with a monster.

NEXT TIME on my life with monsters: Having drinks with Hellraiser's Pinhead.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12 Riddle

Why is a witch like a candle?






Answer to yesterday's riddle: Ceme-trees.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 12

Today's Collage Portrait is the figurehead/siren from THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1974) stop-motion animated by Ray Harryhausen.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11 - Movie

After running a Frankenstein week during the countdown for two years in a row, I felt it was time for a change of pace. It came to my attention that I had only ever seen the first two "A Nightmare On Elm Street" movies. While I'm not big on the so-called "icons of horror" from the 1980s, I remember enjoying these movies and decided that this year I'd watch the entire series (minus the "Freddy vs Jason" installments). I may be in for a long week full of regret, but here goes.

"A Nightmare On Elm Street" (1984) is really an inaccurate title. There are numerous nightmares happening on this particular street, all being had by a group of four teenagers, and all the dreams centering on a badly burned man in a green and red striped sweater wearing a glove with razor blade covered finger tips. This burned man, it turns out is a dead child murderer named Fred Krueger, and he can now kill people in their dreams, killing them in the real world as well. After a desperate seven day attempt at going without sleep, one of the teenagers played by Heather Langenkamp decides to fight back so she can get some sleep without fear.

The movie is filled with dreams that don't ever really feel like actual dreams, but have some inventive imagery, which extends over into the real world as well as we watch Freddy Krueger's powers extend into the waking world. The special effects are pretty well done as well. The cast is able, but without any real standout performances, not even by Johnny Depp and his big 1984 hair and accompanying wardrobe. The film does boast John Saxon as Langenkamp's policeman father, who is always a welcome sight.

The movie does have some serious lapses in logic and believability, the most noteworthy being when Langenkamp pleads with her father to come to her aid in twenty minutes time. After he agrees, we watch a montage of her rigging some really sophisticated booby traps (meant to trap Fred Krueger when she pulls him into the waking world, never mind the fact that her mother is in the house, and her father soon will be. What happens if they stumble upon one of these death traps?) then has a heartfelt talk with her mother before going up to bed, successfully falling asleep (acceptable since she's been up for seven days, although a seven day sleep deprivation period devoid of the usual hallucinations) and dreaming during that twenty minute time period. Even better though, is after her father agrees to come to her, he starts up the stairs to investigate a crime scene, and she's finished her booby traps before he reaches the top.

I found the movie to be an okay diverting experience, but nothing great. I also found the character of Fred Krueger to be a one note unfrightening boogey man with absolutely no personality or even charisma. He was simply a delivery system to get to the special effects and nothing more, at least in this first film.

Tomorrow we'll find out what happens next, and I shall reveal my own bloody encounter with Fred Krueger. The blood was all mine, too.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11 Riddle

What is a zombie's favorite kind of tree?




Answer to yesterday's riddle: Ghoulashes.



Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11

Today's collage portrait is Pazuzu (aka Captain Howdy) played by Eileen Dietz in THE EXORCIST (1973). The make-up for this fleetingly seen face was created by Dick Smith.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10 - Movie

In "It Came From Outer Space" (1953), astronomer, Richard Carlson sees a meteor crash in the desert. When he investigates he finds what he believes is a spaceship, but before he can examine it, a rockslide buries it under tons of debris. No one believes him. As more strange things start to occur his attempts to convince the authorities that his tale of buried aliens only makes him look like more of a crackpot. His continued attempts to convince everyone of the truth finally pay off, only to endanger the lives of the townspeople, and the aliens, who are only trying to get off earth.

In spite of its title, this is one of the flying saucer eras more serious films about the earth being visited by aliens from another world. Because of this, it tends to lack a lot of the sensationalism that other period alien movies had. It develops slowly, with a number of pauses to allow character reflection along the way, but ultimately ends up being a very good movie, while perhaps not as riveting as other movies from the same time period such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "War of the Worlds" or even "This Island Earth."

The movie was developed from a film treatment by Ray Bradbury, and you can hear his voice in much of the dialogue throughout, particularly the scene with the lineman, Frank as he expounds on the desert. The design of the alien xenomorphs is like something Paul Blaisdell would have created for one of his low-budget Roger Corman movies, only with a bigger budget. Every effort was made to make it look as unearthly as possible. Details such as the trail the aliens leave on the ground as they move about, and the pov shots through their throbbing eyes, add to their alienness.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10 Riddle

What do ghosts wear on their feet when it rains?







Answer to yesterday's riddle: Lazy bones.










Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10

Today's collage portrait is one of the titular creatures from INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957). The make-up was created by Paul Blaisdell

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 - Movie

Need a nap? Watch "The Mad Monster" (1942). This poorly made, repetitive, formulaic low, low budget quickie features insane scientist, George Zucco, and his plot to create an army of werewolves to use as soldiers, and as tools of revenge on the legitimate scientists who ridiculed him and his ideas. Glenn Strange gets to channel Lon Chaney Jr.'s two most celebrated roles, Lennie from "Of Mice and Men" (1939) and "The Wolf man" (1941) as the simpleton handyman on whom Zucco experiments. Transformed into a goofy looking werewolf in bib overalls, Strange plods around what are actually pretty nice swamp sets, as the world's slowest monster. There's also a subplot involving Zucco's daughter and an irritating reporter, but it adds nothing to the movie except running time on what is already an excruciating 77 minute long movie.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 Riddle

What do you call a skeleton who refuses to work?






Answer to yesterday's riddle: Because everyone was a goblin.




Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9

Today's Collage Portrait is Bela Lugosi as DRACULA (1931). The make-up was created by Jack Pierce. This collage is about seven years old, and compared to more recent work looks pretty shabby. At some point I'll get around to recreating this one.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8 - Movie

The gem, so far, in this season's viewing is "Let The Right One In" (2008). I've been wanting to watch it for what seems ages, but decided to hold off for this year's countdown. This is an absolutely beautiful movie and I can't recommend it enough.

Oskar (Kare Hedebrant), a bullied 12-year old boy finds salvation, and friendship in the seemingly 12-year old girl, Eli (Lina Leanersson) who moves in next door. Part pre-pubescent coming of age tale, as Oskar develops a heavy crush on Eli with whom he can never have a romantic relationship, and part horror movie as vampire, Eli does what she needs to to exist. Interestingly, the movie really is more of the former, than the latter. While there is plenty of blood, and Eli's interaction with others ends with horrible results for the others, I never looked at Eli as a monster, though she clearly is one. This is an interesting relationship story with a lot of depth to it, and both young leads are excellent.