Halloween 2025: Group Photo #31

 October 31: Halloween's back, baby!

    From left to right: Betamax tape, VCR tape, Criterion Collection LaserDisc, DVD, novelization paperback. 

    Yay! I made it. 31 displays in 31 days. I haven't blogged in awhile, and I was feeling rusty. It's been nice to brush off the cobwebs. 

    That was fun, but not as much fun as this: 

    I moved here in August of 1992, and for the past 33 years my favorite holiday has been anticlimactic. The calendar would flip to October 31, but trick-or-treating was already over. Boo. That's not a scary Boo, but a sad one.

    Last year severe storms were predicted for Oct 30, so many towns in the area pushed "Beggars' Night" to the 31st, and guess what? Nothing bad happened. At least that what I was told. We had parent-teacher conferences that night, and I didn't get to hand out candy on Halloween night, again. I had my Flix Brewhouse employee costume all ready to go, and I didn't even get to wear it.

    That's another sad Boo. 

    But this year is different! After a survey was taken by Des Moines city residents, the Des Moines City Council voted last March to permanently move trick-or-treating to the 31st of October. Many local cities, like ours, made that move, too.

    I actually stopped my car and got out to take this picture. Yay!

    I'm not gonna lie. The name "Beggars' Night" has always rubbed me wrong. I'm so glad that tradition has been retired. 

    Our tradition, since 2018, is to project a Halloween family film on the garage door and hand out bags of popcorn and packages of M&M's. That combo is our favorite movie snack.

    I'm leaning towards showing Happy Halloween Scooby-Doo, but I know for sure what I'm wearing tonight.

    As the kids say, "Rate the fit."

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #30

October 30

    Look out! The 31st is right around the corner (and it's holding a knife). 
    I had planned to blog about 1978's original Halloween on the actual day, but my friend Tim surprised me with an October gift, and I decided to stretch this topic to two displays for the last two days of the month. 

    From left to right: The first Halloween film is tense, violent, and scary, but it's not very gory. Still, to air the movie on network TV, they cut some scenes and added 12 minutes of new scenes that were shot during the filming of Halloween II. The "Extended Version" DVD is that television edit. It was released by Anchor Bay, and came with a 16mm "Original Film Cell" display.

    Tim gave me the Halloween / Ash vs. The Evil Dead cartridge for the Nintendo Switch. He also gave me the 35th Anniversary Blu-ray that's next door. I've known Tim for over 20 years, and I might have mentioned Halloween one or ten times to him. Thanks, bud!

    I've bought a handful of UMD movies for the Sony PSP after my friend Robert gave me one for Christmas back in the 2000's. I still have it, Rob, and it still works great! Thanks, again. Of course, Halloween was my first pick.

    The Halloween 25 Years of Terror DVD is still sealed. If I haven't watched in 22 years... I think it's headed to the donation box.

    This is the best Flix Brewhouse souvenir glass I have ever found while thrifting. And that's saying something.

  

Here's a closeup of the film cell. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #29

 October 29

    Here's a shelf for 1981's Halloween II. From left to right: a DVD actually purchased new from a big box store, Betamax tape from Goodwill, novelization from the Animal Lifeline Thrift Shop, I found this LP soundtrack at Goodwill at the same time I found the soundtrack for Halloween III. Trust me, I looked for the OG soundtrack, but had no luck. The Blu-ray came from Amazon (snore). 

    When I was growing up the kids in Rock Valley organized themselves into four TV camps: Camp C, Camp H, Camp S, and Camp WDHC. I was in camp H.

    C = Cinemax

    H = HBO

    S = Showtime

    WDHC = We Don't Have Cable

    I was in 7th grade when Halloween II came out on HBO. I had a couple of friends from other camps come over for a watch party while my parents were out for dinner. We accused each other of being frightened when the film got tense, and we all denied being scared at all after it was done. Halloween II ended at 8:30, and the night was very dark when we went outside. 

    My friends yelled and laughed defiantly into the darkness as they mounted their bikes and sped out of the driveway and into the street. Like me, they knew there was nothing to be afraid of.

    They did, however, make sure to only ride underneath the street lights as they pedaled home as fast as they could.

    I went back into the house, quickly turned on all of the lights, and hoped my folks would be back soon.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #28

 October 28

    Spend a a few seconds Googling 1982's Halloween III: Season of the Witch and the first thing mentioned is how much fans hated that Michael Myers wasn't in this movie. Since then the film has been reevaluated and is now considered a minor classic... blah blah blah. Read the title, folks. It's "Season of the Witch." Did they think Michael was gonna fly in on a broom? 
    I had a couple of non anamorphic Halloween III DVDs that I got rid of after buying the Blu-ray on the left. I wish I hadn't, for the sake of this display, but what are you gonna do? Hindsight is 20/20. Much like how fans look at Halloween III today. 

    The LP soundtrack came from Goodwill, and the air freshener is from my buddy Boris. 

    If you ever encounter a Silver Shamrock mask tag (in front of the Blu-ray),please don't poke it with a hairpin. 

    Just trust me on this.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #27

October 27

     There is a long, thin public park a few blocks from where I grew up in Rock Valley, Iowa. The park had fenced off tennis courts on the west end and was flanked by railroad tracks to the north and a gravel parking space on the south. The east end the park petered out until a road cut it off. A long cable supported by wooden stumps that were hand painted white separated the grass, the swing sets, and the slides from the cars parked on the gravel.

    One of my favorite Halloween memories happened in this park, and it only lasted for a moment. 
    I was in sixth grade and dressed as a skeleton. I had a two-part mask that was separated at the jaw hinge. The two parts of the "skull" were stuck to my face with adhesive pads. When I talked the bottom jaw moved with mine. That was a cool effect. The rest of my costume consisted of a black hoodie and black sweat pants adorned with white tape "bones."
    I was running with a pack of five friends, and although we didn't know, this was going to be the last time we went Trick or Treating. That park near my house separated two neighborhoods, and we were running past to get to more houses with their porch lights lit. 

    In an effort to get a head of the group, I turned left, placed a foot on a white stub of a wood fence, and leaped into the air with my legs still pumping. With one fist grasping a bag of candy and the other thrust into the air in celebration, I flew through the night sky and then landed without missing a stride. 

    I turned and saw that my friends had all made similar leaps. I yelled, "Yes!" and they laughed in agreement. Soon, we were through the park, over the tracks, and ringing the nearest doorbell.

    

    And that's it. Just a few perfect seconds for a kid in a costume on a Halloween night. Who needs more than that?

    All I need is chapter one of Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree if I ever want to relive that feeling. 

    Thanks, Ray. 

    Daphne is kind enough to put up this print for me each October. I like Tom Skelton's costume. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photos #25 and 26

      As a parent, and a fan, I have purchased quite a few Scooby-Doo DTV movies for our family to watch. I had the idea that I could collect all of them just by shopping at thrift stores, but that meant tracking down about 50(!) movies and keeping a list of what we already had with me at all times. I gave up pretty quickly when I learned what I was up against. 

    The library became my best resource. Young Charlotte would treat me like a returning hero when I'd come home with a "new" Scooby-Doo movie from the library, so these films all have a soft spot in my heart. 

October 25

    Just about any DTV release would work, but here are the Scooby-Doo movies that I think best represent the Halloween season. 

October 26

    Sentimental shelf! Charlotte picked out and gave me Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales for my birthday when she was 4. She grinned from ear to ear and said, "It's for our mooovie thee-ah-taa!" when I opened it. 

    She also made made this "birthday crown"(with the help of mom) for me to wear when we watched Scooby-Doo together. I want to be buried wearing this crown.

    I first bought Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School on VHS when I stopped at a convenience store on the way home from college. I knew my young nephew (also 4 and the time?) was also visiting my folks, and I thought he might get a kick out of the movie. He did. We watched it twice that weekend. My other nephew and niece also liked Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School and all three requested to see it each time they visited. When we had Charlotte, my mom came to visit, and she handed me the tape and said comically, "Here. It's your turn. I hate this movie." The tape was fried, but I bought a DVD to pay for my sins.

    If I had to come up with an equivalent to Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School at our house, it would have to be Hello Kitty Tells Fairy Tales. Daphne was not a fan. She made light of it when I told her about this post, but back in the day she cringed whenever Char requested to watch it. I know. I was there.

    The bobbleheads are from McDonald's 2021 Happy Meals. Char kept asking for Happy Meals when these were released, but I didn't know why. Turns out she had secretly planned to get Scooby-Doo and Shaggy just so she could give them to me. Excuse me while I get a Kleenex.

    For my money, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is the best film in the series. I was given an original poster from a student who worked in a video store in 1998. He thought I'd like it. He was sooo right. 27 years later, it's still hanging in my classroom. Hard to believe that student is now in his 40s.

    Last month a newly hired custodian stopped by my room to tell me how much he liked my poster, and we talked about the film for awhile. 

    I like that guy.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #24

 October 24

      I've always thought Trick or Treat (1986) was a fun heavy metal horror movie, and the DVD forums lit up when Platinum Disc released the movie as a budget DVD in 2002. This release was a Best Buy exclusive and was seemingly always sold out in the Des Moines area. I finally scored a copy when Daphne and I were visiting Kansas City. 

    The DVD is on the right. The video image looked better than VHS, but screen ratio was full frame. Dang! Gene Simmons (of KISS) has a small role as a DJ, and Ozzy Osborne makes a cameo as a televangelist. Both are featured on the cover despite their brief screen time.

    The Blu-ray in the middle is an Italian import from eBay. The title Morte a 33 Giri translates to Murder at 33 rpm and is a reference to the haunted LP that brings deceased demonic rocker Sammi Curr back from the dead. This bare bones Blu-ray allowed me see Trick or Treat in anamorphic widescreen for the first time.

    The Blu-ray on the left came out last March. The transfer is a "1080p Blu-ray of a 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative approved by Director of Photography Robert Elswit" (Amazon). The Blu-ray looks great and is packed with extra features. 

    I bought the record at Half Price Books back in the 90's when kids were listening to grunge and wearing flannel. No one wanted anything to do with hair metal.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #23

 October 23

    I agree with this IMDB synopsis. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #22

 October 22

    Here's some video games to play in October: Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Dreamcast), Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (SNES), Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360), Shadow Man (N64), Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube), Clock Tower Rewind (Switch), Haunted House (Atari 2600), I Spy Spooky Mansion (Wii). 

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #21

 October 21

    When I saw the trailer for PG: Psycho Goreman, I was really impressed. The movie looked hilarious. I shared the trailer with some like-minded friends, and we all laughed. I even ordered the soundtrack from Waxwork Records before actually seeing the film. 

    One of my friends bought the DVD as soon as the film was released. He promptly gave it to me after watching it, "You don't have to give it back to me, either. But I won't tell you why."

    Curious, I watched PG: Psycho Goreman later that week, and I had to admit I didn't like what happened to the kid Alasdair. Even with the purposefully bad FX, stuff like that bothers me. My buddy agreed. That was the exact reason why he didn't want the movie back.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #20

 October 20

    The Bachman Books was published in 1985, and it contains the novel Rage which depicts a school shooting. Stephen King let this edition go out of print in 1997 in response to actual school shootings. Wise move.

    So, this edition of The Bachman Books is somewhat collectable, but Rage is not why I have it. It's all about The Long Walk. The characters in that novel are mostly boys aged 15-18, and I was in that age group when I first read it. The story just "clicked" with me. The characters talked to each other like my friends talked. Some acted the way people I knew would act if they were in the same situation. Also, being a bit of a long-distance runner, I could appreciate the torture the boys were putting their bodies through. 

    From left to right: The Bachman Books hardcover, Centipede Press's special edition of The Long Walk, The Long Walk first edition paperback, and Castle Rock Kitchen. A cookbook may seem like a weird choice, but the recipes are inspired by meals mentioned in King's books, and the cookbook is narrated by the mother of The Long Walk's main character, Ray Garraty.

    I was excited when I read that The Long Walk was finally being made into a movie. But when the day came for me to see it, I found myself dreading the experience. I was about to watch characters that I had known for years die on the big screen. 

    When we sat in the theater, I turned to my friend and said, "I'm glad that we get to see this film, but I don't think we're gonna have a good time." He nodded in agreement.

    We were right. The movie was very good, but just not fun. Which, I suppose, was the point.

    I think this movie based on a different "Richard Bachman" novel is going to be a better time.

Halloween 2025: Group Photos #18 and #19

October 18

Sound effects LPs are fun, but I think the artwork steals the show.

It's impressive.

October 19

    According to Wikipedia, "American rock band Phish performed side one of Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House, with original instrumental music to accompany the album, on October 31, 2014, as their "musical costume" for the second set of their Halloween show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas."

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #17

 October 17

    You couldn't throw a stick in an 80s video store without hitting a slasher film on VHS, but by the end of the decade the genre was played out. Thanks to Wes Craven's Scream (1996), the slasher was back. 

    Like the classic Halloween (1978), the success of Scream inspired a slew of imitators that had the look, but didn't have quite the same firepower. The I Know What You Did Last Summer films fall under that category, but they're still fun. 

    The IKWYDLS screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson (he also wrote the screenplay for Scream), and it was based on Lois Duncan's young adult novel. Several movies were made based on her books.

    I'd vote for this Lois Duncan novel as having the creepiest cover. The face reminds me of Captain Howdy in The Exorcist. 

    Wes Craven (Scream) directed the TV movie Summer of Fear in 1978, and a grown Linda Blair (The Exorcist) starred in the film. Weird how these things connect.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #16

 October 16

    Sometimes They Come Back (on LaserDisc) is a 1991 TV movie. Its plot is based a Stephen King short story from the book Night Shift. In the film, Tim Matheson plays a newly hired English teacher who has a class of seniors that become so wild that he loses his temper on his first day. 

    I can relate. 

    The first class I ever "taught" was Journalism One. The room was full of seniors who were expecting a different teacher (I was hired on August 24), and they became hostile when I wouldn't let them leave to go get breakfast. To make things worse, I had under-prepared my first lesson, and they had too much downtime. Soon they were loudly laughing, swearing, and shouting across the room at each other and also completely ignoring my pleas to quiet down. I eventually pulled an elementary teacher's trick and turned all the lights off to get their attention. I honestly was afraid that my principal was going to walk in and fire me on the spot. What a terrible experience.

    When the bell finally rang, I went next door to the boy's bathroom. I looked around to make sure that I was alone, and then I clenched my teeth and side kicked the metal wall of the stall as hard as I could. 

    The dent was there until the school was torn down 14 years later.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #15

 October 15

    It's a Pumpkinhead-theme day. The Nightmare Before Christmas is represented because, "Cartoonist Tim Burton has acknowledged Jack Pumpkinhead as an inspiration for the iconic character Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas." IMDB

Then there's this guy hanging out in front of our house.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #14

 October 14

    Today's shelf is dedicated to the "unexpected horror" in some of the kid shows I watched when I was little. The Wicked Witch of the West and the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz made me run out of the living room when I first saw them. 

    I was too old to want to see Return to Oz when it was first released (I was 16), but I was intrigued when I heard it had been described by a critic as "a horror movie flying under the flag of family entertainment."     

    The boat ride and what happens to Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the stuff of nightmares. 

    The Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang always freaked me out. 

    The TV stations in our area when I was growing up didn't air H.R. Pufnstuf, so when I first saw it at my grandfather's (my mom's side) dark and dreary house, I thought I was watching a fever dream. I  was done when the flute started talking.

    These were all purchased with the intentions of entertaining our daughter, but I don't think she has watched any of these. She did see Tim Burton's remake of Willy Wonka, though. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #13

October 13 

  Putting these shelf displays together has turned out to be a pretty fun exercise. I'm combing through boxes and digging out stuff I haven't looked at in years. I'm also realizing that I should start thinning the herd. 

    Okay, from left to right: Frankenstein Double Header DVD, vintage Frankenstein Old Maid card, Frankenstein from the Film Classics Library (over 1000 film frames plus all the dialogue from the film), Frankenstein playing card that I found in the book, VHS tape, DVD, and a Frankenstein's Monster cartridge for the Atari 2600. 

        Here's what the book looks like.

    This Old Maid set is from 1964. The original Frankenstein came out in 1931. Thirty years later the kids in the 60's thought the Universal Monsters were cool again. Pop culture circles were a thing back then, too. These are before my time, by the way.

    Perforated card from a game given away by the French Paper Co. Someone thought it made a good bookmark for the Frankenstein movie book. I have to agree. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #12

 October 12

    I'm really glad Trick 'r Treat found an audience so I can at least watch it at home. This has to be one of the best "direct-to-DVD" Halloween movies ever made.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #11

 October 11

    I saw The Lost Boys in the theater in the summer of '87, and I've seen it plenty of times at home since then. When Flix Brewhouse had a The Lost Boys Fan Fest featuring a souvenir glass, I bought a ticket, grabbed a glass, and promptly went home. Been there, done that.

    If you live near a Flix Brewhouse, you can see it on the big screen today, too.

    Hard to believe that Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland was only 17 years old when the film was shot.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #10

 October 10

    The Grindhouse movie was presented as a double feature of exploitation films that could have come straight from the 1970s. The presentation was supposed to replicate the vibe of going to a seedy New York theater on 42nd street back in the day. 

    I didn't see Grindhouse in the theater when it was released in 2007, so I don't know if the illusion worked, and I regret that. I suppose that's why I kept buying Grindhouse stuff. I've been trying to visually replicate at home a visual replication in the theater that might not have replicated an experience at all. Writing that sentence made my brain hurt.

    That Tarantino ranks Death Proof as his worst film somewhat softens the blow. 

    Hard to believe that was 18 years ago.

    P.S. If they ever have a Grindhouse revival, I have my shirt picked out.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #9

 October 9

At first I thought I'd write about finding the Crawl DVD at the dollar store and then finding the soundtrack at Half Price Books, but then I stopped myself. Wait a minute. I can do better than this...

    There. That's better. 

    The only thing scarier in the water than a shark fin is a pair of gator eyes skimming the surface. Of the five movies, Lake Placid gets my vote for most fun. I remember watching it in the early 2000s with my buddy Rob. Man we laughed. Every time I look at that cover I think of that.

Yikes. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photos 1-8

    Daphne and Charlotte took a girls' trip to Minneapolis last summer to shop at the Mall of American and IKEA. They returned with new clothes and new room decor items for Charlotte. I helped with mounting Char's new white IKEA shelves on her wall, so I knew exactly what I was looking at when I found a black IKEA shelf at Goodwill. 

    I mounted it in our basement so I can display the sleeve of whatever record is currently playing and what record is up next. 

    Last week I was looking at my different collections and thought it would be fun to also put movies and books together on the shelf. I put eight displays together, and now I want to see if I can get to 31: a different display for each day of October. I'm going to take a picture of each display, and write something about what is on the shelf. I'm not writing reviews,  just random comments. 

I think the Local H concert poster sets the tone nicely. 

October 1

    This is where it all starts for me. 

    In the fall of '83, the TV was running commercials that proclaimed, "FROM THE MIND THAT GAVE US 'SALEM'S LOT, AND THE VISION THAT BROUGHT US HALLOWEEN, COMES FEAR ON FOUR WHEELS: JOHN CARPENTER'S CHRISTINE!" Man, I wanted to see that movie! A high school kid who fixes up a really cool old '50's car and uses it to get the girl and get revenge on his enemies? I was in! 

    Too bad Mom was out. I was 13, the movie was rated R, and there was no way my mom was going to let me see it. She did buy me the book instead, and that's it on the right. It was my first time reading a Stephen King novel, and it was longer (and thicker) than anything I had tackled before. I was really proud of myself when I finished it, and I think that's why I've kept it for so long. When I finally did get to see the movie, I realized that the book was way scarier, and way raunchier. Yay! (sorry, Mom).

    The soundtrack for Christine was the first album that ever I bought. My sister and I had a small stack of 45s to share, but this was my first LP. Pop culture circles back about very 30 years or so, and the record is full of songs from the 50's which my friends and I thought were cool. I bought the soundtrack at the Musicland store in the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls, SD.

    I might get rid of the Christine DVD. The Blu-ray is an upgrade that I just purchased last weekend. I'm glad I had the DVD for this display, though. 

October 2

Another first. The Night of the Living Dead VHS tape was the first actual movie that I owned. I bought it new in 1984 at the Walmart in Sioux Center, IA. 

   Due to a missing copyright notice on the title card, NOTLD has been in the public domain since it was released in 1968. Finding a cheap, scratchy transfer on DVD was easy, and the "Millennium Edition" on the left was a revelation when it came out in 2001. The movie looked good for once, there were all kinds of extras, and Stephen King wrote the liner notes. As you'd expect, the Criterion Collection's Blu-ray release on the right is far superior to the DVD. The DVD has different extras, so I'm hanging onto it.

    In the middle is the colorized DVD edition. It's interesting, but the added color is not my thing. Mike Nelson of MST3K fame does a commentary track. Meh.

    Inside DVD was a monthly publication that only came out on DVD. One side had trailers, movie shorts, interviews, and other promo materials. The other side had a full movie that was either an indie film or a movie that was in the public domain like NOTLD.

October 3

1973's Psychomania is another 80's VHS tape I purchased from that same Walmart. It's a weird movie with non-gory zombies who ride in a motorcycle gang called The Living Dead. I'm a sucker for horror/ transportation mashups. The middle DVD is from a dollar store. It has a murky, non-anamorphic widescreen transfer. The Severin DVD on the right is the winner. The owner of the label intros the film, and he talks about the VHS tape that we both own. I want to get the Psychomania soundtrack on LP. I just bought it! Yay Discogs!

October 4

In the early 2000's someone donated a collection of movie novelization paperbacks to the Animal Lifeline Thrift Shop in Des Moines. I bought quite a few of the horror books for a quarter each. Here's three novelizations of Amicus horror anthologies. Tales from the Crypt has a segment that's fun to watch during the Christmas season if you like seeing a deranged killer in a Santa Claus suit. I have no problem with that.

October 5

Some more novelizations with their DVD brethren. If I remember correctly, in Blue Sunshine, Billy Crystal's older brother Richard runs out of from a party screaming when it's discovered that he's wearing a wig. Then he returns screaming and pushes a woman into a burning fireplace. Say no to drugs, kids.

October 6

    Whew. That's a big jump in quality. I went from having a 80's track team slasher movie on CED and jumped right to the same movie on Blu-ray. I guess I couldn't find it on Betamax.

    If you don't remember what CEDs were, you can click ----> here.

October 7

    Speaking of Betamax tapes, there's Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge on Beta. It's on DVD there, too. I'm not a huge Freddy fan, but I'll pick up a film if it's in the wild (cheap in a thrift store, I mean). The novelization is interesting as it's a combination of the first three films. It also has a bonus chapter: "The life and Death of Freddy Krueger." I don't know if the book is any good. To paraphrase Rob Gordon, "I haven't quite absorbed that one yet."

October 8

    The Return of the Living Dead on Beta tape, DVD, and Blu-ray. All three were found in thrift stores over the years. I'd have a pretty hard time replicating that today.

Okay, that's eight displays. I'm all caught up. Let's see what I can come up with for tomorrow.