Halloween '26: Group Photo #29

    I didn’t know I had purchased Tubular Bells when I bought a used record from Goodwill. The LP was hiding inside the other record’s sleeve. That’s kind of creepy when you consider that Mike Oldfield's piano motif was used as the opening and closing theme to 1973’s The Exorcist, a movie about a little girl who also has something hiding inside. 

    1977’s Exorcist II: The Heretic is in the top ten of movie dumpster fires. But how many horror movie sequels get a full documentary 48 years later that gets rave reviews? (See Boorman and the Devil.)

    I believe The Exorcist III contains one of the most effective jump-scares of all time. While watching the scene at first you feel like something's going to happen, and when something does happen, you think Oh. Okay, that was it...     And then the movie drops the hammer. 

    I was in college when The Exorcist III came out. I remember talking about it with my friend Jim. He said, “Money, I got to tell ya, that actor [Brad Dourif] at the end? He didn’t hardy move, and he still scared the s— out of me!” 

    That is some high praise.

    Agreed.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #28

    In all three of Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead movies, 1981’s The Evil Dead, 1987’s Evil Dead II, and 1992’s Army of Darkness, you will see the director's personal car that his father bought new, a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88. I fact, this model of car appears in all 16 films that Raimi has directed.

    The Evil Dead DVD has two audio commentaries, one by Bruce Campbell, and the other by Sam Raimi and Producer Rob Tapert. Both are great, really, but I like the Campbell commentary more. It’s like watching the film with a friend who is way funnier and more informed than you. When the Delta 88 appears on screen, Campbell says, “What a piece of junk. Sam loves that car. Watch, he'll call it a classic in his commentary,” anticipating that Sam Raimi will refer to it as a classic on his own commentary track (which Raimi does).

    Today’s LP is AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) since it was released the same year as the original The Evil Dead. I'm going with the second track “Evil Walks." 

   

    Delta 88s in action. (Picture swiped from Facebook.) I would have liked to have thrown up "Delta 88 Nightmare" by X as the song of the day, but I don't have a physical copy.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #27

        I've had a long day, and I don't feel like talking about It.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #25

    I was surprised to find the soundtracks to 1975's Deep Red and 1977's Suspiria on LP at Half Price Books last January. These are from Cinevox's economical "Ciak" soundtrack line. Ciak is Italian for "clapperboard," hence the jackets' artwork. The music's score was written and performed by the Italian progressive rock group Goblin.

    

    I was also surprised that I hadn't updated my Suspiria media to a Blu-ray. Apparently I'm still rocking the three-disc DVD set from Anchor Bay. I'll have to fix that. But I'm keeping the Bay set. It has the soundtrack on CD.

    The third surprise was find a media press book inside the Suspiria sleeve. There is ten pages of black and white promotional materials including poster artwork, stills from the movie, and ad copy. Maybe the LP was part of the promotion? You never know what you might find inside a used LP. 

    Also, whoever came up with the creepy veiny-heart letter font was a genius. 

Halloween '26: Group Photo #24

    In this movie from 1988, the Black Roses are a  group of demons posing as a heavy metal band. They put on a show at their hometown high school and prove that the protesting PTA was right and that metal music really is evil… umm… what?

    From IMDB’s trivia: "Sir Patrick Stewart said in an interview that when he finished reading the script [for 2015’s Green Room] at his country home in England, it was so terrifying, that he locked up his house, turned on the security system, and poured himself a Scotch.” I’ve said this before. Stewart’s performance is absolutely evil in this movie.

    1988’s Lady in White is an independent film that was directed, produced, written, and scored by Frank LaLoggia. Set in upstate New York in 1962, the film does a great job of giving off a small town Halloween vibe. "The New York Times movie critic Caryn James praised the film stating that: 'Here are the bones of an ordinary ghost story. But the writer and director Frank LaLoggia brings them to life with exceptional vitality... The extended Scarlatti family—warm, funny, so real they make the characters in Moonstruck seem like impostors... Mr. LaLoggia creates an unusual, effective child's-eye-view of a sinister wide world, a restless afterlife, and the comforts of family.’” (Wikipedia).

    2015’s The Blackout’s Daughter is the directorial debut of Osgood Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates in Psycho). This movie was featured the “Hidden Gems” episode in Shudder’s second season of “Horror Greatest.” 

    Today’s theme is "more movies with colors in the title," and yay!, today is also National Horror Movie Day. I got a halftime marching band show to help with tonight, but I'll find something to watch when I eventually get home.

Halloween '26: Group Photo # 23

    Black Sunday is the directorial debut of the great Mario Bava. Directors Francis Ford Coppola (1992’s Dracula) and Richard Donner (1976’s The Omen) both incorporated recreated scenes from Black Sunday into their films in honor and homage to Bava. Director Tim Burton has stated in interviews that Black Sunday is his favorite horror film.

    AIP renamed Mario Bava's 1963 Italian film Black Sabbath hoping to recreate the success of Black Sunday. Hoping to recreate the crowds that this scary movie was bringing in, the British band Earth renamed themselves Black Sabbath, decided to make scary music, and the rest is heavy metal history.

    Mario Bava basically invented the giallo genre with 1964’s Blood and Black Lace. 

    1971’s Black Belly of the Tarantula is a giallo with quite a few connections to the Bond films. The film features Claudine Auger (Thunderball), Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me), Barbara Bouchet (1967’s Casino Royale), and Giancarlo Giannini (2006’s Casino Royale and 2008’s Quantum of Solace).

 
    1981’s The Black Cat is a loose interpretation of the short story by Edgar Allen Poe. Spoiler Alert! The cat wins… sorta.

    Today’s theme is Italian movies with black in the title. Why Not? It's National Color Day, and in my world black is a color.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #22

     I’m still quoting Jim Vorel’s article, “The 25 Best Werewolf Movies of All Time”.

 
    2014’s Wolfcop is ranked at #15, "More than anything, you feel a very genuine love for the utter ridiculousness of the premise. It’s a film that people clearly enjoyed the hell out of making, which makes that fun infectious to the viewer."—Jim Vorel
 
    2017’s Another Wolfcop (“Dirtier. Hairier.”) didn’t make the top 25 list, but it’s still low budget fun. A Kevin Smith cameo is always a plus.
 
    2020’s Wolf of Snow Hollow is ranked at #10, "The wry, snappy banter gives the Wolf of Snow Hollow a prickly skin, and the restrained application of FX gives it tension. At just under 80 minutes, that economy is key. It’s not so much that the horror is elevated as controlled." —Jim Vorel
 
    1989’s The Wolf's Hour is a World War II horror novel by Robert R. McCammon. Michael Gallatin is a British secret agent who goes behind German lines to stop a secret weapon from being launched against the Allies. Oh, Gallatin is also a werewolf who can change at will. (Robert R. McCammon also wrote 1991’s Boy’s Life, and for that I will be eternally grateful to him.)

    Today's theme is werewolves and uniforms.

     You can click on the title of the article to read the complete descriptions for each film. 

Halloween '26: Group Photo #20

    2010's Wolfman disappointed at the box office despite earning Rick Baker another Academy Award for Best Makeup (his first was for An American Werewolf in London) and using David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons for some of the Wolfman's howls. 

    Had Wolfman earned better numbers, Werewolf: The Beast Among Us would have been a theatrical prequel. It was retooled into a stand alone, direct-to-video release. That's too bad, but this is still a very watchable film.

    Dean Koontz's 1973 novel, A Werewolf Among Us, is mystery/ science fiction mashup. Not really horror, but with that title, c'mon, I had to put it on the shelf.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #19

     Today's shelf theme is "final dogs*." I'm not even sure if that's a thing.

    In Bad Moon (1995) Thor is a very good boy.   

    In Crawl (2019), Sugar is a very good girl.

    In Good Boy (2025), Indy is a very good boy.

    In The Lost Boys (1987), Nanook is a very good boy.

    *No fictional dogs were harmed in the making of this post.

Halloween '26: Group Photo # 17

    When it comes to horror/comedy, 1981's An American Werewolf in London is a masterclass in both.

  "A naked American man stole my balloons." is one of the best lines of dialogue in cinema.

    Obligatory inclusion of Warren Zevon's album, Excitable Boy, on CD. It contains his only top 40 hit "Werewolves in London". Zevon wrote it in 15 minutes with some friends. I plan to use this album again in another group photo.

    "Will the Wolf Survive?" is a song from 1984 by Los Lobos. In literal terms, in regards to the movie, no, he can't. 

    

    The DVD's insert sports a really popular image for the film.

    I like how the Chicago band, Local H, paid homage to the that picture on one of their Pack up the Cats concert posters. This hangs in my basement. It looks better in person.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #16

  1997’s Mimic was directed by Guillermo del Toro. I was surprised to learn that. I thought the movie was okay when I first saw Mimic back in the day. It's certainly nothing like his other productions that came later. Turns out Miramax had really messed with the final edit, like adding all kinds of secondary unit scenes, and the end result was disowned by the director. Fifteen years later del Toro used the original footage to reassemble the film into something close to what he had envisioned. This is that version: Mimic “The Director’s Cut” on Blu-ray. 

Mimic 2 came out in 2001, and Mimic (3): Sentinel was released in 2003. Both films were direct-to-video productions. Of the two, and neither is great, I think #3 is more interesting. That can happen with B-movie trilogies. The second film tries to be more of the the same, but by the third one the filmmakers feel like they can throw out the rulebook. #3 is basically Rear Window but with giant cockroaches. AND #3 stars Lance Henriksen. AND he’s awesome.

The soundtrack for Mimic was released on Record Store Day in 2022. The LP’s fold-out jacket opens to reveal a giant Judas Breed insect hiding inside. The vinyl is a dirty, dark green, of course.

One of the unintended consequences of organizing these group photos is that it gives me the chance to make some space on my shelves. I’m looking at the DVDs of Mimic 2 and 3 and thinking, Yeah, you were fun to find, but it is time to let the next person have that fun. Into the donation box you go.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #15

Most people had tube TVs (CRTs) in the early days of DVDs. Director Stanley Kubrick didn’t like the way his widescreen movies looked on the 4:3 screen. He thought the black bars on the top and the bottom of the screen were distracting and in widescreen the movie looked too small. His solution was to release his later films on DVD in an open matte aspect to fill the screen. Technically, you were getting more movie because you could see everything the camera filmed, but you wouldn’t get the intended 1.85:1 composition. Ironically, the film has black bars on either side of the screen on today’s TVs.

These DVDs came with a disclaimer on the back cover. It almost reads like an apology, “We know... We know... It's not our fault."

As you’s expect, the Blu-ray corrected this 

It’s well-known that Stephen King hated Kubrick’s film interpretation of The Shining. King tried to correct course with the 1997 TV mini series that he wrote and produced. This version of The Shining closely aligns with his book. I found this DVD at Goodwill last Monday. I bought it to hear the feature-length commentary by King and the crew.

The novel, Doctor Sleep, is the sequel Stephen King wore for his book, The Shining. The screenplay for Doctor Sleep is the sequel King wrote for both the original book and the original movie. For example, The Overlook Hotel burns down at the end of the novel and the miniseries. At the end of the original movie, the Overlook is live and well and evil. King had to admit that more people would be aware of the film than his miniseries, so some of Kubrick’s ideas like the Overlook made it to Doctor Sleep as well. I bet Stephen grumbled about that a bit.

Steven Spielberg made some great changes when he adapted Ernest Clines’s book, Ready Player One, to the big screen. The VR car race through a recreation of New York City is probably way more exciting than watching a guy and a knight in armor playing Joust on an arcade machine. Also, with no disrespect to 1983’s film War Games, having the players navigate a game level designed inside The Shining was amazing! Daphne and I went to see this movie in the theater, and when we got that part I exclaimed, “They’re going into The Overlook!” The people around us just nodded and smiled in agreement. No one scowled at my small outburst.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #14

    Today’s shelf is full of "Found Footage” horror. So, all of these were presented as if they were the real deal (think Blair Witch). 

2023’s Late Night with the Devil is set on Halloween night in 1977. According to IMDB, the filmmaker's inspiration for the set design, “… was a lot of those game shows and talk shows from that period, but we were fortunate enough to have a production designer who worked in that era on local TV here... It was all too easy for him I think to come up with that design. And that palette of browns and oranges and beige. It all felt very of the time, and we really embraced that.” I was in 3rd grade in 1977, and sometimes on family trips we would stay in a hotel. After the kids' bedtime, our folks would watch "The Tonight Show" starring Johnny Carson. I remember  pretending to sleep while listening to the jokes and trying to figure out what they meant. If I did catch a peek of the TV, the set would have looked a lot like Late Night with the Devil. 

2013’s WNUF Halloween Special is set on October 31st, 1987. The movie is aiming at recreating the shot-on-VHS look of a local, UHF news program. 2022’s sequel Out There Halloween Mega Tape is set on a Halloween night in the 1990’s. This time the filmmakers wanted to reproduce the feel of a tabloid talk show like the programs that Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer hosted.

1992’s Ghostwatch aired on the BBC on the actual Halloween night of that year. The program was presented as a “live” news investigation into “Britain’s most haunted house.” Many of the actors were real, trusted, television personalities who were using scripted lines but acting as theirselves. Some parents let their kids watch this adult program because one member of the cast was a host on a Saturday morning children’s show. The presentation was very believable, and so many people thought the actors were in real, supernatural danger. There was such a controversy that the program hasn’t aired on any UK-based television channel ever again. It took ten years for the BFI DVD to be released.

Inspired by all the clamor, the documentary Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtain was also released ten years later, "It explores the creation, broadcast, and national reaction to the infamous Halloween hoax special.” This 2022 Blu-ray contains athenew 30th anniversary documentary Do You Believe in Ghosts?. 

    Today's musical choice is the 2025 Night Owls soundtrack. That's a great name for a fictional late night talk show. Here's the jazzy outro on YouTube.

    I went with the picture disc "Hypnowheel" variant. It ties into the plot and looks sweet.

Halloween '26: Group Photo # 13

    Today's song, "Graveyard Tramp", comes from the Bad Checks' 1985 album of the same name. I bought this LP blind last year at a record show. Turns out this punkabilly/garage rock band from Durham, NC toured with The Replacements. Color me impressed. 

    1971's The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is an Italian giallo. In Wesley Stenzel’s article, "The 50 best thriller movies of all time, ranked," he describes a giallo as, "... a suspense subgenre that usually blends elements of slashers, murder mysteries, and psychological horror, resulting in dark, pulpy thrillers that are often more explicit than comparable American films from the same era." Well said.

   The DVD for 2006's The Gravedancers (filmed in the Bad Checks' stomping ground of North Carolina) features a fun commentary with Director Mike Mendez and his buddy Composer Joseph Bishara where they play a drinking game every time they see a lit lamp in the film.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #9

  Tonight, from 5-8pm, is the Homecoming Street Party at Urbandale High School. There will be games, inflatables, a duck pond, a DJ, and several food trucks in school’s parking lot. The parade starts at 6pm, and Char will be marching with the band along with the floats and the flags. Should be fun for everyone.

Unless the clowns show up...

Halloween '26: Group Photo #6

     Since yesterday’s Pet Sematary is the real deal in terms of serving up the chills, let’s go the other way today. 

    None of these mummies are scary. I’d argue that 1959’s The Mummy is actually boring. Brendan’s Fraser’s Mummy films are fun PG-13 action adventures. The same can be said about Tom Cruise’s film, but I don't know about the fun. My favorite mummies are in the funk band Here Comes the Mummies. 

    The only thing scary about these mummies is if they came to your town, and you missed their show.

Halloween '26: Group Photo #5

    Pet Sematary is the scariest book I have ever read. Full stop. I was in high school when I finished it very late at night, and I was terrified at the thought that Gage was lurking underneath my bed.

    It doesn't get more Halloween than that. 

    The Pet Sematary movies are fine. I like the original the most. I think I'll watch the remake tonight in the basement while Daphne and her sister watch something British upstairs. It's their weekly ritual. 

    Bloodlines is a prequel. Bloodlines was part of a used, two-pack DVD set, and I wanted a newer version of the original DVD (the new one has a commentary), so now I own Bloodlines, too.

    I found the Ramones Maxi-Single locally, which was fun. The vinyl soundtrack arrived via Discogs.

    I bought this worn, book club edition of Pet Sematary for a buck last spring. I like how its real wear and tear matches the faux deterioration on the DVD's artwork.

    

    FYI: It's hard to type "Sematary" with autocorrect messing it up all the time. 

Halloween '26: Group Photo #2

     I like how Google’s AI describes the plot of Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981),"The narrative shuns traditional linear logic, opting instead for a fever-dream sequence of graphic, nightmarish set pieces (including acid attacks, blind spectral figures, and a famous, brutal tarantula attack).”

    Fulci was nicknamed the Godfather of Gore, and this movie was retitled 7 Doors of Death, given a new soundtrack, and was cut by about five minutes in order to get this Italian film into the American market with an "R" rating.

    From left to right: 

    Grindhouse Releasing’s uncut version of The Beyond on Blu-ray with the original soundtrack on CD.

    Also from Grindhouse, this is the alternate soundtrack for 7 Doors of Death on a blood-red LP. 

    I bought 7 Doors of Death on DVD in 2000 when it was released by Diamond Entertainment. There was a lot of buzz about this DVD on the internet forums because it was a cheap alternative to the much more expensive releases of The Beyond. There were also rumors that the DVD was actually the uncut version of that movie. 

    It wasn’t.

    I finally got the uncut version of The Beyond on DVD when our local Borders bookstore (remember them?) had a huge sale on their Anchor Bay DVD sets. I got this Beyond tin, but I still regret not picking up the wooden box release of The Wicker Man. 

    Back then I sold my Diamond DVD to Half Price Books. I think they might have given me two bucks for it. I paid about that at Goodwill to get this DVD back. When I first spotted 7 Doors of Death on the shelf, I embarrassed myself by saying out loud, “Hey! I know you!” 

    If I think an image on physical media cover might be a bit much, then I'll cover it up with my "The Frightened Mogwai" trading card. 

    Fun Fact: “Seven Doors Hotel” was the debut single by the Swedish rock band, Europe (remember them? “It’s the final count downnnnnnn”). The song was written by the lead singer, and the lyrics were inspired by The Beyond. The song was a top ten hit in Japan in 1983.

Labor Day 2026: Group Photo

    Happy Labor Day! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    In 1974's made-for-TV movie Killdozer, six men on an island are hunted down by a bulldozer that has been possessed by an alien. I know, I know... but I love 70's made-for-TV movies.

    In 2011's The Innkeepers, Claire and Luke work the Yankee Pedlar Inn's final night of business. The two leads have real chemistry, and they're fun to watch, but it still doesn't end well for them. 

    In 2001's Route 666, Lou Diamond Phillips deals with road construction zombies. SPOILER ALERT: His zombie dad comes to his rescue. I like that.

    Stephen King wrote Road Work in 1981 under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The plot deals with a grieving dad whose home and workplace are threatened by an interstate highway extension.

    I worked road construction as a way to pay for college in the late 80's. For one week all I had to do was sit at the end of a road in town and tell drivers to to turn around because they couldn't drive across the the soft, newly poured asphalt. I killed time by reading the paperback volumes of Clive Barker's Books of Blood. I still remember one old woman getting freaked out when she read the title of the book in my hand, Nice. 

    Men at Work's LP Business as Usual came out in the US in 1982. At the time I loved "Who Can it Be Now?,"  but now I gravitate towards "Be Good Johnny". My favorite Men at Work cover song is Lazlo Bane's version of "Overkill." About two thirds through the song Colin Hay comes in and just kills it. 

    Don't work too hard this weekend!

In Memoriams

     Let’s check the horror shelf in memory of Tim Curry.

    I found Mr. Curry’s LP, Read my Lips (1978), in a thrift store in Victoria, Canada. I think the autograph looks legit. I almost didn’t buy the record because I didn’t want to worry about how to get it home...

    But then I remembered he portrayed Pennywise in 1990’s TV miniseries It. Talk about nightmare fuel. 

    People paid to see Tom Cruise in 1985’s Legend, but they went home talking about Tim Curry’s Darkness (and his horns). Legend, indeed.

    Speaking of horns, Curry voiced the Goblin King in Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King in 2008, and that might be the only Scooby-Doo movie that scared Char. 

    Curry also voiced the Mastermind in the Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights video game in 2002.

    Speaking of Scooby-Doo, I'm displaying this poster in honor of Curry’s performance as Ben Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost (1999). This poster hung in Charlotte’s room for a couple of years.

    Tim, thanks for the music, the laughs, and the frights.

    I don’t have anything scary to refer to when I write about the loss of Dolly Parton, but I do have a cherished memory. It is also proof that Parton’s music has the ability to reach anyone at any age.

    I posted this in 2017 when Charlotte was six years old:

"Char discovered this Dolly Parton song while watching World of Dance. 

Even her cats like it!"

    I think Char replayed that YouTube video over and over for about 40 minutes, and I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. 

    

    Dolly, thanks for the music, the laughs and the love.