Will Vinton's Claymation Comedy of Horrors

The late 80s and early 90s were a good time for Will Vinton's Claymation Studios. The California Raisins commercials had made the characters household names, and their popularity enabled Vinton to make several prime time TV specials to meet audience demand for his style of animation. I've discussed Vinton's Christmas special before; now I bring to you his Halloween special, Will Vinton's Claymation Comedy of Horrors.

Although I knew about a couple other specials of Vinton's, I only learned about this one earlier this year. I can't believe I missed out on this when it first debuted in 1991! It has all of Vinton's trademark style and whimsy, but this time with a playfully Halloweenish twist.

Here for your enjoyment is the special in all its glory, and in a high quality format. Enjoy!

We're now slightly over the halfway mark of the Countdown, and boy has real life given my Countdown a hit! A thousand apologies. I'll be putting out posts at a steady clip to make up for lost time. Please be sure to check out as many articles as you can--I really appreciate it.

Have a great weekend! Go on a haunted hayride! Carve a jack o' lantern! Make a Halloween mixtape! Put the finishing touches on your costume! Do Halloweeny things!

Tuesday's Overlooked Film: The Beast With Five Fingers

For this year's Tuesday's Overlooked Films during the Countdown to Halloween, I've decided to go with a theme--crawling hand movies! Last week I brought you 1963's The Crawling Hand; this week, it's the 1946 film The Beast With Five Fingers.

The Beast With Five Fingers is about a renown concert pianist living reclusively in the Italian countryside with his nurse, secretary (played by Peter Lorre at his creepy best), and the nurse's paramour (Robert Alda, father of Alan Alda). When the pianist dies and his estate is in dispute, murders begin to happen. Are they at the literal hand of the dead man's severed left hand?

The film is lush yet gothic, with fine performances by all. It has the distinction of being the only horror movie produced by Warner Brothers in the 1940s. I saw it this past weekend on TCM and recommend it should you come across it.

Below is the film's trailer. Thanks!

The Walking Dead Theme Music by Player Piano

As I write this, I just finished watching the first episode of season 6 of The Walking Dead, and a great episode it was! The episode opened up as every episode of the show does--a cold open, followed by the great theme music written by Bear McCreary.

Recently I found a version of the theme performed almost solely on piano in classical style by a group named simply Player Piano. They do classical piano adaptations of many geeky theme music pieces, and they're all great. Check out the Walking Dead theme now! For more of their awesome videos, check out there YouTube channel here.

Thanks!

Casper Saves Halloween 1979 TV Special

My, it looks like I've fallen behind in the first week of the Countdown! Sorry about that! Fortunately, I have a great offering for the weekend--the 1979 animated TV special Casper Saves Halloween!

On Halloween night, Casper disguises himself as a trick-or-treater to blend in with the living, but it doesn't work out so well. Despite this, it's up to Casper to stop his ghostly friend Hairy Scary and his gang from scaring the costumes off of everyone. Spoiler alert--Casper stops them.

Enjoy the first weekend of October, and thanks!

Tuesday's Overlooked Film: The Crawling Hand (1963)

Tuesdays in October are always interesting ones here at the blog because I get to be a part of not one, but two great cross-blog festivities. Not only do I participate in the Countdown to Halloween every October, but every Tuesday (well, not every Tuesday, but when I can) I participate in Tuesday's Overlooked Film/TV/Audio/Video, hosted by my friend Todd Mason and his blog Sweet Freedom. 

About 20 to 30 bloggers spend Tuesdays discussing a movie, TV series, or other audio/visual product that they feel deserves a closer look. On Tuesdays in October, I make it a Halloween or horror-related item. This week, it's the 1963 film The Crawling Hand.

The Crawling Hand belongs to an astronaut who falls victim to an exploding space capsule, but not without his severed arm being possessed by an alien being. The arm lands to Earth and is found by a med student, who takes the arm for himself because he's an idiot. Soon, the alien-possessed arm starts to control the med student's mind, using the young man to lure victims for the arm to strangle to death.

Oh, the town sheriff is played by Alan Hale Jr. You know, the Skipper from Gilligan's Island!

Any other time of the year, I would NOT select this film as a movie that deserves greater attention. but for Halloween, such schlock is perfect. I remember watching this movie as a kid in Philadelphia on WKBS-TV's Creature Double Feature and being amazed at how weird it was. It's still weird today.

You can find out for yourself now, as the movie is available on YouTube. Have fun! For more overlooked items, head on over to Sweet Freedom here. Thanks!

Halloween Safety Public Service Film from 1977

As fun as Halloween always is, it's necessary to take some precautions to ensure that your Halloween is a safe one. The following public safety film from 1977, titled simply "Halloween Safety," aims to help you in that endeavor. 

This film has developed a bit of fame among Halloween bloggers, and in fact even features a blogger. One of the children that appear in this film is former blogger Jason of the defunct but legendary Scar Stuff blog. Read about his involvement here.

Generation X readers should have fond memories of Halloweens such as the one depicted here. If you're a millenial, please forgive the fashion sense.

Enjoy!

Halloween TV Commercials 2015 Edition

One of the first types of articles I like to post at the beginning of the Countdown is a collection of fun and spooky TV commercials. That's how you know a holiday season is upon us. And just when I think I've exhausted the supply of available commercials on the Web, items come along at just the right time for me to discover. Here is this year's collection!

Directly from my childhood, here is a great commercial for Hershey's chocolate from way back in 1981. Watching this clip really is like time travel for me.



Even earlier is this Hershey's commercial from 1972. The quality of the video is poor, so you can barely tell the kids are wearing Halloween costumes, but it is definitely about the holiday.



Wicked witches are bad enough to deal with, but a wicked itch? It's time to get Lanacane!



For a much more recent commercial--2014--here is one promoting the well received Cheetos Bag O' Bones. Short but sweet.



There are many stories about the loss of a loved one and attempts to reconnect with them in the afterlife. This next commercial is the first one I've seen about a beer!



The owner of this local furniture store thinks he's really funny.



Speaking of furniture, this awesome commercial for Ikea does a great job parodying The Shining!



As usual, you can always get some great Halloween finds at Goodwill!



I haven't heard of Value Village before, but I'd buy my Halloween costume from there!



Kmart has fallen on VERY hard times the last ten years or so, but they may still be an option for your Halloween needs.



Finally, this one's on the gross side, but it is entertaining. Online is always a fine option for Halloween costume shopping. It's better than the lengths the poor fellow in this commercial went to!



I have so many commercials left over, I'll post them later in the month. Until then, I hope you enjoyed these.

Have a great weekend! We have a whole month of Halloween goodness ahead of us!