The big night is finally here! Happy Halloween one and all!
Boy, real life hit me much harder than I expected this month. I didn't get to post nearly as many great things as I wanted to. Oh well, no use crying over spilled pumpkin beer. It was still a great Halloween season. It always is!
Thank you for joining me throughout the Countdown to Halloween .I hope yours has been a safe and happy one. And of course, I hope we're all back together in October 2016 so we can do it all over again!
Here are a last few tidbits that I like to share every year that summarize the Halloween experience for me. Consider it a Me and You Halloween tradition. This year, I'm including one of the songs that started off this year's Countdown, "Ten Thirty One" by Billy Polard !
And that's a wrap on the Countdown to Halloween 2015. Happy Halloween!
I promised at the beginning of the Countdown when I posted my first collection of commercials that I would be back with more. I just made it under the wire! Here are more fun commercials for your last minute enjoyment.
Here is a commercial from the 60s featuring the mascot for Sugar Crisp in which the Bing Crosby-sounding Sugar Bear gets trapped in a haunted house. This commercial is over a minute long, showing how much time and effort was put into commercials back then.
This is an awesome commercial from 1981 promoting the release of Halloween II in theaters. It does a great job of creating tension and curiosity for the movie with virtually no actual footage of it. Besides, I can't let a Countdown to Halloween go by without acknowledging the movie franchise at least once!
I love this next commercial. This is a DIY commercial made for a local cable TV system promoting a locally owned and operated video game store, Video Game Underground. This was created in 2006, when creative software was really becoming prevalent. The thing I love about this commercial is that it seems high tech and low tech at the same time. A lot of fun!
Speaking of local commercials, here's one for the 2012 Baton Rouge Halloween Parade. It's local, features a parade, encourages people to dress in costumes, and helps those in need--all things I love. What more can you ask for?
Here's a fast but wild promo for Spike TV's Halloween programming from 2009. Pretty gory at the end for a commercial!
Finally, a commercial from the 70s and 80s for the late and lamented Jersey Shore boardwalk attraction, Brigantine Castle. I've featured them here before, but this commercial is just as creepy. Everything about this commercial works: the castle itself, the grainy footage, and the amazing narration. Love it!
As is appropriate for the "hallowed" month of October, this month's Underappreciated Music is a musical interpretation of Edgar Alan Poe's classic poem "The Raven" by the late 60s pysch band Glass Prism.
Glass Prism's first two albums were devoted to songs based on Poe's works, a perfect fit for their Procol Harem-ish brand of rock. I first heard the song just a couple of years ago and have included it in my Halloween playlists ever since.
Take a a listen for yourself and you may do the same. Enjoy!
I'm afraid I didn't get to post an official installment of Tuesday's Overlooked Film last week, so I wasn't able to keep to my promise that I feature a crawling hand film every week like I wanted to. But this is a new week, so here I present to you the 1973 shocker And Now The Screaming Starts!
The story is set in England in 1795, and the main character is Catherine, an aristocratic young woman who visits the home of her fiance Charle to be married. While strolling through the premises, she takes interest in the portrait of Charle's grandfather Henry. Suddenly, a hand seemingly bursts through the portrait for Catherine. Things get far creepier and macabre from there.
Although not a Hammer Studios film, it's very much in that vein, even featuring Peter Cushing in a key role. If you like your horror British, gothic, and don't mind killer severed limbs, you may enjoy And Now The Screaming Starts.
In fact, you can enjoy the entire film right here and now! Thanks!
The Muppets are in the spotlight in pop culture again due to the launch of their new primetime series (which I haven't seen yet, unfortunately). However, there are moments from their history that are appropriate for Halloween viewing. I have a few of these moments below.
First, two spooky ghosts do an interesting take on the Beatles tune "I'm Looking Through You" from the original Muppet Show.
Also from the Muppet Show, a Muppet News Flash reporting the spontaneous morphing of inanimate objects into monsters!
This next clip really proves how creepy and weird the Muppets can get when they want to!
From Sesame Street, we learn that the Count is a union buster against his bats.
Finally, while not an actual Muppets project, the Jim Henson Company produces PBS's Sid the Science Kid, featuring CGI preschoolers learning various science lessons. Here, they sing a song about the decay of various organic items, including autumn leaves and a jack o' lantern.
There are only two weeks left of the Countdown to Halloween. Time to get serious and go on full alert!
Today I offer a cute animated short called "A Ghost for Halloween." A lonely ghost wishes he could join trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. When a real witch grants his wish, he dons a costume and joins in on the fun. This cartoon was created by RPR Studios, and you can learn more about them here.
This is a fun cartoon for all ages, so feel free to show the kids if you have them. Enjoy!
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!
