Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 31

Happy Halloween!

Let's have a gif party!

I'll be stuck at the office all day, but I do plan on keeping TCM streaming in the background for the majority of it. Here's their full lineup (all times PST, but I think some of the ones that aired earlier may be available to stream on their app sometime today):

3:00 AM - Hands of a Stranger (1962)
4:30 AM - Dementia 13 (1963)
6:00 AM - Cat People (1942)
7:15 AM - Carnival of Souls (1962)
8:45 AM - Spirits of the Dead (1968)
11:00 AM - From Beyond the Grave (1973)
1:00 PM - Black Sabbath (1963)
3:00 PM - Dead of Night (1945)
5:00 PM - House of Wax (1953)
6:45 PM - Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
8:15 PM - The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
10:00 PM - House on Haunted Hill (1958)
11:30 PM - Theatre of Blood (1973)
1:30 AM - The Last Man on Earth (1964)

As you can see, at five, they're starting their final Horror Stars night, featuring Vincent Price, who I paid plenty of tribute to last week. I promised a rant about their Horror Stars programming, but let's keep it light, it's Halloween after all! So I'll just say: four weeks, and not one night devoted to a scream queen?  No Barbara Steele? No Jamie Lee Curtis? No Fay Wray? Do better TCM!

With that out of the way, I want to wish you a very happy and spooky Halloween. Thanks to all of you who stopped by, especially those who left comments. (I read them all! Even if I didn't have time to respond to any of them, do know I appreciated it!)

And a hearty shout out to the creators of the Countdown, and all its other participants. (Have some fun today by doing a little virtual trick or treating and visit some on the other blogs on the list.) Every year I tell myself I'm crazy for participating (no time!) but every year, I'm glad I did. I deeply appreciate the continued existence of the Countdown.

Until next year, keep on screaming!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 30

No, it's not "Alien Vs Predator," I promise

Here's a movie I've never heard of, despite it starring Dennis Christopher from Breaking Away and Fade to Black, Martin Hewitt from the original Endless Love (what ever happened to him? Aside from this?), and Lynn-Holly Johnson of Ice Castles fame.

The plot involves Skylab crashing and the resulting alien invasion of a Spanish town, and...that's probably all that needs to be said about that.

It's being aired as The Falling on Comet at 10PM, but it was also released as Alien Predators. I'm not sure the movie itself is worth watching, but this trailer definitely is!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 29

Pictured: Baby, and NOT a baby mama

Today is/was Scary Kids Day on TCM. (It started really, really early in the morning.)

Here is/was the line-up:

3:30AM - The Curse of the Cat People
4:45AM - The Bad Seed
7:00AM -  Children of the Damned
10:15AM - Village of the Damned

Of course all of the above films are worth watching, though The Curse of the Cat People is definitely my favorite of the bunch. Because of that, I couldn't help but notice a whopping error in the essay about the film on TCM's site. To wit:

Picking up where Cat People left off, we now find that Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) has remarried and has a six-year-old daughter, Amy (Ann Carter), by his late wife, Irena (Simone Simon).

Amy isn't Oliver's child with his first wife, Irena! His first wife (spoiler alert!) dies before they ever sleep together. And that whole not-being-able-to-sleep-together thing? Is kind of the movie's KEY plot point!

So, no, Amy is NOT Irena's daughter in the movie, and I think Alice would (and does!) take offense at even the implication. See below.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 28

If you've been watching Fox, you may have seen some commercials disguised as short films this Halloween. They've been dubbed "Bite Size Horror," and they're....OK I guess. By the nature of their medium I supposed they can't be truly scary. You can watch all of them here.

To me, none of them are as creepy and disorienting as this Snickers commercial from a few years back that is supposed to be funny, but is actually the stuff of nightmares.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 27

It's the third season premiere of the latest incarnation of Creature Features (did you see the recent article about the show in SF Weekly? Interesting stuff!), and they'll be showing 1933's The Vampire Bat, starring Fay Wray and Melvyn Douglas.

As the movie is barely an hour long, you can expect a lot of between-movie shenanigans will be filling out the two-hour time-slot, especially as they are promising a slight revamp of the series with this season. 10PM on TV20!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 26

Let's continue the Vincent Price appreciation with two Price pics, both airing on thisTV, starting at 12PM PST.

The first is War-Gods of the Deep, another AIP Edgar Allen Poe adaptation (the poem City in the Sea was the inspiration). Its biggest claim to fame is that it was the last film directed to Jacques Tourneur.

Costarring Tab Hunter and some gill men!

It's followed by a much better Poe adaptation, The Masque of the Red Death.

I can't guarantee the above trailer will run an ad for the new Suspiria movie before it like it did for me, but I will say, that's pretty appropriate, as Masque is almost as garishly colorful as the original Suspiria was.

And since we're on the subject of the Suspiria remake, here's a question: Why? If ever a movie was inexorably tied to a director and his aesthetic, it's the original Suspiria and Dario Argento. It's not the story that made it memorable.

Also, the remake is TWO AND A HALF HOURS LONG!!!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 25

I  ❤️ Vincent Price

Spoiler alert: Vincent Price will be TCM's Horror Star on Halloween night, but I have a bit of a rant planned surrounding that, (not about Price, but about the whole "Horror Star" thing). So I'll use today's post to praise Vincent Price. Or more accurately, Vincent Price impersonations, which are definitely in my top five fave celebrity impersonations

Here's a classic from comedian Dana Gould.

Gould's is pretty great, but I'm not sure anyone can top Bill Hader's. His Vincent Price holiday specials were always an SNL highlight.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 24

Goth goalz

 It's Horror Stars night on TCM, and tonight's star is Bela Lugosi.

I guess you can celebrate the career of Bela Lugosi by NOT airing Dracula or The Black Cat, but really TCM, what kind of celebration is that?

For what it's worth, here's what they are airing (all times PST):

5:00PM - White Zombie
6:15PM - Mark of the Vampire
7:30PM - Night Monster
9:00PM - The Human Monster
10:30PM - The Devil Bat
11:45PM - The Corpse Vanishes
1:00AM - Spooks Run Wild
2:15AM - Bowery at Midnight

And here's YouTube's rentable version of The Black Cat, just because.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 23

Time for some relaxing radioAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!

Let's move away from spooky things to watch, and over to spooky things to listen to. Specifically, spooky podcasts!

Here's two I enjoy and listen to regularly.

First, is Twelve Chimes It's Midnight, which, full disclosure, is produced by a friend of mine. The third season premieres tonight, which means you have two full seasons to catch up on in the meantime. It hearkens back to the glory days of radio dramas, with a voice cast, and original stories that are often humorous and always spooky.

You can subscribe via iTunes here.

And here's a live episode from earlier this month.

My other fave is The Truth, which, full disclosure (again), is produced, this time, by a friend of friend. It's been running for a number of years now, and their stories vary. Some are scary. Some delve more into the realm of science fiction. But they are always unusual and frequently unpredictable.

You can subscribe via iTune here.

And here's one of my favorite episodes, which I won't tell you anything about, lest I spoil its surprises. (Slightly NSFW for language.)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 22

It's the 200th anniversary of the writing of Frankenstein, and TCM is celebrating by....not showing the 1931 Frankenstein or its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Here's what they are showing (all times PST):

6:00 PM Son of Frankenstein (1939)
8:00 PM Strange Life of Dr. Frankenstein (a new documentary about the book)
9:00 PM The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
10:30 PM Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
12:15 AM Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed! (1970)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 21

And also might freeze your face.

Mummy Sundays continue tonight on TCM. Here's the line-up. All times are PST.

5:00PM The Mummy (1959)

6:45 PM The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

8:15 PM Pharaoh's Curse (1957)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 20

"A Netflix remake that's being called 'This Is Us' with ghosts? NO!!!!!! HOLD ME!"

1963's The Haunting is one of those rare movies that is as good as, and maybe even in some ways better, than its source material, in this case, Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House. I basically recommend a viewing every Halloween. Consider this entry that.

Netflix recently launched a TV series based on the book (loosely based, I should add). It's also called The Haunting of Hill House, and all episodes are available to stream now.

I've only watched one episode, and I'm intrigued enough to continue. But I will say I didn't find anything in the first episode as scary as anything in the 1963 movie. There's an annoying tendency to loudly ANNOUNCE scares with loud music or sounds. Still, it sets up an interesting premise: Every family has ghosts. They just aren't always the kind that walk through walls...

OR ARE THEY?

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 19

It's Friday, and as I said last Friday, that means it's Perennial Favorites Day. So let's talk Halloween.

I definitely watch the original Halloween every year, even if it's more of a "playing in the background while I do other things" kind of watching. But this year there's an added bonus: a direct sequel starring Jamie Lee Curtis was released today, and I have a review of it you can read over on my sister site, MullingMovies.com!

This sequel is set in a world where none of the other sequels (including Halloween II, and Halloween H20) exist, basically picking up 40 years after the events of the first film. Being that I never bothered to watch the majority of the sequels, or any of the reboots, I didn't have a problem with that.

I think it's a film most die-hard fans of the original are going to enjoy....

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 18

Halloween is just not Halloween without at least one viewing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown which you can watch at 8PM tonight on ABC. Since I do include this every year, I'm going to to crib from myself and quote last year's entry:

Watching Peanuts specials as an adult makes you realize how inherently odd it is that there are no adults around. What kind of parent lets a kid spend the night in a freezing pumpkin patch? In the Thanksgiving special, all the kids end up at Charlie Brown's house for an early dinner, and then his grandmother's house, which when you think about it is pretty sad, right? Either they have no parents, or no parents that care enough to actually spend Thanksgiving with them.

So no wonder Linus has created an imaginary deity that will appear to him on Halloween and show him the kindness missing from his home life. And sure, Lucy does eventually rescue him from a death by hypothermia, but before that she stabs a pumpkin to death in front of him. The horror!

In what has become a tradition, it is followed at 8:30PM by the Pixar special Toy Story of TERROR! which is one of the better modern holiday specials to make it into yearly rotation. It deserves accolades for this moment alone.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 17

It's Wednesday, so it's Horror Stars Day on TCM. Today's star is Boris Karloff, though the line-up is, sadly,  Frankenstein-free. So to make up for that, here's a picture of Karloff in his makeup, enjoying a nice cuppa.

As for the actual line-up, if you can only watch one, make it The Old Dark House. All times PST.

5:00 PM - The Old Dark House (1932)
6:30 PM -  The Walking Dead
7:45 PM -  Isle of the Dead  
9:15 PM - Bedlam
10:45 PM -  Die, Monster, Die!
12:15 AM -  The Sorcerers
2:00 AM -  The Terror

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 16

There was a time in my life when I watched a lot of Adult Swim, but that almost feels like a life lived by someone else; like some kind of dream. Who was I?!

Since I haven't watched anything on it in a number of years, I've only stumbled across their weird horror shorts by accident. The one I distinctly remember watching right after it aired was Unedited Footage of a Bear, which is not that, and is also not the infomercial it eventually turns into.

I think that one was actually preceded by Too Many Cooks, which begins like a sitcom title sequence and ends like your worst nightmare.

And there's This House Has People In It, which I hadn't heard of until this week. It's kind of like Paranormal Activity, in that its comprised of footage from house and security cameras and...

Well, that's actually where the similarity ends because Paranormal Activity was terrible, and this is much, much weirder.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 15

The 1974 AIP film Madhouse stars Vincent Price and Peter Cushing, with the "participation" of Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone, even though by 1974 both of them had been dead for years. That "participation" is just clips from some of their films, as Price's character is a horror movie actor famous for playing a madman, who goes....MAD! You can watch it on the thisTV channel (!?) at 5pm.

In the meantime, can you take the trailer? CAN YOU?

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 14

Mummy may I?

Today's mummy movie line-up on TCM goes the comedic route, with Abbott and Costello, Wheeler and Woolsey, and robot and mummy. All times PST.

5:00 PM - Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
6:30 PM - Mummy's Boys (1936)
7:45 PM - The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy (1958)

The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy was also an early Joel episode of MST3K, which you can watch here.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 13

This is for the ten people who will recognize it.

Saturday night is horror movie host night in the Bay Area, with Svengoolie at 8PM on MeTV, and Creature Features (or "Creature Feature" as my TiVo seems to think it's called sometimes) at 10PM on KOFY.

Of the two hosts, Svengoolie is probably the less annoying, as he at least knows a lot about the movies he's hosting. Meanwhile, Creature Features host Vincent Van Dahl's gimmick is a bad British accent and awkward interviewing skills.

But I'll take what I can get. May the horror movie hosts never die off completely!

Not sure what's on Creature Features, but Svengoolie will be airing 1944's Cry of the Werewolf.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 12

When you're turned down for that loan you were hoping for.

I'm declaring Fridays "Perennial Favorites Day," and today's yearly Halloween re-watch belongs to Carnival of Souls, the only feature film by writer, director, and co-star Herk Harvey. (He plays the leader of the spooky souls haunting the heroine.)

Part of the movie, including it's finale, was filmed in Salt Lake City, at the Saltair Pavilion. I got to check out a later version of that Pavilion during a cross country trip in 2002, and while it had been rebuilt since the film was made in 1962, I'm pretty sure it was still haunted...

You can actually watch Carnival of Souls on the Retro channel tomorrow night, but it's also available via YouTube, so why not perk up your Friday and treat yourself to a viewing?

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 11

The Virgin Mary. Don't leave home without it!

The creepy little horror movie Don't Leave Home opened in limited release last month, and is now available to stream via on Amazon. If you like miniatures, sketchy Catholic priests, and Ireland, this might just be the movie for you!

You can read my full review on my other site, MullingMovies.com.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 10

Say cheese!

I just got back from New Orleans and boy is my liver tired! Hence, this brief reminder that today is Horror Stars day on TCM, and today's star is Christopher Lee. Here's the line-up:

The Devil's Bride
Horror of Dracula
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
Horror Hotel
The Face of Fu Manchu
Rasputin: The Mad Monk

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 9

One word: Mothra.

Two girls: tiny.

What more needs to be said?

Watch it at 8AM PST on Movies!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 8

Today's offering is J.D.'s Revenge, airing late tonight at 12:30AM on Comet. It's a blaxploitation/horror movie about a college student who is possessed by the spirit of a 1930s gangster.  Glynn Turman and Louis Gossett star.

Interestingly, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film (my bible) claims Prince sings a song in it, but that's a mistake. Someone named Robert Prince does the soundtrack, and he sure as hell ain't Prince Rogers Nelson.

That said, trailer makes it look like a hoot and a holler.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 7

Keep walking backwards slowly and you'll outpace him soon enough.

Sundays in October on TCM are devoted to the mummy, perhaps the most boring of all the classic monsters.

OK, that's not entirely fare. Mummy movies have their archeological charms. I just tend to find slow-moving, silent, bandage-covered monsters a tad on the tame side.

Here's today's line-up. All times PST

5:00 PM - The Mummy's Hand (1940)
6:30 PM - The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
7:45 PM - The Mummy's Curse (1944)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 6

There aren't a lot of remakes that are better, or at least just as good as the originals, but I think John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing and the 1951 Howard Hawks produced The Thing From Another World are the rare exception to this rule. They're both terrific. (I'm going to pretend the dumb 2011 remake, that was also somehow a prequel, doesn't exist.)

You can watch the 1951 version at 1:15PM, PST on TCM.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 5

Yesterday I brought up the topic of movies we return to every Halloween or so, and Night of the Living Dead is definitely one of them. I've called it the It's a Wonderful Life of horror movies before, and I stand by that assessment! It's also a movie that, because of its casting, and its resolution, has a lot of metaphoric power these days.

It's on Movies! tonight at 5PM, PST. Or you can just watch a nice HD version of it right here, right now!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 4

NEXT!

What are the horror movies you turn to every Halloween?

I've got a pretty solid list, and while I don't watch all of them every single year, I definitely enjoy revisiting them every couple of Halloweens.

This week I've got a hankering for a You're Next re-watch, mainly because I love how insanely kick-ass its heroine is. It's been a tough week for women, so watching one who is more than capable of defending herself--like, overly capable--gives me all the needed feels right now. I want a sequel!

It's available to stream via most services, including YouTube, for a fee.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 3

Wednesdays this month on Turner Classic Movies are Horror Stars night, and tonight's featured star is the king of silent horror, Lon Chaney.

The marathon will include the following films:

The Unknown
The Phantom of the Opera
The Monster
The Penalty
The Unholy Three
He Who Gets Slapped

All of the above feature amazing performances from Chaney, but I'm going to single out The Unknown as the one to watch just because its bizarro plot about a circus performer (Joan Crawford) who hates to be touched by men falling in love with an armless knife thrower (Lon Chaney) is ripe for a remake just about now...

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 2

When you pick up the phone to call someone and they're sitting right next you.

I saw a lot of horror movies in the 1980s, especially during the year 1982, which brought us Poltergeist, Cat People, The Thing, Halloween III, and Creepshow, to name a few faves.

But one I didn't see, and hadn't heard of until now, is The House Where Evil Dwells, which is airing very late tonight on Comet at 2AM PST.

Granted, from the trailer it looks kind of terrible, but the premise, about an American family who moves to Japan and are haunted by the ghosts of a samurai murder, almost sounds ahead of its time.

And you tell me, but maybe it's a...comedy?

Now go EAT YOUR SOUP!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 1

Let's start out this countdown with some grand dames, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in the original "psycho biddy" horror movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? which is airing on the Movies! channel at 5PM, PST.

If you can, be sure to pair a viewing of Baby Jane with a marathon of last year's F/X miniseries Feud, a somewhat fictionalized account of the making of the movie, and the life of its feuding stars. If the show did nothing else, it at least introduced me to the film's theme song, as "sung" by star Bette Davis, and a television performance that's recreated in the series itself. (For the record, the real Bette's dress is much nicer.)

It Has Risen...

In what is probably a foolish decision, I have decided to resurrect this, my first ever blog (I love that blogs are now retro), to once again participate in the blog-based Countdown to Halloween for the eleventh year in a row.

It's foolish because I have a full time job with a three hour commute, travel coming up, and can barely make the time for my other writing endeavors. But I love October, and the Halloween season, and the Countdown all so much that I am going to give it a shot.

When I started participating, way back when, there was no streaming service to speak of, so the countdown consisted of daily highlights of cable and broadcast offerings. Now, I have no cable TV, and almost everything I watch at home is either streaming or on disc.

So, as was the case last year, some of these entries may still feature something upcoming on TV. But sometimes it may be a theatrical release, or something streaming, or something else entirely. It may be a trick! Or it may be a treat! Anything can happen!

You can find a list of all the blogs participating here, starting October 1st.

Happy virtual trick or treating, happy Halloween, and thanks for stopping by!