Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 31

It's midnight, which makes it officially Halloween, so why not get this movie party started early?

First, I want to thank everyone for stopping by on the daily, and to John at the Halloween Countdown for keeping it going year after year. Every October I tell myself I'm crazy for participating, and every year I'm happy I did. I hope to see you all the same time in 2020!

As for today, it will come as no surprise when I say TCM is the place to be, all day and all night. But for those who can't "be there," I'll try to offer some viewing options below. So, here's the lineup, and where available, some full movies to watch!

Happy Halloween!

3:45 AM - Freaks (1932) (full movie below)

5:00 AM - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

6:45 AM - The Bat (1959) (full movie below)

8:15 AM - House on Haunted Hill (1958) (full movie below)

10:00 AM - From Beyond the Grave (1973)

11:45 AM - Black Sabbath (1963) (full movie below, Italian with English subtitles)

1:30 PM - Chamber of Horrors (1966)

3:15 PM - House of Wax (1953)

5:00 PM - Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

6:30 PM - The Devil-Doll (1936)

8:00 PM - House of Usher (1960)

9:30 PM - Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

11:00 PM - The Haunted Palace (1963)

12:45 AM - Die, Monster, Die! (1965)

2:15 AM - The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 30

Holy friggin moly, it's only one more day till Halloween! I wish I could just hunker down for the next two days watching scary movies, but stupid things like life and work are getting in the way.

For those who DO have time, TCM has you covered. Tonight they're offering Val Lewton and Jacques Tourner classics, as well as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and two of Roger Corman's best.

Here's the lineup, some trailers, and one full movie!

7:30 PM - Cat People (1942)

8:45 PM - I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

10:00 PM - The Walking Dead (1936)

11:15 PM - Mark of the Vampire (1935)

12:30 AM - Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

1:45 AM - A Bucket of Blood (1959)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 29

As we near the end of the countdown, I think it's proper to pay ode to a work of non-fiction that has had, perhaps, the biggest influence on my life.

I am speaking, of course, about The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film by Michael Weldon.

Above is my copy, which is pretty beat up, but in a lot better condition than the first copy I ever read, which my family got the year it was released, in 1983. I believe that copy is held together with tape and kept in a ziplock bag. Since 1983 The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film has been my go to whenever I want to learn about some obscure "psychotronic" movie. (Welden released a sequel in 1996 called The Psychotronic Video Guide, which is usually my go to for reading about relevant movies released after 1982.)

I've often wondered where Weldon ended up, and turns out he owns a store in Augusta, Georgia called Psychotronic Records, and now I have a reason to go to Augusta, Georgia. (He also has a website, though it hasn't been updated in several years, and seems to post frequently on Facebook.)

Here's a video from back in the 1980's featuring Weldon bemoaning the gentrification of 42nd street.

There's also some kind of documentary in the works, though I don't see many updates about it on their Indiegogo page. The creators have offered up some video clips about Psychotronic's history, though. Enjoy.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 28

Rory Calhoun, doing what he does best

Motel Hell is a horror comedy about a farmer who uses his motel guests as livestock, and the way he preps them for the slaughter is truly the stuff of nightmares. You can watch it all at 10PM on the thisTV channel, or free on Vudu.

The farmer is played by Rory Calhoun, a name I can't hear without immediately thinking of Mr. Burns and The Simpsons.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 27

"Nobody believes me."

It's Sunday, so time for the final of the three movies I just have to watch every October, and it will probably come as no surprise to learn it's...Halloween.

Of course I mean the 1978 Halloween, and not last year's reboot/sequel, which is also called Halloween, and don't get me started on how that can just lead to Abbott and Costello levels of confusion when discussing the original and its sequels....

Costello: What's your favorite Halloween sequel?
Abbott: Halloween.
Costello: Right, what's your favorite sequel?
Abbott: HALLOWEEN.
Costello: Yes, which one??? Halloween 2? Three? FOUR?
Abbott: HALLOWEEN IS THE BEST SEQUEL.
Costello: HALLOWEEN IS NOT A SEQUEL.
Abbott: YES IT IS!
Costello: NO IT ISN'T! *takes out knife, starts stabbing.*

And for the record, Halloween is the best Halloween sequel.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 26

Watching some Godzilla last night has me hankering for some MST3K versions, particularly Godzilla vs Megalon, because that crazy tail maneuver was featured in the opening credits for years. That episode is actually kind of hard to find, but DailyMotion does have it available in four parts. Enoy.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 25

It's the last Godzilla Friday of the year, which also means it's the last Godzilla Gif Party of the Countdown! Let's go go Godzilla!

Godzilla, I'm going to miss you most of all!

Here's tonight's lineup on TCM:

5:00 PM - Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
6:30 PM - Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
8:00 PM - Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
9:30 PM - The War of the Gargantuas (1966)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 24

If only David...if only

It's Thursday, which means it's another night of "Horror Classics" on TCM! Tonight's theme is the Undead. Here's the line-up:

5:00 PM - Horror of Dracula (1958)
6:30 PM - The Gorgon (1964)
8:15 PM - Plague of the Zombies (1966)
10:00 PM - The Night of the Living Dead (1968)
12:00 AM - The Hunger (1983)
4:45 AM - Nosferatu (1922)

Aside from the mythical Gorgon, the line-up is strictly zombies and vampires, and you can't go wrong with most of them, though I am of the opinion you could go wrong with the The Hunger, because it's a terrible movie that also has some very memorable scenes and effects. But the movie as a whole is pretty silly, and if you think I'm wrong I just need direct you to that ending, which doesn't make a lick of sense.

But as an example of the film's pros, I direct you to its opening credits, which features Bauhaus and the immortal song Bela Lugosi's Dead. Enjoy.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 23

Season two of Castle Rock premieres on Hulu today, and as was the case last season, we've got some familiar characters from the Stephen King universe making an appearance. This time it's Annie "Misery" Wilkes, played by Lizzy Caplan, and members of the evil Merrill family.

You'll also notice another familiar town, known more for its bloodsuckers than its blood transfusions in stories past....

And what of those season one Castle Rock characters? Your guess is as good as mine!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 22

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. Another tradition? Reposting....

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 not before 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 21

Zoinks!

This summer marked the 20th anniversary of the release of The Blair Witch Project, a movie I freely admit scared the hell out of me, though I totally understand those who found it just a shaky cam, nausea-inducing exercise in annoyance. It's that too, but one that made me sleep with the lights on the night I saw it.

This parody aired on the Cartoon Network back in 1999 and I had totally forgotten about it until today....

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 20

As promised, here's the second of three movies I just have to watch every October before Halloween.

It's...Night of the Living Dead!

I've called Night of the Living Dead the It's a Wonderful Life of horror movies in the past, and I stand by that comparison. I mean, come on! It's in black and white, is in the public domain, is a total downer, and is aired repeatedly throughout the month, just like It's a Wonderful Life!

OK, It's a Wonderful Life isn't in the public domain anymore, so isn't played repeatedly in December, but it used to be, so yes. Totally the same movie.

Enjoy!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 19

I can't believe I forgot to pack my Claritin

Last Saturday I watched Midsommar and....I'm still trying to figure out my feelings about it.

I should say, I watched it twice. Kind of. I put the movie on after a party, while I was still kind of drunk, and pretty tired, and ended up sleeping through most of it, waking up maybe every 20 minutes, not knowing what the hell was happening. The next morning I watched it in full, but with a weird sense of deja vu, like my mind had absorbed some of it in my sleep. And I'd say that added sense of eerie isn't something the movie actually needs. It's pretty fucked up the way it is.

I wasn't the biggest fan of director Ari Aster's first film Hereditary (you can read my review here), and in many ways Midsommar is the same movie. It also deals with grief, family, mental illness, and the occult. But Aster commits to that final bit harder and better than he did in Hereditary, though to say much more would lead into spoilerville, and not knowing where Midsommar ends up it is the only way you should enter into it.

(Though if anyone would like to have a spoiler-filled discussion in the comments, I'd gladly accept because I have so many questions about the whole set up. Like...if they only do it every 90 years, what are they doing in between?  Do they actually live there all the time? Not all of them do, obviously, because those Swedish college students don't. So, what's the benefit of it all??? What are they getting in return? SO MANY QUESTIONS.)

I will also say (warn?) that it has some truly, truly, shocking death scenes, and the camera lingers on some really gross gore with a little too much glee, and its almost two-and-a-half hour running time is a tad on the indulgent side.

But I also can't stop thinking about it, and I haven't seen a horror movie this year that left me so conflicted. Did I love it? Did I hate it? Maybe both? So I think I'll have to watch it again, NOT in my sleep, perhaps when the even more indulgent three hour director's cut makes it to Apple TV in November.  For now, the theatrical version is currently streaming on most services.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 18

It's Friday, which means Godzilla, which also means....GIF PARTY!

Here's tonight's lineup on TCM:

8:00 PM - All Monsters Attack (1969)
9:30 PM - Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
11:15 PM - Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
1:00 AM - Rodan (1958)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 17

Can't beat the details you find in old houses...carved wood. Breathing doors.

It's another Horror Classics Thursday on TCM, and tonight's theme is ghost stories.

I'm digging the line-up!

8:00 PM - The Uninvited (1944)
10:00 PM - The Haunting (1963)
12:00 AM - The Fog (1980)
1:45 AM - Poltergeist (1982)

The Uninvited is kind of boring, and only of real interest to me because parts were filmed in San Francisco (even though the setting is England.) The Fog is kind of silly, but you sure can't beat John Carpenter's score and widescreen cinematography throughout, that's for sure.

Then we have The Haunting  which is perhaps my favorite haunted house movie ever, and it's followed very closely on my list by Poltergeist, a movie I saw a total of six times the summer it came out (and you can read all about THAT over on my other blog, Mulling Movies).

Here's the opening of Poltergeist, which brilliantly establishes the suburban home setting while also introducing all the members of the family via a snack-sniffing dog.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 16

Oh! You pretty thing.

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is not a horror movie for everyone, and unless you have an irrational fear of mold, you probably won't be very scared. But I really enjoyed its moody, haunting (in all senses of the word) story within a story, and (primarily) female cast.

Ruth Wilson stars as a live-in hospice nurse caring for an aging author of horror novels (Paula Prentiss!), who may be mixing up her real world with her fictional ones. Almost all of it takes place inside a pretty but creepy old house, in what may be the early 1980's, with things that go bump in the night, rotting walls, and occasional visits from Bob Balaban (😱).

It was written and directed by Osgood Perkins, who is the son of Anthony Perkins, and he gave his father a bit of a cameo in the film. If you've got Netflix, I'd say it's worth a watch (and at under 90 minutes long, what have you got to lose?)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 15

Those Korean beauty masks sure are creepy

Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs are all loosely based on Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, as was a 1974 slasher flick starring Roberts Blosson as a deranged farmer who lives with his religious fanatic mother.

Deranged came out in 1974, seven months before the very similar Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and when I say similar, I mean if you look at some stills from Deranged, you'd swear they were actually from Texas Chainsaw. But I guess when you're basing your movie on a killer who kept the mummified corpse of his mother as a companion, wore "skin suits," and used skulls as bowls, there's going to be similarities.

The movie is airing at noon on Comet, and it's also available to rent on Amazon, and viewable with foreign subtitles on YouTube.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 14

Christopher Lee made his Count Dracula debut in 1958's Dracula, or, as it was known in the States, Horror of Dracula, lest Americans get it confused with the 1931 Bela Lugosi flick.

Not that anyone would actually make that mistake. For one, this Dracula is in color, and isn't a complete snooze. And for another, Christopher Lee's Dracula is actually scary.

Not that I hate the 1931 Dracula! It's a beautiful bit of classic Hollywood filmmaking, and I appreciate it. It's just not as thrilling as the many, many Dracula movies that followed in the decades to come....

You can watch Horror of Dracula on Movies! at 8:30AM, or rent it via Amazon Prime for a scant $.99...

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 13

When hitchhikers won't take no for an answer.

The next three Sundays will be devoted to three movies I just have to watch every October. The first is Carnival of Souls.

Carnival of Souls hits so many of my sweet spots. One is its early 1960's time period, which includes the best clothes, cars, and hair. Another is the whole haunted carnival thing, because aren't carnivals in and of themselves always a bit creepy? (I've been to the Saltair Pavilion in Salt Lake City, where the carnival scenes were shot, though by the time I was there the structure seen in the film had already burnt down and been rebuilt.)

I also love that much of it is practically silent, and in fact one key scene is even centered on the world going silent around the heroine. Sometimes I just have it playing in the background during Halloween, just for the mood. And that's easy to do since it's available to view via YouTube....

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 12

Mondays, amiright?

This year mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Vampire's Kiss starring Nicolas Cage in what may be the most batshit crazy performance in a career full of batshit crazy performances.

I saw it in 1989 the weekend it was released, and I think my two friends and I may have been the only people in the theater. I didn't know what to make of it. I laughed a lot, but I didn't really know if I was supposed to be laughing. Not that it really mattered; I knew I'd never forget it, and I never have.

This anniversary piece at The Ringer takes a deep look into the film's creation (I didn't even realize the screenwriter had also written Martin Scorsese's After Hours, which makes so much sense), and it'll have you wanting to watch or re-watch it right away.

Which you can do at 6:00pm tonight on the Comet channel, or via rental on Vudu!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 11

It's Friday, so that means....GODZILLA! So let's have a Godzilla Gif Party!

For more Godzilla, just tune into TCM tonight. Here's their lineup (all times PST):

5:00 PM - Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
6:45 PM - Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
10:00 PM - Son of Godzilla (1967)
11:45 PM - Destroy All Monsters (1969)

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 10

Have you been watching Evil on CBS? I watched the pilot two weeks ago, purely out of curiosity--I don't have much faith in CBS shows--and I'm kind of hooked.

Now, it's not, like, great. It's basically a criminal procedural with the possibility of demons and possessions tossed in, and the set-up, with a male "true believer" and a female skeptic, is pure X-Files. But the cast, with Mike Colter (Luke Cage) as a former journalist studying to be a priest, and Katja Herbers (Westworld) as a forensic psychiatrist who team up to debunk, or prove, the existence of miracles, possessions, and other spooky stuff, helps it rise above the cliche.

Oh, and there's also an incubus named George.

Looks like the first two episode might be available to watch on CBS.com, and probably On Demand, and episode three airs tonight at 10:00PM.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 9

Do my hands give my age away?

Patton Oswalt gets the title wrong in his stand-up rant about Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (listen to it below) but you have to admit, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People, as a title, is funnier than just Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. And frankly, it's more descriptive; it could have just been a bed that eats pets! Which would likely be less scary, and possibly just sad.

Not that Death Bed: The Bed That Eats is scary. It most certainly isn't! And it's never quite as hilariously bad as Patton Oswalt makes it sound, mainly because it's also terribly boring. But it exists, and that in itself is amazing. And you can watch the whole thing via YouTube below (with foreign subtitles), or free on Tubi.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 8

You can't go too wrong when you've got both Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead in a movie. Toss in a murderer known as "the Bat," the arrival of an actual bat, and the actress who played Darla from Our Gang as a murder victim, and you've got 1950's The Bat.

It's on Movies! at 1:00PM PST, and also available to view via YouTube right here.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 7

In the Tall Grass, based on a novella written by Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill, premiered on Netflix on Friday, and it's...well, it's not as bad as some of the other crap available on Netflix.

It starts off immediately, with no real build up, finding a pregnant woman and her brother venturing into a huge field of tall grass to rescue a child who is calling for help. At a little over 90 minutes, it also doesn't waste a lot of time getting to the horror. There are some scares to be had, for sure, and as tends to be the case with any good Stephen King story, you want to keep reading/watching because you really want to see what happens next, even if the story itself is...kind of dumb. Alas, as also tends to be the case with many Stephen King stories, the ending is not as strong as the buildup. But at least the ride there has its memorable moments.

It's not the best Stephen King adaptation, but it's definitely not the worst, and Halloween wouldn't be Halloween without at least SOME Stephen King in your October repertoire.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 6

This poster should have posted a spoiler alert

The Last Man on Earth (not to be confused with the Fox comedy of the same name, which was sadly cancelled on a cliffhanger, although I kind of totally forgot about that until writing this sentence), stars Vincent Price as, possibly, the last living person on an earth that has become overrun with vampires. It was the first of three adaptations of Richard Matheson's book I Am Legend, and remains the best (mainly because The Omega Man is pretty laughable at times and the Will Smith version is plagued by terrible CGI monsters).

It's playing on the Retro Channel at 10:00PM PST, or you can watch a beautiful widescreen print of it right here via YouTube!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 5

Uh, yeah. He's lying on the table...Definitely...

Creature Features may be a local production, but it's moved up in the world since last year, and now you can watch full episodes on Roku and Fire TV channels, as well as on YouTube. But if you want to watch it the old fashioned way, it airs locally on TV-20 at 10:00 PM Saturday nights.

Tonight's feature is The Amazing Transparent Man from director Edgar G. Ulmer, which you can also watch right here this evening!

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 4

Fridays are Godzilla night on TCM, and they'll be airing 17 classic Godzilla movies from the Showa Era (1954-1975) throughout the month. Here's tonight's line-up (all times PST):

5:00 PM - Godzilla (1954)
6:45 PM - Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
8:15 PM - Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
9:45 PM - Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
11:30 PM - Mothra (1962)

Not sure why they're airing the Mothra movies out of order. It's confusing the fairies!

Please! Keep us in order!

 

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 3

I have a muff just like that! (It's the red fur thing in her hand, you perv.)

Turner Classic Movies continues to be one of the best sources of spooky movies come October. This year, Thursday nights have been deemed "Horror Classics" night, each with a different theme.

Tonight's theme is "Bewitched!," hence half a dozen movies featuring witches and witchcraft. Here's the lineup (times PST):

5:00 PM - Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
6:45 PM - Horror Hotel (1960)
8:15 PM - The Devil's Own (1966)
10:00 PM - Suspiria (1977)
11:45 PM - Night Of Dark Shadows (1971)
1:30 AM - Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)

If I could only watch two, I would go for Bell, Book and Candle purely for the costumes and the kitty (if I looked as good as Kim Novak does in black, I'd never wear a pastel again), and Suspiria purely for the sets and soundtrack (both things last year's remake couldn't live up to).

You probably shouldn't watch this video if you haven't seen Suspiria, as it's chock full of spoilers, but for those who have seen the movie, it's a good reminder of the film's audacity.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 2

NO, I'm not a werewolf. Why do people keep asking me that?

I love it when old horror movies I've never hear of pop up on TV in October. Today we have Monster Dog, a 1984 Spanish/Italian-produced horror movie starring Alice Cooper in a story that's either about a werewolf or a pack of wild dogs. Or maybe both?

It looks peak '80s. And also terrible.

It's airing today at 2pm PST on the Comet channel, but you can also watch it free on Tubi.

Musty TV's Maniacal Halloween Countdown - Day 1

No, your eyes are not deceiving you! Musty TV has, once again, risen from the grave to partake in the yearly blogger Countdown to Halloween.

This is my 12th year participating in the Countdown, which is wild to think about. Can you even remember what the internet was like way back then? Social media was barely a thing, and streaming video definitely wasn't the go to choice for entertainment viewing. Back then, my countdown picks were based on what was showing up on cable TV, but like many people, I cut that cord several years ago.

That doesn't actually mean my version of the countdown has changed that much. I'll still provide daily viewing picks based on what's showing up on TV, though the channel choices may be limited. And I'll probably be throwing in some theatrical releases, streaming choices, and even some odds and ends you can view right here. Most days will be a treat. But I can promise a few tricks here and there.

As always, I am joining a long list of blogs that are also participating in the Countdown, each in their own unique ways. You can find a list of all the blogs participating here. Be sure to go knock on their virtual doors.

So, to start things off, how about the movie that has inspired what will (hopefully) be my Halloween costume this year. Jordan Peele's Us. Now, I didn't like it nearly as much as I did Get Out, but you have to admit, he definitely gave us a movie that just screams it be emulated with large group costumes, right?

It's rentable on Amazon, YouTube, and Google Play.