The Halloween That Almost Wasn't (1979) The Night Dear John Saved the World

After learning that Halloween is in jeopardy, Count Dracula (Judd Hirsch) calls upon his fellow monsters to step up their game and make Halloween what it once was: scary. Not all of the monsters are interested in cooperating, however, putting Dracula in a position where he must do whatever he can to change their mind and, in turn, save Halloween for all of mankind.

Originally premiering on ABC, The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t (AKA The Night Dracula Saved the World) is a 30-minute, Emmy Award-winning made for TV film that regularly aired on Disney Channel through the late 1990s. The film opens with Dracula watching a news report claiming that he, as in Dracula, has invited a number of his monster friends over to his castle for a conference the day before Halloween. According to an unnamed source, the purpose of this conference is the eradication of Halloween as we know it.

As it turns out, this news report is part of a smear campaign meant to make Dracula look like the bad guy in the event that Halloween is indeed cancelled, which greatly angers Dracula. As a result, he calls upon all of the other monsters, which include everything and everyone from a Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster and a werewolf to a zombie and a witch. Eventually, Dracula learns that the person causing all the trouble is actually one of his compatriots, and someone who's very important to Halloween and horror in general: Winnie the Witch.

Winnie the Witch is not only tired of being the ugly duckling and the butt of jokes, she's also jealous of Dracula for being the face of the holiday, while she's relegated to being nothing more than a background character. As a result, Winnie demands some changes, and if these changes aren’t met, there will be no Halloween, as Halloween cannot begin until Winnie flies passed the moon. This leaves Dracula and the rest of the monsters in a position where they must do what they can to get Winnie back on board, or forever lose Halloween.

The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t is notable for a number of reasons, one of the biggest ones being the impressive cast, which includes Judd Hirsch as Dracula, Henry Gibson as Igor, Mariette Hartley as Winnie the Witch, Jack Riley as Warren the Werewolf, and John Schuck as Frankenstein’s Monster. Interestingly, Schuck would later play Herman Munster in a reboot of the beloved TV comedy The Munsters titled The Munsters Today.

Seeing as The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t is a children’s special, the monster featured are on  the fun/safe side, but not in a way that betrays the monsters. In fact, they’re presented in a fashion that makes them accessible, which is great for young budding horror fans, or at least adult horror fans who have children they are looking introduce to horror. Being mainly set in Dracula’s Castle, the special does a nice job of creating atmosphere with the use set design, sound design and fog, all of which make for the perfect gateway to the Universal Films and even some of the Hammer productions..  

Adding to the kid-friendly element, the special also takes some time to explain the history of Halloween. This mostly consists of the typical stuff we, as adults, have all heard before, with a parent telling their child that people would dress up to ward off the demons and spirits as well as explaining the origins of the name Halloween. it's a nice touch, and certainly a good way to introduce younger kids to the history of Halloween.

When it comes to retro Halloween-themed television specials, The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t is right at the top of the heap. It hits all right notes, being fun and kid friendly while also being the perfect gateway for kids to be introduced to horror and Halloween in a fashion that’s more than just costumes and candy. It’s a monster mash-up worthy of being rediscovered.

Dumpster Diving for Gold: Monster Fun Book Art Project Follow-Up!

Following up with my previous DD4G post, I finally finished up my Monster Fun Book art project in which I took a very cool Goodwill find and showed it a little bit of love.

The frame was fairly beat up, so I gave it a nice sand job (how naughty!) and went about staining it with my homemade tobacco wood stain. Now, while my wood stain concoction gave the frame a nice color and made it look infinitely better, it was not nearly dark enough for my taste. So after multiple coats I gave in and picked up a small can of ebony wood stain to finish the job to my satisfaction. Now, while my initial stain didn't do exactly what I originally intended, I am pretty thrilled with how it all turned out, as the brown from the tobacco stain seems to have mixed very well with the ebony wood stain.

*Left side is the original frame with the right being the final product*

And here is how the whole thing looks all completely cleaned up and put back together. The glass was a filthy mess, so a little Windex proved to be an easy yet big help in making this awesome little Monster Fun Book look light years better than when I picked it up.

So for now, this nifty relic has found a nice comfortable place right on top of one of my DVD shelves, fittingly right next to a Sideshow Frankenstein's Monster collectable. As I mentioned in my previous post, who knows how long this thing sat in that frame for, and whoever put it there is an utter mystery. However, while that mystery will forever remain unsolved, the truth of the matter is this thing has found a home and is now amongst friends. How sweet.   

Dumpster Diving for Gold: Lady Dragon's Big Box Monster Art Project

While on a recent excursion to the Appalachian Mountains with the intent of collecting berries and an array of life-giving fruits for the 1st Annual Chuck Norris Ate My Baby Fruit Festival and Farmer's Market in July, I decided to make a quick stop at the local Appalachian Mountain Goodwill to see if I could uncover any gold to go along with my berries and other assorted fruits. As luck would have it, the Appalachian Goodwill willingly gave good to me, and I was lucky enough to come across a few things that I shall now share with you in the next paragraph.

First up is an Imperial Entertainment VHS release of Lady Dragon, starring the one and only Cynthia Rothrock. Outside of the rental stickers, the box is in pretty good condition, and the film is more than enjoyable enough. It's not an upper tier Rothrock flick, but it's certainly WORTHy of the always lovely Mrs. Rothrock. 

The next two tapes I stumbled onto are big box releases of Terror Out of the Sky and I Dismember Mama. Both are a little on the beat up side, especially Terror with that sweet looking "Jeni" graffiti sprawled across the front. Regardless, they're in more than suitable condition (as good if not better than the copies that are being sold for some pretty hefty prices on eBay), and I have to say that I was simply elated to find not one but two big box tapes, which is something of a rarity in these parts, let alone in a Goodwill. On top of it, all three tapes were .99¢, so I spent less than three bucks for this trio or terror.

Next up and rounding out my Good Goodwill finds is this very random framed newspaper that my awesome lady friend found. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but I knew for a fact that I loved it and had to pick it up. The thing ran me $4.49, and I figured I could maybe put it in a new frame and hang it up somewhere just because it's aesthetically pretty neat looking.

When I got the thing home I naturally popped it open to see what else this oddity might have tucked away within its glass confines, only to find an intact, four page Monster Fun Book from a 1974 edition of some newspaper called The National Star.

Here are a few blurry photos of both sides of this monster mash-up of monster themed news articles. 

I mean, I don't know about you, but I think it's about as cool a find as one can have, and while I am certain there is no retail value with this thing, the idea of finding something such as this is simply just cool.  

Anyway, while I would love to frame the entire thing and hang it up, I don't really feel like spending the cash on a new picture frame. In fact, I think it would actually be a lot more fun to take that shitty, beat up looking frame that it came in and try to spruce it up like Martha. This way I can have myself a little fun art project to do while also being able to eventually return this Monster Fun Book back to its original home (and who knows how long it sat in there).  

So my brilliant idea has led me to doing a little DIY project wherein I will sand the bastard down and attempt to re-stain it using a homemade stain fit for a Monster Fun Book. 

My ingredients for such an undertaking are as shown:

Chewing tobacco mixed with equal parts water and ammonia should just about do the trick. And the Milk Duds? Well, those are for me, so get yer filthy hands outta there, bro.

I am hoping this concoction will present me with a nice dark doo doo stain, however, it does take a few days for the tobacco and such to mature. I really have no idea if this will work at all, but if it doesn't - or if I don't like the results - I will simply spray paint the thing and make it look all sick and shit.

Anyway, I've gone on more than long enough, but I will be doing an update in the next few days with what I hope will be the results of this monster sized art project. Well, unless it comes out horribly. In that case, let's just pretend this conversation never happened.

Totally Tubular Trailers

Is there anything better than watching trailers? Well, how about watching great trailers, huh? Yeah, that's right, great trailers, and we (as in me) got a bunch of them here for you today. So grab your popcorn and get ready for another set of fantastically awesome trailers!

First trailer up to bat is for the British science fiction/monster movie, aptly titled, Monsters. This is one that has been bouncing around the internet here and there, but I still don't think it's as well known as it should be. I'm honestly avoiding too much as far as the plot goes, but it is clearly a post-apocalyptic/alien invaded (past tense) film, with what looks to be a very H.P. Lovecraft influenced style of creature. The budget is reportedly only $15 thousand bucks, and I really cannot wrap my head around that figure as Monsters looks like it has way more money behind it than that number suggests. If you haven't yet seen it, check out the trailer below, and the movie will be available on On-Demand, Xbox Live, Playstation Marketplace - and all the usual online suspects - on the 24th of this month.

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Next up comes the trailer for Deserted House, South Korea's first foray into the ever-so-popular - and growing - handheld genre. I'm sure many are already over this style of film, but I personally love it and have hardly been disappointed as of yet. Plus, South Korea does have a decent track record for putting out pretty great films. However, the plot is a little on the been there, done that side with it being about a group that goes missing after exploring a haunted house with a horrible history, and the only evidence of what happened to them is to be found in the frightening footage left behind. Still, familiar or not, this non-English trailer has a few moments that are certainly worth a look.

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Keeping things in the same region, our next trailer is for Bedevilled, a movie that is being described as a Korean Slasher film, though, I would say it looks more like a revenge flick. Bedevilled is helmed by first time director, Jang Cheol-so, who has previously worked as an assistant director on a handful of Kim Ki-Duk films, so he comes from as good a film background as one can. Now, while there is an English subs trailer if you prefer, the no speaka no English trailer I have provided here is the better of the two in my opinion. You'll see what I mean when it hits the 1:20 mark, and when it comes down to it, the language of sickle into human flesh is a universal one.

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The final trailer for the day is for Adam Wingard's A Horrible Way to Die, a film about a woman who is starting over again in a new town and under a new identity, in the hopes of getting away from her incarcerated ex-boyfriend. However, things go awry when her ex escapes from prison, only to come after her, leaving behind a bloody trail along the way. The ex is played by A.J. Bowen, who is really starting to carve out a decent little nitch for himself in the horror genre. He was also quite frightening in his role in 2007's The Signal, so I can imagine he will bring the intensity convincingly enough to make A Horrible Way to Die a possibly great film to watch.

Not a bad batch, and as always, I hope there was something in there somewhere that tickled your pickle. Until next time.