As Halloween (and October) rockets towards its big finish, I thought I'd mention a couple books I'm currently devouring that lend themselves to the season. Both books are about horror films naturally; one is a sedate hardcover and the other is a glossy photo-packed riot of colour. The first book was actually recommended by John Rozum on his blog; actually he recommended a few books and I promptly bought them all! The one I'm currently reading first is Jason Zinoman's SHOCK VALUE and you can read John's recommendations here. SHOCK VALUE is subtitled "How a few eccentric outsiders gave us nightmares, conquered Hollywood, and invented modern horror" and the book concerns the major maverick horror filmmakers of the 70's & 80's such as Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Dan O'Bannon, Brian DePalma, William Friedkin and others who were inspired by three influential 60's horror flicks: Peter Bogdanovich's TARGETS, George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and Roman Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY. This is an area of horror which has been relatively written little about in book form which makes this tome a welcome addition to horror film scholarship. Zinoman puts seemingly unrelated 70's films like TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, ALIEN, HALLOWEEN, DARK STAR, THE EXORCIST and CARRIE in their proper context as a dawning of a "new horror" radically different from the previous generation of Roger Corman and William Castle. The book is also a fluid read and never becomes dry or academic. There are one or two nagging errors which annoyed me; one of which is when Zinoman refers to the character of Norman Bates in Robert Bloch's original novel as "skinny" making Anthony Perkins good casting. In fact, Norman Bates in the novel is overweight; there has been compelling speculation which I believe to be true that Bloch actually based the character of Norman Bates' physical appearance on "CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN" publisher Calvin T. Beck. But one or two factual errors do not spoil what is a fascinating read.
The second book is Gary Gerani's "TOP 100 HORROR MOVIES"; a big colour-splashed book with white printing on black glossy paper which is built more for fun than scholarship. Gerani, of course, is the author of that seminal early reference work "FANTASTIC TELEVISION" which examined in detail (probably for the first time) genre TV from STAR TREK, TWILIGHT ZONE, and THRILLER to KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and SPACE: 1999. Here Gerani indulges in that wonderful list-making we boys find so much fun. Brief film synopses and credit lists accompany entries as to why each film is important and deserves to be on Gerani's "top 100" list. Here too we have one or two nagging errors; paramount of which is Gerani's constant reference to child actor Martin Stephens (of THE INNOCENTS and VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED) as Martin Phillips for some reason. But here too such details don't spoil the fun. While "TOP 100 HORROR MOVIES" doesn't really offer anything new under the sun, it is always enjoyable to see somebody's list of top 100 horror movies and this is no exception. And don't worry, Gerani has also provided a companion volume of "TOP 100 SCI-FI MOVIES" which I'll get to later. So there you have it: a couple really good reads for these dark autumn nights. Light a candle and read 'em aloud to a restless spirit near you!+++
Today's 31st and final Halloween Comic Book Cover of the Day is 
NIGHTMARES #1 from 1985.
NIGHTMARES #1 from 1985.
The new Criterion DVD features a new digital restoration of the uncut original release as well as a nice group of special features: audio commentary by horror film historian Greg Mank, short interviews with John Landis, Rick Baker, Bob Burns, David J. Skal, Richard Stanley (director of the 1996 remake), and Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. There is also a short 1976 film by Devo, the theatrical trailer and a booklet written by Christine Smallwood. As always, the Criterion disc is of the highest quality and horror fans everywhere will be leaping for their whips to corral the DVD into their collection.
BLACK CAT #48.
Hosted by Robert Englund on a succession of UHF (remember that) channels, the "award show" was shown starting in 1990 through 1992. It was an Oscar-type program with presenters and filmed segments which inducted horror stars and films into the Horror Hall of Fame. Inductees would be awarded a statuette of a "Grim Reaper" which Forrest J. Ackerman dubbed a "Grimmy" at his induction the first year. The first and second year shows were quite excellent while the third year featured almost entirely segments rerun from the first two shows. Is it any wonder that the fourth Horror Hall of Fame promised by Robert Englund never aired. Way to take a great concept and sabotage it, guys! Such films as THE EXORCIST, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, PSYCHO, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, ALIEN and THE BIRDS were inducted as well as horror icons like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Roger Corman, Forrest J. Ackerman and others. Fun special effects and makeup segments by Steve Johnson and his wife scream queen Linnea Quigley were a hoot and one of the few bright spots on the third broadcast was a new live performance of MONSTER MASH by Bobby "Boris" Pickett -- and he wasn't lip syncing, folks! THE HORROR HALL OF FAME II probably featured one of the last television appearances by Vincent Price (escorted on stage by Elvira) as he announced the winner of the best horror film of the year 1991. Not surprisingly it was SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. All three shows were co-hosted by The Crypt Keeper from HBO's then smash hit TALES FROM THE CRYPT. It's fun (and more than a little sad) to see so many great stars who have since died; Sam Kinison even appears on the first two shows as do Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Forrest J. Ackerman, William M. Gaines, and many more. It's shocking to re-watch these shows I taped off the television and realize they're 21 years old! Thankfully we zombies don't age.
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UNEXPECTED #144 (1973).
DRACULA LIVES # 2 (1973).
A CORBEN SPECIAL #1 from 1984. And the deep, dank tarn at my feet closes over today's post.
VAULT OF HORROR #13
I kicked things off with the second season STAR TREK episode "WOLF IN THE FOLD" written by Robert Bloch himself. Leave it to the man himself to feature the "psycho-tricorder" prominently in the episode! Kirk, Bones and Scotty are on shore leave on a peaceful planet when suddenly a woman is discovered murdered in the fog -- with Scotty found over her holding a bloody knife! As everybody surely knows, our delightful (faux)Scottish engineer is not responsible, but it's the evil entity we know as Jack the Ripper. It's been a long time since I watched me some STAR TREK and this episode seemed to fit perfectly into the Halloween season AND my topic of the day nicely. This one also features one of my favourite character actors of yesteryear: the diminutive little mouse called John Fiedler.
I next programmed yet another tale by Robert Bloch entitled "YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER" adapted from his classic short story for the THRILLER series hosted by Boris Karloff. One tends to forget how once closely associated with Jack the Ripper was Robert Bloch. Hitchcock favourite John Williams (DIAL M FOR MURDER) and the annoying Donald Woods (13 GHOSTS) star as well as stripper Miss Beverly Hills (of THE COMEDY OF TERRORS and BRIDES OF BLOOD) as it seems that Saucy Jack has survived up until the present day (read: 1961 anyway). It seems the noik we know as Saucy Jack has stayed alive all these years because his murders are actually blood sacrifices to infernal gods which keep him immortal. This episode of the series is directed by Ray Milland in rather a sedate, dignified manner but its still diverting as such.
It's off to the sensational seventies with KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER! Who doesn't love Kolchak and Darren McGavin. If you don't, I break with thee I break with thee I break with thee and then throw dog poopee on your shoe! After the two monumentally successful TV movies (the first NIGHT STALKER film was the highest rated TV movie of all-time), the first episode of the ongoing (at least briefly) weekly series was entitled "THE RIPPER" and features the return of our malicious malcontent this time to early 70s Chicago. This Jack is almost super-powered; leaping off a four storey building, tossing police around like rag dolls, busting down maximum security prison doors with his bare hands and taking bullets to the chest without ill effect. Sadly for those of us who saw the original NIGHT STALKER movie, this episode is rather a note for note "rewrite" of it right down to Kolchak sneaking into the monster's creepy old house and hiding in the closet! Despite this, Darren McGavin's charm and watchability and the interesting cast surrounding him with interesting performances makes this still worth seeing.
Next up is the 1980 trashy-feeling tabloid documentary JACK THE RIPPER: THE FINAL SOLUTION. Host/narrator Ray McGregor (with the sleaziest voice) takes us through author Stephen Knight's book proposing to solve the Ripper case side by side with the author himself on camera. This is the famous "Royal conspiracy" theory involving Prince "Eddy" and Sir William Gull which was the basis not only for the comic book series "BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT" (people seem to forget that one in deference to), the FROM HELL comic book and subsequent Hollywood film. Not wanting to speak ill of the dead but Stephen Knight's theory is almost certainly dead wrong and it has unfortunately now firmly ensconced itself in mainstream thought. I still have rather a soft spot for this documentary though as well as a strong association with Halloween because of the first time I saw it. It was in the mid-1980s on my local PBS station during an evening of Halloween programming on October 31st. Among a great deal of other spooky programmes (culminating in an airing of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and FREAKS), this documentary was sandwiched in. I now can never watch it without thinking of Halloween or NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD! This documentary can actually be found as an Easter egg on the FROM HELL 2-disc DVD. Once you get to the menu which has "MORE" on it, press the right button on your remote, then the down button, then the right button again until a scalpel appears highlighted on the menu; then press OK/Enter to play the entire documentary.
Speaking of which, FROM HELL was my next watch -- my main feature presentation as it were --of my Jack the Ripper Halloween marathon. This Johnny Depp starrer isn't the best of movies and, as mentioned, suffers from the fact that the entire premise of the film based on Stephen Knight's theories, has been pretty much discredited. Be that as it may, the film looks quite nice and is fairly entertaining. One might ask why I chose to watch this one instead of the countless other Ripper movies available; the plain fact is that the others (including MURDER BY DECREE) I had already watched in the last couple years but FROM HELL I hadn't watched in close to a decade. So there you go.
As a sort of palette-cleanser and a winding down of the Jack the Ripper marathon, I next ended with two silly entries. The first being the FUTURAMA episode "KIF GETS KNOCKED UP A NOTCH" from the 4th season. In this one, Jack the Ripper appears rather briefly as a construct of the "holodeck" malfunctioning and creating real rogue versions of Saucy Jack, Attila the Hun and the Evil Lincoln! The rest of the show doesn't really concern Jack so there's not much to say about it other than Kif gets pregnant and gives squishy birth. 
Following this and bringing the marathon to a close is the 1945 THREE STOOGES short "THREE PESTS IN A MESS" which concerns the boys being mistakenly thought to have inherited a vast sum of money. This plotline is quickly dropped by the second half of the film and we then find Moe, Larry & Curly hiding in a spooky pet cemetery trying to bury a mannikin (long story). The proprietor of the cemetery and two of his associates receive a call that somebody's up to something in the cemetery and go there to investigate; naturally, they are coming from a costume party in which they are dressed as the Devil, a skeleton and. . .wait for it . . . Jack the Ripper! The usual Stooges mayhem ensues. This is another of those Three Stooges shorts which have a nice Halloween theme (at least in the second half) and make for great October viewing.
DEAD OF NIGHT #4 from 1974.
Yes, that's right. This is me, yours grue-ly, from the early to mid-70s. . .say, about 1975. As always, my mother made the costume and did the make-up (we couldn't afford to buy actual costumes then, folks). I'm pretty sure that the make-up tips wuz gotten from my treasured book MOVIE MONSTERS by Alan Ormsby. Funnily enough, this is the same Alan Ormsby who did the hippirific zombie film CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS! 
HOUSE OF SECRETS #139 from 1976.
(although he apparently didn't know he was going out at the time). The occasion for my rewatch of TALONS is the brand-new special edition DVD just released by BBC Video; it's a whopping 3 DVD package featuring 2 discs of special features and an updated remastering of the series. This special edition DVD might confuse those unaware that THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG was voted by Doctor Who fans in 2003 as the best story ever. I haven't compared the new DVD with the previous release but the print quality certainly looks the best I can remember seeing it.
THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG finds the Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companion Leela (Louise Jameson) travelling to Victorian London (circa the 1890s) to take in a music hall performance. A series of women have gone missing in the fog-bound streets (shades of Jack the Ripper -- Saucy Jack is actually mentioned on screen). Magician Li H'sen Chang (John Bennett) is performing nightly with his creepy ventriloquist dummy Mr. Sin (Deep Roy) which recalls the Michael Redgrave sequence of the animated doll in DEAD OF NIGHT (1945). 
BUGS BUNNY'S TRICK 'N' TREAT HALLOWEEN FUN #3 from 1955.
DELL GIANT #36 (1960).
The ghosts of all things past parade,
Emerging from the mist and shade
That hid them from our gaze,
And, full of song and ringing mirth,
In one glad moment of rebirth,
And again they walk the ways of earth
As in the ancient days.
The beacon light shines on the hill,
The will-o'-wisps the forests fill
With flashes filched from noon;
And witches on their broomsticks spry
Speed here and yonder in the sky,
And lift their strident voices high
Unto the Hunter's Moon.
The air resounds with tuneful notes
From myriads of straining throats,
All hailing Folly Queen;
So join the swelling choral throng,
Forget your sorrow and your wrong,
In one glad hour of joyous song
To honor Hallowe'en!
-John Kendrick Bangs
THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #38 from 1980.
That character Erlend is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman . . .er, I'm sorry he just reminds me of Hoffman but is actually played by Jeppe Laursen . . . asks, in an early line in the film, "How many movies start with a group of friends on a trip to a cabin..." and starts naming off FRIDAY THE 13TH and EVIL DEAD. But enough of these preliminaries. What's the movie about?
Basically a group of young friends drive up to a remote 
While Vegard is gone, the others find a box containing the looted valuables which reawakens the Nazi zombies. Vegard finds the stranger ripped apart in his tent; he later falls through the snow into an underground cavern filled with Nazi zombies. Meanwhile, the rest are attacked in their cabin by more zombies. While some distract the zombies away from the cabin, another group sneaks away to try to get help. All of our separated cast end up battling Nazi zombies simultaneously. While the film is actually quite good up to this point, things actually get much more interesting as each group separates to battle zombies and the film gets even better.
The action sequences (and, of course, the gore) are impressive and quite entertaining. The blood and gore is done in a light way (if that's possible) if not played for outright comedy; therefore it doesn't make you sick but might elicit an appreciative laugh. While there are a great deal of filmic references (which are also greatly appreciated by yours truly) and no new ground is broken with this film, DEAD SNOW does manage to do it all with style and freshness. The acting is actually very good and the effects are mostly excellent. The directing is crisp and well-paced with the accent on slam-bang Nazi zombie action. All in all, this one's a lot of fun.
NIGHTMARE #11 from 1954.