October Earworms

 

October 2nd - (DON'T YOU) FORGET ABOUT ME by Simple Minds

October 3rd - PSYCHO by Jack Kittel

October 4th - I WANT YOU (SHE'S SO HEAVY) by The Beatles

October 5th - JESSE by Carly Simon

October 6th - TELEPHONE LINE by Electric Light Orchestra

October 7th - FEET UP (PAT HIM ON THE PO PO) by The Peter Pan Singers

October 8th - SUNNY by Bobby Hebb

October 9th - ARTHUR'S THEME by Christopher Cross

October 10th - HEY NINETEEN by Steely Dan

October 11th - DON'T SPEAK by No Doubt

October 13th - CRAZY TRAIN by Ozzy Osbourne

October 14th - LIKE A PRAYER by Madonna

October 16th - I FEEL GOOD ALL OVER by Stephanie Mills

October 17th - GIMME GIMME GIMME (A MAN AFTER MIDNIGHT) by ABBA

October 23rd - I LOVE L.A. by Randy Newman

October 24th - ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES by Lewis Lee

October 25th - WINDY by The Association

October 29th - LOSING MY MIND by Liza Minnelli

October 31st - (TAKING A RIDE ON) HEAVY METAL by Don Felder

October Top 10 List

  HERE ARE MY 10 FAVOURITE FIRST TIME WATCHES IN THE MONTH OF OCTOBER 2025:  

1. SHINE 2  (2024)
2. SKELETON KEY  (2006)
3. THE RESURRECTION OF MICHAEL MYERS PART 2  (1989)
4. TRICK OR TREAT WITH REED RICHMOND  (2025)
5. PHANTASMATAPES  (2025)
6. R.L. STINE'S PUMPKINHEAD  (2025)
7. LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL  (2023)
8. SHOCKTAIL HOUR:  WEREWOLVES! ZOMBIES! . . . AND BLOBS!  (2022)
9. TOY STORY OF TERROR!  (2013)
10. THE COLLECTOR  (2009)

And here is everything else I watched during the month: 

And here is everything I read this month: 

THE RESURRECTION OF MICHAEL MYERS PART 2 (1989)

 THANKS TO CHRIS WINGER (HIS VIDEO IS BELOW) FOR BRINGING THIS MOVIE TO MY ATTENTION!

A shot-on-video gem from 1989 that is WAY better than it has any right to be.  It's also genuinely hilarious; and I could only watch it without subtitles in it's original Swedish.  THE RESURRECTION OF MICHAEL MYERS PART 2 (yes, there is a part 1) was apparently only ever released in a super-rare videotape in the 80's and never had a DVD release. . . which is a real shame because it's incredibly fun.  At 25 minutes, it's also quite digestible (especially for the zombie that's in the movie but we'll get to that a little later).  A guy is in a movie theater watching John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN when he starts foaming at the mouth.  The ambulance comes and takes him to the hospital where the staff is having a wild Halloween party.  One partygoers throws his Michael Myers mask on the floor and it spontaneously skitters across the floor and morphs into the real Michael Myers. 

The Shatner-masked maniac ends up in the hospital room of the "foaming at the mouth"guy and sticks some gardening shears into the doctor's head. The dead doctor is found lying on the floor by some other staff members and his skin has turned blue.  "I wonder if he's blue down there too" asks the nurse as she unzips the dead doc's fly and roots around in his crotchal area.  The dead doc comes back to life as a zombie and offs the pair.  Meanwhile, in another hospital room, a doctor and nurse are getting frisky.  They accidentally knock a beaker of green goop onto a Fangoria magazine on the floor and this causes Leatherface and Jason to appear.  More killings ensue . . most of them hilarious.  There are 2 security guards who are silly as hell.  They separate and one goes into the men's room and has an argument with a condom machine when he hears explosive diarrhea coming from a stall.  It's Michael Myers, who stuffs the guard down the toilet and flushes.  A nurse encounters Michael Myers in the hallway and gives him a swig from her champagne bottle.  After taking a swig, Michael bashes her over the head with the bottle and shoves the broken bottle into her mouth.  In another hallway, Leatherface and Jason have a super-violent slow-motion kung fu fight with the Zombie Doc.  A guy selling bootleg videotapes of THE RESURRECTION OF MICHAEL MYERS PART 1 encounters Michael Myers in the hall and gets a videotape shoved into his mouth! 

 

The blood & gore effects here are actually top notch for a small SOV movie and I was quite impresseed by the work done by Goran Lundstrom, Kaj Steveman and Jocke Lindman.  There's a super duper synthesizer score by Christer "Simply Blue" Planborg & Mats "Max Rodes" Nilsson which I'd actually love to have on a soundtrack album.  This includes a theme song called "The Resurrection of Michael Myers" which rocks.  And yes, the Superviolent Slowmotion Kung Fu looks really well done too; it's credited to Mikael Beckman and is called exactly that:  Superviolent Slowmotion Kung Fu Choreographer.  Nicely done!  This is quite probably the new 'best movie ever made', gang.  It's such a shame it's not on a really nice release by STS or Vinegar Syndrome or somebody like that who appreciate and celebrate low-budget horror that's such a lot of fun.  Ah well, maybe someday.

 

When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall

CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960)

 LOOK FOR A STAR!

It was many a-many a-years ago that I first saw Anglo Amalgamated's stab at a Hammer Horror CIRCUS OF HORRORS.  I think it was probably at least 25 years ago.  I liked it but didn't love it.  I haven't seen it since then but I thought I'd revisit it (mainly because Terry Frost mentioned it in a recent video).  A wacky plastic surgeon named Rossiter gets himself in trouble with some unsanctioned operatin', crashes through a police road block and tumbles off a cliff in a burning car.  With the help of his two sidekicks Angela (who is sweet on him) and her brother Martin, they fix up Rossiter's scarred face and he assumes the new identity of Dr. Schuler:  a plastic surgeon. 

Local circus owner Vanet has a young daughter Nicole whose face is scarred from World War 2.  Schuler fixes her face and Vanet gratefully signs his failing circus over to Schuler; with the proviso that Vanet will still actually run it.  In a drunken, celebratory stupor Vanet dancing with a dancing bear, drops a bottle of booze which smashes and the bear steps on the broken glass.  Not happy with that, the bear mauls Vanet to death and Schuler takes possession of the circus.  Ten years later, the circus is thriving.  Unfortunately, beautiful women working in the circus have a tendency to die under bizarre and mysterious circumstances. Nicole, now grown up, is training to take the place of the circus' star bareback horse rider who is adamant about leaving the circus to marry a rich guy.  Schuler isn't happy with losing his star performer and, with the help of Martin, 'arranges' for her to meet a gruesome death while strapped to a spinning wheel as a knife thrower hurls blades at her.  Schuler is a dog and beds most of the pretty women in the circus and then, when he tires of them or they threaten to leave, he 'arranges' for the ladies to end up dead as well.   Meanwhile, all through the film we get . . . . that song.  THAT song!  The most persistant earworm in the history of horror movies:  "Look For A Star" by Garry Mills.  Holy crow, it will NEVER leave your brain.

This little Anglo Amalgamated film is doing it's level best to duplicate Hammer Horror; down to the casting of Hammer actors Anton Diffring (THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH), Yvonne Monlaur (BRIDES OF DRACULA) and Yvonne Romain (CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF).  As it goes, the film as directed by Sidney Hayers is rather a slow burn but never drags; it's much more entertaining than my first viewing years ago.  The gorgeous colour cnematography by maestro Douglas Slocombe is really show off in the new blu ray I got of the film.  And, as also mentioned,

there are so many beautiful women in the film as to please anyone interested in that, too.  Donald Pleasence is marvelous in this early, brief role as the failed circus owner.  The appearance of oddball actor Kenneth Griffith is always welcome too!  Yvonne Monlaur is adequate as the grown up Nicole; I don't think she was ever a magnificent actress, though her role here isn't very excitingly written.  I had the pleasure to meet her, however, at the first Monster Mania convention back in 2002.  The 'other' Yvonne -- Romain -- is better in her role as Melina later in the film; it's a much meatier, flinty role as compared to Monlaur's rather bland, goody-two-shoes role. I put this movie on and my father came into the living room and said "I SAW THAT MOVIE!".  Back in 1960 when he was 10 years old, he caught this movie at the Arlo, he said, and it 'bothered' him.  Probably all the nice, pretty women getting gruesomely offed was what he didn't like.  So, while CIRCUS OF HORRORS is fully entertaining with several gruesome murders, it isn't a thrill a minute.  Those of you with no attention spans (I'm lookin' at YOU, Cheeks) might find it rather a hard slog.  But all in all, a pretty good cod-Hammer horror film.  

SHOCKTAIL HOUR: WEREWOLVES! ZOMBIES! . . . AND BLOBS! (2022)

 A COMPANION PIECE TO YESTERDAY'S MOVIE.  

Directed by and starring Melissa LaMartina as horror host Aurora Gorealis, SHOCKTAIL HOUR is a movie consisting of three "episodes" of a horror TV show which doesn't show horror movies.  Instead, it's something like a horror-hosted morning show (but, I'm sure, taking place in the dead of night) crossed with THE HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN in

which our Elvira-like host Aurora Gorealis engages with her silly cast of regulars while presenting segments such as "Curse of the Day", a musical performance and horror-themed cocktail making recipes.  Melissa LaMartina as Aurora is surprisingly entertaining and not like the standard Elvira imitator; she has a wide-eyed, goofy presence which makes her an enjoyable companion to spend these three half-hours with. 

Melissa LaMartina is, I'm assuming, probably the wife of Chris LaMartina (who directed yesterday's movie TRICK OR TREAT WITH REED RICHMOND and THE WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL amongst others) and she obviously shares his love for nostalgic horror.  SHOCKTAIL HOUR, however, does not purport to be an old 80's or 90's videotape but is a current-day 'show'.  And I wish it really existed because I'd watch it every week.    Each 'episode' focuses on a particular monster; the three here focus on werewolves, zombies and blobs respectively.  The third Blob 'episode' seems to be filmed around the time of Blobfest in Pennsylvania.  Aurora sports different giant wigs which have various 'things' stuck into them. 

For example, the werewolves 'episode' features Aurora with a giant moon stuck into the side of her wig but there are always various Halloween/horror knick knacks and decorations attached to her wig at all time and I love it. 

Among her supporting cast is a great character called Party Werewolf (played by Chris LaMartina) and he's hilarious.  A kinda himbo version of a werewolf and I love 'im!  Now, I said I wish there was a 'real' SHOCKTAIL HOUR show because I'd watch it; however there is a SHOCKTAIL HOUR channel on youtuberz (although there hasn't been a new post there for a year) and it looks like Aurora Gorealis does host horror movies someplace called the Golden West Cafe.  And it looks like she has a faciabook page too.  I haven't had a chance to research into the whys and whereabouts of Aurora Gorealis and her SHOCKTAIL HOUR but it's definitely worth 'DIGGIN UP'!

 

TRICK OR TREAT WITH REED RICHMOND (2025)

 ANOTHER PERFECT WATCH FOR HALLOWEEN EVERY YEAR .  

Cult icon Reed Richmond hosts this early 90's TV Halloween special which presents the history and lore of Halloween from it's earliest beginnings as Samhain until the present day (90's) trick or treating. 

Cult icon Reed Richmond also provides individual segments on classic Halloween monsters like witches, werewolves, vampires, mummies and Frankensteins!  This is an hour long TV special from October 1995 taped offa the long-gone cable channel "Monster Planet"

and cult icon Reed Richmond is our cuddly host in his Halloween orange sweater shoving and knife into a pumpkin to carve it into a Jack O'Lantern while taking us on a spooky journey through the history of Halloween. 

And this VHS tape also includes the original commercials which aired during the special.  Cult Icon Reed Richmond is the one to shepherd us through the scary folklore since he was the star of such classics as " BEVERLY HILLS GRAVEROBBER" and "HELL NINJA 4".   

Cult icon Reed Richmond dresses up in various costumes to get into the trick-or-treat mood: he wears a witch's costume (complete while riding on a broomstick), a mad doctor or an archeologist to introduce his segments on witches, Frankensteins and mummies respectively.  There are also tons of clips from old horror movies and cartoons.  Cult icon Reed Richmond is just the fella I want to host this Halloween special which I plan on rewatching every Halloween from now on.

So, if you don't already know, cult icon Reed Richmond is played by the lovable George Stover (star of such classics as NIGHT BEAST, CALL GIRL OF CTHULHU, EXTRATERRESTRIAL VISITORS, Susan Svehla's TERROR IN THE TROPICS, THE ALIEN FACTOR, John Waters' POLYESTER and HAIRSPRAY, PRESIDENT'S DAY and, more to the point THE WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL).  That's more to the point because this film is directed by Chris LaMartina -- who brought us THE WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL and the OUT THERE HALLOWEEN MEGA TAPE.  TRICK OR TREAT WITH REED RICHMOND is definitely a semi-sequel to those films and it's such a nostalgic blast from the past.  More so possibly than the two earlier flicks, TRICK OR TREAT WITH REED RICHMOND (cult icon) hit the Halloween nostalgia spot for me like gangbusters.  The made up 90's commercials look SO real and FEEL real as do the fake movies and cartoons that are made up for this special's film clips. 

These fake films are made from clips of real old horror movies and cartoons, of course, but they really work as films that never were.  I just adored this movie and TRICK OR TREAT WITH REED RICHMOND (cult icon, you know) is definitely entering my yearly rotation for a rewatch each Halloween.