Thank you so much to @PrincessMa99ie on Twitter for this wonderful drawing of my cosmic-self I used all throughout October. I really love it, especially the goopy slimy smile.
In ways I can't explain, I feel like this Halloween has been less spooky than usual. At least that's how I've felt about it. I don't want to say my Halloween this year was a bad one, it was just a non-eventful one when compared to Halloweens of the past (especially 2019 which was the most triumphant Halloween of my life). It really has been a bit lackluster tho, which is a shame because it was such a strong start.
This month I saw screenings of the original Universal movies "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", which was amazing. Of course, I also went to New York Comic Con. I didn't get to go do any apple picking, or check out the pumpkin patch like I normally do, but I did drink a ton of seasonal drinks like pumpkin spice coffee. But I don't know, I guess the year the spirit really isn't in me.
I rediscovered this old picture of when I was a little boy celebrating my first Halloween with friends. My mom says she wasn't sure how to celebrate since she wasn't born in America and Halloween was never really part of her personal culture, so she took some advice from friends and bought me a simple Mickey Mouse costume by the famed Ben Cooper company. I loved it, honestly. I think all the kids I was hanging out with that day wore their own Ben Cooper costumes but I can't remember what they wore, it's been too long, I must have been in kindergarten or something.
It's a beautiful memory of my youth. This photo comes from my late grandfather's collection and when I found it I was in total shock because I didn't think any evidence of this costume existed. This year I don't have a costume, or anything to do for that matter, which stinks, but it's hardly the end of the world. I might even have to work on Halloween. There's always next year so hopefully I'll be better prepared for it.
Lastly, this is a fun thing. Someone made a pumpkin-themed picrew image maker. Enjoy!
(one of markets I frequent had this amazing display by the entrance)
October sure it flying by. The last few days have brought with it such nice cool Fall weather. Everyone is digging out their winter clothes and I have been wearing a hoodie nonstop. It's great.
This really is my favorite time of year. I love the atmosphere and aesthetics of Fall. It's all so cozy. It's a shame we have to work during this season. I would love to just go out and bask in it and really breathe it all in.
So the quest for more Halloween themed snacks continues. My roommate surprised me with this Krispy Skreme Spellbook filled with Halloween donuts! They're really beautifully made, but they always are. I think the cauldron donut is my favorite this year. It's a cookies n' creme donut, with green creme filling, sprinkles and a pretzel stick for stirring.
I finally managed to find some Mountain Dew Voo Dew this season. It really took me a while but my local 711 never lets me down. The mystery flavor this year is without question "Skittles". In previous years it was a bit more subtle, but this year it is an exact 1-1 flavor. It's really something honestly, just one sip and it triggered something in my brain and I knew what it was.
And Carvel is doing their HOCUS POCUS shakes for a second year in a row, but this time they have three different shakes based on that cult family film! I do wish they'd bring back the marshmallow slime shake from 2019, but these are pretty delicious too. Anyway, last year's shake was a cookies n' creme flavored one, so I got Mary's Divine Cookies n Creme shake this year to start it off. Like last year these shakes come in collectors cups, but also spoons! This collab between Carvel and HOCUS POCUS is of course a promotion for Freeforms's 31 Nights of Halloween where they show the film HOCUS POCUS a bunch of times.
So far there's been some fun stuff this year. I hope to find some more goodies before the season is over.
I have been stuffing my face with candy since late September and I couldn't be happier. Every day the leafs get a bit darker, the air a bit colder, and you can feel the remnants of Summer dying with every moment. It makes me feel alive.
There's all sorts of stuff to talk about; new Halloween candy, the new Carvel/Hocus Pocus promotion going on, the fact that I am going to NYCC this weekend, but that's all for another day I think.
Recently I took a trip to Lot-Less, where all toy lines go to die, and I picked up some Flush Force and Ready2Robot toys. Loads of fun.
I've gotten Flush Force before. I feel like they're inspired by the Ghoulies poster where the little fish Ghoulie is sticking out of the toilet. These are brightly colored little mutants who live in a toilet and exist to gross out humans and I love them. Funny enough, my favorite one from this pack was the angry little pink bar of soap; truly the outsider among his Flush Force brethren.
The Flush Force cartoon has a Robot Chicken feel to it.
These Ready2Robot guys are pretty interesting too. Smaller than the Flush Force mutants, they come in these slime capsules and are meant to be pilots for robots toys that I have never seen. Very anime inspired. Reminds me of the pilots in Evangelion or Outlaw Star. Each figure is wholly unique, and is normally some sort of monster or robot or robot, but my favorite is of course the weird little nerd apparantly named "Homework".
The slime in the capsules is super watery and oozy. I can't imagine there's too much play value to it, but it was definitely fun for a bit. I don't really get what the slime has to do with the toys tho. It looks like the capsules don't get loaded into the robots, and the toys don't shoot or ooze slime. I mean it's great they have it, and I'm sure kids can find something useful for the slime but I'm personally at a loss. Guess I'm not that creative.
The robots looks rad as hell though, and have that slight anime aesthetic I mentioned. And like Flush Force, there is a Ready2Robot cartoon on YouTube. It's done a cel-shaded, CGI animation style. Humorous enough. Definitely would have kept my attention if I were a kid.
In other news, in my attempt to watch messed up and spooky movies this season I've been watching old Full Moon/Charles Band films.
I hadn't seen From Beyond in decades. It's still great though and I loved every moment of it. Real fucked up shit in this movie that I just could not recall watching when I was a kid. I must have seen an edited version or something. There's something totally unnerving going on the entire time and the effects are just terrific and absolutely hold up. It was probably cutting edge at the time.
And I do know there's supposed to be a spiritual sequel to From Beyond with the movie The Resonator: Miskatonic U, and it looks pretty good.
This was my first time seeing Shadowzone though, and it was totally by accident. I watched it on autoplay right after I was done with Creepozoids. Shadowzone was shockingly compelling. Everyone involved was such a distinct character it was easy to keep up with all of their stories. It has the same sort of feel as From Beyond as well, like they were cut from the same cloth. That whole Lovecraft-cosmic horror twinkle to it. James Hong is just wonderful as Dr. Fleet as well, I thought he really brought a tangible realness to his part. The creature, "John Doe", was interesting as well. Definitely reminiscent to The Thing (like the poster implies).
Creepozoids was fun and schlocky but it was also distractingly inspired by Alien. I still loved it of course, and I loved that the backdrop of the story was probably a bigger story but we're just witnessing this one little nugget of the world where these characters exist in. So after a nuclear apocalypse, and a still active world war, a handful of deserters hide from toxic rain in an abandoned laboratory where there's some sort of mutant monster hiding. The intentions of the monster are never really made clear, or what it's purpose is, but it makes for a fun monster movie. But it is without question a microbudget Alien for sure.
Anyway, hope you all are enjoying your October so far. Until next time.
I'm not sure when Halloween became a months spanning event but I am so glad for it. When I was a kid it was just something we looked forward to sometime near the end of October but now the vibe starts in September! Amazing!
And because Halloween snacks have started to arrive in some stores starting in late August around my neighborhood I have been destroying my stomach and teeth with candy for days now and i couldn't be happier for it. There's some really fun stuff coming out too and I can't wait.
So far my favorite are the Warheads Sour Body Parts gummies. And I'm heartbroken Zombie Skittles aren't back again this year but thankfully I still have a bag for emergency purposes. Skittles Shriekers are okay I guess but they don't have the taste of rotting meat like Zombie Skittles do.
Oh and of course there's Halloween cereal out there now. I found some of the Addams Family tie-in Kellog's cereal and picked up the Lurch flavored one. Man, chocolate frosted cereal with a lot of marshmallows; this is the stuff I dreamed of as a kid. All my mom ever got was Farina or Cheerios. I mean that stuff isn't bad but it certainly doesn't get a kid excited for breakfast. And what was I supposed to have on Saturday morning to watch my cartoons with! Honestly! 8-year-old me can't fight the forces of COBRA or whatever with a bowl of Farina!
Matt from Dinosaur Dracula is doing a 4 part video series on old Halloween junk food from the early days of his blog so that's fun. That green applesauce is the stuff of nightmares and I love it. It's crazy how much of this stuff I missed though, I was definitely alive and conscious during this time but I have a lot of like lost memories of the early 2000's. Must have been because of all the drinking I did.
TROMA NOW is uploading some fabulous stuff just in time for the Halloween season too. They just uploaded BASKET CASE 2 today, but there's also MANIAC COP, FRANKENHOOKER, and a bunch of new stuff to check out as well.
I've never associated Troma with Halloween, but if you squint hard enough you can fit a lot of what's in their library into that category. I can't think of anything Halloween themed made by Troma, but a monster movie is a monster movie. Oh, and the app is great by the way. I have it on my phone and I genuinely surprised with how smooth it is. I'd say it's even better than the website itself.
Meanwhile over on SHUDDER, Joe Bob is back yet again with another Halloween special; JOE BOB's HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN. I'm looking forward to this one. I believe in the past he's hosted some of the HALLOWEEN movies and gave some wonderful insight into them. I really enjoy Joe Bob's rants and harangues about movies and peoples perceptions of movies, his passion for this stuff really does shine through when he speaks deeply about how he really feels about a movie.
And while we're talking about SHUDDER, they just posted what's coming up this month on their amazing service. Already there are a bunch of classics. I think I've watched THE STUFF a million times and I'll happily watch it again.
And hey! CREEPSHOW season three has a trailer and a poster now. I nabbed both from BLOODY DISGUSTING so go check them out and and see their write up.
I'm not going to lie though I am absolutely ecstatic over this. The first two seasons are both total smashers so I can't wait to see more.
Look at this amazing poster. Simply beautiful.
And is it just me, or is the budget higher than it was previously? All the effects look so polished. Micheal Rooker for me is the big stand out of course. People often forget his role in HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER because of his MARVEL and now DC film roles.
And I guess this has become a tradition now for those of you who keep up with the network Freeform, so here's the 31 Nights of Halloween schedule for the month of October. Last year they had their HOCUS POCUS milkshake promotion with Carvel and made a specific HOCUS POCUS schedule graphic.
I think HOCUS POCUS played nearly every single day, multiple times a day last year. It does appear to be playing on rotation this year as well, but so does everything else on the list so I guess it's not the main even like it was previously. And BEETLEJUICE is shockingly nowhere to be seen on it.
I wonder if I should try and make my own list of Halloween films to watch this year. I've tried in the past but I found it tough to keep up with. I'll consider it I guess.
Man I am totally looking forward to Halloween this year.
