I finally picked up an increasingly hard to find copy of My Mom's a Werewolf (1989) on DVD, from Rhino no less (who became Shout Factory!) and a snap case. The movie is actually hard to watch. It's quite boring, and never quite feels like anything's going to happen at all that we the viewer would care about. And the movie really does not know what it wants to be. Satire, dark comedy, funny horror film? It tries to be all things and succeeds at none of them. It could have done for werewolves what Fright Night or My Best Friends a Vampire did for vampires. But no, it was not to be. Now the movie is mostly forgotten, save for fans like me who want to keep its memory alive if only as a time capsule of a perfect time in Hollywood where anything could get made, especially monster movies. John Saxon is one of the standout characters in the movie. I mean, he is in everything he's in, right? From some massive hits (maybe his biggest being A Nightmare on Elm Street...

I found Sleepy Hollow High (1999) one day at some store or other, I dont remember anymore. I picked it up because it had a cool jack-o'-lantern on the cover and I like the town of Sleepy Hollow. This is a different Sleepy Hollow. At least it appears to be. Especially with the cars having MD plates. This is a local film, filmed near Baltimore in Sykesville, Maryland. And while the killer wears a jack-o'-lantern on his head this has nothing to do with the beloved Washington Irving story. No, this is set in Sleepy Hollow, Maryland, in Calvert County I imagined. Though its never said as much, thr plates on the cars are MD, so I'm going with this setting. Thing is, the characters act like they are in Sleepy Hollow, NY, you know -- the one with the headless horseman legend an all... Written by a certain Washington Irving. I could have this all wrong, and they just ignore the part where they're in MD and filmed here instead of traveling to NY. Who knows, who cares?...

T and I waited for autumn to drop before watching this sequel. The first film is a cute, lovable Halloween monster movie with really likable characters. The monster - Crom - looks like a hanging Halloween decoration, and that's a big part of its appeal. So when the Kickstarter for the sequel popped up I wasted no time in securing my part in the film. My copy arrived with a poster, and a small floating skull-spirit from the film in his own little Wings Chinese carton! Rob York, the director and producer, even included a time-stamped card when "your" ghost pops up. Stuff like this could be the future of movies. And being a Kickstarter backer my name is in the credits. Such a small benefit and it makes you feel really good. We ordered sweet and sour chicken w/white rice, watched the film and waited for the credits to roll and for my name to appear. It was a lot of fun, and I am stoked to play some (very) small part in bringing it to life. I don't ...

I found a local creator on Instagram who makes these amazing figures, box an all. He has a host of other figures in his catalog, but the ones I am most excited for are the Trimper's figures, based creatively on the OC dark ride. The first one I've picked up is the Ghoul. He is a gorgeous fella, all 12" inches of him! From what I've learned so far from chatting with the Toy Fiend online is that he makes these figures with pre-existing parts and then customizes them and puts them in their own packaging (which I must say is every bit as gorgeous as the figures themselves). He also has these "Boogie Monsters" versions of the Trimper guys, the Vampire, the Werewolf, and the Ghoul in their garish 1970s style feather boa and Jim Morrison pants. There is also the Dark Ride Skeleton, whom I was most excited for, but was sold before the characters even made it online. So as of now I have a standing order for the rest of t...

My girlfriend just took me for a nice day trip to the ocean. Or oceans, would be more specific. Well beaches, same ocean. Lol anyway... We headed down to Ocean City, Maryland first, to visit Trimper's Haunted House . This dark ride has been here on the boardwalk for a long time, since 1964! I think the first time I rode it was in 1991. Throughout the years I kinda laughed at the Haunted House, thinking it was something strange and old, a relic of the '70s or '80s! But today, that is precisely what makes these two rides so special! They are lovingly maintained for generations and remain a testament to how much fun these family-friendly dark rides are! Inside the House one of the props turned out to be a human who scared the crap out of both of us. After that, T was done, eyes pulled down behind her baseball cap. One thing I loved about this place was that it had it's own gift shop, called Ghoulish Things. This place was crammed with cool stuff.  ...

Jake Kelly is launching what is perhaps the most wonderful Halloween book I have ever seen. This pre-order is called Haunted House: American Haunted House Advertisements of the 1970s and 1980s . I found his book on Instagram and I thank God I did. I would have been heartbroken if I had missed it. This is so right up my alley that it's a wonder I didn't produce it myself. Seriously, this is the stuff that keeps me up on the internet well past the midnight hour, just looking for cool local Halloween stuff from across this great nation... As a kid in the '80s, when we would eat at McDonald's in October they would have these tray sheets, and I would just stare at all of the black and white Halloween ads there. I was captivated. One of my favorites was the Gray Charles Haunted House directly across the street from our McDs. It was such a cool ad with just a skeleton on it. But it kept my attention. Preordered! And it should arrive before Halloween 2026! Get your copy here . ...

Witches. They are one of my favorite icons of Halloween culture. Jack-o'-lanterns, vampires, ghosts, they are all a part of this wonderful holiday filled with myth and legend that's been around for hundreds of years. Witches are old! Their lore goes back to around the time Rome ruled the world. As for the broomstick-riding witch, well that's still quite old, but not that old. Le Bafana, also Italian, is not a witch, though you'd be forgiven for thinking her one. I think she's even dubbed the Christmas witch, but she is more of a folklore legend. Bafana is not evil; in fact, she was invited by the Magi, who were lost, to walk with them to see the baby Jesus. She is an old crone with a broom, and she sweeps the house as an allegory for sweeping away the old problems and troubles of the past year. Italy has no Santa Clause for Christmas, and so Bafana is there Christmas herald. And while she looks like a textbook witch, she is far from the evil witch we know in America...