31 Days of Horror Halloween Day extra 01 Halloween Cartoons and TV specials

As a kid I looked forward to Halloween each year. Not just for the dressing up and trick or treating. And not just because it meant the 5 channels we got would start showing lots of horror movies. And not because it being October my uncle would be taking me to a horror film every week. What I looked forward to the most was all the animated Halloween cartoons the big 3 networks would show.

I have noticed over the past decade that fewer and fewer of these specials get aired each year. And we aren't getting many new ones. So I thought it would be fun to talk about a few of my favorites.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure AKA Garfield in Disguise

This classic special from my childhood first aired in 1985 on CBS. And I watched it every year until sometime in the mid 90s. I even had it recorded on a Betamax tape for awhile.Garfield and Odie go out trick or treating dressed up as pirates. They end up in a boat going down and a river and thanks to a mis-communication end up beached on an island with a creepy mansion. Where they get attacked by pirate ghosts.

Sure currently Garfield has been stuck in a rut for 20 years. But back in the mid 80s he was at his peak. I am pretty sure this special was the first of many Garfield specials. And it became one I had to see each year.

In the mid 2000s I realized I had not seen it air in years. Did some research and while it has gotten a DVD release, This release is edited. So I searched for years for an unedited copy. And just a few weeks back I found a rip of someone's recording from the mid 80s.

My friends asked me to gather together some movies,holiday specials and cartoons for us to watch today. So this one was quickly added to the viewing list. Garfield's Halloween Adventure gets a B.

Beavis and Butthead Halloween special

This special first aired in October 1995 on MTV. By this time my cable company had dropped MTV and replaced it with VH1.Thankfully one of my best friends lived in another part of Moss Point and still got MTV. So the night this aired we all gathered together,drank way too much beer and laughed so damn hard.

It is Halloween and Beavis and Butthead want to go trick or treating. Beavis puts a pair of briefs on his head. And says he is dressed up as a nad. Butthead dumps liquid cheese all over himself and says he is nachos. We get your typical Beavis and Butthead hyjinx. And lots of the videos played during the episode have a horror or Halloween theme. The Beavis and Butthead Halloween Special gets a A-.

Claymation Comedy of Horrors

First airing on CBS,I think it was CBS,in 1991 this special is from Will Vinton studios. Who are best known for their California Raisins specials. And the classic Will Vinton Studios X-mas Special. Honestly I do not think I saw this special until about a week ago. While watching it I remembered nothing about it. And by 91  I was more worried about what parties I was going to at Halloween than watching holiday specials.

The animation is the excellent stuff we saw in the Raisin commercials and their classic X-mas special. And as with everything else from Will Vinton the humor is really good. With stuff that works for the kids that are watching. And other jokes that will fly over the kids heads but get the adults to laugh.Claymation Comedy of Horrors gets a B.

Roseanne

I love the Roseanne sitcom. And almost every year the best episode was the Halloween one. The Connors reminded me of a family that lived near me when I was younger. They were working class and didn't have much extra cash. But they saved up year round so they would have extra money to spend on costumes and for decorations for their home for Halloween. I looked forward each year to seeing what the Connors dressed up as.And how they decorated their home.

Two of the Halloween episodes stand out in my memory. The first one has Roseanne just not feeling Halloween that year. So instead of going to the lodge Halloween party she stays at home. Falls asleep on the couch and gets visited by the Ghosts of Halloween Past,Present and Future. And like in the previous and future Halloween Roseanne episodes she has a great prank planned. My favorite part of the episode is when we got the past. And get to see Roseanne in High school at a Halloween dance. She dresses up as Ginger from Gilligan's Island,"You know if they had never made it to the island."It wasn't until re-watching it last year that I realized teenage Roseanne is played by a young Sara Rue.

The other episode I really love is a much later one. Jackie is married to Fred now. And Jackie and Dan are  trying to pull a great prank on Roseanne. My memory might be bad but I seem to remember they have placed a bet. And if they can prank Roseanne they win something. After many attempts,it looks like Dan and Jackie have given up. Then Roseanne walks into her bedroom and catches Dan in bed with Fred.

I know Anchor Bay and now Mill Creek have put out dvds that have all the Roseanne Halloween episodes. Usually in October I see this DVD selling for $5.Which it is totally worth. The Roseanne Halloween episodes get a B- overall. With the two I mentioned above getting A's.

It's the Great Pumpkin,Charlie Brown

First airing October 27th 1966 on CBS,this is the first Halloween special I remember seeing. And besides for 1 year in the mid 90s,I have watched it each October.

I got a good feeling that everyone reading this has seen it. So instead of explaining the plot in my trademarked halfass way, I will just focus on the things and moments in the special that stand out for me.

The picture above shows the main Peanuts gang in their Halloween costumes. I love how each costume is a white sheet with either holes cut out to see through or a mask. The one kid with the Davy Crockett hat on top of the sheet is my favorite. Now I have seen plenty of Halloween costumes. But never seen in person someone use an old sheet to be a ghost. Another standout moment is when Snoopy is day dreaming. And he is engaged in some dogfights ,while using his doghouse as a plane. Plus as is normal with the early Charlie Brown Holiday specials the music in this one is a great jazzy sounding mixture.It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown gets a perfect A+.

It was last year in October when I was lamenting how there hadn't been a new Halloween cartoon special on any of the broadcast networks in years.Then I was reading a blog and saw that ABC had aired a new one. "Toy Story of Terror" is the next entry in Pixar's Toy Story franchise. I quickly found a copy and reviewed it last year. Toy Story of Terror review . The toys are with their new owner,this is set after Toy Story 3,and are on a vacation. They are all in the trunk of the car watching some old horror film on a portable dvd player. The car blows a tire and the family quickly pulls over at a roadside motel.Where creepy things start happening. I love how a Pez is included in this special.

Toy Story of Terror gets a A.

So I got a favor to ask anyone reading this. In the comments below tell me what your favorite Halloween special is.

31 Days of Horror 2014 Halloween TV show Extra 01

Tales from the Darkside Season 1 DVD Set
Source-Paramount DVD

Right before X-mas in 1984 I saw my first episode of Tales from the Darkside. Airing Saturday nights at 11pm on ABC,this 30 minute syndicated horror anthology show was pretty much Creepshow the tv series.

The first episode I saw was "A Bad Case of the Stubborns". Starring a teenage looking Christian Slater and a pre Star Trek Next Gen and Night Court Brent Spiner,this is a well done dark humor tale. Christian plays a teen who lives in a small rural town with his mother and his grandfather. One day the grandfather dies. But before the local mortician can come get the body,Grandpa sits up and goes down stairs. He doesn't believe he is dead. Even after confronted what lots of proof. So after a few weeks,in which Grandpa has started to rot and smell,the mother sends Christian to see the town witch. The witch gives the young man a powder. Tells him to put in in Grandpa's napkin and it will solve their issues. Like most episodes of Darkside we get a well done humorous ending.

In this first season there is a few other episodes that stand out for me. Like "Word Processor of the Gods", This episode is based on a Stephen King short story that was first published in Playboy magazine,see people there really is decent stuff to read in Playboy. And then later on published in the King short story collection Skeleton Crew. Our lead is married to a horrible wife. And has a hellion of a son. His brother on the other hand is married to a great woman and has a smart and caring son. Sadly the brother and his family all die in a tragic car accident. After their funeral our lead finds out that his now dead nephew was making him a present. This was back in the early 80s. When people used word processors instead of computers. So the nephew has Macguyvered together a word processor for his favorite Uncle. The Uncle doubts it will even work. By looking at it he can tell some of its parts come from a Lionel Train set,btw I never got the train set I asked Santa for when I was 5. He turns it on and is surprised that it does indeed work. After messing around with it for a bit he learns that it quickly overheats. So he turns it off. It isn't until later that he learns it has special powers. When every you use the insert button it causes whatever you inserted to become true. So he types something about their being a bag of gold on the floor near him. He hits insert and the bag appears. Of course he wonders if the opposite will work, Do he deletes his message about the bag of gold. Which causes it to disappear. Once again the machine overheats and he shuts it off. All this time his wife and son are treating him horrible. He wonders if maybe he can use this so called word processor of the Gods to replace his horrible wife and kid with his dead brother's wife and kid. And in one of the rare occasions we get a happy ending to an episode.

The first season has 24 twenty odd minute episodes divided over 3 dvds. I heard reviews when this set came out about how bad the picture is. It might just be my eyes,but watching these episodes they look decent to me. I am pretty sure this series was filmed on video. So there is only so much cleaning up they can do. The only extra on the set is a commentary from the Godfather of the modern Zombie movie George Romero. He talks about the first episode which he directed. It would be nice if there was more extras. And when this came out it was kind of expensive. That and the reviews talking about how bad the picture is are the reasons why I didn't buy it until I found it for $10 back in 2008. Tales from the Darkside Season 1 DVD set gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2014 Halloween Day Extra Movie 01

Svengoolie's airing of Abbot and Costello meet Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde
Source-DVD-r of the original airing with all the original commercials

When I was a kid WPMI Channel 15 outta Mobile Alabama was the best channel around. Saturdays it showed all kinds of great cartoons from the Golden Age of animation. Then around 11am the movies would start.I noticed quickly that they showed movies in blocks. Like for a month or so the movie would be martial art movies or those old b/w movies based on the Blondie comic strip. Well one Saturday I looked in the newspaper and the movie was going to be Abbot and Costello meet Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde. My dad seemed really excited for this. All that morning he kept telling me how funny Abbot and Costello are and explaining who Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde were to me.

Now I have no idea if this was the first episode of the Sgt Graves horror host show or not. But it was the first I saw,and the only time I remember him airing during the day. Normally he started at 10:30pm Saturday night and lasted 4 hours. He would show 2 films. At 11am I hear this weird music coming out of the TV. Then I see a zombie dressed up in a Confederate Army uniform. He said his name was Sgt Graves then spent about 5 minutes explaining a bit of history of the Abbot and Costello meet the Universal monster series of films.

Since I can not find anyone with any Sgt Graves shows,when I found a torrent of Svengoolie's showing of the movie on MEtv I grabbed it. I had seen 2 or 3 episodes of Sven before this. About a week ago my back was hurting me pretty badly. I need to buy a new mattress. When ever my back is hurting real bad I end up sleeping on the spare bed in the spare bedroom. I had brought a table and my laptop back there. So I could fall asleep while watching/listening to something I had on my HD. I saw I had this episode. Turned it on expecting to fall asleep fast. But I got wrapped up in the film and ended up watching all of it.

Abbot and Costello are in the UK. Part of a police exchange program.After some wacky stuff they run into Boris Karloff. Thinking back on it this film was only the second time I had seen Karloff. About 2 years before I saw this movie for the first time I got to see Frankenstein with Karloff. Karloff is of course Dr Jekyl. And through the rest of the film our bumbling duo are trying to capture the evil Mr Hyde.

I know some fans of the classic Universal horrors hate the Abbot and Costello Meets series of films. I can see their point of view,about how the films reduced these once terrifying creatures into jokes,but I don't totally agree with it. I have noticed that with people of my generation lots of the time we first got into the Universal Monsters because of the various Abbot and Costello films.I enjoy most of the A&C meets films,

I guess I should talk a bit about Svengoolie. I mentioned him in passing kind of in my piece on Horror Hosts. And currently he is one of the few that has a nationwide tv show. He has a cheeseball sense of humor that works with these older films. And I love how each show ends with him telling horrible jokes while people off the camera chuck rubber chickens at him. If I got MEtv,and I am working on a way to get it, I would record his show each week. Even if it is a film I don't like or have seen too many times.

Just the film Abbot and Costello Meet Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde gets a B. It isn't the best of the series but is far from the worse. The blend of comedy and horror in this one works most of the time. Svengoolie's airing of the movie gets a A-. The host bits are all well done and make me laugh.

Keep checking back here on the blog all day until midnight central time. I got some surprises coming up today. Have a safe and happy Halloween.

31 days of Horror Day 31 The Willies

The Willies
1990
Echo Bridge 10 movie pack DVD

I never heard of this made for kids horror anthology. Then in the late 90s I was at my local Hastings,looking for something to rent. I saw the cover and took a chance.

Really not much stands out from this film. It is like they wanted to make an all ages version of Creepshow. The FX work is decent. The acting is pretty good. The only people in the film I had heard of were,Sean Astin,James Karin.Doug Bensen and Michael "Donkey Lips" Bower.

We get a bunch of kids in a backyard camping. And telling each other spooky stories trying to scare each other. The one story that sticks in my memory is the one with Donkeylips. He plays a kid that captures and kills flies and we get your typical short horror story/film O.Henry like twist at the end.

The Willies gets a C.

31 Days of Horror Day 30 Curse of Chucky

Curse of Chucky
2013
Universal Blu Ray

A return to the feel of the original Child's Play,part 6 turned out to be way better than I expected. When I heard it was going straight to VOD and disc I was worried.. I got this and sat on it for almost a year.

The film starts with a very pretty young lady,who is in a wheelchair,getting a package in the mail. It is of course Chucky.She lives in this old mansion with her mother. But the Mom dies.

So her sister shows up. Along with her husband,daughter and Nanny.They want to sell the house and have the handicapped sister move into a assisted care home. When asked why they want to sell the house so quick the rich sister answers with "We are almost broke. Our daughter might end up having to goto public school!" Which of course made me laugh and strongly dislike the rich sister.

For the first 30 minutes of the film we keep gettign hints that the father and the attractive nanny have something going on. Then we learn that it is the mother and nanny that got something going on.

Of course Chucky starts killing people. And I keep wondering why Chucky was mailed to this young lady. I see no connection to Andy from the first 3 or really any connection to parts 4 and 5. But before the end all is revealed.

One last thing,like what happens with lots of modern film we get a scene during the credits. And it is totally worth saying around to see.

Curse of Chucky gets a A-.

31 Days of Horror Day 29 A Lure Teen fight club

A Lure Teen Fight Club
2010
Echo Bridge 20 pack DVD

With these Echo Bridge 20 packs most of the time I pick out what film to watch by 2 things. One is the title of the film. The other is who is in the cast. Well this film a interesting title. But there is no one in the cast I had heard of.

A reporter goes undercover at a high school. Where lots of members of the girls lacrosse team keep disappearing.She quickly gets in with the popular crowd. And then learns why the girls are vanishing.

This is barely a horror film. What is happening is the rich people in the town gather at this old barn. Where the kidnapped girls are forced to fight each other. The reporter is put into the ring with what appears to be a 8 foot tall Asian lady. Reporter lady manages to defeat her. But once the Asian woman is laying down on the mat you can tell she is barely over 5 foot.

What surprised me is I went in expecting some cheesy kills and a bunch of nudity. I got neither of them.

A Lure Teen Fight Club gets a F.

31 Days of Horror Day 28 Friday the 13th comic books

Over the years 3 companies have published comics based on the popular Friday the 13th series of slasher films.

This is the first Friday the 13th comic book. Published by Topps comics in July,August and September of 1993, it is based on an early draft of the script. There is a few  scenes that are different from the theatrical and uncut versions. I got these when they first came out. With the glow in the dark cover on issue 1 being one that I hung on my bedroom wall years. The artwork isn't that great. But I have seen much worse.  For years I found this and the next series I will talk about in the cheap bins. Then sometime in the early 2000s the prices started going up. I must assume that this and the other Jason comic Topps put out didn't have huge print runs. Unless you are a Jason completest I would say to skip this series. Jason Goes to Hell mini series gets a C+.

Coming out two years later,Jason Vs Leatherface from what I can remember was a total bomb. My comic shop was ordering 2 copies of each issue. One copy for me,and one to put on the rack. Splatterpunk author Nancy A Collins writes the story and Jeff Butler handles the interior artwork. The covers are by Simon Bisley,I wish he had also did the interiors. Not that Butler's artwork is bad.

The story seems to start sometime after either Friday the 13th part 6 or 7. With Jason stranded in the bottom of Crystal Lake. Some big corp drains the lake and through some fluke accidents Jason ends up on a train bound to Mexico. He gets out in Texas and meets up with the Sawyer family. Where him and Leatherface quickly bond. By the last issue we get what we have been waiting on, a huge fight between Jason and Leatherface.

Out of the two Jason series from Topps this is the hardest to find. Since getting my copies as they were coming out in the fall of 1995 and early 1996,I have only seen  6 copies in person. Both times it was at a con. And both times the dealers were selling them as a set. IIRC the sets were going for $40. Jason VS Leatherface gets a B.

About a decade after  Topps published there two Jason mini series Avatar took over the license. For those that don't know Avatar is a company known for publishing very gory and violent comics.So  a Jason comic from them seems like a natural fit.

Friday the 13th Jason VS Jason X is a direct sequel to the Jason X movie. Written and drawn by Mike Wolfer this 2 issue series has the nanobots rebuilding Jason's body.And he ends up on Earth 2 fighting Jason X. The story is good for what it is. And the art is not bad. The best part about this series is since it is a comic and it is coming from a company that likes to push the boundries,we get a gorefest.

I have no idea how hard it would be to find these 2 issues. But I doubt you would have to pay more than cover price. One thing Avatar does is puts out lots of covers for each comic. I put the wraparound covers above. Friday the 13th Jason VS Jason X gets a B-.

While Avatar published more Jason comics none of them stand out to me. So on to the next company that got the Jason/Friday the 13th license.

In 2007 Wildstorm,which by then was a sub imprint of DC comics,got the Jason license. And they put out a bunch of Jason comics. The first one I want to talk about is also the best from them I have read so far.

This 2 issue series is written by Marc Andreyko with Shawn Moll handling the art chores.Remember the scene in the original Friday the 13th where a hitchhiker is picked up by Ms Voorhies. We find out in this series that while the hitchhiker is in the Jeep,Ms Voorhies is telling her ,her life story. We get to find out lots of Ms Voorhies and Jason's backstory. I am kind of surprised there hasn't been a film in the franchise that filled in all this backstory.

Since this came out from Wildstorm it is really easy to find. I think it and another of the Jason series from Wildstorm have been combined into a trade. But I see back issues of this all the time at cons or in comic shops. And they are always at cover price or under.This is my favorite Jason comic so far. And I really love the cover artwork. Which reminds me of the art on all the issues of Fables. Friday the 13th Pamela's Tale gets an A.

This 2 issue mini is penned by Jason Aaron. With Adam Archer doing the pencils. Once again the summer camp at Crystal Lake is reopened. One the first page we are introduced to a young pre-teen. He suffers from a disfiguring disease,that will cause him to die before he hits 18. Since he doesn't look normal all the other kids,and some of the asshole counselors pick on him and bully him. But then Jason shows up. Kills the bullies and assholes and takes our poor disfigured outcast with him.

I love the idea of Jason,like he did in Jason VS Leatherface,bonding with another outcast. Jason Aaron is a writer that I just started reading his stuff this year, And everything has been great. The art by Archer is serviceable. Friday the 13th How I spent my Summer Vacation gets a B.

Currently no comic company has the rights to make Jason comics. I wish someone had them. There is so much they can do in the comics that are cost prohibitive in films.If any of these series sounded interesting I would suggest checking www.comicbookdb.com for more information. The Wildstorm stuff was put out in trade paperbacks. Which your local library should be able to get in for you using Inter Library Loan. One last thing before I end this. Since these are comics and not under the eye of the MPAA the violence level and gore level are fairly high. With all these series if they had been made into films they would have had to been cut to get an R rating. So if you have kids that are into horror and comics you might want to thumb through these first to see if they are too violent and gory for your children,

31 Days of Horror Day 27 Horror Hosts

Last year for 31 days of Horror I reviewed a documentary about American horror hosts.

American Scary a documentary about Horror Hosts

The first horror host I saw was Sgt Graves.He was a zombie of a Confederate Army soldier. He was on the air for at least 5 years. Airing at 10:30pm Saturday nights. He would show two films. Most of the time I could manage to stay awake for the first film. But would have to record the second one. I can find no info on him on the internet. Even talking to people from the area that are my age,only one of them remembers Sgt Graves. If you are reading this and remember him please leave a comment at the bottom.

The next Horror host I saw,has to be the most famous of the modern era. Elvira,it was Halloween night. I got home around 9pm from trick or treating. While I was sitting on the floor going through all my candy,my father saw that on WPMI Channel 15 Night of the living dead was showing. I had never seen it. So he said I could stay up past my bedtime to watch it. I think I was 7 or maybe 8 at the time. We flipped the channel and I got to see Elvira for the first time. During this time she had her syndicated show Elvira's Movie Macabre. I do not think what I saw that night was part of movie macabre. But she was showing the colorized version of the original NotlD. And I sat on the floor,not moving,not talking,totally engrossed in the film. After the end of the film,Elvira came back on and said she was going to show the Vincent Price classic House on Haunted Hill next. My dad was nice enough to let me stay up to watch it also. So I got to stay up to 1am and watch another great horror film. After this I didn't see Elvira again until the "Elvira Mistress of the dark" movie came out.

Thankfully when she revived Movie Macabre my local CW network picked it up. At first it was airing at 10:30pm Saturday nights. But after a month or so she got moved to midnight. Then to 1am. Using my set top DVD recorder I recorded all but 2 of the episodes. The only thing that sucked about the new Movie Macabre was she only showed Public domain films. Since the original show,the tv rights to lots of the types of films she would show had gone sky high. Sadly after one season Movie Macabre was cancelled. Elvira is back on HULU now. She is showing mostly Full Moon Studio films. But they are free. Plus I hear she is showing NotLD again. I might have to watch that one again.

Right after Thanksgiving 1990 cable tv finally made it's way to the super rural community I lived in. Instead of offering HBO or Cinemax like every other cable company,Rural Cablevision only offered Showtime and TMC. Being the movie nut I am I offered to pay the monthly fee for both. The first weekend we had cable I was flipping channels and saw Job Bob Briggs for the first time. Joe Bob got his start reviewing the films he saw at various Texas drive ins in a newspaper. Then sometime in the 80s TMC offered him a weekly show. Each Saturday he would show a film. I made it a point every weekend to either watch the show or record it. The only of these recordings I still have is when every weeknight at 10pm on Showtime Joe Bob would show a different Emanuelle movie.

I guess not many people saw this show,because when I mention Joe Bob to most people they talk about his TNT show Monstervision. Which I never cared for. Mostly because since it aired on TNT all the films were edited for content. Earlier this year I got a dvd that is a Joe Bob's Drive in theater episode where he shows the Night of the Living Dead remake. And before and after the film he has most of the cast of the original on the show for a Q&A segment.

Once I got online in the mid 90s I started looking up stuff on horror hosts. By the early 2000s I had found a horror host website. But it had no info on Sgt Graves. And no one I talked to remembered there every being a horror host in MS. And until March of 2010 I thought MS had never had a horror host. I went to Coastcon. Saw in the programming guide that Saturday at 3pm they were screening Night of the Living Dead. I figured what the hell I will go watch it before going out to eat with some friends. I get there and find out it is an episode of what I think is the only horror host in MS history.

Margali hosted a show on a station out of Jackosn MS for a good number of years. The episode with NotlD never aired. She was already at Coastcon that year to help judge the costume contest. And for the first time ever her NotLD episode was shown. After the screening I got to meet and talk to Margali. She was really nice. And she told me she still had all her episodes. "Newt if you are willing to pay for postage I will make you copies of all my episodes." I gave her my email address and asked her to email me once she got the copies made. With my plan being to pay her postage and a bit more for them. I guess she forgot cause I never heard back from her. But at least now I know that Mississippi had it's own horror host. And it was fairly recent.

The horror host website Margali told me about had a huge section on Count Gore De Vol. He is based in the Washington DC area. And was the first horror host to go over to the internet. Almost every week he has up an new episode, Sometimes it is a movie,with most movies he divides them into 3 or 4 parts. Or it is a short film. But even when the films are total shit ,the Count's host segments are entertaining.

Count Gore De Vol's website

Back in March one of the torrent sites I visit got a new uploader. He was uploading episodes of Svengoulie off MeTV. Sven has been around for since 1979. And is the second actor to play Sven. He seems to have a deal to show lots of Universal horror films. Since March I have gotten ahold of over 20 episodes of his show from the MeTV airings. Each episode besides giving us some back history on the film,he reads the mail. Then in the final segment answers the door of his crypt. Tells some bad jokes and each show ends with him going to his casket as people off the screen throw rubber chickens at him. Just the other night I watched Sven's airing of Abbot and Costello meet Jekyl and Hyde. Then 2 days ago I watched Murders in the Rue Morgue episode.

I hope everyone enjoyed me blathering on about Horror hosts.

31 Days of Horror Day 26 Pandemonium

Pandemonium
1982
VHS Rip

Found a copy of this on Youtube and grabbed it. Hadn't seen it but once years ago on vhs. But all I could remember was Paul Reubens and Tom Smothers. We get a very early 80s parody of horror films.

Set at a cheerleader school,where two of the students are Judge Reinhold and Carol Kane,we find out that years prior there was a series of killings happening.Of course being a mystery we get piles of red herrings.

So we get a horror/comedy/murder mystery. Which is damn entertaining. I am really surprised this hasn't gotten a DVD release so far.

Pandemonium gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror Day 25 Venom

Venom
2005
Echo Bridge 20 Pack DVD

Another of those hey it's 20 films for $5 packs. Venom caught my eye cause of the setting.Set in the bayous of Louisiana,Venom is a fairly fun and well done voodoo movie.

A woman has a suitcase full of snakes. That are possessed. One of them attacks and possesses the driver of a tow truck. And he hunts down a group of young adults.

The FX work is really good. The story and acting are well done. I really have no idea why this film isn't better known.Maybe it is because the only "name" in the cast was Bijou Philips.

I have always been interested in films dealing with voodoo. And this film doesn't disappoint.Plus with it being in a 20 pack of films that cost me $5. I only paid a quarter for the film. I wouldn't mind a DTV sequel to this film. But it has been what 10 years since this came out and we haven't gotten one yet.

Venom gets an A-.