31 Days of Horror Day 13 Ghosts,Goblins and Ghouls

Title-Ghosts,Goblins&Ghouls
Source-Classics Media DVD

I am always looking for collections of older tv shows,movies and cartoons. Most months I have a circuit of thrift stores,Dollar stores and junk stores I hit looking for this type of media. Back in the spring I had stopped at the local Dollar General to grab a drink and some milk. Saw they had restocked the DVD section and started digging.

I saw the cover,which  is pictured above,and saw the 5 buck price and took a chance. I didn't look that close and didn't notice that besides Felix the Cat,Casper the Friendly Ghost and The Groovie Goolies this also has Ghostbusters and Mr Magoo.

Gonna break this down into segments based on the order on the DVD.

Casper,this seems to be a collection of the theatrically released and made for TV Casper shorts. We get two 22 minute long episodes. I have never cared for the old Harveytoon theatrically released Casper stuff,just a bit too bland for me. Before this I had never seen much of the made for TV Casper shorts. And honestly had only enjoyed the Casper cartoon that was based on the live action movie. The made for cartoon episodes in this collection aren't bad. Not only do we get Casper. But we also get Wendy the good lil witch and the Ghostly Trio. Sadly nothing scary or really spooky in the almost hours worth of Casper stuff on the disc.

Felix the Cat and friends is up next. While some of the old made for theaters Felix cartoons are pretty good,these are crap. I think this is that 80s era Felix cartoon But I am really not sure. Felix is one of those characters that has never worked for me. Outside of the NES game there hasn't been much Felix stuff I have enjoyed. And the two barely over 20 minute episodes on this disc don't do much to change my opinion on Felix.

Up third of Ghostbusters...the Filmation Ghostbusters. Yep this ain't the Real Ghostbusters. See back in the 70s there was a short lived live action show titled Ghostbusters. With Larry Storch in the lead. When the Ghostbusters film was made the studio worked out a deal to use the name. Then after it was a hit,Filmation started work on a Ghostbusters cartoon. So the cartoon based on the film added the word Real to it's title. Now the Filmation Ghostbusters was syndicated. I  never saw it back then. Had seen the toys a few times. And a few clips from the show online. But this was the first time I saw a full episode. This Ghostbusters has 3 members. Two adult males and a giant gorilla.For being from 80s era Filmation the animation is pretty decent. We get 2 full episodes on this set. And it seems the story continues from each episode to the next. The first episode we get starts in the middle of a story,but it wasn't hard to get caught up. I enjoyed this enough that I am now looking for the rest of Filmations Ghostbusters.

4th up is the Groovie Goolies. This is another I had seen clips from and knew the theme song. But have never seen a full episode.We get 2 full episodes and well.... it is cheesy as fuck. Drac,Freaky Franky and Weirdo Wolfy live in a castle and are a band. The show is just a bunch of lame jokes. And even lamer songs. The animation is decent for 70s era Filmation.

 And I do wonder if Archie maybe owns partial rights to the Groovie Goolies,since they started off on the Filmation Sabrina the teenage witch cartoon.

And finally we get 2 Mr Magoo shorts. No clue if these were made for theaters or TV..They follow the standard Magoo plot. He can't see for shit and gets into wacky situations cause of this. The two shorts are decent.

Ghosts,Goblins and Ghouls is a real mixed bag. The Casper stuff is very hit or miss. I did enjoy seeing Wendy the good lil Witch in a few. The Felix cartoons were bad. Ghostbusters was pretty good. Groovie Goolies,well it was nicely animated but that is all. And the Magoo shorts were ok. For me it is just barely worth the 5 bucks it cost me.

Ghosts,Goblins and Ghouls gets a C-.

31 Days of Horror Day 12 Bad Taste

Title-Bad Taste
Source-Count Gore Devol's airing on Vimeo

Ahhhh Bad Taste,the first film and first movie I saw from a guy who is one of my favorite director,Mr Peter Jackson. I had heard about the movie thanks to Fangoria and a few horror zines I read. I was on my way home from school on a Friday. Had just spent most of Chemisty II class reading an article in Fangoria about Peter Jackson's newest film Dead/Alive AKA Braindead. A buddy had told me that this one video store had just gotten in a bunch of horror films. So I stopped by to see if there was anything worth renting. This store ,that I later found out got shut down cause it was renting bootlegs,never had more than one copy of any film. But they had a huge horror,sci fi and porn selection. Seriously I could find pretty much any horror film that was on VHS at this store. I went in and headed straight for the horror section. Saw the above image and grabbed it cause I knew it was a film I had been reading about for years now.

I got home. Put the tape into my VCR and right at 90s minutes I sat there with my jaw on the floor. I had seen gore movies before this. But none of them had as much comedy. Or were made on such a low budget. Then right at the very end the tape stopped and started rewinding. This is when I started to suspect the video store was renting out bootlegs. Almost none of the tapes you rented from them had the FBI warning or a bunch of trailers before the film started. A friend swears he rented some Euro softcore film from the same store and saw the Cinemax After Dark logo pop up a few times. So I was a bit mad that I didn't see the entire film. But really going back now I see that all I missed was the credits.

The plot is fairly simple. Aliens have come to Earth.They want humans to serve as the food in their intergalactic fast food places. And Peter Jackson and some friends are the Earth's only defense.

Mr Jackson shot this film over a long period of time. With himself and various friends playing all the roles. And sometimes not being able to shoot footage cause they were out of money. It was mostly made on the weekends.

What sucks is AFAIK it hasn't gotten a Blu Ray release in the USA. The legit DVD release doesn't look that great and is OOP. I figured once Jackson hit it big with the Lord of the Rings films,fuck I hate those movies,that all his previous stuff would get re-released on DVD. But that doesn't seemed to have happened.

Notice how I said legit DVD release. Somehow a few companies seem to think Bad Taste,which was released in 1987,is in the public domain. So it has shown up on a handful of those multiple horror movie sets. You know like 50 Chilling Classics on 10 DVDs for only 20 bucks. The versions of Bad Taste found on those sets looks worst than the bootleg VHS I rented back in 90 or 91.

What is even odder is early this year Count Gore DeVol aired Bad Taste on his Vimeo show. Count Gore is a horror host that used to be on TV in the DC area. And in the early 2000s switched over to being online. Every week or so you get a new film from him. And it is free to watch. I am guessing whoever picks the movies for his show saw Bad Taste on those PD horror sets and just assumed the film is PD. The print Count Gore used looks decent. It looks as good if not better than the officially released DVD. And hell it is free. Added bonus if you have the Vimeo app you can download videos off Vimeo to watch offline. Whenever I am making a road trip I always load up a few Count Gore episodes on  my Tablet to watch while in the van going to what ever tiny town we are heading to.

I love this movie. But then I love all of Jackson's pre-LOTR stuff. Sadly it looks like the days of him making amazing horror/comedies is over. I thought after the huge success of LOTR Jackson would use that to get a big budget and make the best horror/comedy ever. But nope we got a decent but un-needed remake of King Kong. Then the horrible Hobbit trilogy.

Since the DVD is OOP and selling for too much if you want to see this goto Vimeo and watch Count Gore's airing of it.

Bad Taste gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Day 11 The Blob(Original 1958)

Title-The Blob(Original 1958)
Source-MeTV Svengoolie airing

Months back,I think it was in May I saw that Svengoolie was gonna air the original Blob. So I made sure to save that airing on the DVR. I DVR Sven every week. But usually end up just watching his host segments,mostly when it is films I don't care for. Or end up building up 10 or more episodes on the DVR and put them on when I clean the house from top to bottom.

As normal with when Sven airs a film he fills his segments with trivia about the movie.I knew that the lead male was Steve McQueen. But had no clue that the lead female was later Andy's love interest on the Andy Griffith show.

Now I have heard various people talk about how cheesy the original Blob is. And yea it is. But for it's time and being a indy film with a tiny budget it is way better than it should have been. The FX work is decent. But it wasn't until the remake from the late 80s/early 90s that we got to see a fully realized version of what the Blob could do.

Steve McQueen and his gal pal are up on a hilltop watching for shooting stars. They see one,and it turns out to be a meteorite. An old man pokes it with a stick and this glob what appears to be strawberry jelly comes out. And ends up eating the man.

The rest of the film is a 30 year old or older,suppose to be in his late teens,Steve McQueen trying to convince the cops and other adults that something is up. I do wonder why Steve got cast to play a much younger person. He looks like he is in his 30s. But then McQueen always looked about 30,even in his final years.The cops think this is all a prank the local teens are playing. So they do nothing until almost the end of the film.

There is 2 real setpieces in the film. The first is when the Blob attacks a packed theater. It is a bit after midnight and the theater is having a Spook Show!!!. So it is packed with teens and young adults. The Blob comes in thru the vents and attacks. This same theater still exists and will show the Blob once a year as a charity event.

The other big set piece is near the end,people are trapped in a building that the Blob has engulfed. And this is were we learn that the Blob hates the cold.

Honestly if you are under 30 and have already seen the remake skip this movie. It is one of those movies that is very of it's time. And I get the feeling that if McQueen wasn't in the movie it would be another forgotten 50s horror.

For being a lower budget indy film I was shocked at how good the colors looked. The red of the Blob stands out. The FX work is pretty good.With most of the mat lines and forced perspective shots not being super obvious. The acting isn't bad. McQueen of course is the best. But the one really goofy copy is pretty damn good too.

By it''s self the Blob is a average horror film. But add in the skits,songs and trivia that Svengoolie adds and it becomes much better.

The Blob gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 10 Horrors of Spider Island

Title-Horrors of Spider Island

Source-12 Creature Features Mill Creek DVD set

I had seen the creature from this early 60s West German made horror film many times on various Something Weird Video releases. And if this title interest you a lot get their release on DVD. It is loaded as most of their releases are.I on the other hand own the 12 movie Mill Creek Creature feature version. So it is just the same old print every one has used for years.

A semi sleazy night club own wants to fly a bunch of dancers from NYC to his club in Singapore. But during the flight the plane catches on fire,breaks in half ,then crashes but somehow the owner and the women don't die. We see them on a raft and they finally make it to an island.

Exploring the island they find a cabin. Inside is food and a spider web with a dead man hanging from it. Seems a prof has been working with uranium here. After figuring out how long the food will last them,one month I think is what they figure,the owner ends up out in the jungle alone. Gets bit by a giant spider and becomes this human-spider mutant.

Well this was short,80 something minutes,and the creature looked decent for the era. I swear I have seen some of the women in other "films" Something Weird Video has put out on DVD/VHS. 

Horrors of Spider Island gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror Day 09 Mr Sardonicus

Title-Mr Sardonicus
Source-MeTV Svengoolie airing

Last year I reviewed at least one film that Svengoolie was showing. But back then I didn't get MeTV. For some reason even though I get most of the Jackson channels on DISH,they didn't give us MeTV. Then back in March they added MeTV to our lineup. So each week I would go see what Svengoolie was airing and sometimes DVR it.

Since there is only one TV in the house with a DVR I am lucky if I get maybe 4 hours a week to watch what I have DVRed. I have built up a bunch of episodes of Svengoolie to watch. Was trying to decide which one to watch and realized while I have seen pieces of the film and read a decent amount about it I do not think I have ever seen all of Mr Sardonicus.

Released in 1961 Mr Sardonicus was directed by William Castle. Who was known for how most of his films had gimmicks. Like the skeletons that would fly around the theater on wires during House on Haunted Hill. Or 13 Ghosts ghost viewers. With Mr Sardonicus they had the punishment poll. As you entered the theater you were given a card. With a glow in the dark thumb on it. Near the end of the film Castle would appear and ask if the audience thought Mr Sardonicus should be punished. And you gave a thumbs up or thumbs down. Castle would pretend to count the votes then would show the ending the audience had voted for. Now Castle swore that he had filmed two endings. But so far the only one that has been proven to exist is the one were Sardonicus gets punished.

The plot is simple a doctor gets summoned to a remote castle. In a made up Eastern Euro country. And over the course of the 1 1/2 hours of the film odder and odder things happen. The owner of the castle,Mr Sardonicus,wears a full face mask at all times. There is two reasons for this. One is so when his face is revealed near the end it would shock the audience. The other is cause the actor playing Sardonicus,Guy Rolfe who is best known for being the Puppet Master in Puppet Master III,could only wear the makeup  for an hour without it causing him pain.

So what does Mr Sardonicus look like........ Well let me warn you he is pretty hideous.

Anyways it is a fun film. Svengoolie's bits are pretty funny. And if you get a chance catch this one when Sven reruns it.

Mr Sardonicus gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 08 Anthropophagus

Title-Anthropophagous
Source-Midnight Video VHS

Also known as The Grim Reaper,Anthropophagous is an infamous film from Italian director Joe D'Amato. It is a movie that has suffered from being censored many times in various countries. In the States the first release ,known under the title Grim Reaper,was heavily cut. I had heard for years about all the stuff that was cut.

Then in the mid 90s at a con I found someone selling copies of Midnight Video's full uncut version of the movie. Midnight Video used many sources to make what was the first fully uncut version in  English. The main source was a Japanese VHS release.So lots of the film on this VHS has Japanese subtitles on the bottom of the screen. But even that Japanese VHS was missing two scenes. The first is a pre-credits of a couple being attacked on a beach,which sadly is in French with no subtitles. The other scene is from near the end of the film. It is the famous ending shot of the killer eating his own disemboweled intestines,which supposedly was only ever released on a hard to find VHS that came out in Venezuela. The only other scene in this version that wasn't in the Grim Reaper release is when the killer kills a pregnant woman then eats her fetus.

A group of young adults are on a cruise in their yacht during the summer. They agree to take a young American woman to a Greek island. They get to the island and there is no one there. And the telegraph line has been cut. Our young adults leave the pregnant member of their group on the boat and go explore the island.

On the  island they find a young blind girl. Who keeps telling them about an evil presence on the island. One by one the leads are attacked and killed by the title killer. Played by George Eastman aka Luigi Montefiori. Who is the son of a wealthy family. He got shipwrecked on the island.Becoming a cannibal after eating his wife and son.

It seems Midnight Video spent right at 3 years assembling their cut of this movie. Most of this version is made up of footage from the previously mentioned Japanese VHS. For some reason that VHS had audio in French. So the people at Midnight Video took the video from the Japanese VHS and married it with a English soundtrack. I admire all the work they did back then. In the days before we had easy to get audio and video editing software doing stuff like that was very hard to do and very very time consuming. Of course since this VHS came out there has been a few DVD releases. All of which now make this VHS look like crap. But back in the mid 90s this was the best you could do.

Honestly Anthropophagus is worth seeing if you are interested in late 70s/early 80s Italian gore movies. And thanks to Youtube you don't have to spend a bunch of money on the movie. I paid IIRC 30 bucks for the VHS. And I bet the DVD was about that price when it came out.

Here is the trailer. It isn't safe for work. But it does give you a good idea of what the film is about.

                                     

Anthropophagus gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror Day 07 2008 Gross ILE Halloween Horrorthon

Title-2008's Gross Ile Halloween Horrorthong Hosted by Deadpit Radio's Uncle Bill and the Creepy Kentuckian
Source-Deadpit.com DVD

Over the last 8 years I have mentioned Deadpit.com and the Deadpit Radio podcast a few times on this blog. Even reviewing some of their fan commentaries during my annual 31 Days of Horror. Late last year I was sent a big box of DVDs from a former fan of Deadpit. Most of the DVDs were various Deadpit fan commentaries synced up with the films they commentaries were made for. The other DVDs were either collections of the now defunct Deadpit on the Road Youtube series,the Into the Pit documentary and the dvd pictured above.

I didn't start listening to Deadpit Radio until sometime in 2010. I heard it mentioned on another horror podcast I listened to,the fun Dread Media. By the time I started listening to Deadpit Radio and visiting the site the above DVD was out of print.And I never heard anyone mentioning it.

Well my buddy CodyLL had bought a bunch of DVDs off the Deadpit guys at conventions. And after the hosts of Deadpit had managed to piss Cody off enough that he stopped listening to their show,he offered to send me all his Deadpit stuff. I can't remember if he mentioned this Horrorthon DVD or not when he told me he was sending me the package.

I got in the package and was flipping through all the DVDs. Trying to figure out to watch first. Then I saw this Horrorthon DVD.From what I saw on the cover I figured it was Uncle Bill and the Creepy Kentuckian hosting 2 horror films. The two films are Night of the Living Dead,the original from 1968,and Jerry Warren's Man Beast,which is from 1955.

Now of course I have seen NotLD many times,but had never even heard of Man Beast. So I threw the DVD into my player.Started it up. The first film they show is NotLD. With CK and Uncle Bill doing the horror host duties. Like telling us a bit about NotLD.Now both these guys claim to be horror experts. But really in their intro they mention nothing about NotLD that any horror fan wouldn't already know. So I ended up skipping through NotLD and figured I would watch Man Beast. Not knowing anything about Jerry Warren or Man Beast I enjoyed hearing what Creepy Kentuckian and Uncle Bill had to say about both subjects.

Connie is looking for her long lost brother. Who disappeared while searching for the yeti in the Himalayas. She leads a group to the area hoping to find her brother.She finds the last place her brother was seen and ends up running into a strange guide named Varga. They are quickly attacked by a giant monster and we find out that Varga has sinister plans for Connie.

Lots of the film looks like it is made up of stock footage. Which appears to be way older than the rest of the film. While the movie is only a bit over an hour it feels much much longer. Not sure if it is the print used,but the movie looks horrible. I know that lots of films that are in the public domain the easiest versions to find are from 16mm prints. And both Night of the Living Dead and Man Beast look like 16mm prints.

After about 15 minutes of watching Man Beast I was pretty bored. By the 20 minute mark myself and the other people watching the DVD with me had dug out our phones/tablets and were half watching the movie,half fucking off online.

This is a hard one to give a grade to. Cause Night of the Living Dead is a horror classic. One that if I meet someone that is over the age of 30 and claims to be a horror fan but doesn't like Night of the Living Dead I start to question if they are really a horror fan. But then Man Beast is just horrible.I get the feeling it was the third movie on lots of drive in theater's triple bills. For those of yall too young to have gotten to experience the drive in movie circuit in it's haydays,if the theater was having a double or triple feature they would usually put the best movie on first. With the second or third film being an older film that wasn't that great. The host segments are ok at best. Deadpit Radio had a sense of humor that is funny at first. Then after a bit you realize how limited their style of humor is. And quickly it goes from being funny to just being annoying.With Creepy Kentuckian being the biggest offender in the annoying department. He seems to take pride in how dumb and childish he is. 

Earlier this year I did a quick video review/showcase of this DVD. And while doing it I read the back of the DVD case for the first time. Which is a long piece full of praise for Deadpit and it's two hosts. And hey you gotta promote yourself.But one of them,and I am betting it is Creepy Kentuckian,attributes the quote on the back to Lucio Fulci. Which is just stupid. First off by the time this was done Fulci had been dead for close to 2 decades. Secondly even if he was alive Fulci wouldn't be watching a mega hack like Creepy Kentuckian badly hosting 2 films.


2008's Gross Ile Halloween Horrorthon gets a D.

31 Days of Horror Day 06 Operation Nazi Zombies

Title-Operation Nazi Zombies AKA Maplewoods
Source-Brain Damage Films DVD

I have loved Zombie films since I first saw Night of the Living Dead,the original of course,back when I was 8 or so. So even if I got a feeling the movie is gonna be crap I will give most zombie films a chance.

One day earlier this year I was killing time waiting on a friend to get off from work. Stopped at Family Dollar and saw they had restocked their "Top Hits DVD" bins. I am sure some of yall have seen these. Mostly they seem to be stocked at places like Dollar Tree,Dollar General,Family Dollar and other budget stores. They are usually former Blockbuster or Netflix rental dvds. That get packaged in cardboard sleeves. Then sold for  a buck or two. You never know what you will find. It could be a well known released from Criterion or it might be some low budget mockbuster from the Asylum. In the many copies of Love Guru I found 3 DVDs I wanted. 2 were collections of Public Domain cartoons,one with Casper the ghost and the other with Bugs Bunny. The other DVD I got that day was Operation Nazi Zombies.They were priced at 2 bucks each. But when they got rung up they were only a buck each. SCORE!

Made in 1999 under the title Maplewoods,Operation Nazi Zombies wasn't released until in 2003. Then in early May 2012 Brain Damage Films,who it seems have went out of business,got the DVD rights and retitled the film Operation Nazi Zombies. Which  makes sense,the new title will get more attention. Cause I know if I saw a film named Maplewoods and a film titled Operation Nazi Zombies I am gonna be more inclined to watch/buy the latter one.

I hope that works. It is the trailer for the movie. As you will see it is after Brain Damage Films got the rights and retitled it.

So how is the movie?Back in the 70s a man was using some research the Nazi's had done during World War II. The plan was to use zombies as your basic ground troops in the big war.Which when you think about it is a good idea. In war there is always plenty of dead.So if there was a way to turn these dead into soldiers why not?

The entire film is told in flashback style. With the narrator being held prisoner in a military jail.By the end of the film we are given a total non-ending.Our narrator is told he will never be able to escape. And it ends.

The acting ranges from decent to kindergarten play levels. The script seems to be decent. But some of the dialogue is very clunky. Not sure how much of that is a fault of whoever wrote the dialogue and how much is the fault of the actor/actress saying the dialogue. The special effects work is the same mixed bag. Some of it is fairly impressive when you take into mind how low budget the movie is. I keep seeing that this film cost around 250,000 to make. Which isn't much at all. Then some of the FX work looks really bad. There doesn't seem to be much CGI in the film. Most of the FX work seems to be practical.

The movie isn't a total piece of shit. And yea I only paid a buck for it. It is a film that I wouldn't recommend to people unless they are hardcore horror and/or zombie fans. Really it makes for a good "Hey I want to see a horror film and I want it to be one I haven't seen before" movie. I wouldn't be surprised if this was up on Hulu,Netflix,Tubi,Pluto TV or one of the many streaming services. And for free or extremely cheap it is worth watching once. Just don't go in expecting a great film.

Operation Nazi Zombies gets a C.

EDIT-Not long after I finished writing this I discovered that the entire film is on Youtube. In previous years during 31 Days of Horror I have mentioned the Youtube channel Kings of Horror. A channel that gets permission to upload lots of independent horror films. IIRC last year or the year before I watched and reviewed Pop Punk Zombies off the Kings of Horror channel.So ,and I hope this work I really wish blogger made it easier to embed youtube videos,here is the full movie.

31 Days of Horror Day 05 Amityville:No Escape

Title-Amityville:No Escape
Source-DVD

Yep another low budget unofficial Amityville sequel. This one from the folks at Camp Motion  Pictures. Camp has become known over the past 15 years for bringing lots of 80s and 90s DTV horror movies to DVD. Stuff like Ghoul School,Video Violence 1&2 and the infamous Splatter Farm.The past few years they have even started making new movies. In 2016 they released Amityville No Escape.No one working behind or in front of the camera is anyone I have ever heard of.

Like lots of indie horror in the past 5 or so years Amityville No Escape is a found footage film. Fuck I am so tired of low budget ,and even big budget ,found footage films. Released at the end of summer in 2016 Amityville No Escape is about a group of college students that go off into the woods of Amityville. They go into these woods,supposedly the most haunted woods on the planet.

The movie was originally titled The Fear Tapes. I am assuming it was retitled after filming in hopes that people would rent/buy it cause they thought it was part of the official Amityville franchise.

The cast tries their best. And are pretty good. But they aren't given much to work with.The film's low budget and rushed production show. I am not a fan of found footage movies. The last 10 years it is more of an excuse to have shitty acting,camera work,etc. And Amityville No Escape has it's share of bad camera work.Why must every found footage film be filled with shaky cam?

I do like how since part of the film is set in the mid 90s whoever was in  charge of the production tries to make sure everyone is wearing 97ish clothing. And even the footage from the 90s part of the film are in 4:3 instead of 16:9. But that and the film's short running time,with credits and all it is barely 78 minutes long,are the only good parts of the film.

One other positive I can say for Amityville No Escape is it isn't the worst found footage Amityville movie. That would be the previously reviewed Amityville Haunting. Amityville No Escape is a half step better than that piece of crap.

Amityville:No Escape gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror Day 04 Svengoolie's Twilight Zone marathon

Title-Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon
Source-DVD-r recording of the original TV airing.

It was  few years ago I finally got to see Svengoolie for the first time. Sven has been a horror host in the Chicago greater area for decades now. And thanks to him getting a slot on MeTV,Saturday nights at 8pm central,Svengoolie is one  of the few horror hosts that has nationwide TV. Until earlier this year I didn't MeTV.Dish network wasn't carrying it in my area. And I would have to spend a bit over 100 bucks for an antenna to get the channel. So I had a friend that got the show that would record the episodes to DVDs then mail me boxes of DVDs a few times a year.

Ever since I have been watching Sven on MeTV he shows horror films from the Universal library. Which I do enjoy cause Universal has made some great horror films. I know that before Sven was on MeTV he was airing films from many different studios. But until I was sent this DVD I had no idea he had ever did a Twilight Zone mini marathon.

The show starts off like most episodes of Svengoolie does. We get some info about what we are about to watch. Sven cracks some bad jokes and the movie starts. This time instead of a film we get 4 episodes of from the original run  of the science ficiton anthology classic The Twilight Zone.

Growing up my parents would tell me all the time about the Twilight Zone. Even at a young age I was into horror. Not long after Twilight Zone the Movie had come out one of the local UHF channels started airing the classic Twilight Zone episodes every night at 10pm. Even though at the time my bedtime was 10pm,my parents would most nights let me stay up to watch Twilight Zone. It wasn't long after this that the 80s Twilight Zone series started up. And I was so happy. Not only did I get 5 episodes off the classic show each week,but I  also got a new episodes each week.

So what episodes is Sven showing us the loyal viewers? The first one is the infamous "Wish you into the cornfield" episode. Starring a young Bill Mumy this one is about a young boy who has God like powers. It is considered one of the best episodes of the original run. And was even remade as part of the previously mentioned Twilight Zone the Movie.

The second episode is one that I don't remember seeing as a kid. I think the first time I saw it was during one of SyFy Channels New Years Twilight Zone marathons. It is titled,I think,Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.Our lead has her head wrapped in bandages. And we find out she has had surgery to "make her no so ugly". Of course near the end of the episode the bandages are removed and we see our lead is played by Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies who is far from being an  ugly woman. It  is after this reveal that we noticed that all through out this episode we never saw anyone's face. They  were always in shadow or blocked by something. When the other peoples' faces are revealed we see that everyone has this weird deformed pig like face.

The third episode is another one that is considered a classic. Starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner it is about a man who has had some mental issues. He is flying and sees what at first he thinks is a man on the airplane wing. But this is no man. It is one of the gremlins some fighter pilots in the big war claimed to have seen. The Shat starts freaking out cause he is sure this creature is damaging the planes wing and engine. Like the first episode in this Sven mini marathon this one was also redone in Twilight Zone the movie. It was the last story in the film. With John Lithgow in the role Shatner played. It is one that I saw the original episode after having seen the film. Which explains why while I get why this episode is considered a classic to me cause of how cheesy the suit the gremlin is wearing I prefer the version from Twilight Zone the Movie.

The final episode is another I didn't see until the Syfy marathons. We got a group of older men that hang out at the local general store. One of whom is Floyd the Barber of Andy Griffith fame. The lead guy is able to weave a fairly entertaining tall tale about his time in the war. He ends up getting kidnapped by some aliens. Then discovers a weakness the aliens have. Lets just say that I get the feeling Tim Burton got the idea for the Martians in the Mars Attacks film's weakness from this episode.

Out of the four episodes included in this Svengoolie Twilight Zone Mini Marathon 3 of them are episodes I would consider some of the best the original Twilight Zone produced. But that final episode is just not that good. It has a decent cast and a good idea. But the execution fails.

Still this was a fun watch. I got to see 3 great episodes of TZ. Plus got to see the ads and stuff from Sven's non-MeTV show. There is even a commercial for the midnight airings of Sven's old shows. If anyone reading this has copies of the pre-MeTV episodes of Svengoolie please leave a comment. I am more than willing to pay you for copies of these episodes.

Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon gets a A-.