******103-YEAR OLD BLOODSUCKING SPOILERS!****** I’m hoping readers aren’t too tired of my Halloween content (my favorite holiday), because this one should be the last one for this season…I think (?). This past weekend, I went to see my first-ever public screening of a silent movie with a live organist supplying the soundtrack! I own a…
Tag: Halloween
Retro-Musings for Halloween: “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” (1966)…
******SPECTRAL SPOILERS!****** And now for something completely different… As a kid, options for ‘family-safe’ Halloween entertainment in our primitive, pre-streaming era were a bit limited, with some exceptions, such as CBS’ annual broadcast of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (1966), Halloween variety specials, and Halloween-themed episodes of TV shows. “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken”…
Halloween in Septober: “CreepIE Aftermath 2025” haunts the Inland Empire…
Septober is here! Anyone else feeling Halloween vibes earlier than usual this year? Maybe it’s due to the onslaught of Halloween product flooding retailers as early as late July this year (!). Personally, I think we should just rename September Septober and be done with it. At any rate, my corner of SoCal has just…
“It’s baaaaack…”: CreepIECon 2025 continues to chill the Inland Empire…
“They’re baaaaaaack…” From its debut in February of 2022 , the bi-annual fright-fest known as “CreepIECon” (the IE capitalized for the Inland Empire region of SoCal), returns every February and September (as “CreepIECon Aftermath”) for SoCal residents (and a few out-of-staters) to partake in their shared love of horror and the supernatural. It’s Halloween in February, or…
It’s time: “CreepIECon Aftermath” haunts the Inland Empire once again…
Repossessed! As we head into my favorite time of the year, the city of Ontario, California once again embraces the coming Halloween season with its CreepIECon horror convention. The original convention known as CreepIECon debuted in February of 2022, but this biannual event has a late-September spawn now known as CreepIE Aftermath (nee: Son of…
“The Haunted Mansion” (2023) finally gets the Disneyland ride juuust right…
*****SPOOKY SPOILERS AHEAD!***** First Time’s Not Quite the Charm… Before I get into 2023’s “The Haunted Mansion,” I wanted to drop a few lines about the first live-action version of “The Haunted Mansion,” which debuted 20 years ago (feels like both yesterday and forever ago). 2003 is a time when formerly R-rated comedy superstar Eddie…
Recurring Nightmare; CreepIECon Returns to the Inland Empire for 2023…
The Growing Horror… Last year, the city of Ontario, California hosted a horror-themed convention in February called “CreepIECon”, which was successful enough in its freshman year to take another stab at it in 2023. Having just returned from CreepIECon 2023 earlier today, it’s safe to say that by attendance alone, the convention has grown significantly…
“Halloween Ends” (2022) sees the franchise taking an overdue dirt nap…
*****SPOOKY SPOILERS!!***** Halloween Wanes. In 1978, writer/director/musician John Carpenter (“Assault on Precinct 13”) unleashed his micro-budget thriller “Halloween” into theaters, and the movie became a runaway hit. I still remember seeing another movie at a multiplex around that time, and hearing screams from the “Halloween” screening in the next auditorium. I would eventually see “Halloween”…
“Trick ‘r Treat” (2007) is an underrated, yet definitive Halloween horror flick…
******SPOOKY SPOILERS!!****** Tricked From Theaters. Written and directed by Michael Dougherty and produced by Bryan Singer (the team behind “X-Men 2”, “Superman Returns”), 2007’s low-budget horror anthology “Trick ‘r Treat” took time to find an audience; several years after plans for its theatrical release were unceremoniously scrapped in 2007. A hit at film festivals, the…
Halloween in February: ‘CreepIEcon 2022’ comes to SoCal’s Inland Empire…
“Welcome To My Nightmare…” This past weekend, during a sunny but windy Southern California February, my favorite holiday of Halloween briefly returned to the month of Valentine’s Day. Long delayed due to the COVID pandemic, CreepIEcon 2022 (the “i” and “e” emphasized for “Inland Empire”) finally reached the Ontario Convention Center in the San Bernardino…
“Halloween Kills” (2021) offers brutal tricks, but few treats…
******PUMPKIN SPICE SPOILERS!!****** After more than a year’s delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “Halloween Kills” is finally getting a release. Like the Godzilla franchise, Halloween’s continuity has been rebooted multiple times since the classic 1978 original. Halloweens 2, 4, 5 and 6 were (more or less) a straight line series of diminishing quality that…
Musings for Halloween: “The Changeling” (1980)…
*****SPOOKY SPOILERS AHEAD!***** Many years ago, I remember seeing a trailer for a then-new horror movie coming out which featured George C. Scott (“Patton” “A Christmas Carol”) living in an apparently haunted house. The one thing that made me nearly wet my seat was the sight of an antique wheelchair, shrouded in cobwebs and sans…