As I've said in the past, the Halloween special has never caught on to the degree that the Christmas special has. A number of attempts have been made to replicate the iconic success of “It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” but all of them faded away after a few years. While we usually get a new Christmas special with some regularity, we are lucky if a new Halloween special pops up once a decade. Yet, occasionally, someone will try. In 1997, cartoonist Jill Thompson began publishing comics and story books revolving around Scary Godmother. They proved popular enough that, in 2003, Thompson's characters would make the leap to animation. “Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktactular” would debut in 2003, airing on Cartoon Network a few times over the years, and seems to be something of a nostalgic favorite for zoomers. Let's see if these withered millennial eyes can draw any enjoyment from this bit of seasonal kid-friendly spookiness.
Little Hannah Marie is going trick-or-treating with her older cousin Jimmy and his friends Daryl, Katie, and Bert. Jimmy resents having to drag the younger girl along and decides to play a cruel trick on her. He locks her in a local abandoned house, set to be home to monsters. Inside, Hannah Marie meets her Scary Godmother, a friendly witch. Scary takes her to the Fright-Side, an alternate world where monsters live, and joins the witch's Halloween party. She meets a sassy skeleton, a family of angsty vampires, a verbose but gluttonous werewolf, and a laid-back bug-a-boo. Uncertain at first, Hannah soon befriends all of them. As Halloween night comes to close, her new friends help her give Jimmy some of his own medicine.
Once you overlook how unpleasant “Scary Godmother's” animation often is, it's actually a decently amusing bit of kid-friendly silliness. There are a number of good jokes here, concerning the kids' costumes. Daryl goes as a chewed piece of candy while Burt is a superstar baseball player in a cardboard SUV, which leads to multiple decent jokes. Scary Godmother and her monster friends are amusing. Skully is Scary's sassy gay best friend, which is not subtext. He explicitly refers to himself as “the skeleton in the closest.” The neurotic vampire family made me chuckle, as the dad has trouble adapting to modern life. Those are examples of the sometimes adult streak of humor in the special, like when a demonic pizza boy asks Scary if she wants to pay with her soul. Harry the werewolf is terrible though.
There's a habit among certain film fans to assume everything was better in the Golden Age of Cinema. That there weren't as many remakes, sequels, or cheap cash-in attempts. Anybody with an ounce of actual knowledge about Hollywood history knows this couldn't be further from the truth. The thirties and forties were rift with on-going franchises and new versions of familiar tales. In 1932, Warner Bros. made a minor classic with “Doctor X,” a movie more famous for its catchy title than its actual content. Nearly a decade later, the studio would release a movie called “The Return of Doctor X.” Despite what the title and advertising clearly hoped to make the audience think, this “Doctor X” had nothing to do with the 1932 “Doctor X.” Most infamously, “The Return of Doctor X” is the only horror/sci-fi credit of Humphrey Bogart.
Reporter Walter Barrett is sent to interview actress Angela Merrova, only to find her dead body instead. After informing the police, the corpse has vanished and Merrova appears to sue the newspaper for libel. Barrett smells a mystery, especially after another corpse totally devoid of blood is discovered. Teaming up with Dr. Rhobes, Barrett is led to a strange surgeon named Dr. Flegg. Flegg's mysterious assistant reminds Barrett of Dr. Xavier, a child murderer who was executed last year. After discovering Flegg has invented a way to revive dead bodies, he discovers that Dr. Xavier has returned... And he needs fresh blood in order to stay alive.
So “The Return of Doctor X” is largely devoid of classic horror atmosphere. The scenes of dead bodies being discovered are treated more like a procedural. The urban setting leaves little room for fog or shadows. There's lots of scenes of people standing around and talking, including one where Dr. Flegg explains the villain's backstory in extensive detail. Finally, after discovering that Doctor Xavier is a blood-drinking revenant, the film finally starts to get spooky. The finale is set out in a barn drowned in mist. A maiden is tied to an operating table and a mob arrives to kill the monster. (Though they are cops with pistols, instead of villagers with torches and pitchforks.) Yet it's too little, too late by that point. “The Return of Doctor X” should've deployed this stuff far earlier.
Bogart, reportedly, despised making the film. The star supposedly thought the script was trash, resented being stuck into a part better suited for someone like Boris Karloff, and thought he was being underpaid. For what it's worth, Bogie gives a totally serviceable performance and never lets any disapproval he might've felt show. He looks striking in the villainous outfits with greasepaint slathered on his face. It's a shame “The Return of Doctor X's” greatest novelty value lies in seeing a Golden Age icon in a pulpy role. Sadly, the movie can't even live up to that humble attraction, by downplaying the much-needed spookiness and reducing the title character's screen time. [5/10]
A couple of years ago, I was introduced to the album “The Evil One” by Roky Erickson and the Aliens. At this point, I had no familiarity with Erickson's work with groundbreaking psychedelic band the 13th Floor Elevators. Yet I was totally swept up in the acid-rock phantasma of “The Evil One,” a collection of hard rocking songs inspired by Erickson's tumultuous mental health history and his obsession with classic monster movies. It was one hundred percent My Kind of Thing and quickly became one of my all time favorite records. One of the songs on “The Evil One” is “Creature with the Atom Brain.” As with many of the songs on the album, the title and lyrics were taken directly from a fifties B-movie. After knowing the song by heart, I decided this was the year I actually take in the cinematic “Creature with the Atom Brain.”
A strange man, seemingly impervious to bullets, breaks through a window, utters some mysterious words to a gangster, and then snaps his spine in half. The next day the police, led by forensic specialist Chet Walker, discover radioactive finger prints and learn that the killer was a dead man. As more murders follow, it's soon discover that a German scientist named Dr. Steigg has developed a way to use atomic energy to manipulate dead bodies. Gangster Frank Buchanan is using Steigg's technology to get revenge on those who have wronged him. Can Chet and the cops uncover the truth before the Creatures with the Atom Brains overwhelm the city?
The film is also notable for its setting. Most fifties monster movies are set in the city or in some secluded desert town. “Creature with the Atom Brain” takes place in the clean, modern suburbs. Which brings some interesting connotations to mind. Though never directly confirmed, Dr. Steigg is implied to be a former Nazi. That the reanimated killers are explicitly radioactive tries right into the horrors of the nuclear bomb. The police start carrying Geiger counters everywhere, even searching for radioactivity via plane. In other words: World War II was over but its spectre continued to haunt the world. By visiting these threats directly on a wholesome, picket-fences suburban neighborhood, “Creature with the Atom Brain” visited far-off and thought-vanquished horrors on the heart of America. The parallel is made even more direct in scenes where the atom-brained creatures lay siege to the institutes of the area.
The science behind “Creature with the Atom Brain” is very silly, though it tries to sound scientific by dropping terms like amygdala and references to experiments involving brain stimulation. Like most fifties B-movie, the mad scientist is eventually stricken down by his own creations. The evil is banished and peace is returned to the suburbs. Compact and too the point, with a likable cast and some decent direction, this is a perfectly relaxed and entertaining piece of fifties schlock. By the way, it is surprising hearing so many of the lines Roky Erickson directly quotes in the song actually used in context. I think I still like the song better than the movie but that's not really a mark against the film. [7/10]
A few years back, the success of “The Witch” pushed the term “folk horror” to the forefront of film nerd culture. Suddenly, everyone was eager to classify movies about rituals, folklore, and pastoral horrors. This newfound fascination would also push some overlooked films back into the light. “The Blood on Satan's Claw” was an attempt by Tigon Productions to recreate “Witchfinder General's” popularity but didn't connect much with audiences at the time. I read about it in John Kenneth Muir's “”Horror Films of the 1970s” as a teenager. Shortly afterwards, I caught up with the movie, found it mildly creepy, but never thought much of it afterwards. After the folk horror revival, “Blood on Satan's Claw” has suddenly been elevated to classic status. Halloween seems like the ideal day to revisits this one myself.
Ralph Gower, a poor farmer in early 1800s England, uncovers an unusual looking skull while plowing his field. Very strange things follow the discovery. The friends of a local judge seemingly experience demonic possession, their body parts become bestial. Using bones from the same field, a teenage girl named Angel Blake begins to draw the youth of the community into ritual witchcraft. Furry patches of skin sprout on people's bodies. Angel and her gang murder and perform dark magic, their acts soon being discovered. As the Judge returns to investigate, it becomes clear that the devil himself has been reborn in this small village.
Like many historical witchcraft movies, "The Blood on Satan's Claw" is wrapped up in Puritan themes. Angel attempts to seduce the village curate, stripping nude in the chapel. The young maiden at the center of the rape sequence, whether caught up in Satanic influence or unleashed lust, almost seems to enjoy it. While clearly discussing ideas like sexual repression or religious intolerance, I think the film's primary concerns are more contemporary. The organizers of the devil cult are all teenagers. A boy tosses bones on a table behind his parents' back. The youth gather in secret, their minds corrupted by evil influences. The film was surely invoking Charles Manson and other tales of hippy death cults, making its modern theme of teens doing evil and running amok more archetypal by placing it hundreds of years in the past. The kids were never alright, not in modern day cities and not in 1800s English villages.
Perhaps the film's moral uncertainty is part of the point. The devil is vanquished at the end but the victory feels far from certain. The unsettling energy continues through the end credits. And sometimes all a horror movie needs is a successful atmosphere of dread and some freaky images. The film's reappraisal is not underserved and it's clearly a significant entry in the folk horror cycle. (And obviously a huge influence on Robert Eggers and Ben Wheatley.) Even during the devil movie craze of the seventies, this was a unique approach to the material. Watched late-at-night on All Hallow's Eve, it definitely makes an impression. [7/10]
Every Halloween night, I have to watch an eighties slasher movie. The subgenre is just too ingrained into my identity as a horror fan. Some years, I'll watch an established cult classic of the blood-soaked style. Other years, I'll watch something weird. During my slasher fan heydays, an image I often encountered was the killer in “Girls Nite Out.” A flea-beaten mascot costume with bright yellow googly eyes, it's an extremely comical idea for a horror villain. Despite how unforgettable I've found that image, I've never actually sat down and watch “Girls Nite Out” before. That changes tonight. Yep, this year, I'm doing a weird one.
New fraternity pledges at DeWitt University are regaled with the legend of Dickie Cavanaugh, a student that went mad and murdered his girlfriend years ago. But this is not on the student body's mind this night. After the basketball team wins the championship, the next night a campus-wide scavenger hunt is organized for the girls. As the sorority sisters tune in to receive clues from the radio station, someone more sinister is lurking. A person in the team's mascot outfit has outfitted the bear paws with actual claws, killing the girls they come across. Can Officer MacVay, the campus security guard who put away Dickie a decade ago, stop the murderous mascot in time?
No, you don't care about any of that because these characters are just bodies about to be killed. As a slasher movie, “Girls Nite Out” is not especially novel in its gore. The killer improvising a weapon by shoving steak knives through the bear paws is a cool idea. However, the death scenes are largely composed of throat slashings. A bludgeoning with a shovel or an off-screen stabbing do not stand out much. Instead, “Girls Nite Out” distinguishes its violence with a mean-spirited streak. See, our brutal bear is different from most slashers because it talks. As the women are sliced up, the murderer calls them sluts and whores. The slasher genre is often accused of misogyny, a frequently misplaced label. “Girls Nite Out,” however, really does seem to have genuine hostility to its female characters.
The songs are also the likely reason why “Girls Nite Out” is out-of-print. An overly dark and blurry DVD was released in the early 2000s and the film has never been reissued since. I can't imagine too many boutique DVD/Blu-Ray labels are willing to pony up the licensing money for those songs for the sake of this movie. Unless you are a definitive slasher fanatic – or a die-hard Hal Holbrook fan, who gives a very bored performance as the Dr. Loomis-like campus security guard – there's no particular compelling reason to seek this one out. The film has a twist ending, which at least ends things on an odd note. The whole movie is pretty odd, which is balanced out by its more tedious qualities. But I still like that dumb-ass bear. [5/10]
If I've begun almost every Halloween Horror-fest Blog-a-Thon with a silent movie, I like to end each October with a release from this year. In particular, to make the occasion extra-special, I always try and find a new release specifically set on Halloween. Here in 2020, and most likely because the pandemic has caused so many films to be delayed, pickings were slim for new horror movies set on Halloween. I was intrigued by “The Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting” because it was a new film from Rachel Taladay. However, that one looks more like a kid-friendly, Y.A. adaptation than a horror film. I really would've liked to have seen “What Will Happen Next Will Scare You,” the new film from the makers of “WNUF Halloween Special.” However, that movie streamed at one online festival and isn't available anywhere else. I was so desperate I almost put “Hubie Halloween” on my watch list. That's when I heard about micro-budget horror/comedy “Mass Hystertia,” set in Salem, MA on October 31st.
Paige is part of a group of historical performers in Salem, Massachusetts. She wears period accurate clothes and acts in the same play about the witch trials every day. Paige's agent, however, has promised her an acting job on Broadway. As Halloween night, the busiest time of year for Salem, approaches, Paige's costars throw her a going-away party. At her final performance of the stage show, she directs her monologue at an obnoxious audience member. He then falls dead on the spot. Terrified, the crowd of tourists begin to suspect Paige is an actual witch. Their fear, intensified by other weird events, drives the tourists into an angry mob. Paige and the rest of her cast members are soon running for their lives.
If “Mass Hysteria” has a major flaw, it's that the mobs of deranged tourists never feel like much of a threat. They are far too goofy to be scary. Several of them are dressed in ridiculous outfits. A few of the tourists have exaggerated German accents, a worn-out gag that stopped being funny years ago. Further diluting any possible tension is that the tourists are regularly vomiting and farting, making sure they are perpetually comedic figures, not frightening ones. That wouldn't be an issue if “Mass Hysteria” wasn't occasionally trying to create some tension. Like in a scene where the mob actually appears to burn someone alive. For the last act, a twist that makes someone else entirely the antagonist is introduced. Which is one of the film's smarter writing decisions, even if it has nowhere near the gravity to pull off a tonal shift like that.
I could grouse about some other things. A number of shots involving a pick-up truck are badly framed. Even though themes of persecution and scapegoating clearly run through the story, none of them amount to much. “Mass Hysteria” also probably could have used its setting more. Despite taking place in Salem, many of the film's scenes are shot in indistinct forests. Halloween is part of the plot but I wish a little more seasonal atmosphere had been incorporate. Still, for a film that was clearly made for a small budget by a group of friends, I enjoyed this one. I hope the directors continue to get to make movies and focus more on creating their own style, instead of copying someone else's, next time. “Mass Hysteria” is still worth a watch. [6/10]
No, Halloween is about ritual, tradition. About acknowledging the spirits. About keeping the morbid heart alive. The candles in the Jack-o-lanterns are just about ready to burn out. It's time to close the gates for another year. The ritual is complete. I have traveled the Autumn Country and am now on the other side. October is my home. I'm always sad to see it go, even if finishing the journey is a relief too. But I take Halloween with me too. The spooky season is always on the inside, always waiting to come out when the time is right. Good-bye, ghosts, goblins, vampires, werewolves. Good-bye and good night. Travel safely, skeletons. Be careful, zombies. I don't want anything to happen to you before the next time we can meet. Before the welcoming arms of Mother October open up again and take me home.
Well, this is a perfect time to dress like a Giallo-inspired character because only weirdos on the internet like me will recognize and appreciate the effort. Cheers, and happy halloween!
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