Halloween-A-Thon 2011: Readings From The Count (Dracula/Dooku)

Christopher Lee brought the Hammer Film's version of Dracula to life and in one of the few strokes of genius that George Lucas showed in his Star Wars Prequels, Lee appeared as Count Dooku, an evil Sith Lord. He also brought his fiendish talents to the role of the villian Saruman in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. His creepiness remains intact and he can still send a chill up my spine. Here are two collections of Lee reading from various Horror writings. The first is a collection of Edgar Allen Poe's works and the second a collection of various writers that is referred to as "Fireside Tales". The collection of Poe's tales were released as an audio book in the mid 80s while the "Fireside Tales" were originally broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on December 30th, 2004. Here they are for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Christopher Lee Reads Tales of Horror

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: The Voices of Horror (re-up)

As a kid, I was drawn to story albums and spoken word recordings. As you can tell by a lot of my posts, I still am. One of the ones that always caught my eye as a kid was a 1963 Wonderland Records release entitled, "Famous Monsters Speak". I would see it at the store and in ads in my comic books but alas, never obtained it in my youth. It would take me until the 21st Century (2003 to be exact) to obtain a copy for myself. It was well worth the wait! Voiced by former Dead End Kid, Gabriel Dell, the album consists of two tracks. The first (side 1) deals with the invention of a recording device that allows us to hear the thoughts of Frankenstein's Monster and the second (side 2) tells the tale of a reporter who has been entrapped in Dracula's Castle. The stories are real works of art in that they maintain an integrity not often found in children's records. They hold up well to this day and actually give great side stories to the original film versions of both characters. The Frankenstein story is very interesting in that it deals with the Monster's feelings towards his creator and his life, a side of the story that was included in the original Mary Shelley novel, but not portrayed in the Universal film version. I can't say enough great things about this album so I'll just say, here it is for your fright filled October enjoyment! Here's "Famous Monsters Speak". Enjoy!

Famous Monsters Speak

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: When Michael Comes Slashing Home Again, Hurrah, Hurrah

In 1978, John Carpenter released what many, including myself, feel is the greatest horror film of them all. He took a self-penned screenplay, added virtually no budget and an up and coming actress who happened to be the daughter of two gigantic film stars (including the original slasher chick, Janet Leigh!) and turned it into the greatest horror franchise the world had seen up to that point. Of course I am talking about Halloween. It was great when it first came out and to this day. The sequels don't hold up to the original. There are really only two that matter. The second one as it is the continuation of the first film and the seventh which brought back the original character of Lori Strode played by the pre-Activia Jamie Lee Curtis. The great thing about Halloween H2O (the seventh film in the series) is that it acts as if Halloween 3 through 6 doesn't even exist. (In my mind, they don't).

I was hopeful that the series would end with H2O but unfortunately, the greed train pulled in and another sequel was made followed by a "re-imagination" (I hate that term) of the original by Rob Zombie. I've only seen a tad of that film and I really can't say anything too bad because my good friend and boss, Micky Dolenz was part of it. I can say that it is not the original. There will never be another "Halloween". For today's treat I bring you the soundtracks to Halloween and HalloweenH2O. The music for the original was written by John Carpenter on a little Casio keyboard and is legendary. It's minimalism at its finest! Here is the 20th anniversary edition of that soundtrack that was released in 1998, the same year H20 was released. Enjoy!

Halloween OST

Halloween H2O OST

Tricks & Treats 09: Happy Halloween!!!!!

It's officially Halloween 2009! Here is the complete (and I mean complete - the "TV scenes are added") and still the greatest Horror flick of all time, John Carpenter's Halloween! Enjoy! And Happy Halloween!

A Political Monster

Saw this great pull-out poster from the old Dynamite Magazine floating around the web and thought it was fitting due to the fact that A) it's October and there's only 10 more days until Halloween; B) In case you haven't noticed, we are about to vote for our next president; and C) I used to own this as a kid and it hung in my room at one point.

They're Coming For You Barbara

The Night of The Living Dead is one of my all time favorite horror flicks. I refuse to watch the remake or any of the other "Living Dead" rip-off films that have followed, but the original Romero classic will always hold a place in my heart. The music adds just as much as the visuals so I thought that I would share the soundtrack album with you. Here is the complete soundtrack album originally released in 1982. Funny how they never released this back in the 60s when the film came out. Since the 82 release, there have been two other releases featuring more and more music that wasn't on the original release. This however is the 1982 album on Varese Saraband. Here it is for your frightful listening! Enjoy!

Night of The Living Dead OST

BONUS: Here's the complete film for your enjoyment:

Saturday Fright Special

After giving the whole spiel on late night horror hosts for the Count Floyd post, I started thinking about my good friend Mark "Dangerboy" Nelson who, along with several other friends of mine, have started up a late night horror show in Keene, New Hampshire entitled, "Saturday Night Fright Fest". It's been on for over a year now and it's doing quite well. If you want to watch it, you can stream it live every saturday night at this website. It's on every Saturday night at 10 and every Sunday night at midnight. For those of you who aren't available at those times, here's a recent episode for you to enjoy! It features the film, "Tormented"! For more info on the show you can head over to their website!