Tonight I decided to go on a hunt for some horror documentaries and found a trio that I felt were worth sharing with you all!
First up is a look at the Universal Horror films in general with Universal Horror (1998) which is narrated by Kenneth Branagh and featuring Ray Bradbury, Sara Karloff, Fay Wray and others talking about how the classic monster movies were made....
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Next up is Behind The Scenes - Bride of Frankenstein, a look at how that particular film came to be!
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And finally we have The Man Behind Universal's Classic Monsters | Bonus Feature Spotlight, a documentary about make-up artist Jack Pierce!
Hope you enjoy those if/ when you get round to watching them....and remember to go see what everyone else taking part in the Countdown is up to by clicking the badge below...like the Classic Horrors Club, who has been uploading reviews, discussions, and more at their Youtube Channel...here's a quick taste!
Amicus Productions loved to put out anthology horror films in the 60s and 70s... They produced seven in total, and so tonight for your viewing pleasure, here's a double bill of two of these movies...both based on the EC horror comics of the same names!
Amicus founder and producer, Milton Subotskywas a huge fan of the comics, and eventually managed to persuade his business partner Max Rosenbergthat buying the movie rights would be a good idea...
William Gaines, EC co-editor and copyright holder, insisted on script approval. With a budget higher than most previous Amicus films, American International Pictureschipped in with some extra cash.
Despite being a fan of the comics, Subotsky had reportedly actually read paperback reprints rather than the original comic books, and that possibly is why only two of the stories are actually based on Talesstories, with the rest being Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fearstories.
Peter Cushing (still haunting my blog...) was offered the role of Ralph Jason in the Wish You Were Here tale, but wanting to try something different, he instead went for the role of Arthur Edward Grimsdyke in the Poetic Justice tale!
Here then is the first feature....Tales From The Crypt!
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As if to counter what happened with Tales from the Crypt, none of the stories in the sequel The Vault of Horror actually appeared in the comic, with one coming from Shock SuspenStories andthe rest all appearing in Tales...
One cool thing to note in this movie is that in the story Bargain in Death, Maitland (Michael Craig) can be seen reading a copy of the novelisation of the earlier Tales film! Geoffrey Davies and Robin Nedwell, who both appeared in the British TV series Doctor in the House are in the same segment.
Another noteworthy fact is that the brother and sister in Midnight Mess are played by actual brother and sister Daniel and AnnaMassey...
Now, lets finish up with our second feature....The Vault Of Horror!
I hope enjoyed that slightly more fact-filled visit to the Cinema of Stuff...I thought I'd put a little bit more effort in for this double bill, as they are two horror classics!
Anyway, if you're still looking for more thrills, spills and spooky chills after that double whammy, you canhope on over to the Countdown Hub and see what the other Cryptkeepeers taking part have been up to by clicking the badge below... like Jamdin over at Moongem Comicswho has been taking a look at old Dark Shadows catalogues amongst other things this Countdown!
Tonight, Cinema of Stuff presents Blood Thirst, a 1971 Filipino-American black-and-white horror film produced and directed by Newt Arnold, and starring Robert Winston, Katherine Henryk and Yvonne Nielson. Shot on location in the Philippines in 1965, the film tells the story of an American detective investigating a series of murders linked to a Manila nightclub. The killings are carried out by a monster so that a beautiful blonde woman, who is actually hundreds of years old, can use the victim's blood to stay forever young.
Blood Thirst was actually completed in 1965 but was not released in the US until 1971, where it was put on a double bill with the British film Bloodsuckers (UK, 1971). Blood Thirst mostly played the grindhouse circuit
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(With thanks to the Boomer Channel on YouTube)
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How are we already almost a third of the way through the month!? Time just seems to fly by faster and faster...so you better hurry along to the Countdown to Halloween hub and see what the other Cryptkeepers are up to by clicking the badge below...or you could just head straight over to see Alexis Skrull over at Alexis' 31 Days of Halloweenwho has some great Peanuts strips for us to read today....
Last night was a stressful one due to previously mentioned issues that I will elaborate on at a later date,so today I'm a bit drained and not feeling up to writing much of a post.... so let's just settle down and watch another episode of Ghost Hunters UK. This episode first aired on The Discovery Channel in 1997...
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Hopefully tomorrow normal service will resume! In the meantime, please go check out what the other Cryptkeepers have been up to by heading over to the Countdown to Halloween hub with a click of the badge below....or you could head straight over to see Lady M who yesterday showed how busy she's been in giving a spooky feel to her garden!
Blimey, that year went by quick! I'd love to say I enjoyed it, but the curse of the blog reared it's head early and I've not been having too great a time...but that story can wait until tomorrow....because now the most important thing is kicking off this year's Countdown to Halloween!!
All throughout the month, bloggers from all over will be posting things to do with or about our favourite time of the year, where it gets a bit darker and spookier and we can all sit wrapped up in our blankets, protected from the cold and have a nice long think about all things Hallowe'en!!
Let's start right away with an episode of Ghosthunters UK, that originally aired from 1996 to 1997 on the Discovery Channel. In this one, Dr. Patrick Ottaway and Jim Lyons investigate Roman ghost sightings at the Treasurer's House York and Mersea Island, Essex.
Hope you enjoyed that! I'll be back tomorrow with something else...you can expect the usual mish mash of comics, gruesome games, TV shows and films and occasional spook sightings from me over the next few weeks...oh, and I'll update you all on my 'wonderful' year as well! 😁
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I'm looking forward to seeing what all my fellow bloggers have planned for the spooky season, and you can of course catch up with what they're up to by clicking the badge at the bottom of this post! Here's to having a wonderful Countdown!
Last year I did one of these to highlight some old posts that I thought some people might not have seen, so lets do another one this year! Just click the links to go the posts.....
Way back in December 2010, Cinema of Stuff Presented....Gappa - The Triphibian Monster, a tale that shows why you should leave strange eggs where you find them!
A trip to the Digital Comic Museum in June 2011 introduced us to the classic comic strip The Fiend in Fur, which gave me one of my favourite monster noises ever (See above).....
Weirdly, I never included this game in any of the Gruesome Games lists, but the threat of nuclear war seems pretty terrifying to me! The odd, dark-humour filled ZX Spectrum game 4 Minute Warning, had me arguing that 'survival horror' has been with us since at least 1984.....
29th October 2012 had me posting some Spooky Cartoons, including the one you see above, head to link to see some more...
And lastly for this throwback, in 2016 I looked at some horror-themed interviews done by Sir Terry Wogan, the legendary British chat-show host, who we lost that year to cancer. Above is an interview with a couple of mediums, James Herbert and Clive Barker....at the link you can find more interviews with Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Sir Christopher Lee!
Well, tomorrow is the big day itself...in fact, as I write this it's literally only 15 minutes away for us in Scotland! I'll maybe squeeze a couple of posts in tomorrow to make up for days missed, but whether or not that is the case, I'll be posting something here tomorrow, so I'll see you back here then! In the meantime, you'd better head off and catch up with all the other Cryptkeepers over at the Countdown Hub by clicking the badge below!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the woods...
Was trying to think of a film to put on the blog tonight, and then a conversation I was having while watching Zombi Workshop on Twitch made me remember this film.....
This low-budget cult classic was made to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of Jaws, and it's inspiration runs right through the trunk of the film! It really is very easy to see it's roots!
If for some reason you feel like you need to watch or re-watch Jaws, only worse and and not about a Great White Shark, but a Great White Pine.....then, uhm......here you go!
Be sure to check out what the other Cryptkeepers are up to before you head off! Michelle over at Zombie Crossingshas some crafty stuff and book review for instance!
For the rest, click the badge below to be whisked off to the Hub for links to the other blogs!
Already being obsessed with the paranormal as a child, I also became obsessed with a certain TV show that interviewed people who had experienced all manner of strange and unexplained occurences!
Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer (2001 - A Space Odyssey, 2010, etc)and inventor of the communications satellite (or at least the idea of the thing), presented three television series over the years exploring the weird and unusual.. Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980), Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1985), and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe (1994).
World of Strange Powers was the one that I remember the most, as it dealt with the things I was most interested in....and its episodes from this series that I'm going to share with you tonight. The interviews with the members of the public who experienced the happenings always made this seem more believable than other shows and documentaries, as you got the experiences in their own words. It's a simple style that I wish more paranormal shows had these days. Anyway, here are a few episodes to watch so you also become hooked!
Be sure to go check out what the other Cryptkeepers taking part in the Countdown to Halloween are up to! Dex over at AEIOU....and Sometimes Why is telling us about the Baffling Mysteries comic book line today, for instance....
For the rest, just click the badge below and that will take you to the Countdown hub!
Kal Kyser was an American bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s. Keyser and his band toured Midwest restaurants and night clubs and gradually built a following. Becoming popular at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant, it was here that Kyser came up with an act combining a quiz with music which became "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge." The act was broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1938 and then moved to NBC Radio from 1939 to 1949. The show rose in the ratings and spawned many imitators. Kyser led the band as "The Ol' Perfessor", spouting catchphrases, some with a degree of Southern American English: "That's right—you're wrong", "Evenin' folks, how y'all?" and "C'mon, chillun! Le's dance!"
The increasing popularity of Keyser and his band led to a series of films, usually starring the band as themselves, and it's one of these movies that I have for you tonight. The comedy horror film "You'll Find Out" also managed to score three of the biggest horror actors at the time in Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre....
In the film, Kay's band are hired to play at the birthday of a young heiress, but upon arrival they discover that a mystical royal, Prince Saliano (Bela) has taken up residence in the house and is helping the heiress' aunt with her Spiritualist learnings. Also present is the family attorney, Judge Mainwaring (Boris) and Professor Fenninger (Peter), a debunker of mediums, spiritualists and the like...But are they all what they claim?? Stick around and find out in this 'Mystery with Music'..........
How has a week gone by already!? Time is going way too fast! Well, at least I managed to cover the missing post from yesterday by posting twice today!
Be sure to head over to the Countdown Hub when you leave the Cinema, where you check out refreshments from all the other Cryptkeepers taking part in the Countdown! Just click the badge below!
So yesterday and today, Storm Amy has been battering the UK, and my parents and cousins have been suffering from power cuts and outages. So far, I've missed losing power, but as the wind is picking up again, I still don't trust typing out any long form posts. So rather than risk it, here's a shorter post that might actually take up more time than reading a normal post would, as it's a 50 minute documentary posted last year on the BBC Archive YouTube channel....
Meet the Ghost Hunters! (1975, BBC)
(Weirdly, when I was typing out that last bit, there was an odd, light knocking from what sounded like the wall to the left of me. This is odd because that just leads to my hall, and if it was my flat door, someone would have rung the bell....spooky!)
Be sure to go check out what the other Cryptkeepers taking part in the Countdown to Halloween are up to! Michael over at My Two Yen Worth has a great Pez collection to show you that he's just saved from further candy corruption, for instance! For the rest, just click the badge below and that will take you to the Countdown hub!
Bela Lugosi stars in this cult classic from 1940, about a Scientist who becomes annoyed at his employers, so creates both a pungent aftershave and giant-sized bats that are attracted to the stinky-splashy-stuff!
Be sure to head over to the Countdown Hub when you leave the Cinema, where you check out refreshments from all the other Cryptkeepers taking part in the Countdown! Just click the badge below!
I think I covered Leap in the Dark in a previous post on here somewhere, putting up a few episodes. I've since discovered more episodes though, so thought I would share! The series was broadcast on British TV on BBC 2. It ran for 4 seasons - in 1973, 1975, 1977 and 1980 - with a total of 24 episodes. The first-season episodes were all documentaries, seasons 2 & 3 were presented by Colin Wilson and consisted of docudramas re-enacting real-life cases of paranormal occurrences, and season 4 was when the series changed and decided to just do original dramas, including episodes written by Alan Garner, Fay Weldon, and David Rudkin. Only the pilot episode remains from season 1, with the rest falling foul of the BBC's tendency to write over all their old master tapes, which has seen many classic series being lost forever.
The episodes I'm sharing today are all docu-dramas from Seasons 2 and 3, and are all quite interesting if you're into this sort of thing.....
(The story of Émilie Sagée, who seemed to be capable of bi-location/ producing a doppleganger)
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Definitely worth adding these to your Halloween watch list! I wish they still made stuff like this...well, I mean they sometimes do, but nowhere near as often...
This will not be my only post today...I have another two or three lined up, but if I remember right, they should all be stuck together like one big post by the end of the day, which means this will appear at the bottom...so I'll put the link to the Countdown Hub here! Click the badge below for the last time this year to be magically transported by Ye Interweb to the Countdown to Halloween Blog, where you can find a list of all this year's participants...
Keep an eye out for more posts throughout the day!
The BBC have been uploading things to their Youtube archive for a few years now, and there is a wealth of interesting clips to be found there! Obviously, for the purposes of the blog I've picked some of the spookier, weirder clips, but if you want to see glimpses of old British life, you should go check out some of the other stuff that's on there for yourselves later.....
But for now, I hope you find somethinamong the videos here that tickles your spooky bone....even if the authenticity of some of the claims in these videos might be, slightly, suspect!
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"Llyn Dulyn (‘Black Lake’ in Welsh) lies nestled in the Carneddau range of mountains in Snowdonia.
A quiet, eerie place, it’s steeped not only in an ancient folklore of evil spirits and witches, but also a more modern variety of ghost story. It was the site of multiple airplane crashes during WWII, and became infamous across North Wales. In this clip, the locals speak in hushed tones to reporter John Swinfield of collecting debris from the plane wrecks, catching strange-looking fish and hearing disembodied voices calling out to them…
Excerpt taken from Nationwide, originally broadcast on BBC One, Wednesday 17th October 1973. "
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""Either 17 people have all been having hallucinations - including the police - or this is the best-documented ghost story of all time."
Nationwide's James Hogg reports from a seemingly ordinary, suburban house in Ponder's End, Enfield, where residents have reported experiencing a variety of unusual phenomena. There has been knocking in the walls, and furniture is regularly thrown around the house - apparently unaided.
These bizarre occurrences have piqued the interest of Maurice Grosse, an inventor and a member of the Society of Psychical Research. Mr Grosse believes that the disturbances are being caused by a poltergeist, and thinks that the recordings he has made while investigating the disturbances in the house might be the best evidence yet of parapsychological activity.
Clip taken from Nationwide, originally broadcast on BBC One, 23 November, 1977."
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"Fyfe Robertson reports from the ruins of Broomhill House in Larkhall, which locals claim is haunted by a ghost known as the Black Lady. They have enlisted the help of a local ghost hunter, Tom Robertson (no relation), to exorcise the spirit.
Originally broadcast 1 February, 1963."
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"There were strange goings-on in Warminster, Wiltshire, home to a spate of flying saucer sightings in the west of England. Nationwide's Brian Ash spent a day and night looking for UFOs with the help of Arthur Shuttlewood and Rex Dutta.
This clip is from Nationwide, originally broadcast 28 August 1973."
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"BBC Northern Ireland's roving reporter James Boyce attends a traditional straw wedding in Derrylin, County Fermanagh and interviews local expert Captain George Saunderson.
"A straw wedding probably dates back to pre-Christian times."
"When the bridal couple return from their honeymoon, the local farmers and farmers' boys gather together dressed in straw to welcome home the happy couple."
This clip was taken from Six Ten, BBC Northern Ireland's local news programme.
Originally broadcast in 1964."
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""It's not rubbish. I saw it and I believe in it."
BBC Panorama reports on alleged Nessie sightings, as well as an ongoing loch-wide search for the elusive beast.
The hunt for the Loch Ness monster, involving a team of volunteers and army-hired search lights is led by David James, a British Member of Parliament.
Reporter Jameson Clark also hears from local eyewitnesses, who claim to have seen Nessie for themselves.
"The evidence, as you've heard, varies. Sometimes one hump, sometimes two, sometimes three."
"It's been seen all over Loch Ness, from Port Augustus to Castle Urquhart."
Clip taken from Panorama, originally broadcast on BBC Television, 13 June, 1960."
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"A major controversy has shaken the rural tranquility of Annacloy in County Down. A celebrated "fairy thorn" tree - a type of hawthorn bush that fairies are especially partial to - has been removed during the dead of night. The uprooting of this magical tree, which was in the proposed path of a major road development, has left many people in the area angry.
BBC Northern Ireland's roving reporter James Boyce visits the scene to speak to some local residents. Have they ever seen a fairy? What is likely to happen to the person who chopped down the fairy thorn?"
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"Fyfe Robertson visits Gruinard, Britain's most mysterious island. Gruinard was the site of Government experiments during World War II and remains shrouded in secrecy.
Local crofters and fishermen know better than to land on Gruinard. Just what do they think happened there all those years ago?
Originally broadcast 17 Ocotober, 1962."
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""Allowing for the fact there's a lot of fraud, a lot of delusion, a lot of wishful thinking... there still is a hard core of something." - Tony Cornell.
Nationwide's James Hogg follows paranormal investigators on the hunt for poltergeists. He meets psychical researcher Tony Cornell, who has been investigating paranormal incidents for over 30 years. Cornell is a Cambridge graduate, whose interest in the paranormal was piqued when he was stationed as a Naval Officer in India. He has investigated hundreds of alleged hauntings, with no success. He and two physics graduates are currently investigating a chest of drawers that has been at the centre of alleged poltergeist activity.
David Berglas is a practising magician, but also a trained psychotherapist and the Vice-Chairman of the Committee for Scientific Investigation into claims of the Paranormal. He demonstrates some of the ways that people can deceive investigators, and explains how often the simplest explanation turns out to be the truth.
James then speaks to Dr Alan Gauld, who has written a book on poltergeists with Cornell, and often investigates phenomenon alongside him. Gauld is particularly stumped by a recent case involving a loud, persistent banging emanating from a young boys' bedroom. The banging has been heard even when the child isn't in the room, and Dr Gauld has gone as far as taking up the floorboards in an attempt to uncover the source.
Gauld and Cornell have now purchased the 'haunted' chest of drawers, in order to wire it up to various electronic gizmos - including a Sinclair Spectrum and several cameras - so if the chest of drawers moves of its own accord, they'll spot it.
After 30 years with no confirmed ghost sightings, what keeps Cornell and Gauld going?
Clip taken from Nationwide, originally broadcast on BBC One, Thursday 17 March, 1983."
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Blimey! Do we really only have a few days left before Hallowe'en!?
Better make sure you head over to the Countdown to Halloween hub to see what the other Cryptkeepers have been up to...I know that Mark Harveyhas been creating some groovy, ghoulish soundscapes for you to listen to, so you should definitely pop over to his blog too!
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