Alfred Hitchcock Presents Ghost Stories for Young People

Hey Gang! Richard has very kindly written a guest post! About Hitchcock!

Sometime in the 1980s, everyone went Alfred Hitchcock crazy. Between films like Psycho and The Birds being on TV constantly, Psycho II making its television premiere, Psycho III in theaters, "Alfred Hitchock Presents" in syndication, AND "The New Afred Hitchcock Presents" on TV as well, you couldn't let out a secret fart without the ghost old Hitch catching a whiff of it. I too was swept up in all this madness. I remember very vividly watching Psycho and Psycho II on TV one night and being completely freaked out. I started dragging a chair into the bathroom whenever I had to shower. I would jam the back of the chair under doorknob to slow Mrs. Bates down a little.

My parents couldn't help but notice that I was into the "Master of Suspense" so they got me his record titled: "Alfred Hitchcock Presents Ghost Stories for Young People" either for my birthday or Christmas, I can't remember which. Where they had obtained a copy, I have no idea. All I know is that this album brought me so much joyful dread that very night. Side A scared me so badly that I didn't dare flip the record over. Instead, I waited until the following day. In fact, I started it beforenoon so that there was no chance that Side B would finish after dusk.

Revisiting this record now, for the first time in nearly 30 years, everything is all new and familiar to me which means I must have listened to this record A LOT. I am instantly transported back to my childhood bedroom bathed in the gloom of a cloudy afternoon. There are G.I. Joes in every available nook and cranny. There is a collection of secondhand (and unread by me) Hardy Boys books. What the fuck is up with those anyway? How come they were never as good as the cover art? 

"Ghost Stories for Young People" is just wonderful even though it is wildly hokey. Any ghost story that features the line: "And in the door came a squirrel as big as a... SHEEP DOG!" is silly as heck, to say the least. Give it a listen and maybe get a little peek into my childhood. More importantly, see if you get a little creeped out by some fun yet effective ghost stories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T255y7nKLY&feature=youtu.be

Slashers from 1989

While Richard was having The Vorheesathon he sent me a text complaining how awful Friday The 13th Part 9: Jason Takes Vancouver After A Long Boat Ride was and I said that I couldn't think of ANY good slasher films from 1989. He said he would have to take a look at a list to be sure, but offhand he couldn't either. So you know what I did: easy blog content!

The first things that popped into my head were Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers and whatever Nightmare On Elm Street film came out that year. Halloween 5 has a few moments that I really enjoy but as a whole is not a great film. I haven't seen A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child as I'm not a big Freddy fan but I think I have read it is not that great.

So I did some digging around and made a list.


Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland
Silent Night, Deadly Night III: You Better Watch Out
The Stepfather II
Intruder
Clownhouse
Cutting Class
Moonstalker
Nightmare Beach
Psycho Cop
Elves
Fatal Image
Freeway Maniac
Massacre
Las Vegas Bloodbath
Offerings
Out Of The Dark
Phantom Of The Mall: Eric's Revenge
Return Of The Family Man
Slashdance
Night Visitor
Parents
Hell High


I'm sure the list isn't complete and I'm not sure if all of them are even slasher films. Out of the ones I have seen I do enjoy Intruder and Nightmare Beach. Actually I really liked Nightmare Beach. I've seen Clownhouse but I don't remember much of it other than it's decidedly unwholesome reputation. The Cutting Class disc I got from Netflix didn't play all the way through. Elves is the craziest film I have ever seen and Phantom Of The Mall: Eric's Revenge was okay.

Am I missing some films? Are there films on here that I haven't seen but should?



Check out The Vorheesathon here:


http://www.cinemasomnambulist.com/2013/09/the-friday-13th-voorheesathon.html

Question

Today's question is short and sweet. What was the last great Italian Horror film? Hit me up in the comments.

Creatures Of Light And Darkness

Hello folks. Everyone should quit fooling around here and head over to Simon's blog. We've been corresponding through email for a bit and he is a gentleman of incomparable insight and wit. I suspect he speaks with a British accent. Anyway he is doing a big October blogathon and you do not want to miss it! He is too cultured to do something rash if you don't but you know how I am!

(And I know everyone is checking out Slashtober II at Nessun Timore. Don't make me come over there.)

Creatures Of Light And Darkness

The Night He Came Home (It Was A Friday)

We are all painfully aware that Halloween is my favorite film of all time. You've read me mention it on Doomed Moviethon, you've heard me go on about it on Hello! This Is The Doomed Show, and you got that restraining order on me when I threw rocks at your window late at night because I wanted to talk about it. Well good news! I'm talking about it again and since it's the internet your court documents can't stop me!

So I preordered the 35th Anniversary bluray. Other than a marketing deal I'm not sure why 35 years is significant. Yes there's a 25th Anniversary dvd but is there a 15th Anniversary VHS tape? Will there be a 45th Anniversary download? A 55th Anniversary brain implant? No silly, there will be a 50th Anniversary brain implant.

I'm just one year younger than Halloween so all this __th Anniversary talk can get depressing. I am (barely) a child of the 70's.

Back during the summer I had some people over for a viewing of Halloween. Of the folks present (other than Elizabeth and I) only one had seen it before. We watched the 2007 Anchor Bay bluray and it was one of my best experiences watching the film. Everyone really seemed to get into it.

The 2007 bluray is, up to that point, the best Halloween has ever looked in my opinion. It looks so good I had overlooked the fans' concerns about the colors being brightened and the blue hue being diminished. Usually I am a purist when it comes to these things. Code Red's release of Madman completely removed the blue hue that gives Madman a lot of its atmosphere. But I can't stress enough how sharp the 2007 bluray of Halloween looks. Detail is unbelievable. You can count the leaves on trees in the background.

When I heard there was going to be a 35th Anniversary release I preordered. It didn't matter to me if it was even the same transfer with a different cover. I am borderline obsessive about Halloween. Anchor Bay actually encourages this because they release Halloween all the time. I don't mind, they do run a business and I don't buy their yearly release of Evil Dead II. So we are square.

Across the street neighbor and friend Heather attended our little soiree so when the new disc arrived I invited her to come over and she said she couldn't wait to see it again. Now Heather is new to the world of horror and before we started showing her horror films she professed she didn't like them. So her response made me very happy. I think I'm doing something right.

So how did it go? Ths colors in the daylight scenes are muted to look more like autumn. The nighttime scenes are darker and the blue hues are more in force. And the picture is still very sharp. Heather seemed to enjoy it as much as she did the first time and I still love it after 296 viewings. It was a great experience. This is the version I will return to when I watch it on bluray. Highly recommended.

Book Sale Find!

Twice a year our local library has a booksale. Paperbacks are fifty cents and hardcovers are a dollar. They also have dvds. Look what I snagged:

That's right! A copy of Something Weird's The Thirsty Dead/The Swamp Of The Ravens double feature! Normally I don't pick up any dvds at the booksale because I don't need any more copies of Dorf On Golf. I've been keeping an eye out for this since Richard talked it up a while back. And it was only a dollar! Serendipity!

Check out Richard's The Swamp Of The Ravens review here:

http://doomedmoviethon.com/reviews2/237theswampoftheravens.htm

1 Month Of Blogging!

Hey Gang! The blog has been up for a month today and I'd like to thank everyone who has stopped by. I've had the support of a bunch of other great bloggers like Rod of pitofrod.blogspot.com, Jeffrey of nessuntimore.blogspot.com, Simon of creatures-of-light-and-darkness.blogspot.com, Aaron of the mighty deathrattle.net and of course the king of the internet Richard of cinemasomnambulist.com and doomedmoviethon.com. These Fellow Yellow Fellas are the best!

As of this morning I have 1013 page views! Thanks to everyone!