A Halloween Book!

Scary Books, Kiddies!

The Halloween Book.  By Jack Maguire. Berkley, 1992.

I bought this slim tome at the south OKC Albertson’s on December 5, 1992. It’s a typical smorgasbord of simple costume and decorating suggestions, a few recipes, and the like.

It’s almost as pasteurized as Halloween has become. Give me a few Dionysian thrills and uncertainties!

See you Monday for another music comp, fiends and goblins!
 

The Movie with Such Possibilities

The 1983 film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's stupendous chiller Something Wicked This Way Comes had so much going for it -- most notably the involvement of the maestro himself.  How, then, did such a disaster result that scenes were reshot and score composers swapped?

You may recall that the novel started out as a screenplay to star Gene Kelley, based on Bradbury's story "The Black Ferris."

Here are some previous Super Blog posts about Bradbury's novelistic masterwork:

https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/something-wicked-is-great-achievement_26.html

https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/something-wicked-this-way-comes-but-fun.html

https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/its-most-wonderful-time-of-year.html

https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/its-astounding-piece-of-americana.html

https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/celebrating-big-show-part-4.html

https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/something-wicked-this-way-comes.html

https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/secret-origin-of-something-wicked-this.html

But our topic today is a one-sheet for the film's video release.

How would you have fixed the film?  I would have dispensed with the whole "tornado eats the bad guys" and stuck with the freakin' REAL ENDING of the book -- less impressive to Hollywood types, but more true to the creeps which made the novel attractive in the FIRST place!

You can check out the Georges Delerue rejected score on Spock's Record Round-Up.  I for one wasn't impressed.

See you on Friday!

  

2010 Called, It Wanted Its Anthology Re-Upped

 

Yep, the 2010 Spook-Tacular was dead.  An ex-comp, if you will.  When I learned the link had died, I opened the crypt and cleaned things up a bit, just for you, my pretties!

The contents:

1    Halloween Sale       Goodwill       0:59

2    Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman  The Tubes       4:25

3    It's a Nerdy Halloween      Herbert Midgley  2:42

4    Frankie-Stein       Robbie Robison  2:58

5    This Is Halloween          Panic! At the Disco    3:27

6    I Only Have Eyes for You      Spike Jones 3:26

7 Horray For Horrorwood Frankenstein Drag Queens 2:18

8 It's Halloween Greg Conley 3:07

9 Zombie Dance The Cramps 1:51

10 Mummy Beach Hot Lava 2:59

11 Love Song For A Vampire Annie Lennox 4:12

12 Creature with the Atom Brain JezusFactory 2:40

13 Saturday Evening Ghost Frankie Stein and His Ghouls 2:01

14 Halloween Song Evangelicals 2:15

15 Mummy Walk Contrails 2:36

16 Main Theme Dracula Twins 1:32

17 Vincent Price Zombina & the Skeletones2:19

18 Monster Mash Misfits 2:34

19 Kids Halloween 10/30/2008 ASK U 1:14

20 Halloween Linda Book 2:52

21 Feed My Frankenstein    Alice Cooper 4:40

22 Dead Man's Curve Jan & Dean 2:25

23 Creature from Outer Space Big EyedBeans from Venus 3:05

24 Bo Meets the Monster   Bo Diddley 3:03

25 TV  Theme Gigantor 0:52

26 Frankenstein Stomp Count Lorry & The Biters 2:01

27 The Skeleton In The Closet Louis Armstrong    3:08

28 Frankenstein Twist The Crystals 2:53

29 Frankenstein Meets The Beetles     Jekyll & Hyde 1:51

... And while it's a mixed bag, it's still ALIVE!

As I told you in 2013, the last time this thing escaped into the light, "In the tradition of old spook shows, you are hereby dared to sit still the whole performance through!  Can your heart take the thrill! as monsters emerge from the speakers, REAL and ALIVE! we're not sure what happens when Frankie Stein meets the Creature with the Atom Brain, but -- WOW!"

Now you can discover for yourself!  It's ... 

MA-10 - The 2010 Spook-Tacular

See you Wednesday!