SWH: Week 2 (eight)

Inhumanoids: "The Evil That Lies Within, Part 3" (1986)
A kids' cartoon with zombies straight out of Heavy Metal. (7/10)
d. Ray Lee

Inhumanoids: "The Evil That Lies Within, Part 4" (1986)
Ronald Reagan probably wanted to give Tendril a medal. (7/10)
d. Ray Lee

Inhumanoids: "The Evil That Lies Within, Part 5" (1986)
Man, Auger needs to go into some counseling or something. (7/10)
d. Ray Lee

Watched with Chef Gregory Jay ~250 miles north of home base. Gave Jones Soda Spider Cider a try. Though it only tastes vaguely like apple cider, it was not bad. Another drinkable flavor. Chef declined to eat any of the orange-filled Halloween edition Oreos, revealing that he dislikes food with artificial coloring. I explained that the Dr Pepper he was drinking wasn't naturally brown. "Shaddup," was his good-natured reply. The next morning, he complained that the Inhumanoids theme song was stuck in his head all night. Probably was the food coloring.

SWH: Week 2 (seven)

Tales from the Crypt: "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" (1990)
Not another killer doll story... waitaminute, this is frickin' hilarious. (8/10)
d. Richard Donner

Carnivàle: "Babylon" (trailer)
Guinea Pig 4: Mermaid in the Manhole (trailer)
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "The Shaving" (2003)

Silent Hill (2006)
Very respectful of the excellent game series, though the long exposition scene was not the best way to present that information. (7/10)
d. Christophe Gans

Inhumanoids: "The Evil That Lies Within, Part 1" (1986)
Giant monsters smashing the hell out of San Francisco was something Saturday mornings needed. (7/10)
d. Ray Lee

Inhumanoids: "The Evil That Lies Within, Part 2" (1986)
The mantle is not liquid-hot magma, but, rather, huge diamonds. (7/10)
d. Ray Lee

Watched with Chef Gregory Jay ~250 miles north of home base shortly after smoking a Clint Eastwood-style cigar over a camp fire.

SWH: Week 2 (six)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1992)
[A Year on the Satellite of Love] (8/10)
d. Jim Mallon & B. Reeves Eason & Joseph Kane & Bernard L. Kowalski

The Munsters: "Tin Can Man" (1964)
I was just worried Eddie was going fall out of the back of the Koach; is there a seatbelt in that thing or what? (7/10)
d. Earl Bellamy

SWH: Week 2 (five)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: "Being from Another Planet" (1992)
[A Year on the Satellite of Love] (8/10)
d. Jim Mallon & Tom Kennedy

Tales from the Crypt: "Four-Sided Triangle" (1990)
So, are all TftC episodes about adultery, or what? (6/10)
d. Tom Holland

Halloween II (1981)
Slides by on its predecessor's good will, but pretty inept by itself. (6/10)
d. Rick Rosenthal

Halloween 2 Extended Interviews (2003)
Halloween 2 Panel Discussion at the H25 Convention (2003)

Horror's Hallowed Grounds: Halloween (2005)
Fun stuff; I wish I got the Horror Channel. (8/10)
d. Andrew Kasch & Sean Clark

The Munsters: "Lo-Cal Munster" (1964)
Fred Gwynne didn't seem to be his usual, high-spirited self this week. (6/10)
d. Norman Abbott

SWH: Week 1 (four)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: "Teenagers from Outer Space" (1992)
[A Year on the Satellite of Love] (7/10)
d. Kevin Murphy & Tom Graeff

Halloween (Commentary by John Carpenter, Debra Hill & Jamie Lee Curtis) (1994)
John and Debra have plenty of interesting nuggets and there's rarely a spot of silence. (8/10)
d. John Carpenter

On Location: 25 Years Later (2003)
Halloween Panel Discussion at the H25 Convention (2003)

Halloween: Unmasked (1999)
OK for a brief documentary, but doesn't cover much beyond what was said in the commentary. (6/10)
d. Mark Cerulli

Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest (2003)
A little bit of new footage and info, but padded with far too many movie scenes. (7/10)
d. Steven Smith

SWH: Week 1 (three)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: "The Giant Gila Monster" (1992)
[A Year on the Satellite of Love] (7/10)
d. Jim Mallon & Ray Kellogg

The Munsters: "A Walk on the Mild Side" (1964)
How did Eddie get changed back to normal size? (6/10)
d. Norman Abbott

The Munsters: "Rock-a-Bye Munster" (1964)
I remember as a kid watching Herman think the toy Frankenstein was his newborn baby and being extremely disturbed. (8/10)
d. Norman Abbott

Tales from the Crypt: "The Sacrifice" (1990)
Michael Ironside could read Stephen King's laundry list and be interesting, though the rest of the show ain't too special. (6/10)
d. Richard Greenberg

Tales from the Crypt: "For Cryin' Out Loud" (1990)
Yeah, I'd beg to be killed if Sam Kinison's voice was yelling in my ear all day, too. (7/10)
d. Jeffrey Price

The Munsters: "Pike's Pique" (1964)
Perfectly establishes Lily, Herman and Grandpa's personalities. (7/10)
d. Seymour Berns

SWH: Week 1 (two)

Near Dark (trailer)
The Curious Dr. Humpp (trailer)
Scanners: "Head Explosion"

Creepshow 2 (1987)
"Old Chief Wood'nhead" is poorly constructed, "The Hitchhiker" is average, but "The Raft" is one excellent piece of horror. (6/10)
d. Michael Gornick

Beware! Children at Play (trailer)
Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (trailer)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 07-1: The Thing and I"

Masters of Horror: "Cigarette Burns" (2005)
I really wanted to be blown away, but the story isn't anything special and parts felt inauthentic. (6/10)
d. John Carpenter

Dead & Breakfast (trailer)
Vampire Wars: Battle for the Universe (trailer)

Killer Condom (1996)
Had its funny bits and was a pretty original idea for an AIDS metaphor, but drags on for far too long. (5/10)
d. Martin Walz

Tales from the Crypt: "The Thing from the Grave" (1990)
Again, you can see the ending coming thirteen miles away, but the zombie makeup was very nice. (6/10)
d. Fred Dekker

Tonight's proceedings were joined by C and fed by the unbeatable, though expensive, Pizza House. Pizza and french fries covered in bacon and cheddar cheese were enjoyed by all. Afterwards, the candy drawer was employed.

I taste-tested my first of the Jones Soda Halloween 2006 Limited Edition soft drinks. They released seven flavors this year. Four of them are in mini-cans and are flavors aimed at kids. Three of them are in glass bottles and seem to be for adults to mix with alcohol. I went for a glass bottle of Lemon Drop Dead Soda tonight. It's drinkable, unlike some flavors from last year. I would describe it as liquid lemon-flavored Pez.

Here's my watchin' box, decked out for Six Weeks of Halloween:

SWH: Week 1 (one)

The Munsters: "Pilot: My Fair Munster" (1964)
Good choices all around not to continue in color or with the boring Phoebe. (5/10)
d. Norman Abbott

The Munsters: "Munster Masquerade" (1964)
Probably a good choice for an introductory episode, but not that exciting. (6/10)
d. Lawrence Dobkin

The Munsters: "My Fair Munster" (1964)
Grandpa's love potion = classic Munster hijinx. (7/10)
d. David Alexander

Tales from the Crypt: "Three's a Crowd" (1990)
I knew what the ending would be immediately, but its extent got me to laugh in surprise. (7/10)
d. David Burton Morris

Six Weeks of Halloween: 2006

Six Weeks of Halloween
2006

---

1. 23 Sep-26 Sep: one - two - three - four
2. 27 Sep-03 Oct: five - six - seven - eight - nine - ten
3. 04 Oct-10 Oct: eleven - twelve - thirteen - fourteen - fifteen
   
4. 11 Oct-17 Oct: sixteen - seventeen - eighteen - nineteen - twenty - twenty-one
   
5. 18 Oct-24 Oct: twenty-two - twenty-three - twenty-four - twenty-five - twenty-six
6. 25 Oct-31 Oct: twenty-seven - twenty-eight - twenty-nine - thirty - ---

---

I love Halloween. Falling in the heart of autumn, Halloween smells of harvest foods, shivers of cool days, and sounds of dry leaves rustling in the wind. Traditionally, it marked the point in the year when the veil separating our world from the spirit world was the thinnest. In modern American culture, this is the time of year during which everyone feels free to celebrate the horror genre. Little old ladies hang ghosts from their trees, children dress as bloody-fanged vampires, grocery stores stock plastic severed heads, and normally mundane sitcoms air quirky, spooky episodes.

As is obvious from my choices of chronocinethon subjects, horror is my favorite genre. I love that it gets its own holiday (eat it, sci-fi). In recent years, I've extended this horror holiday from one all-too brief day into a six-week celebration of movie and candy consumption. From the Autumnal Equinox to Samhain, I watch nothing but horror movies (with the exception of MST3K episodes this year).

For the 8th year in a row, I will be watching Halloween on October 31st. Outside of that, I don't have a set movie schedule. Friends and spouses will influence movie choices during their occasional participation. Things I may watch include:

• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
• Amazing Stories: "Mummy Daddy"
  
• Blade series (3 movies)
• Friday the 13th Part ?? (on October 13th, of course)
  
• From Dusk Till Dawn series (3 movies)
• Halloween series (8 movies, 1 commentary, 35 documentaries)
• Jaws series (4 movies)
• Masters of Horror (11 episodes)
• The Munsters (70 episodes, 2 movies)
• Poltergeist series (3 movies)
• Puppet Master series (8 movies)
• Sleepaway Camp series (3 movies, footage from an unfinished 4th)
• Sleepy Hollow
• Tales from the Crypt (starting with 2.05: "Three's a Crowd")
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre series (6 movies)
• Zombi series (5 movies)

Plenty of horror movie trailers, Treehouse of Horror I-VII segments, horror-themed music videos and other Halloweeny bits will also be thrown into the mix. In closing, the immortal words of the worlds' spookiest narrator:

Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality.
But, there is -- unseen by most -- an underworld.
A place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit...
A DARKSIDE