Halloween Weekend: What’s Playing

Every year I look forward to all the monsterfests and creepshows on t.v. for Halloween weekend. I’m curious what horror picks the networks think the general public might be interested in. Unfortunately, I’m disappointed just about every year. This year isn’t much better. Let’s take tonight for instance. John Carpenter’s Vampires is on. This movie is just horrible. No, not horrible, but really bad - and really boring. I can forgive a horror movie that is bad due to acting, effects, whatever, as long as there is something remotely interesting or different. That’s not the case with this movie. First of all, James Woods is NOT cool in this movie. Washed up Daniel Baldwin just looks like a mean-tempered drunk. Yet, these vampire hunters are supposed to be cool. Nope. And I’ve seen episodes of Buffy that were much scarier. Way better done was From Dusk Til Dawn. Watch that instead.

Among the other flicks on this weekend are Friday the 13th (and all the ones after that), Scream (AGAIN), Scream 3, Scary Movie and Urban Legend. Two bright spots were The Omen and The Shining. I did catch most of the special about “The Curse of The Exorcist”. A lot of misfortunate things happened on the set and to the people involved in the movie including fires, deaths and accidents. Mostly though, it just makes the case that director William Friedkin was a total asshole who mistreated his cast and crew.

Since I don’t want to sound crabby about the Halloween horror picks, let me toss out a few movies that I just love and I highly recommend. Watch Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow”. It’s really one of his best. Since we’re on the subject of Tim Burton, also give “The Nightmare Before Christmas” a viewing. Make it a Timmy night! A couple other fairly recent movies I like are “Cabin Fever” (grab the barf bag during the shaving scene) and the new “Dawn of the Dead”. For many more recommendations, visit Socreepy’s must-have horror movies!

The Munsters
1313 Mockingbird Lane. Dragula. Eddie’s Woof Woof doll. You just have to love The Munsters. The Munsters began their stint on CBS on September 24, 1964 and ran for two years. The show has been in heavy syndication since then and Munsters fever just gets hotter and hotter, particularly every year around Halloween.

The head of the Munster clan is Herman Munster. Herman was assembled in Germany by Dr. Frankenstein who used various parts and pieces to make our seven foot (and then some) tall doting dad. After being put together, an English family adopted Herman and gave him the last name of “Munster”. Herman is a swell guy - he loves his family, drag racing and well, Pat Boone, which might be the scariest thing about him. He works at the Gateman, Goodbury and Graves Funeral Parlor.

Herman’s wife is the lovely Lily Munster, daughter of Count Dracula (Grandpa Munster). She’s not so different than June Cleaver, though she’s a devil in the kitchen. Anyone care for cream of vulture soup? Filet of dragon? Maybe you’re more inclined to go for the bird’s nest stew or roasted hyena foot. Lily Munster was essentially an old-fashioned wife that saw her husband and family through crazy situation after crazy situation. Plus, she had class and loads of style, much like her counterpart Morticia Addams. She’s also probably partly responsible for the goth fetish so many people have developed over the years. After all, Lily was hot!

Grandpa Munster (aka Count Dracula) is Lily’s father. He lives in the basement and spends his time making potions that often blow up part of the house. He also sleeps hanging upside down like a bat, but not in a coffin. Grandpa must have been a player, because he was married 16 times. Out of those marriages, he had Lily, an unnamed daughter and son Lester, who was The Wolf Man. He brings quite a bit of humor to the mix as he and Herman are always getting into trouble and devising schemes of some sort.

Marilyn Munster is the “ugly” one. Well, at least in the eyes of her Munster family. She’s a beautiful, blonde teenager and regular guys just fawn all over her - until they meet her family. Marilyn’s mother was Lily’s sister and she’s lived with her aunt and uncle since she was small. Several episodes featured Marilyn wanting to meet the right guy only to have him run away with fright.

Little Eddie Munster was a wolf boy that howled at the moon and carried around Woof Woof, his werewolf doll. Eddie wouldn’t go to bed if it was too dark out (he thought that was too early). Like Granpda Munster, Eddie slept hanging upside down in his closet. He was a fifth grader at Mockingbird Heights Elementary School and a member of the running team.

The Munsters had much in common with “Leave It To Beaver”. First of all, they had the same creators. More importantly, The Munsters was about a solid family life, despite the ghoulish outward appearance and unconventional lifestyle. Most of the shows dealt with them being perfectly normal and loving to each other, but absolutely hideous and freaky to everyone outside the family.

Fun facts:
Butch Patrick appeared in the Sid and Marty Krofft kids show “Lidsville” in the early ’70s. It made him a teen idol.

In June 2004, Herman Munster was ranked #19 in TV Guide’s list of the “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time”.

Herman and Lily Munster were one of the first (but not THE first) TV couples to share a bed.

The Munsters cast:
Herman Munster - Fred Gwynne
Lily Munster - Yvonne De Carlo
Grandpa - Al Lewis
Marilyn Munster - Beverley Owen and Pat Priest
Edward Wolfgang Munster - Butch Patrick

Frightening Fact:
George Barris designed the Munsters Dragula, the Munsters Koach, the Batmobile and the Flintstones car. SoCreepy LOVES his work - check it out for yourself!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” made it perfectly clear to us that vampires and demons do in fact walk the earth. And they smoke cigarettes. And they like money. And they make-out, have sex and occasionally, they walk around in broad daylight. In other words, they are just like you or me, but they live longer. A hell of a lot longer.

The TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” came to life on the WB in March of 1997. Most people know it was the brainchild of Joss Whedon. Before I get to Joss, let’s talk about his serious writing credentials in the form of natural talent and an unfair gene pool. Joss Whedon’s father was Tom Whedon. He wrote for a couple shows you may have heard of like “Captain Kangaroo”, “Alice”, “Benson”, “The Golden Girls” and one of SoCreepy’s favorite 70’s kid shows, “The Electric Company” (remember Morgan Freeman as Easy Reader??). If that’s not enough, Joss’s grandfather was John Whedon, a writer for “Leave It To Beaver”, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Andy Griffith Show”.

Before Joss began work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie and the TV series), he started out as a writer on “Roseanne” and the TV series “Parenthood”. In 1992, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was released as a movie starring Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, Rutger Hauer and Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman). The characters were all creations of Joss. No one could have possibly had a better idea than making the typical self-obsessed blonde cheerleader type into an ass-kicking vampire slayer. It appealed to the girls and the boys. And of course, the horror geeks and nerds (like us). It didn’t do great business at the box office, but it truly made an impact on the small screen.

The semi-boring, average community of Sunnydale had the misfortune of being located on top of a hellmouth (one of seven on earth), a boiling cesspool that continually spawned evil beyond imagination. Let’s just put it this way - there was no bad “side” of town. It was all bad. Demons of all sorts roamed the streets and alleys, but in particular, Sunnydale was swarming with vampires. Too bad for them it was the home of the Slayer hottie, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Bad for them, great for us.

For seven years, Buffy and her pals Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris and her Watcher Giles fought the good fight. Along the way, Buffy fell in love with vampire Angel, in lust with vampire Spike and in ho-hum-ville with boyfriend Riley. Plus, there were countless other fantastic characters like Faith, Cordelia, Andrew and Drusilla (Editor’s note: SoCreepy was NEVER a fan of Dawn’s horribly annoying character). The show really was an entertaining and touching mix of horror, humor, friendship, angst, belonging, responsibility and tolerance.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” did things well by mixing up genres and turning things a little “wonky” at times. For a reason we’ve never been able to figure out, there was an all-musical episode called “Once More, With Feeling” that really defies description but managed to move the story along and be a hell of a lot of fun. In general, Buffy dialogue was some of the best and wittiest we’ve ever heard - in television or movies.

Buffy was as touching as it was funny. It was suprisingly difficult to watch the episode when Buffy’s mom Joyce was found dead in the house. Equally upsetting and moving was the death of Tara. After all, this was just a goofy TV show, right? Why did we care so much??

After seven seasons, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” went out with a bang. Sunnydale disappeared forever and the Scooby gang moved to hopefully greener pastures. To this day, the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” legacy lives all over the Internet and hope springs eternal that maybe three times is a charm and Buffy will be revived just once more.

Basic Cast:
Buffy Summers - Sarah Michelle Gellar
Willow Rosenberg - Alyson Hannigan
Xander Harris - Nicholas Brendon
Rupert Giles - Anthony Stewart Head

Additional Cast:
Angel (Angelus) - David Boreanaz
Spike - James Marsters
Cordelia Chase - Charisma Carpenter
Anya - Emma Caulfield
Faith - Eliza Dushku
Oz - Seth Green
Dawn Summers - Michelle Trachtenberg
Drusilla - Juliet Landau
Tara Maclay - Amber Benson
Joyce Summers - Kristine Sutherland

Frightening Fact:
The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” actresses that played Amy, Darla and Cordelia all originally auditioned for the part of Buffy Summers. Sarah Michelle Gellar originally tried out for the part of Cordelia Chase.