Boo!

CSI: NY Season 4 Episode 6
This episode, entitled "Boo", originally aired on Halloween 2007.

Scare Tactics

Scare Tactics is a reality show on the Sci-Fi Channel, currently hosted by Tracy Morgan.

This hidden camera show puts unsuspecting victims into terrifying situations, usually involving movie-style special effects and makeup that recreates horror movie clichés. The victims are set up by friends/family in tandem with producers.

The unsuspecting victims on the show are usually lured to some location, either invited there by people they know (who were in on the act), or reporting for what they thought was a new job. Soon they would experience some kind of terrifying scene — like a strange monster, a terrible accident, or a violent crime being committed – all of which was staged while the victim was secretly being video recorded.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" is an American television series that aired on ABC in 1974. It featured a newspaper reporter — Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin — who investigates crimes with mysterious and unlikely causes that the proper authorities won't accept or pursue. Crimes which seem to point to a Jack the Ripper copycat, voodoo priestesses and the walking dead ("Zombies"), a coven of warlocks ("Vampire"), and an extra-hairy luxury liner passenger with a taste for his shipmates ("Werewolf").

Though the show only lasted 20 episodes, it is often credited as the inspiration for "The X Files" and was succeeded by a second television series with a new cast and characters in 2005, as well as several novels and comic books.


The Kolchak character originated in an unpublished novel, The Kolchak Papers, written by Jeffrey Grant Rice. In the novel, Las Vegas newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak tracks down and defeats a serial killer who is really a vampire named Janos Skorzeny.

The novel was finally published by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original under the title The Night Stalker with a Darren McGavin photo cover to tie in with the movie. The novelizations of the first two movies were republished by Moonstone in 2007 as an omnibus edition called The Kolchak Papers.

The series was preceded by two television movies:

The Night Stalker (1972)
Rice was approached by ABC who optioned the property, which was then adapted by Richard Matheson into a TV movie produced by Dan Curtis and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Darren McGavin played the role of Carl .

The Night Stalker aired on the ABC network on January 11, 1972 and garnered the highest ratings of any TV movie at that time (33.2 rating - 54 share). Matheson received a 1973 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best TV Feature or Miniseries Teleplay.

The Night Strangler (1973)
Impressed by its success, ABC commissioned Richard Matheson to write a second movie, The Night Strangler, which featured another serial killer in Seattle who strangled his victims and used their blood to keep himself alive for over a century through the use of alchemy. The Seattle Underground City was used as a setting for much of the action, and provided the killer with his hiding place. Dan Curtis both produced and directed the second movie, which also did well in the ratings. Rice then wrote a novelization based on Matheson's screenplay, a reverse of the situation for the first movie. The novel was published by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original under the title The Night Strangler with a close-up of the monster's eye to tie in with the movie.


Here's episode 9: "The Spanish Moss Murders", from a playlist:





Sources include this Wikipedia article.

Fear Itself: New Year's Day (2008)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here's an episode of the NBC show "Fear Itself".

New Year's Day was written by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II).

A woman wakes up on New Year's morning to discover that the city is in an uproar. She vaguely remembers a party and it is assumed she passed out. She then attempts to get to her friend's apartment while continuing to remember parts of the party and all the while avoiding zombies.

Tales from the Crypt - And All Through the House (1989)

And All Through the House, written by Fred Dekker and directed by Robert Zemeckis, originally aired on June 10, 1989. It was Episode 2 of Season 1 of "Tales from the Crypt".

A greedy woman makes the mistake of murdering her husband while an escaped mental patient dressed in a Santa Claus outfit is on the loose.

Check out the host, Crypt Keeper, dressed as Santa during the introduction!

Watch Part 1

Watch Part 2

The Twilight Zone - The Night of the Meek (1960)

The Night of the Meek, written by Rod Serling, originally aired on December 23, 1960. It was Episode 11 of Season 2 of "The Twilight Zone".

Christmas in the Twilight Zone! Art Carney (Ed Norton of "The Honeymooners") is a forlorn department store Santa who takes to drinking - only to find himself experiencing the nicest Christmas ever!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, written by Dr. Seuss and animated by Chuck Jones, is appropriate for this blog for two reasons:

First of all - The narrator and voice of the Grinch is Boris Karloff.

Second of all - The Grinch! A vile, foul monster! Remember?

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch / You have termites in your smile / You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile / Mr. Grinch / Given the choice between the two of you, I'd take the... seasick crocodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch / You're a nasty, wasty skunk / Your mind is filled with unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk / Mr. Grinch / The words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote: Stink, stank, stunk!

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch / Your heart's an empty hole / Your brain is full of spiders, you have garlic in your soul / Mr. Grinch / I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

Your soul is an apalling dung-heap, overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots.

The famous Grinch song was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, perhaps better known as the voice of Tony the Tiger in the TV commercials. He received no screen credit for his singing, an oversight Dr. Seuss attempted to rectify by sending letters to every major columnist in America identifying Ravenscroft as the singer on "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". He is also part of the chorus on the other two songs.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story by Ambrose Bierce. It was originally published in 1890, and first anthologized in Bierce's 1891 collection, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. The story is famous for its irregular time sequence and twist ending.

A 1962 French short film was based on this story. It was directed by Robert Enrico and produced by Marcel Ichac and Paul de Roubaix with music by Henri Lanoe. It won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards, and was also screened on American television as an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Back For Christmas

Halloween is over (sigh), but here's a little pre-Christmastime tale for you.

Escape's "Back for Christmas" was adapted from the short story of the same name by John Collier. Both Escape and Suspense presented this tale but without the gruesome elements of the original work. The radio dramatizations also added extra scenes to fill the half-hour format.

The story begins in England, inside the house of a professor of botany named Herbert Carpenter. He and his wife, Hermione, are soon to leave for an extended trip to America, where he will be lecturing.

Hermione is a shrew who keeps her husband under her constant control. She has planned every detail of their trip with precision and, to her annoyance, Herbert is not conforming with her plan. Instead, he is wasting time on a botanical project in their cellar. He is also lingering too long at the bookshop to chat with the bookseller, Miss Markham.

Hermione has promised all of their friends that they will be back for Christmas, but if Herbert has his way -- she won't be.

The radioplay performed on Escape had originally aired on Suspense on December 23, 1943. Peter Lorre played the role of the professor and his rendition of the hen-pecked husband gone mad is classic. The name of the actress who played Hermione is not given, but it was probably Jeanette Nolan.

Listen to "Back for Christmas".

The story was also produced as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1956. You can watch the full episode in a popout window by clicking on the picture below.





Source for radio broadcast: Escape and Suspense!

Hey Hey Hey

It's the Fat Albert Halloween Special from 1977!

Halloween - Addams Style

Here's an episode of The Addams Family that first aired on October 29, 1965.

Gomez and Morticia are outraged when Wednesday comes home from trick-or-treating in tears after a neighbor tells her witches don't really exist.

Bewitched - Trick or Treat

Here's an episode of Bewitched that first aired on October 28, 1965.

When Darrin defies Endora again by insisting Samantha remain at home during Halloween, Endora places a curse on Darrin that slowly begins transforming him into a werewolf.

The Jupiter 2 Will Lift Off 11 Years Ago Today

In the television show Lost in Space, the spaceship Jupiter 2 lifted off on October 16, 1997. To us kids in the 60's, when this show aired, that was so far out in the future that it was believable.

There were two pilot episodes for this liftoff. The original pilot episode (No Place To Hide), which never aired, did not feature either the robot or Dr. Smith (who was added later by 20th Century Fox as an antagonist), and the ship was named the Gemini 12. Much of the original footage was re-used in the first four televised episodes.
Watch No Place To Hide.


The first televised episode (The Reluctant Stowaway) aired on September 15, 1965. This pilot included Robot B9 and an evil Dr. Zachary Smith.
Watch The Reluctant Stowaway.

Scaredy Cat (1948)

Here's a Saturday morning cartoon with some comical horror.

Scaredy Cat is a 1948 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones and produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. It's the first film in which Sylvester received his now-official name.

In Scaredy Cat, Porky and Sylvester spend the night in an old dark house, whose horrors only Sylvester sees. His repeated attempts to save Porky from the ghoulish doings of the killer mice infesting the place (one wearing an executioner's hood and carrying an axe) only make the skeptical Porky all the more convinced of Sylvester's cowardice.

This is the uncut/unedited version.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

Since it's October, it's time for the yearly showing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. While not exactly horror per se, it is Halloween themed, and what's more - at 1:32 into the tale Lucy approaches Linus clutching a butcher knife in her fist.

X Files "Home" Episode (1996)

The remains of an infant suffering from an uncharted amount of birth disabilities are uncovered in a field in rural Home, Pennsylvania. The only suspicious residents are three brothers who have lived on their family farm for twenty-some years. They live there alone. Or do they?

Home aired on October 11, 1996 as Season 4 Episode 2 of the X Files.

The episode was banned from Fox after its first airing due to its sensitive and somewhat taboo subject matter. It is also the only episode to receive a TV-MA rating in America.

Todou.com offers this episode in 2 parts.

Here's part 1.



Here's part 2.

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ran from 1962-1965 for 93 hour-long episodes. It was a continuation of the dramatic anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962), hosted by the master of suspense and mystery. When the series was revived in 1962, episodes were extended to a full hour instead of 30 minutes and the name was changed, but the format stayed fairly true to the original. In each episode, viewers would be strung along with the story, never knowing which way the final twist would turn.

You can view full episodes of the series here.