Revenge of the Creature in 3D

Last year I ran a series of posts about 3D glasses. Most of the 3D glasses I have were from TV promotions, and here's a flier for one such promotion - Revenge of the Creature...

Farmer Jack was a once popular, but now defunct Metro Detroit based supermarket chain. I can't find a single Farmer Jack commercial on YouTube, but someone called Skiz316 has uploaded the entire Farmer Jack jingle...

Music Videos from Hell: Part 2

It's time for another one of my very popular "scary" music video posts that have become the talk of the Internets...

Jeopardy by the Greg Kihn Band was released March of 1983 according to Wiki. The Wiki also says Michael Jackson's Thriller video was released December 2, 1983. If this is correct it's interesting to note that Greg Kihn came out with a zombie music video 10 months before Michael. Michael went on to became a music superstar, and this was Greg Kihn's only #1 hit. Maybe if the zombies in Jeopardy had the dance skills of the Thriller zombies things might have been different.

Also Jeopardy is a true music video - it was actually shot on video...


Now here's a video that's a little more current, Back Against The Wall by Cage The Elephant isn't trying to overtly scary like Jeopardy. It's just plain creepy, but it's also one of my favorite songs released this year...



Do those ugly garden gnomes look familiar to anyone? I think they resemble the scary little creatures from the 70's TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (TV 1973)

Monster Bulletin Board

Hey look it's another one of those posters from the Scholastic book order things you got back in elementary school. I blogged about a Real Fake Wacky Packages Poster a couple of years ago, now just in time for Halloween I present a "funny" Monster Bulletin Board poster from 1978...


Hmm, those "Marian Sunglasses " were ahead of their time...

Music Videos from Hell: Part 1

For some Halloween fun, I was thinking about taking a look at some scary music videos.

Sometimes they are intentionally "scary" like Michel Jackson's Thriller directed by John Landis, but other times I think the scariness was unintentional. I'll be showcasing both kinds of music videos this month.

The Aphex Twin video for Come to Daddy directed by Chris Cunningham is intentionally scary. Very aggressively scary, and according to the Wiki, "The music video was positioned number 35 in 100 Greatest Scary Moments, as voted by Channel 4 viewers in 2003."

Okay if you've never seen it, brace yourself for some seriously messed up stuff...


Man that's unpleasant to watch, but it's also genius. Chris Cunningham is a master at creating disturbing imagery. Check out his Rubber Johnny short for more of his expertly crafted grotesque weirdness.

Next is a video that I don't think was intended to be scary, but it is. Can your nerves withstand Bonnie Tyler and Total Eclipse of the Heart directed by Russell Mulcahy...



Wow there's everything but the kitchen sink this this video. It's so over the top you could write a dissertation on the underlying themes and symbolism.

Anyway as the video starts it's candles, slow-mo doves, and silk fabric blowing around. You may think it's just going to be some boring video filled with artsy romanticism, but then at the 45 second mark a school boy walks though the door with glowing green eyes. What the hell?

After the guy with the glowing green eyes there's so much other crap going on by the end of the video you practically forgot about him. Then wham! You get hit with the "Boys Choir of the Damned" who not only have the scary glowing eyes, but one boy even levitates.

I'm not sure the makers of this video were aware of how scary this stuff was. I think they were going for something more stylized than scary, but they unintentionally created a nightmare. Seriously what's scarier - the glowing eyed ghost pirates from John Carpenter's The Fog, a R rated horror film that was released around the same time as the music video...

John Carpenter's The Fog

... or the possessed boys choir from Total Eclipse of the Heart?

I don't know about you, but for sheer creepiness the ghost pirates ain't got nothing on that boys choir.

Makeover Leftover

When I was redesigning my blog for the Halloween season I planned to have a animated gif as my profile picture.

You know what? You can't use a animated gif as your profile picture. Well you can use an animated gif, but it will not animate.


You see this is what I wanted. Oh, well at least I got to use it someway.

The Scariest Film Clip in the World

Hey it's October, and time for a month long celebration of scary stuff until we reach the big day ol' day of Halloween.

In all honesty I don't know what the hell I'm going to post this month. I really have nothing planed so I assume we'll both be surprised together. Okay let's get going because the suspense is killing me.

I guess we'll kick off the month with what might very well be the scariest film clip in the world. I watched this film on TV at a young age, and this scene kept me awake at night for weeks...



Terrifying right? I lived in a very suburban neighborhood, with only a few small wooded areas here and there, but I was certain there was a very good possibility that Bigfoot could smash his hairy arm through my bedroom window one night. I was a kid who loved watching monster movies of all kinds, and never had a problem when it was Hollywood make-believe, but this damn thing was another story - it was supposedly real!

This film is one of Sun Classic's "great" documentaries The Mysterious Monsters (1976) and it's available on DVD. If I had children I'd buy this film, and show it around Halloween time for a good scare. I'm pretty sure today's modern internet kids with their iPads, Wii's and 8-Track tape players would still freak out at this stuff.

Boo!

Mammoth Cave Brochure

I love caves, and have a large collection of cave brochures from across the country. I'd gladly use them in posts more often, but the previous times I've posted something cave related it's always one of my least popular pages.

Since there doesn't seem to be much interest in caves, I'm not going to bother posting every page from this Mammoth Cave National Park brochure...

That cover looks dated, like something from the 1950's, but it's not. Well I'm sure the brochure was originally designed in the late 50's, but this cover was still used into the 1980's.

Actually it's kinda cool I think, also they probably used this cover because of the classic thriller that was filmed at Mammoth Cave...

The movie Mammoth! (1956) was made by the same team that created Niagara (1953) three years earlier. It's a movie that's not very well known even by movie buffs. It's not too bad, and anything with Peter Lorre is always worth a look. Add it to your Netflix queue, and be sure to let me know how you liked it.

Strange Change Machine

So that was a fun summer... let's see if I can get this blog back on track now.

In the late 60's the mighty Mattel toy company introduced the "Strange Change Machine" which was a fun little toy that was basically an electric hot plate with a plastic dome on top. You could heat up special little plastic cubes which unfolded into monsters and dinosaurs.

Check out the awesome commercial...



Man, I love that narrator and groovy science fictiony music. Indulge me while we watch the "extended dance mix" of the same commercial (but unfortunately worse video quality)...



Anyway, there are a lot of sites out on the vast interweb if you wish to know more about this toy, but what those sites don't have are big clear scans of Strange Change Machine instructions...


... and on the flip-side of the instructions, a full-color "landscape map" of The Lost World.

I shall return... hopefully

For anyone who may be wondering what's going on, I haven't died (well, not yet). Life has been extra crazy for me lately (and not in a good kinda crazy), but I'll try to return to my semi-weekly posting schedule once things settle down.

Thanks.

What's the deal with the audio on the Studio Canal logo?

Is the sound designer a mad genius, or was this odd sound mix a "happy accident" as Bob Ross might have said?

Happy 4th from 1976

Here's the Sears summer catalog from our country's bicentennial year. How much patriotic red, white and blue type of stuff is in there? Not as much as you might think...

There's some red, white and blue polyester & cotton pants outfits.

The red, white and blue Chuck Taylor knockoff in the center of the page catches your eye, but it's those shoes on the bottom of the page that you need for the summer of '76...

It's 1776 Casual for Men and Big Boys.

If you quickly flipped by this page of "novelty print knit tops" you would have missed the biggest patriotic item in this catalog...

It's a George Washington tee shirt.

It's very possible this red, white and blue playground equipment was always manufactured in this color and has nothing to do with the bicentennial, but I'm gonna take what I can get. Also I'm wondering if those merry-go-rounds are still being sold. I never had one, but it seems like a product that could cause a great deal of injury.

More Rock City

Here's a retro brochure for Rock City. Above is either the front/back, or the back/front.



This page of the brochure touts the Rock City Restaurant - "The Restaurant Built Around a Rock." I'm not sure if this restaurant is still operating. If anyone reading this knows if this restaurant is still in business please leave a comment.

Above is the exact same brochure, but with a different type face for "Rock City." Nothing that interesting, just being a completest.

Your Guide Through Rock City

This is guide to Rock City from the 1970's, but the layout looks like it was designed in the 1950's. I assume they got a lot mileage out of this guide, and updated the individual pictures when necessary. For example the family in #5 "Goblins Underpass" is less modern looking than the happen'n 1970's ladies in #10 "See Seven States."

If you'd like to learn more about Rock City, Jill over at Jill's Quirky Landmarks has nice little writeup, and a wonderful a picture post of her 10 year wedding anniversary at Rock City. Wow Jill, I sure hope your husband appreciates a wife who's dream is trip to Rock City.

Anyway this guide was also a multitasker. After you were done using it you were urged to use it as a postcard to send to a friend.

Newspaper Movie Guide 1980

I found a newspaper from June 6, 1980, and one of the things I always think is fun to do when looking at an old paper is checking out what was playing at the movies back then.

You may have heard that it's the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, but were you also aware of another classic movie which opened 30 years ago...

Did you happen to notice "With Mel Gibson" near the bottom of the ad? That's probably the last time Mel was buried in the credits like this. Check out the trailer which uses the "With Mel Gibson" credit too...



Next there's this low-budget slasher movie that has a title that sounds like it could be an anti-abortion documentary to me...

And the Silent Scream trailer...


Now here's a film that has gone by a number of different titles. The original title is Snapshot, but was retitled when released on video as The Day Before Halloween, or The Night After Halloween. To further confuse things the name of this film in the 1980 newspaper ad is...

I love that ad copy, "Don't open the door... Don't answer the phone... Don't look in the attic... " - all of which just happens to be titles of other horror movies. One More Minute looks like a pretty intense slasher film, but according to YouTube film reviewer, SlasherIndex it's anything but...



Two years earlier in 1978 National Lampoon's Animal House was a huge hit, and a flood of imitators followed. Not to be out done, MAD Magazine presented their first (and only) motion picture with MAD Magazine Presents Up The Academy...

MAD Magazine artist Jack Rickard illustrated the poster, and that's practically the only thing MAD had to do with this film. Oh yeah, a live action Alfred E. Neuman makes a quick cameo too...

That "Alfred" mask is either funny or terrifying depending on your sensibilities. Anyways, the film was a flop, and fellow blogger, Frank, at Franklin Mint Blog does excellent job of documenting the whole mess. (You can also download the soundtrack at his blog too!)

Well, here's the TV commercial...



It's an interesting coincidence that another "Animal House-like" movie opened on June 6, 1980, with poster art by Jack Davis who just happens to be another MAD Magazine artist...

The full-color poster has slightly different art and a totally different tag line...


And finally a TV commercial for this forgotten comedy...

Weeki Wachee

Let's take the plunge into another retro brochure collection. This time it's that classic mermaid attraction Florida's Weeki Wachee...

The two images above are from a card that I believe dates from the early 1970's.

The brochure below is from 1978...

I'm assuming the picture of the girl with torpedo-like underwater scooter was intended to be the front, and the "shark girl" was on the back of the brochure - but it could go either way. Maybe with the popularity of Jaws "shark girl" was placed in the racks facing up.


If you look closely at these brochures you''l see that Weeki Wachee was once owned by ABC Leisure Attractions - which was a subsidiarity of the American Broadcasting Company. Weeki Wachee is no longer owned by a private company, and is now a state park.

Supergrass made a music video for their song "Low C" which plays like a mini Weeki Wachee documentary. Check it out...

AutoWorld

Well here's the brochure for the infamous Six Flags AutoWorld in Flint, MI. It's a little controversial, and was featured in documentaries made by a well-known portly provocateur (you're smart, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about).

There's been a lot of speculation on AutoWorld's failure. I think the basic reason it failed was because it was simply a bad idea. The automobile theme was too limiting to support an elaborate indoor "family entertainment center." Even in Michigan, where major car companies are headquartered, and tens of thousands of people make their living from the auto industry there weren't enough people interested in visiting AutoWorld to support the place.


Oh look the brochure folds out into a "fun map" to help you plan your visit...


It's funny how the back of the AutoWorld brochure urges to "Plan your visit soon!" Yeah, you better have since it lasted less than 2 years.

It's time to say goodbye to AutoWorld!

Mystery Fun House

Here's a 1990's brochure for Mystery Fun House in Orlando, FL. It was the attraction notable for a large fiberglass wizard on the front of the building. Mystery Fun House operated from 1976 through 2001, and was located virtually across the street from the Universal Orlando Resort.

It's interesting to note, that in a little over a month, Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando will be the home to a certain very popular boy wizard. So now that wizard who use to hang out at Mystery Fun House can... Umm... Yeah, I got nothing. I thought I was going somewhere with this setup, but I got nothing. Please enjoy the rest of this brochure for this defunct attraction.