Halloween Press Photo: Timmy Surrounded!
In 1962, Timmy falls asleep and is suddenly surrounded by angry pumpkins looking to scoop his stuffing out and stick a candle in his head for a change.
Jungle Woman (1944) Movie Pressbook
Long time pressbook collector and contributor to Zombos' Closet, Tony Rivers once again goes to the jungle and returns with Jungle Woman.
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Halloween Press Photo:
Gas Station Window 1962
You may find this hard to believe, but there was a time when gas stations had attendants, dressed in snappy uniforms, eager to wash your windows, check your oil, and pump your gas. I know, I know. Sounds like a fantasy, right?
10/19/62 — Detroit: When station attendent Walt Sifford painted a Halloween scene, complete with cornstalk, on his gas station window, he never thought his work was realistic enough to become a pheasant trap. But it wasn't long before a pheasant came crashing into the window. Sifford is shown with the pheasant, who was only stunned. Sifford plans to free the bird in a real cornfield when the bird fully recovers.
Halloween Press Photo: Rain Delay 1959
I know the feeling. Bummer. And I don't believe the copy on the back of the photo. Not mind? Really? Impossible.
Caltiki (1959) Movie Pressbook
Here's the four-page pressbook for Caltiki, the Immortal Monster. Mario Bava reportedly had a hand in the direction of this horror movie, but whoever is to blame, the end result is a mess only a tad less horrifying than Caltiki. Of course, I didn't notice the slipshod editing at the time, but the monster is quite impressively gloppy and scary. Hard to say if this movie was a rushed attempt at cashing in on The Blob, starring Steve McQueen, but I can tell you it scared me so much as a child I had nightmares for a week. And of course, came back for more 😉 The story is still very good, just the execution could have been much, much better.
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Halloween Press Photo: Funny Faces 1952
This Halloween press photo from Cleveland Press is circa 1952. Pure Americana: two boys admiring a shoe store window Halloween painting. You gotta love those rolled up jeans.
Halloween Press Photo: Little Miss from 1958
Sure, today you can go to Party City, Spirit Halloween, Halloween Scene, and Walmart and Target and so on and on, to find costumes galore. Way back when you rolled your own. Not saying this one was a good or bad choice for Halloween trick or treating, but you rolled your own back then. It definitely gives me the willies. Just add a rubber knife or axe and a new slasher is born!
This little miss being readied for Halloween with "trick or treat" for a worthwhile cause, collecting pennies for the United Nations children's fund. Her bright costume features a lamb's head made from a paper bag and crepe paper.
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Mexican Lobby Card:
The Empire of Dracula (1967)
Here' the Mexican lobby card for The Empire of Dracula (El Imperio De Dracula, 1967). The sexuality of the vampire began with Bram Stoker's seminal work, then materialized in cinema with Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee's portrayals, and was beaten to death with a stake by various horror movies ever since.
Bats in Your Belfry Game 1964
Spotted this on eBay. Mattel's Bats in Your Belfry is one of the quintessential games monsterkids played with, and lament not having held on to. Here's a description for newbies from a Hake's auction.
Main portion of game consists of 15" tall molded plastic castle w/spring-loaded launchpad that would toss any of the 24 included plastic "Vampire Bats" into the sky. Object of the game was to drop one of the two included heavy metal balls into castle to activate spring-loaded mechanism and catch as many bats as possible w/the two provided plastic skeleton hand scoops. Castle has exterior pegs to hold bats and comes w/eight "Diet Tokens," plastic discs w/monster face on one side and either "Vampire Bats" or "Giant Bats" text on reverse. Game is for up to four players and comes w/four pegged racks to place your bats on.
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Halloween Press Photo 1956:
Store Window Painting
Here's a shot from 1956 showing store window painting for Halloween in Chicago. I remember seeing store windows painted up on Avenue U in Bensonhurst Brooklyn every October, when I was growing up. Funny the things you remember as a kid, but I noticed how the artistic talents on display grew worse over the years as students from the local high schools participated in the yearly contest. For the truly inspiring artwork, I always felt sad to see it washed away after the holiday.
Halloween Press Photo 1980:
Wintergreen Witch
From 1980, the Oregonian, the Wintergreen Witch to promote Halloween Safety. Boy, how many of you remember those assemblies at school of dos and don'ts?
Movie Review: Kids vs Monsters (2015)
Zombos Says: Poor
At 100 minutes, Kids vs Monsters doesn't live up to its title, becoming instead tedious, poorly written, unamusing, and not fetching at all. And you know a movie's bad when I use a word like "fetching" in a review.
I keep wondering where the 7 plus millions of dollars spent on this (according to IMDb) went. Not even the feckless, irksome cartoon backstories interrupting the less than lively live action (see my comment on "fetching" as it also applies to "feckless") show the expenditure. The two principal sets used–one a monster realm throne room where the rich parents watch their kids being attacked by each monster in turn, and the second, Ms. Gallagher's Reform School, where the kids hang around insulting each other while waiting for each monster to attack them, in turn–show little effort toward original art direction or intentions for originality.
It's ho-hum from start to finish in spite of having talents like Lance Henriksen, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Moll, and Armand Assante. With the dialog they're given, I'm surprised they didn't roll their eyes more often when delivering each line. The lackluster script ignores the essential character evolution necessary to make this work, and the monsters are laughable in all the wrong ways. Endless talking by McDowell, monotonously delivered, is energy-draining to see and listen to.
Director Sultan Saeed Al Darmaki and scripter Sarah Daly should have realized they had some monstrous-sized shoes to fill after Monster Squad, Little Monsters, and any number of animated monster movies with kids that have set a baseline for expectations. None of which are met.
The kids include the obnoxious fatty, Bobby (Jesse Camacho), the spoiled beauty queen, Candy (Francesca Eastwood), the depressed goth girl, Molly (Sidney Endicott), the do-good kid, David (Bridger Zadina), the social media girl, Daisy (Anna Akana), and the pugilist, Oliver (Daniel David Stewart). Each of them has disappointed their parents so much, their parents go to Boss Monster (McDowell) to complain and sign a contract with a strong death clause. Boss Monster, who doesn't look like a monster at all, is in charge of all the other monsters that look like monsters in the Monster Realm. We know it's the Monster Realm because McDowell eats up a lot of screen time telling the parents they're in the monster realm. And, of course, we have to listen too.
Henriksen is one of the minions of Boss Monster and assists with more pointless and spiritless dialog in-between McDowell's laborious descriptions of each monster as he introduces them to square off against the kids. One by one. This movie's title is wrong: it isn't kids versus monsters, it's a monster versus a kid. Way too late into the movie do we get any sense of team coordination with the kids actually banding together to fight and protect each other. But that doesn't last long at all and the singular kid versus monster modus operandi resumes. If you're expecting a Monster Squad team up, forget it. This movie doesn't have the nards to make it happen here.
Each prelude to an encounter includes watching a lengthy cartoon backstory for each monster as McDowell explains its life story before we finally cut back to the reform school for live action, or any action at this point. Before that return, however, the parents are also given way too much time to complain and chitchat. And this happens for every encounter. EVERY FREAKING ENCOUNTER.
The monsters are as creatively inspired as the kids. I'm being sarcastic. Among them are Mr. Beet (yes, he's a big beet-headed monster played by Michael Bailey Smith), who punches Oliver to the moon, a Cthulhuish witch who puts the hex on them, for a spell, and a lumberjack Big Foot with a French accent who likes sweets to death. One actually humorous scene has Big Foot in the bathroom as he's interrupted dropping a log. Enjoy it while it lasts.
In-between the flat back and forth from reform school to monster realm throne room, the fussy Butler (Richard Moll), acts all Lurch-like to provide comedy relief in a comedy.
It doesn't help. After 45 minutes, you'll agree with the person who says "I want more action!"
A courtesy stream-screener was provided for this review.