Live blog.
Streeboween is upon us! Join Streebo for 24 hours of horror with this live blog!
Happy Halloween, my manic mutants! It’s time to take off our masks and let our real selves shine through! For most of the mundane world, that statement would have been reversed but you and I know all too well that the everyday face that we put on at work is just a persona and a false mask to help us fit in without upsetting the surface dwellers or exposing the masquerade.
Today is our day. Join me in peeling back your skin and letting your fur grow out as we head out into the Halloween night to howl at the moon and any passersby that come along. As part of the ongoing Streeboween tradition, I always challenge myself to watch a twenty-four hour marathon of Halloween horror films to celebrate the occasion. As Halloween is being celebrated on Friday this year, we’ll have to start our countdown during the day and carry on through the night! The time has come so let’s not tarry further!
4pm – Teen Titans: Season Two Episode Five: Fear Itself.
Since the Sun is still in the sky let’s start with something simple and friendly to set the mood. I always loved it when my favorite TV show characters celebrated the holiday with us. Scouring my DVD collection, I came across this Halloween themed episode of Teen Titans so let’s give it a go!
4:30pm – It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
Let’s continue the daylight celebration with a perennial favorite – Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin!
5pm – Tales from the Darkside: Trick or Treat
This first episode was directed by none other than the great George A. Romero so what better way to move the mood into the dark than with the Godfather of Modern Horror? This episode always spooked me out when I was a kid.
5:30pm – The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 feet
Let’s throw in some classic horror with that classically trained actor, of course I’m talking about The Twilight Zone with William Shatner. Nothing gets you in that old Twilight Zone mind frame better than the sight of Captain Kirk yelling about a gremlin on the wing of his plane. This is suspenseful speculative fiction at its finest! BTW this was one of two appearances on The Twilight Zone for old Bill.
6pm – John Carpenter’s Halloween
This seminal slasher masterpiece always serves as the magic hour entertainment. This is the film that has to take us beyond the sunset and into the night where evil lurks. This film perhaps more than any other is the most responsible for the horror film paradigm of my generation. Slasher films don’t get any better than this.
7:30pm – Halloween II
No, wait. It’s not what you think. This is Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. Long time mutant faithful will remember that normally on Streeboween, we watch the fan-edit portmanteau Halloween: To Hell and Back: The Complete Story of the Night HE Came Home as part of our Halloween viewing marathon. This year, I decided to alter the course a touch and shake things up by immediately jumping from John Carpenter’s genesis of the Myers franchise to its final resting point or penultimate entry if you believe a third entry in Zombie’s chronology is forthcoming. I’ve been saying for a long time that Rob Zombie’s Halloween films have never gotten their due. We’re quickly approaching the point where the final answer on that will play out as its early detractors slowly come around with each viewing. Time will tell. I followed Carpenter’s original with Zombie’s second because they are easily the two most personal entries in the entire series. Zombie caught a lot of flack for remaking Carpenter’s classic and perhaps rightfully so, but on the sequel to his re-imagining as he called it, Zombie went completely off the rails into surrealist David Lynch trailer park slasher territory. It was as much his own product as he could make it and still call it Halloween. For this, I salute you. Whether you liked Zombie’s efforts or loathed them, Carpenter’s original classic will always be there for re-visiting.
9:40pm – Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Believe it or not, but Season of the Witch was the very first installment of the Halloween franchise that I ever saw. I grew up in the Golden Era of Slashers in the 80’s and as such Michael Myers and John Carpenter’s Halloween were very much a part of American pop culture. I was familiar with the names but as being a man of some considerable youth had not yet seen the films. It was not until one fateful Halloween night in 1985 when I was going door to door gathering treats when I first encountered the Halloween films. I remember being ushered into a comfy suburban home where a rather large television was emitting ominous music as a man in black with dark glasses stalked through a hallway. “What are you watching?” I asked with the one word reply being “Halloween.” Just at that moment, the man in black shoved his thumbs into another man’s bloody eye-sockets. The kindly suburbanite filled my jackolantern with candies and pushed me back out into the cold night. My mind was still reeling from the sight of this assault. Since this was a Halloween film and Michael Myers was the known antagonist, I assumed that I had just seen no less personage than Michael Myers himself. It was not until a few years later when I finally saw John Carpenter’s original that I realized the killer robots from Season of the Witch were not Michael Myers. Though I suppose my mistake could be forgiven as the killer androids used Myers’ own musical sting when they attacked. The film has become a Halloween cheese classic in the ensuing years. I love the zany mix of mysticism and pseudo-science and the mad plot to kill all the children of the world for no good reason at all. It’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch!
11:30pm – Satan’s Little Helper
Normally I would try to play Trick ‘r Treat about this time, but my blu ray player is currently without a controller hence I cannot watch blu rays. Trick ‘r Treat is one of my favorite blu rays because it is so gorgeous, crisp and lush. Since I cannot watch it, I’ve decided to go with another underrated Halloween gem in Satan’s Little Helper. Jeff Lieberman has been quietly producing quality horror films on and off over the years since he debuted with Just Before Dawn. Satan’s Little Helper is to date, his final film. It’s a fun but dark little slasher film that plays with social norms and slasher conventions. I love the idea behind a little kid following a man in a mask around for Halloween. It’s perverse fun.
1:15am – House of 1000 Corpses
Rob Zombie is back on the list with his debut film – House of 1000 Corpses! This is another underrated gem that has become a perennial favorite around Halloween. It’s the great American 10-in-1 Sideshow of Horror. It’s loud, garish, bloody and rough around the edges but it somewhere combines the right amount of surreality with visual style to make for an engaging Halloween murder ride from beginning to end.
2:45am – Night of the Living Dead
It’s Halloween, so that means Night of the Living Dead is playing somewhere! Might as well make it here! Stark graphic imagery complimented by crisp editing and thick atmosphere make this a long lasting far reaching classic.
4:15am – Castle of Blood
We’ll keep things spooky as the night moves on with this black and white haunted house classic Castle of Blood aka Macabre! Once upon a time, I never knew this film existed until I was enlightened by friends on the IMDb Horror Board.
5:45am – The Haunting
Robert Wise’s classic is hands down the greatest haunted house film ever made. It’s full of fascinating characters and rich atmosphere. Chilling and spooky to this day!
7:45am – Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
About this time of the day, I would start watching cartoons on a Saturday morning. This time slot was usually filled by one of many Three Stooges shorts. I actually have a Halloween collection from the Stooges, but since we’re looking for feature length works, we’ll sub in one of the greatest horror comedy classics of all time – Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. It’s still spooky and hilarious from beginning to end.
9:15am – Scooby Doo Where Are You: Which Witch is Which
Scooby Doo Where Are You was one of the few cartoons that regularly featured scary stories and presented them in a way that was both engaging for children and endearing to adults. It’s Saturday morning, so we have to sneak a few Halloween cartoons in there!
9:45am – Bugs Bunny: Mad As A Mars Hare
Bugs Bunny had his share of hare raising adventures and his trials in meeting Marvin the Martian always make for a monstrously good time!
10am – The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
More Rob Zombie on my list? Well, it’s a cartoon and it’s filled with raunchy monsters so it makes for perfect Saturday morning fare. If I had seen this when I was twelve, it would have been my favorite film of all time.
11:30 am – Spiderman and his Amazing Friends: The Bride of Dracula
This classic Spiderman cartoon featured an episode with the greatest villain ever created – Dracula! We’ll wash the dirty aftertaste of El Superbeasto out of our mouths with some more wholesome cartoon horror. Dracula wants to marry Firestar (who didn’t?) and only Spiderman can stop him!
12pm – Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng Chiang
Saturday morning cartoons always wound down by noon and the local PBS channel would begin airing Doctor Who. In my time, the Fourth Doctor was the most prominent, leading him to be my all time favorite. No single episode was spookier than this episode pitting the Doctor against what at first seems like a Jack the Ripper type killer and winds up being a mad monster from outer space!
2pm – Chinese Ghost Story
After Doctor Who, it’s time for Black Belt Theatre. Let’s head back to the orient for Tsui Hark’s classic haunted love story – Chinese Ghost Story, It brings the horror, romance and kung fu monster killing in equal parts!
And we’re done! If your brain isn’t melting after all of that, you’re a better fan than I!
