My Lifelong Bromance with Count Chocula!

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Ahhh…the crunchy goodness of nostalgia in the morning!

The Halloween season is always my favorite time of year (and I’m guessing if you’re reading this blog, it’s yours too) with the leaves changing, horror movies getting a boost (though this past summer’s box office should illustrate that horror is good for ALL seasons) and happy memories of trick or treating, caramel apples, and staying up late watching monster movies.

The great thing about growing up in the ’70s, however, was that you didn’t require the veil of darkness to enjoy your favorite beasties! In October of 1971 (less than a month after my first birthday) General Mills unleashed their now legendary “monster cereals,” giving kids a comedic dose of The Universal Monsters for breakfast. At the time of their debut there were only two of them; Count Chocula (chocolate flavored and modeled after Dracula) and Franken Berry (a strawberry flavored Frankenstein) with their blueberry inspired ghostly cousin, Boo Berry showing up a couple years later.

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Frightful chain of stores finally brings the SPIRIT back in Halloween!

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During the Halloween season, I’ve always been partial to the mom and pop costume shops. For one thing, I like to support the little guy but, for another, they also tend to carry less of the mass produced products bigger chains do. Unfortunately those stores are becoming a rarity thanks, in large part, to chains such as Spirit Halloween and Halloween Town.

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Heading Back to Flashback Weekend!

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With little recovery time after The Fright Night Film Fest it was time to embark on yet another convention…well, technically TWO of them! Flashback Weekend is an annual Chicago horror tradition and by happenstance, Wizard Con (a giant comic convention and yet another yearly feature), was taking place the same weekend and directly across the street. This hurled the town of Rosemont, Illinois into geek gridlock with poor Flashback in danger of getting swallowed up by its much larger neighbor,  

Ironically, before this site started, Flashback Weekend was the only horror convention I’d ever go to and yet the only one I didn’t attend after the fact. I’m not sure why that is but I’m thinking the numerous July season of events I started covering rendered me both too tired and broke by the time this August one rolled around. In that regard, the circumstances this year were no different if not more so.

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“Day of the Dead” Blu Ray is Zombie Paradise!

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Shout! Factory has done it again with their latest blu-ray offering, the 1985 George Romero classic DAY OF THE DEAD. I have always been a fan of Romero’s Dead Trilogy, and to be honest, this is my favorite of the three and I was very excited to hear that it was finally getting its long-overdue blu-ray release. Of the three films this one, in my opinion, is the darkest and why it works so well.

Most of the film takes place underground in an abandoned missile silo where a group of military personnel and scientists have gathered together to try and figure out what is going on above. The characters are perfectly cast and this film is interesting to watch as the group breaks down and collapses; much like the world on the outside did. You really get a sense of how bad things are in this movie whereas, in the two previous films, there seems to be actual hope. This is evident right from the beginning when a visit is made to Florida in search of survivors. The streets are empty and it’s obvious it has been this way for quite some time. The only signs of life are animals such as alligators and tarantulas who have now moved into the once-populated areas.

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“The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond” worth the wait!

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It really amazes me these days how certain movies are able to be made and get distributed even though they’re horrible and yet certain films, that are really good and original, can’t get a distribution deal to save its life! This was the case with Trick r Treat from 2007, a phenomenal Halloween-themed movie that took a good two years to see the light of day. It happened again just recently with the film The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond; a movie made in 2009 that just got released this month…four years later!

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