Terror (1978) / Dracula's Dog (1977) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - December 12, 1979

Although I had become much more attentive to the movie adverts in our daily newspaper by this time, I do not remember this double-feature release. It happens.

Yet there are things I do remember about both films, from back in the day. One was that the trailer for Terror was shown, along with one for The Dark, on KTVU's Creature Features. The other being when Dracula's Dog aired on television at some point. Although we had seen Salem's Lot, neither my brother nor I recognized Reggie Nalder as the actor who had played Mr. Barlow. We also made fun of the movie and, I am saddened to admit, Nalder's appearance.

This ad also shows how film distributors had begun phasing out Wednesday as a routine opening day in 1979. For some twenty to thirty years movies opened on either Wednesday or Friday. That changed in 1979 and, from 1980 onward, Wednesday openings became infrequent and, for the most part, holiday date dependent.

There is a novelization of Dracula's Dog out there and, maybe, I might part with some coin to acquire and read it. Maybe.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #14

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

As much as I adore Jerry Goldsmith' score for Poltergeist II and admire H.R. Giger's artistic contributions to the film, I have only watched this first sequel once, from start to finish.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) / Ghidrah: The Three-Headed Monster [San Daikaijû Chikyû Saidai no Kessen (1964)] / Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - December 11, 1968

Now this a triple-bill the manages to encapsulate my overall viewing and collecting habits and tastes. Its got a horror movie, its got a Japanese monster movie, and its got a British genre movie. I have each of the advertised movies on physical media, so I can replicate this triple-bill, if ever I am so moved to do.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #49

No Barriers

Those who stand against Purgatori all meet the same fate. Death administered by a vision of lusty, insatiable passion and fury. 

Dracula - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - December 10, 1978

The tour production of Edward Gorey's popular Broadway revival of Dracula arrived just in time for the holiday season, with Jeremy Brett playing the role of Dracula. Brett is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in a long-running series of episodic and feature length television programs for Britain's Granada Television. He died in 1995.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #13

Fright Night (1985)

Ah, 'Evil' Ed. Another example of the vampire story trope of the misfit, loner, or minion whose dreams of eternal glory as one of the undead are almost comically (or tragically) short-lived.

Or are they...?

Stranger Things - A 2- sided 500 piece puzzle

Who Done It? (1942) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - December 9, 1942

Although there is a ghost-like figure just above Abbott's head that is pointing at another ghost-like figure lounging stage-right to Abbott, there are no supernatural-themed shenanigans in the film itself.

Nonetheless Who Done It? earns its posting here, rather than over at The Newspaper Ad Archive, because its murder mystery plot and old time radio setting have it brushing up against the outermost fringe of whatever it is that I deem an appropriate topic for Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties.

KBHK seemed to have a dedicated Saturday afternoon time-slot for Abbott & Costello movies and there were a solid half dozen of them I never passed on the opportunity to watch. All of them had some tinge or touch of horror, suspense, science fiction, or fantasy to them, of course. 

There were the pairs meet-ups with the Universal Monsters, the time they went to "Mars" (Venus, actually), or whenever they ran afoul of a variety of killers. Who Done It? is one of the latter, obviously.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #48

Cornered

Never helpless, Purgatori often toys with her prey, pushing them into battle to taunt them for her own pleasure. Oncer her back is to the corner, beware - Purgatori has you exactly where she wants you. 

Mansion of the Doomed (1976) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - December 8, 1976

Prolific actor Michael Pataki made his directing debut with this unsettling and unsightly riff on Eyes Without A Face (1960). Only this time around it is more like A Face Without Any Eyes.

Richard Basehart stars as Dr. Leonard Chaney, an ophthalmologist whose guilt at blinding his daughter drives him to experiment with eyeball transplantation. Although he is successful, at first, that success is short lived and another new set of eyes are needed.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Oh, and there are a few more issues regarding those transplants. These are not cadaver eyes. Each and every donor is a living person that has not volunteered, or even knows that they are about to, donate their eyeballs.

Although Chaney states his intention to restore eyesight to all who have "aided" in his experimentation, he does not seem to be giving all that much thought on how and where those unfortunates will be getting their donor eyes from. He will deal with that only after a transplantation proves permanent. Something he is certain will happen, this time...

Mansion of the Doomed is also notable for giving character actor icon Lance Henriksen one his first substantive onscreen roles, as well as giving future make-up effects icon Stan Winston the opportunity to create all those unsettling eyeless donor effects.

What was it showing with? Well, moving from left to right and top to bottom: The Roxie had Mansion on a triple-bill with The House That Screamed (1969) and Sugar Hill (1974). The Coliseum Drive-In had it paired with Night of the Living Dead (1968). The Alameda 3 had it with The Devil Within Her [aka Sharon's Baby and I Don't Want to Be Born (1975)]. Hayward's Festival Cinemas showed it with Embryo (1976), while Oakland's Eastmont Four had it coupled with Death Machines (1976). I also discovered that the Eastmont had a double-bill of the not at all similar Sparkle (1976) and Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). That was a fun to uncover.

Pleasant Hill's Regency Cinemas also showed Mansion with Embryo, while Richmond's Hilltop Drive-In, as well as the Union City Drive-In, offered another pairing with Night of the Living Dead.