Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 30, 1976

This is one of those movies that I have no memory of, yet still have this feeling that I did see it, at some point. I think Dean Jones plays a down on his luck coach, or teacher, that meets/befriends the ghost of the pirate Blackbeard (Peter Ustinov), which leads to said ghost helping the school team win the "big game" (i.e. by cheating) and thus Jones' character's career. I think...

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #30

Day of the Dead (1985)

This is one of my favorite scenes, of many, from George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. The moment when Bub grabs Logan's arm and Logan flinches, realizing that he might have just walked into his own grave, and what followed got my jaw to drop just the slightest bit. Great movie. One of my all time favorites.

Deep Rising (1998) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - January 29, 1998

Being a monster movie fan, I was, of course, super excited about there being an other sea monster movie opening at a theatre near me. In this case, it was Brenden Concord 14. That is where I saw Deep Rising for the first time.

While my expectations were not throughly met, I was far more satisfied and entertained by the film than my brother, who thought it was terrible.

My primary complaint with the film was that Rob Bottin's monster design was created via CGI, not with practical effects. Granted that the option they went with did give the creature a range of visual motion that would have been a time-consuming struggle to achieve via miniatures or stop motion. But I sure would have loved to see them try.

At least the monster's partially digested leftovers were on step practical effects.

I also love darkly comedic the tagline featured in the trailer: "Women and children first. You're next."

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #65

Vandala

Vandala, Lady Death's valkyrie sister, is resplendent in glory. She's just single-handedly resurrected the shinning [sic] realm. It will be called Newgard.
 

Dragon Castle Books in Las Vegas - Visit and Book Haul.

Evilspeak (1981) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 28, 1982

Evilspeak might have been the first horror film I saw on the big screen in 1982. It played at the Southshore Twin in Alameda on a double-bill with the inane and insane killer hand flick Demonoid. What an energetic one-two punch of supernatural shenanigans and slaughter those turned two out to be.

What made that particular Saturday even better was that John Carpenter's second (and first professional) feature film, Assault on Precinct 13, was aired, complete and uncut, on Channel 44 that night. I made an audio cassette recording of that broadcast and listened to it over and over for months. Until the tapes started wearing out.

Last year a ginormous feral pig, who I named Wilbur, was captured on our trail camera and the moment I saw him (and he is most assuredly a him) Evilspeak came to mind. Because of course it would. The ending of this movie is just hog wild.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #29

Stuff of the 'Week' - January 17 - 21, 2026

The Fog (1980) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - January 27, 1980

The Fog was the first John Carpenter movie I would be hyper-focused on and obsessed with seeing after getting the top of my head blown off by Halloween. I believed there was no way this would not be another classic from the man (i.e. creative team) responsible for Halloween.

While fog banks might not be as iconic as, say, the holiday of Halloween. They do serve as a vital backdrop, or set dressing, in the creation of an ominous, threatening, or mysterious mood. What could go wrong with letting a ghost-laden fog take center stage?

Although the end result was just a "tad" unfocused, underdeveloped, and uneven, thanks in very large part to Carpenter's eleventh hour reshoots to ramp the film's scare factor way, way up, I still loved it.

The days of my thinking The Fog to be another flawless classic are long past, but The Fog remains one of my personal favorite Carpenter films.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance #64 - Trading Card #64

Celia

Celia, one of the gifted "Haunted", will be confronted by things that she never imagined and be thrust amongst those whom she never imagined associating with. Will she and the others be able to team-up to defeat the evil that is encroaching upon them?