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?

The Corpse Grinders (1971) / The Undertaker and His Pals (1966) / The Embalmer (1965) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 26, 1972

Of the trio of gruesome shockers getting hyped up in this lurid ad for a horrifying triple-bill, I believe I have only seen most, but not all, of The Undertaker and His Pals. It is a stilted and rather labored horror-comedy about an undertaker that supplies a neighboring diner with human meat.

Being a fan of genre and exploitation cinema ephemera, I really should check out Ted V. Mikels' notorious The Corpse Grinders, but I wonder at the animal treatment in the film. For those that do not know the film's central plot concept, enterprising ghouls grind up human remains to use as cat food. Something that drives the animals to then attack and devour their owners. I doubt the Humane Society was on the set, if you know what I mean and I think you do...

The Embalmer is the oldest of the three. It is an Italian shocker about a crazed killer that holes up in the catacombs of Venice, where he keeps a collection of his preserved and artfully displayed female victims.

So, all in all, this seems like a pleasant way to waste five or six hours at your local grind-house or drive-in. I... guess?

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #28

Pumpkinhead (1988)

Here is a nice shot of the true star of Pumpkinhead, which is correctly attributed on the back of this particular card. Why Topps went with Vengeance: The Demon on some other the cards in this set is a trivia factoid as of yet unknown to me. So it goes.

No spoilers, but Pumpkinhead's visage here suggests this might be from when he is just starting to whoop the asses of the victims he has been dispatched to destroy in the most torturous of manners.

 

Ghost Talk (2020) - Short

Death Valley (1981) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - January 21, 1982

Although jazzed up with an occasional intense murder, just to make it competitive with the highly lucrative slasher film craze of the time, Death Valley aims more at building the kind of tension that will have the audience on the edge of their collective seats, rather than jumping out of them.

While not that bad of a movie, this was also one I did not regret missing out on the big screen. We watched it on HBO and it was.. fine.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #63

Combining East Asian occultism with her own formidable vampiric powers, Jade is like nothing the earth has ever seen before - a force that cannot be stopped, and quests to control all of the Asian continent! 

Our Trail Cam - Vol. 39

CBS Radio Mystery Theater - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 20, 1974

At one point in the late-seventies the family television started emitting smoke, resulting in my mother calling the fire department. Turns out our only television had become an electrical fire hazard and needed disposing of.

How long we were without a television is everybody's guess. But it was a long enough period of time to allow my mom and dad to introduce my brother and I to the glories of Old Time Radio.

One of our local AM stations, KSFO, broadcast a complete line-up of 'prime time' radio programming. The eight o' clock hour would feature shows like Lum n' Abner, Boston Blackie, The Shadow, The Whistler, Our Miss Brooks, Burns and Allen, and many, many more. 

The nine o' clock time slot was taken by an all-new Old Time Radio show, The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which fast became a fascination and addiction of mine. Fueling that fascination and addiction was how the program's use of the descriptive mystery in its title was both literal and figurative. 

Because each and every night was a delightful and frustrating coin toss as to what that particular episode would or could be. Yes, there were lots of mysteries. But there were also a lot of gothic melodramas, comedies, spy stories, ghost stories, monster stories, historical dramas, and even quite a few science fiction and fantasy stories. There was no way of knowing unless you listened.

My all time favorite episode remains Hickory, Dickory, Doom. You can give it a listen here.

The remainder of KSFO's evening line-up was a ten o' clock comedy hour, which played selections from stand-up or skit comedy albums. The eleven o' clock hour offered the likes of Lights Out, Inner Sanctum, Suspense, or Escape.

The witching hour featured a repeat of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Good times and wonderful memories.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #27

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors (1987)

I do like the whimsical High School Prom photo vibe New Line's marketing team indulged in with this entry. Fangoria would also use a photo from this shoot for the cover of issue 62.

 

Shogun Assassin (1981) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - January 16, 1981

Shogun Assassin was the Americanized edit of the first two Lone Wolf and Cub movies, Sword of Vengeance and Baby Cart at the River Styx, into a single feature. While I have the first two films, I do not have a memory of seeing this version. Even though I do remember its release and the excoriating review Gene Siskel gave the film.

But I do have the limited edition soundtrack of Shogun Assassin that was released by BSX Records in 2022.

Being a New World Pictures theatrical release, it comes as no surprise that it was coupled with a re-release of 1980's Humanoids from the Deep at most venues. Although the Balboa Theatre, which I once lived three blocks from, had it coupled with a re-release of 1977's The Hills Have Eyes.

The debt The Mandalorian owes to Lone Wolf and Cub, or to Shogun Assassin, is quite obvious and acknowledged. I got quite the geeky giggle when the first film's "Choose your destiny" scene was restaged in, of all things, and episode of The Book of Boba Fett.

 

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #62

Nemesis!

In the hopes of killing the Asian vampire called Jade forever, the mysterious Progeny sent the Iron Racer to kill her. A perfect mixture of science and magic, the Racer is no match for Jade's rage.
 

Home Box Office - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 15, 1978

Of the six films listed in this Home Box Office ad, I have seen two. Those would be Futureworld (1976) and Empire of the Ants (1977). But I had, or have, some pop culture awareness of another three of them. The novel Audrey Rose was a bookstore staple in the late 70s and early 80s, and I think I watched the first Sounder at some point in 1989 or 1990, and I had heard of, but still have yet to see, Bugsy Malone.

Birch Interval is the only one I had never heard of. A quick check of the IMDB revealed why, the film is a fish-out-of-water melodrama about an eleven year old girl spending a summer in the rural home of relatives who live near an Amish community. Not something I would have found as interesting or intriguing as, say, Futureworld or Empire of the Ants, way back in 1978. But today I would more amiable to giving it a look, should I ever stumble across it while scouring a streaming service for something "different" to watch.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #26

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

 

Tremors (1990) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - January 14, 1990

This scan of an ad for a Sneak Preview of Tremors in the Sunday Examiner/Chronicle Datebook might be a tad murky, and thus hard to see, but what is not the slightest bit murky is my complete and utter love for this delightful 'little' monster movie. I went to see it twice on its opening day and have watched it countless times since.

I have also seen all the sequels and own a DVD set of the complete, albeit very short-lived, monster-of-the-week formatted television series that ran on the Sci-Fi (maybe SyFy by then) Channel.

"Damn prairie dog burrow!" 
 

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #61

Comedy and Tragedy

Before her life was changed forever by vampire, Chastity wanted to be an actress and model. Little did she know that the twin masks signifying drama would come to represent her life - a combination of utter comedy and heart-wrenching tragedy.
 

Silent Scream (1979) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 13, 1980

Although I had a friend that would paraphrase Silent Scream's hyperbolic tagline as, "Boredom so sudden, there is no time to yawn." I enjoyed the movie, for what it was. Silent Scream would also be the second time I would see Barbara Steele on the big screen at the Alameda Southshore Twin. The first time having been way back in 1978, when we went and saw Piranha. At least she had dialogue in that movie. In Silent Scream, which also seems to be her final film appearance, I think, she was silent throughout.

I also got a kick out of seeing actor-comedian Avery Schrieber, who I recognized from his Dorito commercials and game show appearances, in a small, and serious, role as a cop.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #25

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors (1987)

"I said, 'Where's the fucking bourbon!?!"

Not that it needs pointing out, but... The arm and torso visible to Freddy's left, along with his fatigued-glazed expression of indifference, give away that this is a behind the scenes photo and not a still from the actual movie.

Great White [The Last Shark / L'ultimo Squalo (1981)] - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - January 12, 1982

Sandwiched between screenings of the far superior Raiders of the Lost was this sneak preview for what was fast to become an infamous footnote in exploitation film history.

Universal Pictures was not all that impressed with, nor the slightest bit appreciative of, this blatant Italian knock-off of Jaws and Jaws 2. They filed a legal complaint and got the movie pulled from theatrical release. Although readily available in markets outside the United States territories, and thus available to stream on a variety of online sites, a legitimate release of the film remains frustratingly off the table.
 

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #60

On Guard

Victimized herself by supernatural evil, Chastity now hunts those who seek to prey on others. Under Chastity's watch, none shall hurt the innocent.
 

Thistlewyck at Filoli House (and Rose Wonders)

Stuff of the 'Week' - January 1 - 9, 2026

The Kindred (1987) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 9, 1987

The Kindred had to have set some kind of record for the most slime used in a movie, because gallons upon gallons of gelatinous goop douses both the set and poor Rod Steiger at one point.

The Kindred (1987) - IMDB

I did see the film on the big screen and, for all its slime and creature effects, there was not a whole of there to be had there. It was an entertaining enough time waster, I thought, but nothing more than that.

 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #24

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

 

The Grim Reaper [Antropophagus (1980)] - Newspaper

San Francisco Examiner - January 8, 1982

Way, way back in 1982, Daly City's Geneva Drive-In had the kind of double-bill Joe Bob Briggs loves to lionize in memoriam. 

The Grim Reaper was an easier to sell retitling of Joe D'Amato's infamous cannibal slasher opus Antropophagus. It would also be the very first movie Briggs ever reviewed for his quick to be popular, and thus syndicated, Drive-In Movie Review column. If you have a strong stomach, you might enjoy it. Many have. Some have not. So it goes.

Coupled with The Grim Reaper was a re-release of 1979's Don't Go in the House, a nasty 'little' riff off of Psycho that featured a psychotic momma's boy (Dan Grimaldi) incinerating women with his trusty flamethrower. Ouch.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #59

Surprised

It's a cold day in Hell when someone can get the drop on Chastity. If they do, they are as good as dead - her vampire instincts will take over, replacing her gentle nature with that of a ferocious hunter.
 

The Inn of the Dove by Gordon Linzner - Review

Super Fuzz [Poliziotto Superpiu (1980)] - Newpaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 7, 1982

All I remember about Super Fuzz are a smattering of cartoonish and slapstick heavy TV spots for it and catching what I believed to be the film's ending on HBO. If it ends with a wedding and star Terence Hill breaking the fourth wall whilst kissing the bride, then yes, I have seen the ending of Super Fuzz.

The word around school (High or Middle, don't remember which) was lackluster to scathing, but what did they know? Maybe what the movie needed was Bud Spencer rather than Ernest Borgnine.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #23

Aliens (1986)

This one did get the tiniest snort of a laugh out of me, when I first saw it.

Creature Features: The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) - Promo

San Francisco Examiner - January 6, 1974

The San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle's Sunday TV Week supplement had this modest promo for an episode of Creature Features featuring Hammer Film's third Frankenstein movie, 1964's The Evil of Frankenstein. This would be one of two entries in the famed company's series of Frankenstein films the was not directed by Terence Fisher. Nope, this one was helmed by Freddie Francis. The other would by the 1970 Jimmy Sangster helmed horror-comedy The Horror of Frankenstein.

This episode aired on Saturday, January 12, 1974 and, being all six or seven years old, I would not have been allowed to stay up and watch it. So it goes.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #58

Heat of Battle

It's when Chastity is most alive. Lightly dancing around her opponent, her blades and fangs reflecting the light, Chastity is a vision of terrible beauty in battle.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 5, 1986

I do not share the implied opinions given by Janet Maslin, of The New York Times, or Joel Siegel, of ABC TV, stating that Freddy's Revenge was "scary" and "as much fun as the original." One must always keep in mind that a sarcastic comment could have been clipped from a less than glowing review and made to appear as if the film were being praised. 

While I did think Freddy's Revenge an entertaining enough movie, at no point during its runtime was I ever scared or unsettled by it. But I did find the film's in no way whatsoever subtle gay commentary to be equal parts amusing and interesting. 

Perhaps I should revisit this movie...

Also, I love Christopher Young's score for the film, but that is a subject for a soundtrack collection post.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #22

The Fly (1986)

This image reminds me of an unrelated, yet still related, clip I saw of Liam Neeson talking about when he took on the role of Darkman for the Sam Raimi film of the same name. Neeson shared that he was still a relatively young and inexperienced film actor who learned the importance of inquiring about the amount of time he would be spending in a make-up chair during filming before agreeing to take the role.

Looking at Jeff Goldblum here, I wonder if he found himself wondering, or learning, that very same lesson here. The above pictured effect must have taken an entire workday to apply, and that does not include all the time eaten up between the takes for effect touch ups and such. It also does not factor in the time spent making the head and body molds. Just how not claustrophobic do you think you are?
 

Night Warning [Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)] - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - January 2, 1983

The Sunday Examiner/Chronicle Datebook had this ad hyping the January 7, 1983 release, or re-release, of Butcher Baker, Nightmare Maker under the title Night Warning.

Although no theaters or drive-ins are listed in this teaser ad, I did see Night Warning on Saturday, January 8, I believe, at the Alameda Southshore, where it was on a double-bill with the equally memorable The Beast Within. That was one raucous and lively night at the movies. The crowd, and it was a crowd, went wild throughout both movies.

I do remember being taking aback by Bo Svenson's bigoted 'Detective Carlson' character. He was so over-the-top with his homophobia I remember leaning over to a friend and whispering in his ear, "This has to be an act, he's protesting too much." Which was pretty progressive thinking for a 14 year-old kid in 1983, I think.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #57

Target Acquired

Spotting her prey, Chastity leaps from the heights to bring them a world of hurt. Sword at her side, the heads of those in her way will be rolling - literally.
 

Creature Features [Night of the Living Dead (1968) / House of Horrors (1946)] - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - January 1, 1972

If I might be forgiven for making an unlearned assumption here, but I think this New Year's Day Creature Features double feature might be a tad top heavy. As Night of the Living Dead is the superior picture, by a considerable margin.

House of Horrors, which I have yet to see, is one of the last gasps of the Universal Monster movies released throughout the early 1940s. Rondo Hatton stars as a psychopathic killer known as The Creeper, who is saved from drowning by a sculptor (Martin Kosleck). Said sculptor then used The Creeper to murder those that have either displeased him or given his work harsh criticism. 

With his sharp features and cold eyes, Martin Koslek made a career out of playing the baddest of bad guys. Some of his Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties appropriate villainous roles were as Hugo in The Devil Is Not Mocked segment on Night Gallery, Prof. Peter Bartell in The Flesh Eaters, Dwight Severn in She-Wolf of London, and Ragheb in The Mummy's Curse (1944). He died in 1994 at the age of 89.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #21

Fright Night (1985)