The Brood (1979) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

August 1, 1979

This is one of those kindertrauma ads I remember scaring the daylights out me, back in the day. I also might have seen a couple of television ads for it, but cannot be too sure about that. August 1979 would be some 46 years ago, at time of writing. 

I also remember reading about the film in either an issue of Fangoria, Starlog, or, most likely, Cinefastique. This had to have been post Scanners, because I was fascinated, curious, and eager to learn of Cronenberg's early works.

When I did get the chance to watch The Brood on home video, it did not disappoint. I think it is my favorite Cronenberg film. There is a lot in and about the film that I relate to. Feel free to make of that what you will.

Schoolgirls in Chains (1973) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

January 25, 1978

I have come to believe that there are only two kinds of movie. There are movies I want to see and then there are movies that I do not want to see. Schoolgirls in Chains falls into the latter category.

What kind of movies I want to watch, when I want to watch them, and why I want to watch them are decided by my own idiosyncratic tastes and fickle moods. I can swing from something dead serious to a silly or campy romp. I could be in the mood for a slow burn or I could have a hankering for something a tad faster paced.

Yet there are films that I will probably never be in the mood or frame of mind to watch. Again, Schoolgirls in Chains falls into that category.

The Beast from 20,000 (1953) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

June 24, 1953

I have taken to describing Roland Emmerich's ill-conceived 1998 version of Godzilla as "a bloated and overlong, but nonetheless acceptable, remake of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms."

Movies that had the word "Beast" in their titles were a matter of routine, back in the day. At some point, during any given week, there was bound to be a movie with a titular beast that lurked in some haunted cave, or cellar. One that had five fingers, or a million eyes. That craved blood, or had to die.

But the most coveted beast of them all, for me, was the one that came up from 20,000 fathoms. The infamous moment when a cop gets snatched up and gulped down, while no doubt laughable by today's standards, shook me to my core. Back when I was somewhere between the ages of 5 and 12, that is. 

I have heard and read conflicting stories about this film and its connection, real or supposed, to Ray Bradbury's short story The Fog Horn. Some versions have the filmmakers purchasing the rights to Bradbury's story prior to production. Other versions have the purchasing of the rights occurring during the production, when the similarities between a lighthouse scene and events in Bradbury's story were noticed and/or pointed out.

Here it might be best to invoke what I have come to call The Liberty Valance Rule: Whenever truth contradicts a legend, it might be best to just go with the legend.

New Year's Evil (1980) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

January 30, 1981

Happy New Year! 

7 Doors of Death [The Beyond (1981)] / Superstition (1982) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

November 14, 1985

How on earth did I miss out on catching this banger of a "Cursed House" double feature? 

If I had gone to see this, then I would have been able to have seen at least one Lucio Fulci movie on the big screen. Granted, this would have been in a somewhat edited version, but still.  It would have been a Lucio Fulci movie, on the big screen. Come on.

Superstition is also a whole lot of fun and well worth checking out.

Dracula (1931) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

March 26, 1931

The first of the Universal Monsters arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area in March of 1931. The weird, terrifying, and fascinating film would be a huge hit, leading then studio head Carl Laemmle Jr. to up the ante with another monster movie. More on that later...

Bela Lugosi delivered a commanding and seeming star making performance that, sad to say, he never managed to escape from its all encompassing shadow. There are far worse things to be remembered for, though.

Godzilla vs. Megalon [Gojira tai Megaro] (1973) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

June 16, 1976

It took three years, but the film English speaking audiences know as Godzilla vs. Megalon plopped into our local theaters and drive-ins on June 16, 1976.

This would be the first 'new' Godzilla movie I would see on the big screen, but may not have been the very first I would have seen. I know that I sat through a matinee screening of King Kong vs. Godzilla at the Southshore Twin Cinema, at some point. That was one of three Kid's Matinees I remember seeing there. The other two would be the 1966 Batman movie and the first third of 1970's Yog: Monster from Space.

Godzilla vs. Megalon would also serve as a memorable example of bait-and-switch movie marketing, because Godzilla and Megalon did not fight while standing atop the World Trade Center in New York City. Something the advertisement appears to promise.

Adult me knows and understands that the artwork here was designed to resemble the artwork for the remake of King Kong that would be getting a Christmas release that same year. But 10-year-old me wanted and expected to see Godzilla and Megalon duke it out in New York City.

They did not.

The poster also promises something "All new never before seen!" Which is as true as it is false. The movie itself, and the monster it adds to Godzilla's rogues' gallery, are, indeed, new. But a great deal of the film's special effects are not. A lot of its footage is recycled from earlier, and far more generously budgeted, movies.

Something else worth noting is that our downtown theater had Godzilla vs Megalon double-billed with William Castle's production of Bug (1975). I don't remember if we started or finished the double-bill with Godzilla vs. Megalon, but I do remember Bug scaring the ever living crap out of me.

More on that later...

Creature from Black Lake (1976) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

September 22, 1976

Creature from Black Lake is one of a handful of films from my childhood that I deemed to be "far too scary" to see, because the ads were scary enough, thank you.

I finally caught up with this particular piece of regional filmmaking cheese when it played after an episode of Kolchak The Night Stalker on the CBS Late Night Movie. At least that is how I remember it.

Creature from Black Lake turned out to be an inoffensive little thing, about as scary as an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man featuring Bigfoot (Andre the Giant). My being a fan of Dennis Fimple, Jack Elam, and Dub Taylor no doubt helped keep my interest...

Halloween (1978) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

November 15, 1978

On October 25th my Facebook feed was peppered with posts celebrating the fact that John Carpenter's Halloween opened in theaters and drive-ins for the very first time on October 25, 1978. Because, more than likely, that is the earliest date that is listed on its IMDB page.

While this might be true, the number of theaters it played in was quite small. I was surprised to learn that Halloween never had a wide theatrical release. That it never played in more than 200 theaters at any given time. It would open in a market, play for a week or two, then move on to the next.

Which explains how and why Halloween first opened at a theater or drive-in near me on November 15, 1978. NOVEMBER!?! The celebration of Halloween would already have been a distant memory to 11-year-old me. My heart would be focused on Thanksgiving and, even better, Christmas.

So it should come as no surprise that I have no memory of this release, at all.

Halloween would first ping my blossoming horror geek radar when this issue of Newsweek arrived in the family mail.

Newsweek - June 18, 1979

This is where, buried amongst the coverage of the looming releases of Alien, Prophecy, and Dawn of the Dead, that I learned that a movie called Halloween existed. I am pretty sure that Phantasm, The Brood, and maybe even The Dark were also mentioned in the cover article.

Although the positive word of mouth of audiences, and the acclaim of critics, was beginning to grow around Halloween, the article's coverage was pretty basic. It stated that Halloween, a scary sleeper hit, would be getting another release in the fall and offered a single image from the film. That of a sheeted figure standing in a doorway. But it was enough to get me interested and excited about seeing this movie called Halloween.