The Spider (1958) / Terror from the Year 5000 (1958) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - November 14, 1958]

My first ever viewing of Earth vs. The Spider provided a memorable jolt to my childhood psyche. One moment this dude is just driving along a road at night, the next his blood-spattered face is screeching in close-up. Wow. I was not expecting that.

The rest of the movie does not deliver anything close to that opening shock, but it does have a slumbering spider getting snapped out of its DDT-induced nap by a rock band's practice session... and the impromptu dance party that it has started.

Also, all the "teenagers" in this movie look to be in their mid-to-late 30s. Which is fun.

Bits and bobs sprinkled across the last 20 or so minutes of Terror from the Year 5,000 also lodged in my childhood memory as being terrifying. I guess that the image and sound of a sparkling woman lunging from the shadows and squealing like a terrified piglet was just outlandishly weird enough to give me a confused case of the willies.

Hey, I was seven or eight. What do you expect at that age, critical thinking?

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #5

"He's an ugly little spud, isn't he?"

"I think he can hear you Ray."

Now I want to watch Ghostbusters again. 

Friday the 13th (1980) / Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - November 13, 1981

Seeing that November 13, 1981 was a Friday, there was no way that Paramount would pass on the opportunity to rake in even more cash with a double-header reissue of the first two Friday the 13th movies.

I am sure this re-release made them a fair bit of extra cash that, more the likely, helped power the green lighting of the more or less inevitable Friday the 13th Part III (1982).

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #40

Her sword a constant reminder of the paths of Chaos!, Lady Death wields it with horrible beauty, like a force of nature. If she stands guard and swears that none shall go by her, rest assured, the field will be littered with corpses by the end of the day. 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - November 12, 1974

Being all of seven years old at the time of its original release, it should come as no surprise that I have zero memory of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. My introduction to the film came post Salem's Lot (1979), The Funhouse (1981), and Poltergeist (1982). 

The first time I watched it was on home video, that grainy and somewhat fuzzy looking transfer courtesy of Wizard Home Entertainment, and found the film to be every bit as unnerving and intense as its lurid title implied it would be. Although that spell was broken when my dad strolled into the living room, just as Sally Hardesty jumps through a window and gets chased across the front lawn by Leatherface, and asked me, "What the hell are you watching?"

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," I told him.

He sighed, shook his head, and muttered, "Figures it'd be Texas." Then he turned and walked out of the room.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #4

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

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) was almost the first Nightmare entry I saw on the big screen, but I wound up changing my mind at that last minute about seeing it. So it goes.

The Legacy (1978) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - November 11, 1979

The images from the TV spots for The Legacy that stuck in my memory were of a woman discovering that she has become trapped under the water in a swimming pool and a pair of withered, skeletal hands slipping a ring onto one of Katharine Ross's fingers. That is pretty much all I remember.

It was years later that I finally saw the film and, well, the swimming pool bit, Roger Daltry choking on a chicken bone, and those withered hands clasping and forcing an evil ring onto Katharine Ross's finger are all I remember about it. Well, there was also a nun, or nurse, that might also have been a cat. I think.

Three trivia things that I do know about The Legacy. 1 - this was movie where Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott met and fell in love. They married in 1984 and are still together. 2 - the script was written by Jimmy Sangster, who I know best for all the classic Hammer movies he wrote, as well as for penning one of the best Kolchak The Night Stalker episodes: Horror in the Heights. 3 - that director Richard Marquand when on to make bigger, better movies, like Return of the Jedi and Jagged Edge.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #39

Power Women

Collectively, the women of Chaos! control enough power to rip reality asunder, from the savage ferocity of Purgatori to the cunning street smarts of Chastity, these are not women to trifle with. 

Halloween (1978) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - November 10, 1978

The holiday may have come and gone, but the first ever theatrical release of John Carpenter's Halloween was just around the corner in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here we have a handful of sneak preview screenings hoping to generate some positive word of mouth for the film's opening on Wednesday, November 15th.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #3

Day of the Dead (1985)

The inclusion of the maligned Day of the Dead in the Fright Flicks trading card set only endeared it to me all the more, as Day is one of my all-time favorite movies. I saw it twice on the big screen and this image, which was also a Scream Greats poster in Fangoria magazine issue #48, was used as a visual guide for how to make look like Bub, the zombie with a soul, for Halloween in 1985. Great fun, that. Although taking the make-up off took a great deal of time and effort. Still it was worth it. So very worth it.