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Archive for November, 2010

Nostalgia

When it came to my father’s movie theatres in the small western Illinois towns of
Carthage and Warsaw, I was one puerile youth who bubbled over with promotional ideas on how to locally ballyhoo the low-budget horror films he played.

The Warsaw Theatre, a Quonset hut building on Main Street in a town of two thousand people overlooking the Mississippi River, was, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and sometimes played a different picture each night. The Woodbine Theatre in Carthage, twenty miles east of the river and with a larger population, tried to remain open every night, but rarely played a single film as long as a week. In the Warsaw Theatre, my father often ran double-feature material – older films and re-issues, eighty minute color westerns billed with black-and-white “lower half” films. Occasionally, when he listened to my pleas, he would run horror films, and these were the films I would go out of my way to promote. This was a very small town, so our limited resources left me with a few opportunities to be imaginative, creating lobby displays, storefront cardboard displays, and telephone posters – all made of cardboard and ink.

Some horror films of the era, however, came equipped with their own promotional gimmicks – the most well-known being those created by schlock director and producer William Castle. His first gimmick was in 1958, a promo involving a Lloyd’s of London insurance policy covering the movie patron in the unlikely event that he or she died of fright while watching MACABRE.

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MACABRE is a small-budgeted but tightly paced black-and-white thriller with a few shots inserted for obvious shock value: a bloody faced corpse which falls over inside a mausoleum, a small dummy corpse with a skull face in a casket shown during a funeral at night, the sudden hand on the shoulder of a doctor who is searching through a cemetery for his daughter who has supposedly been buried alive. The final resolution is perhaps the biggest shock of all, perhaps because it is quite plausible. Greedy human beings, such as in the next Castle film HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, are the real horrors, not supernatural beings. Nonetheless, the shocks are still effective – at least for audiences not requiring gore (as in the remake of the film with the same title). To this date, only two Castle films have been remade with updated gore: HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and THIRTEEN GHOSTS. Teen audiences today, at least in America, would probably find the original versions of the films to be quite tame.*

When Allied Artist’s MACABRE played at the Warsaw Theatre, I ordered extra 8 x 10 still photos from the film from National Screen Service and decorated the window of a local drug store with a cardboard cut-out cemetery. I drew my own tombstones, but the druggist balked when I wrote the names of local people on the graves. I meant it as a joke, but black humor (sick humor) was not in.

* In the same year, Hammer Films released its version of the Dracula story with the title, in the US, HORROR OF DRACULA. In 1958, it was startling to some audiences and quite tame to others. When I showed the film in the 1990s to a college class in Atlanta, they found it to be slow-paced in spots and not very frightening or shocking. However, when I showed the film to a British literature class in China in 2004, several college girls asked to be dismissed from the classroom. They were thoroughly frightened, and I was shocked by their reaction.

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Despite my cardboard artistry, however, the film attracted only a small portion of our small population. We had the usual football games as competition.

For a Halloween midnight showing one year, Dad played two hokey horror films geared for teenage audiences: I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN and THE RETURN OF DRACULA. For this late 1950s double-bill, I constructed a cardboard castle over one of the inside exits next to the screen and ran a wire from it to the projection booth. I draped a section of white sheet over a hangar and tied a string to the hanger. During a high point of one of the films, I stood in the exit and pulled on the string, hoping to pull the ghost across the top of the audience. The ghost came out of the projection booth window on cue, but the hanger stuck halfway down. I jerked harder on the string and it snapped, leaving my deus ex machina suspended above the audience until the end of the showing when the houselights revealed my attempted stunt.

More successful was my huge cobweb made out of regular white yarn that I draped over the doorways and the one-sheet and 14 x 36 frames in the lobby.

Both I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTIEN and THE RETURN OF DRACULA feature their own internal gimmicks – the use of color in otherwise black-and-white films. One may recall how a short color segment was used in the 1940s films THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY and THE PORTRAIT OF JENNY; in each case, only the portrait of the title character was shown in color in sharp contrast with the rest of the film. Both inserted shots are quite effective. Less can be said the use of color in the aforementioned Halloween hits. In the Frankenstein film, color is used only at the end when the monster destroys himself through shock therapy. The scene is not shocking, only surprising (as in Why?).

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The Dracula film, a much more frightening film (because of skillful directing and editing, not internal gimmicks), uses color for the close shot where vampire hunters plunge a stake into the heart of a female vampire. Color gushing out of a heart wound in this black-and-white film is much more effective as a shocking contrast than the sudden jolt of color used in Castle’s THE TINGLER, which shows a bathtub filled with blood and a human arm reaching out to a woman who is deathly afraid of the sight of blood.

In 1960, Nikolai Gogal’s short story “The Vij” was transformed into an Italian horror film by shock-for-shock’s sake director Mario Bava. The film was released in the US as BLACK SUNDAY (and THE MASK OF SATAN in Europe). BLACK SUNDAY was later used as the title of a John Frankenheimer film which dealt with pre-9-11 terrorists trying to decimate a football stadium full of fans. The first BLACK SUNDAY was released by American-International Pictures, a company famous for producing its own low-budgeted but heavily promoted quickies like I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN.

The 1960s BLACK SUNDAY, however, is unlike other formula flicks for teens at the drive-in theatres. Clever if self-conscious camera work utilizes an abundance of zoom lens shots and focuses our attention on the gamut of gothic trappings brought to life in low key black-and-white; some of the scenes feature stark imagery as crisp as anything shown in Antonioni’s L’AVVENTURA, while others effectively use soft focus to create a nightmarish world. It is almost a textbook of gothic examples: black-robed hooded figures executing witches with a spike-studded mask before the titles are even shown, paintings changing and rotating to reveal secret passageways, trap doors opening onto pits with long spikes at the bottom, lanterns floating in mid-air, corpses found hanging in corridors, and huge bats flying around in the crypt.

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Barbara Steele, identified in many Italian horror flicks (and even in Fellini’s landmark film 8

You and your husband have been invited to a costume party for Halloween. But neither of you have anything to wear! Should you run to the local discount store and buy anything that will fit you? Of course not! Be unique and original with couples’ costume sets you can find online!

Some of the funniest choices for couples’ costumes I found were:

Salt and Pepper Shakers – These light-weight costumes would be perfect on those balmy Halloween nights. Complete with shaker top hats, these costumes will be the talk of the party.

Bowling Ball and Pin – There is no better couple than the bowling ball and pin. This set would be great at a Halloween party for your bowling league!

Hot Dog and Mustard – A holiday treat, even on Halloween, is the hot dog. Why not dress like one and be your own treat?

Ketchup and Mustard – The same mustard costume paired with its favorite complimentary condiment.

Pizza Slices – Your favorite pepperoni snack has now become a costume. Make a pizza box purse for that night’s festivities to complete the ensemble.

Traffic Lights – Whether you are thinking stop or go, these costumes will let you know! The front lights up for party fun. Included is a hat that resembles the top of the light.

Some of the more outrageous couples’ costumes I found were:

The Plug and The Socket costume set
The Ball and Chain costume set
The Lock and Key costume set
The Nuts and Bolts costume set
The Handcuffs costume set

I say “outrageous” because of the placement of the props on the costumes. When you look them up, you’ll understand.

Many of the couples’ costumes you will find should be worn to adult only parties. The hidden meanings of the various costumes won’t be lost on children and could make for more uncomfortable moments instead of good, clean fun.

Although some of these costumes are rather expensive, some are reasonably priced. Buy one this year and you’ll be the talk of Halloween parties for years to come.

The Halloween celebration in the city of New York is very different as compared to other celebrations. This celebration is very unique where the children put on the costumes of any superhero or any scary image. In NYC, at the time of this occasion, you will get to see a lot of parties, parades and events. Thousands of adults and kids take part in the parade. This superb celebration attracts thousands of visitors every year from all the parts of the world. It is the most apt time to get into the character of your favorite people. During this celebration, the people love to shop a lot in order to look unique and funky. They buy things like the accessories; make up, costumes, wigs and many more.

NYC has a lot of places for shopping for all these celebrations. Some of the places are as follows:

Ricky’s: This known shopping place is very well known for the great mix of the Halloween costumes like the bows, wigs and anything that is funky and sexy. This place is unique and has the most variety. It is a great place to shop all year round to add a little spice to your life.

Abracadabra : This shopping place is famous for its innovative selection and atmosphere. It is a great place to put together a Halloween costume. Besides, the very usual great collection of the modern and vintage clothing and the accessories like bubblegum boots and crazy hats, you can also come throughout the year to see magic shows which is great for the kids.

Party City: You can find hundreds of affordable costumes and all of the supplies for your big Halloween bash. Dress up as your favorite character, become a princess, or a giant beer bottle. Decorate your home for a party with Halloween decorations, tableware, party invitations, and trick-or-treat supplies. A one stop shop for the best Holiday.

New York City has a lot of shopping places and if you wish to get the most apt costume for the Halloween Party, then rush to these stores and get into your favorite characters image.