All Things Video

October - Only the Best Month Ever!

2008-10-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

So the leaves have changed color and began to fall to the ground, the weather is beginning to chill, and the t.v. networks are starting to show the good movies and shows. It can only mean one thing - October! This is by far my most favorite month of the year because of the programming and the big finale of Halloween! It seems that October is the only real time when one can indulge in the carnal joys of candy, ghost stories, scaring children, and dressing as a ghoul, while at the same time not being criticized for that sort of behavior. Basically, it's the one time of the year when I don't have to worry about people thinking I'm weird for my obsession with the horror genre.

I have fond memories of past Halloweens when I was a kid. One Halloween in particular stands out among the rest. I must have been 11 or 12 years old at the time, and Halloween fell on a Friday, but because it was a teacher workday, school was canceled. So, I spent the better part of the day eating candy corn and watching scary movies. One of the movies I remember most, and wish that would be released on DVD, was "The Halloween Tree". It was a nice cartoon movie that told the history of Halloween from the perspective of various cultures, but was moved along by a back story involving a group of children who were trying to save their friend's life that was dying from a sickness. It was very close to being a children's version of "Creepshow", in fact the narrator looked a lot like the ghoul from it. In the end, the children couldn't save their friend from the sickness, but they could prolong his life by giving him some of their years of life. It really was a great movie, and I recommend it if you can find it on some format (probably VHS). Although, I do think that there are segments of it on YouTube.

The thing I look forward to most this year is seeing which movies the t.v. networks will air, particularly AMC, Chiller, and Sci-Fi. I know I probably own most of the movies on DVD, but there's something different about watching them when a network airs them. It kind of makes you feel like "yeah, they're showing this just for me."

Who Ya Gonna Call?

2008-09-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

After the great success of the Ghostbusters movies in the 80's, a cartoon series was launched called "The Real Ghostbusters" which featured the team of ghostbusters battling ghouls, ghosts, goblins, and all sorts of evil. The series lasted for several years and spawned more than 100 episodes as well as spin off series such as "Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters" and "Extreme Ghostbusters". Fans of the cartoon series got a taste of Heaven a few years ago when a couple of the episodes were released on DVD along with the Ghostbusters I and II boxset. Unfortunately, that was the best that one could hope to see from the series, until now...

Timelife has announced that they will be releasing ALL of The Real Ghostbusters episodes, along with all of the Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters episodes in a DVD box set this year! Not only will all of the episodes be included, but also hours of bonus features including commentaries, episode introductions by the creators, music score features, and so much more! All of this comes on 25 DVDs contained in a Ghostbusters firehouse replica case. For those interested, I'm providing a link to where you can pre-order this DVD box set. It's scheduled to ship in November, and it'll run you about $200 (well worth it in my opinion).

Click here for information about ordering your DVD box set!!!

Mystery Solved!

2008-09-07T16:47:00.001-07:00

Over the past year, I've been thinking about a movie I had seen a long time ago, but forgotten the name of (don't you just hate when that happens?). It got to the point where I had gone to a horror forum and asked if anyone could help me peg a title on the movie. From what I remembered, the movie was made in the 80's and involved a small group of people living underground. The people are also being attacked by some monsters that look a lot like the demons from the "Doom" computer game series. I even remember the monsters being referred to as "golems". No one on the forums had any idea what I was talking about, which further frustrated me during my search for the so far nameless movie.

And finally today...I figured it out!

Yep! "The Terror Within"! I was mostly right about my memory of the movie. It was about a group of people trapped underground and being terrorized by monsters, except the monsters were called "gargoyles" and not "golems" (close enough). Basically, in case you couldn't tell already, this movie was an "Alien" knock off, with a different setting. It was backed by famed b-movie producer Roger Corman, and the effects are pretty good. This is a hard one to find, as it was released on DVD in 2001 but is currently OOP! Which is a shame, because I'd like to get ahold of it and not for $40 like some copies on Amazon are selling for.

Hit the Ground Running!

2008-09-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

So... I figured I'd start up this blog to co-exist with my youtube page. Basically, I'll be posting things here that I won't be making videos of for youtube. For instance, if there's just a short review that would not make up enough material for a video, or if there's just a brief announcement or news item, it will end up here. However, if in the future something on here merits a video, I'll probably come back around to it and make one. As usual, stay tuned!