BILLY AND MANDY'S JACKED-UP HALLOWEEN - 2003

Billy and Mandy were my favorite and it's hard to realize that this episode came out 19 years ago! The creator of this great series, Maxwell Atoms, was also head writer, but what really amazed me was Richard Steven Horvitz doing Billy's voice, freaking amazing and for me the best part of the show. Love this series.

Billy, Mandy and Grim are out trick-or-treating. At the first place they come to, a big, mean old lady answers the door and tells them to go away, why are you hippies bothering me?

Billy and Mandy catch a glimpse of the candy stock pile the woman has in back, just before she slams the door in their face.

Since they didn't get any treats, Mandy comes up with a trick. She puts glue on the mat and rings the doorbell. The lady comes out and steps on the mat, gets stuck, and Mandy opens the fire plug, soaking the mean lady while stuck to the mat. Mandy and the gang walk around her, go inside, and take all her candy!!

While enjoying their many treats, Billy asks Grim, why do people play tricks on Halloween. Grim is happy to tell him why...

There was this man named Jack that was constantly playing tricks on people, and one came up with a great idea, he'd send a special present to the queen, but put Jack's name on it. He even included a picture of Jack in with the present.

The queen is so happy to get her favorite threat, but when she takes the lid off, she gets a big surprise, right in the eye! She's absolutely furious and send out a knight to pay Jack a little visit.

And a visit is exactly what Jack gets, the knight raises his ax, and...

Jack got the ax in his back, and when Grim goes to take his soul, Jack don't wanna go! He distracts Grim and grabs his sythe and won't give it back (who holds it owns it) so Grim has to make a deal to get it back, he must give Jack immortally! Grim agrees but the cuts Jack's head off when he gets his sythe back, the whole thing pissed Grim off big time!

Okay, Jack had to replace his head with a pumpkin, Billy stupidly went to Jack's house to trick-or-treat and ended up letting Jack take the sythe, and now Jack has opened a portal and ghosts are coming down, taking over and mutating all the pumpkins into monsters.

Mandy is the ultimate problem solver, and when Billy spills the beans about Jack confiscating the sythe, she puts on the camouflage, tells Billy to go cause a distractions, and then sets up the scene for her tactics. 

Doing his part, Billy shows up on his giant pumpkin steed, just when Jack is ready to cut Grim's head off (for good) as payback.

As his distraction, Billy moons Jack and the pumpkin monsters, it works pretty good.

Suddenly, a knight is seen coming their way, Jack thinks it's the one that axed him in the back!

No, it's just Irwin, so, let the fun begin! To start with, Mandy has clumsy Irwin in a loop of hilarious situations, making Jack and the pumpkins laugh out loud.

Situations just get worse and worse for Irwin, and the laughs just get more hilarious, until, all the pumpkins explode and all the ghosts go back to from where they came!

Grim tickles Jack with Jack's own feather, and the pumpkin head goes the way of the ghosts.

Jack ends up in Heck and is still playing pranks, and his inmates have had enough!

BEWITCHED - "The Witches Are Out" (1964)

This week's Countdown To Halloween Saturday Night Special is from season one of the classic bewitching TV show "Bewitched."

This was episode seven titled "The Witches Are Out," and it aired on October 29, 1964.

In this episode, Samantha and her lovely witch friends are having a little tea time together! 

This is Reta (The Ghost And Mrs. Muir) Shaw as Bertha.

Another of Sam's friends is Mary played by Madge Blake. Madge was Mrs. Cooper/Aunt Harriet on 96 episodes of the "Batman" TV show.

Last but not least is the befuddled but lovable Aunt Clara as played by Marion (Mr. Peepers) Lorne.

The brilliant comedian Shelley Berman plays a man named Mr. Brinkman who has some new Halloween candy that he wants Darrin to create an ad campaign for.

What Mr. Brinkman wants is an image of a witch, a really ugly witch with a long nose and warts.

 

Never giving it a second thought, this is the witch image that Darrin creates for the new ads.

Unfortunately, this is the very subject that the ladies were discussing at their meeting, how witches are always portrayed in an unfavorable, unfair and totally discriminatory manner.

So when Darrin brings his work home and Samantha sees what he's doing, they have a conversation about how witches are constantly discriminated against. Darrin brings up the fact that why does it matter since nobody believes in witches anyway, which is a pretty good point, but he doesn't get very far with that logic!

After their conversation, Darrin tears up his artwork, and tells Samantha he's going to approach his client with a different perspective.

These are the sexy witches that Darrin has come up with. Looks like a good idea to me!

But Brinkman, being the jerk that he is, doesn't like the concept, even after Darrin tries to explain to him that he shouldn't stereotype all witches as ugly old hags.

 Brinkman says no, and so Darrin quits the project!

That night, Samantha and her friends decide to pay Mr. Brinkman a visit!

Most guys probably wouldn't mind if Samantha showed up in their bedroom in the middle of the night, but if Bertha, Mary, and Aunt Clara showed up, that's a different story!

The ladies give Mr. Brinkman a pretty good scare!

The pièce de résistance is when they turn Brinkman into an old hag with a long nose and warts!

 

Mr. Brinkman is now more than ready to talk about a different type of witch image!

You can thank the Wizard of the Airwaves for this one!

THE WEREWOLF / The Trailer - 1956

I saw THE WERWOLF along with TARANTULA in 1956 as a double feature, a real roller coaster ride for an 8 year old. TARANTULA freaked me out the most, watching Leo G. Carroll melt before the Tarantula gets him! But I digress... So, THE WEREWOLF had great transformation scenes, some of the best. And yes, we do see it happen before our very eyes with this special Punkin Stuffer, just for you!

Yeesh, those hairy hands with sharp lookin' finger nails!

And............ EEK!! Is That Teeth?!

That's right, two atom-age scientists are responsible for this man-made thing from Hell.

They turn a measly Man into a deadly snarling BEAST...

Making the 10,000-year-old-werewolf-horror-legend come true! What more could you want? You just gotta see this movie, c'mon!

In case you were wondering...

With Dan Megowan?? Dude, his name in Don Megowan, not Dan! Don played the Gill Man in THE CREATURE WALKS AMOMG US the same year.

Joyce Holden also starred in one of my favorite movies, TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000, saw it with Eegah!! in 1960 at the theater. BTW, Joyce died in January of this year at age 91.

Steven Ritch worked in TV mostly with 48 acting credits from 1950 to 1962.

Without a doubt, the scene in the jail cell with the two evil doctors scared the bejesus out of me, it is still super creepy even today!

Well, if you come see the movie, you'll see the most exciting hunt...

That ever tracked down Man... Or Beast! You see, sometimes he's just a man, sometimes he's a freaking Werewoof Beast!!

Don't miss it, coming to a theater near you in 1956! GFL with that one! There you go, a special Punkin Stuffer for a Friday.

JACK ATTACK - "A Halloween Tale" (2013)

 

Tonight's Weird Wednesday Countdown To Halloween is a short film made in 2013 titled "Jack Attack."

This film is only eight minutes long, and that's plenty long enough!

The story concerns a babysitter and her ward carving a jack-o-lantern, and what can happen if everything goes horribly wrong!

I cannot recommend this film because it breaks what used to be a cardinal unwritten law of film making, and that is you don't kill kids, and if you do, you don't do it onscreen.

Obviously that law has been broken many times in the last few decades as filmmakers push the limits of extremism in art, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it, and I don't!

First thing is they should never have ingested any of the evil seeds dwelling in this pumpkin!

That was a bad idea, and now this little boy is becoming seriously ill.

Starting to get gross, the babysitter tries to cut out the offending seed.

 

And then the horror focuses in on her!

It's blood and guts from here on out!

One thing anyway, it IS a Halloween film!!