ONE DARK NIGHT / The Picture Company - 1983

Hello everbloody, an' welcome to Halloween Countdown Finale! An' what a finale it is!! This is first flick directed by multi-talent Tom McLoughlin (not Tom Laughlin of BILLY JACK fame). Tom went on to direct FRIDAY THE 13th part VI, FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES and FRIDAY THE 13th TV series and then various TV show from then on.

Music by Bob Summers, who start career in 1967 with IT'S A BIKINI WORLD, then THE AMAZING WORLD OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA, BEYOND AND BACK, CHARLIE AND THE TALKING BUZZARD, BEYOND DEATH'S DOOR, EARTHBOUND, THE BOOGENS, THE ANNIHILATORS, ELIMINATORS, BODY COUNT and ROCK-A-DIE BABY to name a few...

Lil' pet gnat Piff draw longest straw so he get to press big old red 'GO' button for big finale today, an' he all happy, so's, hit it Piff!.. doodley doot de doo... NIGHT IN THE MASOLEUM!

Boy, county worker gonna be getting nice fat bonus overtime check in upcoming pay cycle! Flick have east coast feel but made in LA!

Something go terribly wrong at Sewing Club!! Err, correction... Psychic Club! Six gurl and one crazy psychic nutjob, Raymar, all die at scene!.. What a way to go!!

Nice graveyard!

Anyways, estrange daughter Oliva and husband Allan (Adam West) go to funeral of Raymar, where more weird thing happen.

Dockstader was friend of Raymar and he convince Olivia her father really was crazy psychic nutjob! He show her picture of fingerpaint he do in kindergarten to back up what he say!

Adam need big slug o' booze, he thought they want him to play 'Dark Knight!'

Tabonga just throw in for fun!!

Meg (FAME) Tilly and Elizabeth (FAME TV) Daily and the others are all part of The Sisters, a gurlie fraternity!

Meg have to spend night in spooky mausoleum for initiation! Oh well, how bad can it be?!.. Right?.. There ain't no such things as ghosts!.. Right?!.... Hello!!

Time for Sisters to prank Meg, so, they sneak into basement and put on monster mask, to make thing a little more interesting.

Cabrón !!.. Coffin start coming out of wall and opening up!

Yucko, I smell rotten sausage!!

God, me too!!

Raymar still being crazy and all, now he animating his new fiends in dark mausoleum!

Did you know fingernail still grow after you dead an' going to Hell?!!

Just plain unadulterated... EEECH!!!

See, all monster, no matter how different, can get along together just fine! Not like people!

Gurlie pranksters not having so much fun now, are they?! Floating bodies like to crowd you ass!! Elizabeth pull off face of one dead dude! Yucky Duck!..

Wow, what exquisit corpses!!

Hey, some of Eegah' relative!!

Oliva remember Scooby-Doo episode where they use mirror to reflect hypnotic ray back into bad guy' eye, so she give it a shot!

You know, Scooby and gang not really get enough credit! But, anyway, game over for Raymar!!

We end wif' special Halloween crazy quote, kaff kaff, ahem... Tor sez, "Time for, go to bed!" What flick that line come from?

This was one of my sister' favorite flick, so, this also special posting for her!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERBLOODY!!!

THE MILPITAS MONSTER - Robert R. Berry Jr. - "The Mutant Beast" (1975)

I'm wrapping up my part of this Halloween Countdown with what I feel is one of the indiest of the indie movies, "The Milpitas Monster" aka "The Mutant Beast"! What started out as a high school project somehow turned into a classic example of D.I.Y. film making!!

"The Mutant Beast" has many unintentional things in common with our own film, "The Creep," but that's what happens when you film in a small town, and give some of it's residents a chance to make a movie!! That's just the nature of this beast!!!

The stars of both films are Trash Cans!!!

The main characters in both films smell like garbage!!

There's lots of local colour! (Except "The Creep" was in Black & White!)

And they both have a scene where a kid's sitting in a car reading an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine!!

But that's about where the comparisons end because "The Milpitas Monster" was able to secure some club/bar interior shots and a rockin' band! The pretty dang cool music was written by Robert R. Berry Jr. (too bad the sound is so muddy and warbly in spots, but it just kind of adds to the overall effect!)......Some of the grungiest rock we've heard since "Driller Killer!"

They had the added bonus of a carnival to use as a backdrop, and also, they came up with a pretty damn good monster!!

I'm going to go out on a electrical high wire, and say I think Toho might have even approved!!

Check out this shot!! It's beautiful, and would make a killer oil on black velvet painting!!!

If you go rummaging through the credits, you've not going to find very many names who ever did anything in the movies again, but one major exception, was the fellow who got credit for the special effects, Ben Burtt! Ben went on to do a number of things, including getting the credit for original sound effects (Droids and all) in the Star Wars movies, and the voice of Wall-E. and E.T. and also the sound designer on all the Indiana Jones movies!! I guess that pretty much makes up for everybody else!!

I think they actually dumped Priscilla House unceremoniously from about half way up that tower, as a very real effect, by the look of things!!

All the big cheeses in Milpitas have to figger out how to deal with the big stank, so they call the authority, the only man who knows anything about crap like this....

And, it's none other than Bob Wilkins and his signature stogie, the local Bay area horror icon and "Creature Features" TV host. (Unfortunately, Bob just passed away in January of this year.)

Bob tells them to use the "Odorola" and that's pretty much all it takes to wrap this stinker up!!!

Final credits roll to expose the names of practically every proud business and organization in town!!

Have an insane Halloween!!