ZOMBI 2 - Lucio Fulci - "Let's Eat Out Tonight" (1979)

I'm switching nights with Tabonga on this part of the Halloween Countdown to wish Reverend Tom Frost a Happy Freakin' Bloody Birthday, and I can't think of a better way to do it than with Director Lucio Fulci's monsterpiece of blood and guts from 1979, "Zombi 2" or "Zombie" or "Zombie Flesh Eaters," whatever the Hell you want to call it!! Now Reverend Tom Frost is about the most Halloweenish guy I know, and one of the few people in modern society that knows how to make a black cat moan, so here's to him, Cheers mon ami and Bon Appétit!!!

Lucio Fulci's ""ZOMBI 2" is a story unto itself! Today the most popular show on television is "The Walking Dead," but in 1979 it was quite a different story! Although made in 1979, Fulci's bloody banquet wasn't released until 1980, but only as long as it had one minute and 46 seconds cut out of it and was given an X rating! In 1984 the movie was actually banned and was put on the 'video nasty' list! It was cut and re-cut, rated and re-rated over the years, and finally the full version was released in 2005! I'm honestly not a big gore fan, but this film didn't seem THAT bad compared to tons of stuff made in the last 20 years! It just came out in the wrong place at the wrong time!!

Not all thoughts are original!  George Romero's "Dawn Of The Dead" was released in Italy as "Zombi" so Fulci changed the name of this film to "Zombi 2" to cash in on the zombie craze!

As the film opens, the viewer is faced with a loaded gun! In an uncensored scene, you see a body bound and wrapped in a shroud, get shot in the skullbone!

A boat drifts into New York harbor, everything's a mess and there's nobody on board! So it seems until a big zombie jumps out of a closet, and runs amok and then he gets shot and falls in the ocean!

Tisa (Anthropophagus) Farrow is the daughter of the guy who owns the yacht! She and a journalist played by Ian (Contamination) McColloch are thrown together by fate, and must search out the reasons for this big mess! They get a lead and head out to the tropical island known as Matul!

Here's where I get just a little unhinged! The kindly Doctor on the island refuses to accept the reality that voodoo might just really exist, and spends all his time in denial! He only believes in science despite what he sees happening in front of his eyes for the last couple of months! The Doctor is played by Richard (The Haunting) Johnson! Richard has had a long and varied career and is still working today!

The Doctor is so removed from the reality around him that he leaves his wife alone in their house while he's miles away, even though she is scared to death about what is happening all around her! She wants off the island, but instead is one of the first victims of the new mass zombie attack! Olga (Purple Rain) Karlatos has the role of the wife!

Olga is one of the first large scale all you can eat zombie buffets that the locals imbibe in! This scene was edited out of the earlier versions!

After that, it's time for the zombies to go after the Doctor and all the new arrivals in a no holds barred bloody freak fest!!  This zombie's mug was used on a lot of the posters!

Here's a couple of great shots of the zombies shuffling in for the big "Zombie Jamboree!" Really, these zombies would be quite easy to outrun, actually you could skip, and still get away from them!

The zombie's awesome make-up was done by Giannetto(Cannibal Apocalypse)(When Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding-Dong) De Rossi. Not necessarily these three, but a lot of the zombies in the movie look alike because there were four brothers, the Dell'Acqua clan, Alberto, Arnaldo, Ottaviano, and Roberto playing members of the zombie community!

They can't think, so the zombies move around like they are in some slow motion mosh pit, taking turns at banging into the door with their sides, which eventually breaks the door down! They just know they're hungry!

In the end, Tisa and Ian somehow manage to escape the island and get back to New York. They're going to be surprised that's it's not going to be as difficult as they thought to convince people they just got off an island full of zombies! Fulci didn't have a big enough budget to stop traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, so despite the zombie takeover, there's still a bunch of cars driving around!

These days you can see the whole reviled uncut version on Creepster TV for a pittance! Anybody up for a cheeseburger and a beer?

THE ADVENTURES OF UNCLE MISTLETOE - Aunt Judy - "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah - The Kindness Club Song" (1949)

Tonight the Dungeon Halloween Countdown continues with an episode from the TV series "The Uncle Mistletoe Show! Uncle Mistletoe was a character introduced to the world in 1946 by the Chicago department store Marshall Field's to compete with Montgomery Ward's Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer! The popular Uncle Mistletoe Show aired 3 times a week for four seasons on TV from 1948 to 1952! So what does a Christmas character have to do with Halloween? Well,  it's kind of like "Nightmare Before Christmas" in reverse, as much as some people would like it, it can't be Christmas all year long!! Marshall Field's was bought and converted to Macy's in 2006!

 

What we have here tonight was a 1949 episode that aired on the 25th of October!

 Uncle Mistletoe's co-hostess on only this one show was Aunt Judy played by the cute as the dickens actress Jennifer Holt at the end of her acting career! Jennifer was in a slew of western movies in the 1940's like "Renegades Of The Rio Grande" and "Buffalo Bill Rides Again!"

Uncle Mistletoe was a little on the slow side, I can't imagine how tough it would be to watch one of these episodes without the assistance of Aunt Judy! She was the highlight of this whole show!

 Uncle Mistletoe and Aunt Judy spin a tale about his imp friends who want to carve the town's biggest jack-o-lantern, and one little guy falls inside and can't get out!

 This is what it looks like from the inside of a jack-o-lantern!

 Imagine that! There's a happy ending, and then Aunt Judy and Uncle Mistletoe treat us to rousing renditions of  "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" and "The Kindness Club Song!"

"Good Night Aunt Judy!"

"Good night boys and girls!"  Happy Halloween!! You probably wouldn't have to guess too hard to know you can find this show at the Internet Archive!

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN / Hammer Film Productions - 1957

It's Monday Halloween Countdown Mayhem 2013 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What a killer feature this was in 1957, kickin' butt with Christopher Lee in a seminal Frankenstein monster role and Peter Cushing as Frankenstein himself, and, written by my favorite horror writer, Jimmy Sangster. Jimmy had just written X: THE UNKNOWN and would go on to pen HORROR OF DRACULA, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, THE CRAWLING EYE, JACK THE RIPPER, THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, THE MUMMY, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA, THE NANNY and many more...

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip from this great flick for us, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the eyeballs in a jar, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN!

The story begins with Victor Frankenstein close to being executed for murder, he wants the priest to listen to his story about what led to his predicament...

It all started when he was just a little guy, and, how he met his mentor in medicine, Paul Krempe. He goes on to tell about the time they paid grave robbers to steal a body for them...

Victor's all grown up now and likes the pleasures of the flesh, indeed. That's Valerie (HORROR OF DRACULA) Gaunt in the top still and Hazel (DR. BLOOD'S COFFIN) Court at bottom.

To aquire a brain for his monster, Victor pushes his friend Professor Bernstein through the rail where he lands head first on the floor! No matter how many time I watch this scene, I cannot figure out how they did it because it looks so damn real!!

Victor can't stop his infernal calculating, now, he must figure out exactly how to get his hands on that brain!

Unfortunately, the professor harbors some intense ill will towards the doctor!

After a brain adjustment, the monster escapes into the countryside where he murders an old blind man who taunts him with a stick. Victor and Paul catch up to the thing...

The monster's all messed up now and Victor's great triumph is a miserable failure!

Victor has to take the rap for his monster when Paul denies his story, cleverly leaving Victor just a madman to all the others!

So, this is his reward, his legacy goes to the grave with him!

THE NAKED WITCH - Larry Buchanan - "Witch Way Did She Go George?" (1961)

Hi ho all you kraazy cats and kiddies, and welcome to day 19 of The 2013 Dungeon Halloween Countdown! Tonight's phlegm, I mean film is a rather special affair called "The Naked Witch!" This no ordinary movie thank God, cause if it was, life would be pretty dang boring! The opening voiceover is done by the master Gary Owens, in his first full feature outing!

You know, sometimes fate is a funny thing! Within a week's time, I watched the movie "The Naked Witch," and it wasn't but a few days later that I received my copy of Reverend Tom Frost's new totally awesome CD "Bloody Works," and what was the name of the first song on the CD? That's right, "The Naked Witch!!!"

You can order Tom Frost's killer CD HERE for only $10.00 post paid! (Because of the almighty power of the U.S. dollar, that's about $13.00 in American money!) It's almost like stealing, and honestly, Tom's CD is a Helluva bloody lot more exciting than this movie, but that would be like splitting hairs, now wouldn't it?

This is Robert Short as the inquisitive student looking into the background of a little burg inhabited by German immigrants! Premise of movie: Big Mistake!!! This would be Robert's only ever on screen appearance!

This of course is Kirska, the last vestige of good olde downhome German hospitality! Playing Kirska is Jo Marryman! Wow, how ironic, this would be Jo Maryman's also only trip to the big screen!

The placement of a cuckoo clock on the wall seals the fact that this is a German household!

The witch is awakened from her age olde resting place by the student and she's bent on revenge! The long rest didn't really do her much good!

The witch herself is the fairly attractive and seductive Libby Hall! Libby had one more film appearance as Brenda in another low budget Larry Buchanan flick called "Common Law Wife!"

The witch is quite the little wood nymph, and has a dandy time just cavorting in the water of a small Texas lake!

The student is transfixed on this whole scene!

After offing a bunch of the locals that the witch had a long standing feud with, she does a seductive dance for the student in her boudoir, this warm and enticing cave!!

Time to drop the facade, and the clothes and get down to business!!

"The Naked Witch" is another movie that you are just lucky enough to be able to download from the Internet Archive absolutely free right about HERE!!! So that's it, download the movie, and then send $13.00 to Tom Frost and have something in your life to look forward to!