THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD / Hemdale Film - 1985

It's time for more zombies on our Halloween Countdown, here at The Dungeon!.. I love this movie, it's a wild mix of horror and comedy with non stop action, great acting, awesome zombies, a nude Linnea Quigley and music by The Cramps, Poison Ivy Rorschach and Lux Interior!! What the Hell more could you possibly want?!

Here's Frank and Freddy at work at the Uneeda medical supply warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky. Frank is played perfectly by James Karen who we fondly remember from FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER, he's currently working and has an amazing 197 acting credits!

Freddy, new on the job, looks through the thick catalogue of items they stock and sell.

Of course, the Army has some of its Plum Island zombies stored there and Frank accidently causes one of the canisters to release its gas into the store room!.. Now freakin' what?!!

Eegah!! sent over a sound clip from this out-of-control flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our gas filled zombie pod, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a taste of... THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD!

The damage has been done and Frank has to figure out what to do now...

In the meantime, a group of punkers have decided to party at the old cemetery near the Uneeda warehouse. Scream Queen Linnea Quigley plays Trash, she's got the urge to strip down and dance for the rest of the gang!.. Hubba, Hubba, Bubba!!

Frank calls his boss, Burt, and tells him about the mess they're in, and, that there's a live corpse trying to get out of the locked room it's in! Burt is played by Clu Gulager who was cast in a lot of westerns.

After chopping the corpse into a number of pieces, Burt goes to see the doctor Ernie (get it?) about what to do with the pieces! In one of the really funniest parts, Burt sneaks in and startles Ernie, who responds by quickly pulling out his revolver and nearly shoots Burt! You know, what is he so freakin' nervous about?! Burt is played by Don Calfa who has just finished production on SHARKSKIN, where he plays the character, Snot!

Ernie tells Burt that they need to incinerate the moving pieces to make sure they're destroyed! But, how could they know that the smoke from the corpse would mix with the clouds above?!

It starts raining cats and dogs, soaking the punkers and bringing all the fun to an abrupt end! And, the corpses in the graves start popping out of the chemical soaked ground!

Back at the ranch, Freddy's girlfriend Tina has gone to the warehouse looking for him. Instead, she finds this really gruesome zombie coming after her for her pretty little brain!

Burt and Ernie then have to deal with this talkative female zombie that got cut in half!

Trash is now a zombie and walks the streets in her birthday suit. Here, she greets a disbelieving hippie dude by feasting on his drug addled brain!

Frank and Freddy aren't doing well at all from the infection setting in. Freddy dies and turns into a zombie while being held by Tina, so, he gets acid thrown on his face. It's wild to watch him trying to find his way around without his sight! Then, Frank crawls into the incinerator and is broiled before he can turn into a living dead!

This is a classic shot of the creepy zombie causing the mayhem in the warehouse!

So, Burt calls the 800 number on the canisters to inform the Army of the dire emergency. The Army Colonel reads the report and quickly makes the call for action!

The solution is to use the Army's atomic cannon to eradicate the plague they created!

Tune in Wednesday when we near the end of our Halloween Countdown Freak Out!!

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST - William Sharples - "To Boo Or Not To Boo" (1951)

With a little less that a week left in the Halloween Countdown, it's time to get down to the really scary stuff!

So welcome to the Dwrayger Dungeon Tunnel of Fun featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost in a 1951 cartoon with the very literary title, "To Boo Or Not To Boo!"

"To Boo Or Not To Boo" is a really good Halloween tale with witches and ghosts galore!

How can you not like Casper? He's cute and innocent and always gets himself into all kinds of trouble which is never his fault except for the fact that he's misunderstood!

And he's trying so hard to fit in!

1951 was a much more comfortable time in American history! Mom could greet the trick-or-treaters with her hair wrapped up in a towel, and her bathrobe on!

You just gotta love the eye-poppin' effects when this woman realizes Casper is a ghost, not just a kid in a costume!

Pretty much the same thing happens when the kids Casper joins up with figure out the truth!

Lost and alone, Casper stumbles on a barn dance Halloween Costume Party! Well, the sign sez "Everybody Welcome," so let's go!

Casper figures out that if he dips himself in paint that he looks more solid, and might have more than a ghost of a chance of blending in!

A cute little girl named Lou welcomes Casper to the party! Lou's voice is provided by the the Queen of female cartoon voices, the marvelous Mae Questel!

Casper gets a real kick out of playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey!

The joint really gets a jumpin'!

Everybody get yer partner for the square dance!

William Sharples wrote the music for this cartoon and 790 more, and the list obviously goes on forever. Here's just a few of the amazing array of titles and puns: SULTAN PEPPER, TOONERVILLE TROLLEY, BOLD KING COLE, WIMMIN IS A MYSKERY, THE FULLA BLUFF MAN, ELECTRIC EARTHQUAKE, THE MARRY GO-ROUND, RODEO ROMEO, ABUSEMENT PARK, MADHATTAN ISLAND, PRE-HYSTERICAL MAN etc etc etc!!!

The two animators on this short create an interesting look through a combination of their individual styles! Myron Waldman's career went all the way back to the early 1930's and Betty Boop style cartoons, and Larry Silverman's career made it into the early 1980's and stuff like 13 episodes of "Blackstar" in 1981 with titles like "Tree Of Evil" and "The Zombie Masters!" They both had stops along the way with some memorable and some not so memorable characters like Popeye, Superman, Skunky, Milton the Monster, Ebenezer The Freezer, Batfink, Clint Clobber, Hashimoto, Hector Heathcote, and Beetle Baily! What a list!

It saddens me to know that 99% of you will never have the chance to go to a barn dance, drink beer underage and promenade right and do-si-do with some sweaty gal three times your size and your age that you never met before and you will never see again! Trust me, it's a memorable experience!

Aw Crap! Why's that always gotta happen when they finally realize Casper is a real ghost!

But....This Halloween tale has a happy ending! As it turns out, Lou is a ghost too, so everything works out just fine!

As an extra added bonus, here's a short cut from the brilliant CD released last year by a guy who just happens to be having a birthday today, and the guy who inspired me to do this blog, the Reverend Tom Frost, and a frightening little ditty titled  "FRE'RE JACK!"      Happy Birthday Rev!!

If you hurry, you can probably still buy a copy right HERE before the whole bloody world goes up in flames!!

EL GRITO DE LA MUERTE aka THE LIVING COFFIN / Alameda Films, Young America Productions Inc. - 1959

It's time to go south of the border for our Halloween Countdown Continuation, here's a western style horror story from 1959 shot in color concerning the legend of "The Crying Woman" as our cowboy hero Gastón and his sidekick Crazy Wolf investigate an attempted murder in a small Mexican town...

Eegah!! sent over a little sound clip of the theme and more for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our regular coffin, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... THE LIVING COFFIN!

Gastón and Crazy Wolf meet the ranch family that's supposedly haunted by spirits and vampires! That's a portrait of the woman they believe is haunting the place.

Gastón, played by Gastón Santos, and his friend go to the saloon and encounter two bad hombres that threaten them. In a great barroom brawl, Gastón knocks them both out, big time! Santos was also in THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M and SWAMP OF THE LOST SOULS, movies we have already posted, here at The Dungeon.

The crusty old witch shows up, and, she murders an older women living there in the house!

After another tussle with the bad hombres, Gastón falls into some quicksand but is saved by his super intelligent horse that doesn't even get a freakin' credit!

The dead are buried in the tomb beneath the house, but, are they really dead?!

Here, Crazy Wolf stays with the horse while Gastón goes through a large panel in the wall which leads to an unknown part of the underground structure. Guess what?!.. The horse found the entrance!! Seeing Crazy Wolf with his holster and guns reminds me of playing cowboys with friends when I was a little guy.

Gastón shows Maria that what she thought was a ghost is just a mannequin!

Crazy Wolf uses his revolver to conk the bad guys in the head after they show up for the fun!

The Witch then grabs Maria and tries to claw her eyes out before being saved by Gastón!

The Witch tries to escape but is met by Gaston's horse, it rises up and comes down on the old hag with it's hoofs and stomps the crap out of her!!

And, we find out that she is a he, part of the gang of crooks responsible for the mayhem!

Tune in tomorrow when Eegah!! brings us another one of his special Halloween Countdown posts!