PUMPKINHEAD / De Laurentiis Entertainment Group - 1988

Let's get going with Halloween Countdown, Dungeon Style... Stan Winston came up with the monster and directed this little weirdie after his success in creature design for the ALIEN series. The story's about a man who gets help to conjure up a gigantic vengeance demon to get revenge on the teenagers who accidentally killed his son.

I've got a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our pumpkin muffins, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a little sample from... PUMPKINHEAD!

Lance Henriksen plays Ed Harley, a local storekeeper. Lance was the robot in ALIENS, and, get this... He has 16 productions either just completed or in post, wow!!

Here's his little store in the dried out hills of his community, a really beautiful spot.

Some rich brats from the city come out and go wild on their motorcycles. Unfortunately, one accidently strikes Ed's small son so they leave the scene in haste and take off to their cabin.

Yes, Ed's son dies. Ed becomes so tortured over the death that he decides to visit the local witch to help him out for revenge...

And, she conjures up Pumpkinhead, the revenge creature, to carry out Ed's vengeance.

Ed is now in way over his head!

Like the ID monster, Ed sends the thing out to pay a little visit to the brats in their cabin.

This guy gets a rifle barrel punched through his gut and Pumpkinhead holds him up like some kind of trophy! A fitting end for a little brat.

There are plenty of great creepy scenes as Pumpkinhead seeks out revenge for Ed, check out this flick if you haven't seen it yet! Be back tomorrow for more Halloween Countdown, here at The Dungeon!

ZORGON THE H-BOMB BEAST FROM HELL - Kevin Fernan (1972)

We've been doing this blog for a little over eight years now, and you honestly wouldn't believe what we've had to do to track down all these movies, but thanx to great friends and associates from all over the place like Brian over at The Trash Palace, The Cult Action Team, Michael Jaffé and Darren from jolly old England, Professor Grewbeard, and Greg Goodsell, we've presented the most diverse set of hard-to-find films and TVshows ever, but yet, there are always those elusive titles that we've had on lists for years that never turn up! In fact, here's a couple of titles we're seeking that I'm not even sure exist anywhere, things like "Andy Warhol's Batman Dracula" from 1964, "Bongowolf's Revenge" from 1970, "Ugly Duckling" (an early Hammer Jekyll and Hyde), and the ever mysterious "Curse Of The Moon Child!" But the reason I'm  telling you this is because I just took one film off of the list today, and I just happened to stumble on it on YouTube of all places while looking for something else! The internet can truly be an amazing place when used improperly!

I had no idea that "Zorgon The H-Bomb Beast From Hell" was a silent (hence no sound clip), student-made, short film! All I knew before a couple of days ago was that it was a cool title, that was awfully difficult to locate!

Bam! The two slain kids were the two in the picture above! At just a little over nine minutes, there's not a lot of room for small talk here!

 The copy you'll find to watch on the internet is right about here on YouTube!

The person who posted the film named Rosebud added some music and sound effects to make it a little more watchable! They also felt a need to put on this disclaimer at the beginning, "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult!" 

Okay! Sure! No Problem!

The intertitle cards were each a stand alone shot, but I added them as captions to save some room here!

Interesting set! Money might have been a factor!

Sharp lookin' V Dub!!

Director Kevin Fernan is the first on-screen victim of the wrath of the beast!

ZORGON!!

These two action shots actually make this movie look pretty good!

Although this was a one-time outing for Director Kevin Fernan, some of these people in the monster hunting posse had and/or went on to have real careers in movie making like Jim (Outer Limits, Equinox) Danforth, and Mark Thomas (Equinox, Bad Girls From Mars) McGee!

This is Ace (The Return Of Swamp Thing, Transylvania Twist) Mask, and Susan (Conan The Barbarian, The Thing) Turner as the posse organizer and his wife!

Looks like a cowboy with elongated arms to me!

Oh, No! Zorgon has got the girl!

A massive battle ensues between Ace Mask and Zorgon!

And then Zorgon is unmasked, and it turns out that it was just one of the guys, David (Laserblast, The Stuff) Allen the whole time!

The monster is put to rest in the most appropriate way possible!

I can only assume that  since Jim Danforth, Susan Turner, and David Allen all ended up having quite respectable jobs in visual effects and animation, that maybe they all contributed to the look that can only be described as "Zorgon The H-Bomb Beast From Hell!"
Next Stop, Halloween Countdown 2015!!

TARANTULAS: The Deadly Cargo / Alan Landsburg Productions - 1977

Welp, here's a TV movie about an airplane carrying coffee beans from South America that has some creepy little stowaways, you know, the title... Tarantulas!! The plane crashes near an orange-producing town in California and the cargo of poisonous spiders escape, causing much tumult, screams and death... Like, in the poster!

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our tarantula cage, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a little sample from... TARANTULAS: The Deadly Cargo!

Here's the classic plane carrying the deadly cargo, a good old DC-3 Gooney Bird...

But, during the flight, a bunch of the tarantulas escape from their bags and bite the Hell out of all the crew members.

The plane crashes and the locals in the agricultural community go out to survey the situation.

It stars Claude Akins, owner of the local packing warehouse. He's out there with the rest of the stars milling around... Claude played a lot of sheriffs in his career, he was also General Aldo in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES.

Pat Hingle plays the doctor, another familiar face from the world of TV.

This dude arrives to show off his new CAT cap when one of the little critters sez, hey!

The tarantulas are loose in the countryside and trying to get friendly with some of the girls!

Here's a shot for Eegah!! His first job back in the early sixties was working at a potato packing house... Looks like it's break time!!

Anywho, the guys risk their lives to get rid of the tarantulas from the warehouse. Get this, apparently, the little pests are rendered motionless by the transmitted sound of buzzing bees!

WILL IT WORK??!.. Tune in again on Wednesday when we submit our last post for September!