THE THING / Universal Pictures, Turman-Foster Company - 1982

It's Halloween Countdown Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's a creep fest I saw at the theater back in 1982, it's a nonstop tilted bumper car ride without bumpers and no ambulance. It stars Kurt Russell as part of a dysfunctional scientific expedition at the Antarctic that come across a real terror from another world.

Eegah!! sent over a sound clip from this wild flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our atomic flame thrower, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a taste of... THE THING!

It starts with some seemingly mad Norwegians in a helicopter trying to shoot a single huskie who runs to the safety of the Americans. It all ends in disaster for the foreigners!

After the dog mutates that night, the guys figure out that they have an alien life form that needs other animals and humans to inhabit! So, they fly to the Norwegian camp to see what clues to the mystery they can find there.

And, they find more than they bargained for! They take a pile of twisted flesh back to their camp to study.

It always cracks me up when a dude in 1982 smokes pot and no one even cares! To me, it was a big middle finger up to Ronnie and Nancy!

They find the giant saucer discovered by the Norwegians that had crashed in the ice.

I like this weird mutation that has teeth in the eye sockets!!

While trying to revive this dude, the doctor finds out the hard way that the Thing was hiding in him, and, gets his hands bitten off!

Then, the Thing turns into this hideous mutation and it simply creeps out the door!

After the Thing has taken over a number of the crew, MacReady comes up with a plan to tell who's a human and who's a Thing by testing everyone's blood with a hot metal rod! If there's no reaction to the blood, then, you can be trusted. This is one of the best scenes and is really gut wrenching to watch!

It's over for this guy, the Thing opens up it's huge mouth and swallows half of him, his legs kicking wildly!

Welp, Macready blows the place up and one can only hope the Thing is dead, a very somber ending... I like THE THING from 1951 sooo much better than this version, many eighties flicks have ending where nothing gets solved. Give me good old fifties writing where problems are always solved!

Eegah!! is up Wednesday with another Halloween Countdown Surprise!..

FLIP THE FROG - Ub Iwerks - "Spooks" (1931)

Hey!! Here we are, already on Day 11 of the "Countdown To Halloween," and yet another amazing cartoon from the 1930's entitled "Spooks," but this time, instead of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, the star is Flip The Frog, not to be confused with Flip The Bird, a comic character from the 60's! It really is such a beautiful gesture, isn't it, so let's get rollin', crackin', and a movin'!

One year later after Walter Lantz's version of "Spooks," Ub Iwerks brought out his own version!

There's only one difference, this one doesn't have anything to do with the "Phantom Of The Opera," is a completely different story, and is animated to a much higher level in the detail department!

Here he is, our hero, Flip The Frog out alone on a cold and windy night with only his brave stead as a companion!

Seriously, it's hard for my little pea brain to comprehend that only one man was responsible for all this amazing imagery, it is almost beyond my grasp of reality! You know when people ask you who you'd like to meet from all of history, I'm thinking Mr. Ubbe Ert Iwwerks would be a damn fine choice! It's almost like he was from another planet! Ub passed away in 1971 at the age of 70, and I seriously doubt there will ever be another talent such as his!

Are you starting to get scared yet?

Flip's choice of refuge might not be the best decision in the world! Like the rain wasn't that bad!

Ub Iwerks wrote, animated, directed, and produced "Spooks!!!!"

He had some help with production from Pat Powers, and the Master of all the Maestros, Carl W. Stalling was the genius who supplied the music! Carl Stalling should be in some kind of record book if he's not already, for his remarkable career that includes an unthinkable 760 credits!! Ok, sure, they're all shorts, but still, that has to be the greatest run of all time without a freakin' doubt! I'm tired just thinking about it! Here's a bit of what Carl brought to the table in this freak fest!

Dinner is served!!

Flip pretends to be enjoying himself, but hands off the bone to a skeleton dog when his skeleton host isn't watching!

Hubba, Hubba, bring on the ladies!!

The personality that Ub was able to put into this skeleton character is totally off the charts at times! Here he measures Flip up for a certain untimely fate!

It's not what the face of the clock says, but this is 13 o'clock in our world!

Oh, boy, Flip has really got himself into serious trouble this time!

Now you see what the measuring was all about, Flip is the perfect size to fit the last display case he has in his collection of death!

One big explosion ends the whole ordeal.......

.......and Flip and his faithful stead can ride off together in love, peace, and understanding!

......OR, Can they?

Flip streams many places these days on Youtube, Here's just one of them! You really can't go wrong!

FIEND / Don Dohler Productions - 1980

It's Halloween Countdown Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots another flick from the Baltimore area by writer/producer/director Don Dohler, who also brought us the super low budget movies like THE ALIEN FACTOR, NIGHTBEAST, HARVESTERS, ALIEN FACTOR II, CRAWLER and more. Unbelievably, the budget for this one was just $6,000, something the Dungeon movie crew knows all about!

Eegah!! sent over a great little sound clip from this flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our own Atomic Meanster, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... FIEND!

The story starts with an evil spirit entering into a gravesite and reanimating a moldy corpse into the form of Mr. Longfellow. To stay alive, it needs to absorb the life energy from a victim by Longfellow wrapping his hands around their throat!

Don Leifert is Mr. Longfellow, he was also in five other Dohler productions. Sadly, Don died in 2010 at age 59 from a heart condition.

Longfellow, a music instructor, is ready to snatch this girl's life force but is interrupted before he can seal the deal. By the way, this girl is the worst student in the history of music and actually deserves to die after hearing her play!

George Stover, who has a total of 73 movie credits (6 now either filming or in post!) and appeared in many Dohler projects, plays Mr. Longfellow's assistant. Here, they're having a tense conversation concerning music books!

This guy hears a girl screaming and goes to her aid, only to succumb to Longfellow's choke hold. There are always plenty of characters with goofy hair styles in Dohler flicks.

Gary, a nosey neighbor, decides to check out the spirit world for an explanation to the mysterious deaths occurring in the neighborhood.

Gary goes to a graveyard for clues where he meets a weirdo grounds keeper who sneaks up behind a tombstone and slaps him on the shoulder, and, for some strange reason has a newspaper clipping in his pocket of the dead dude that was reanimated into Longfellow!.. Seriously... WTF, Man?!!

In the meantime, Longfellow has tricked Gary's wife into coming over to his house. She goes in and down some stairs into the basement where she's attacked by the Fiend!

Here's a close up of the makeup job for... The FIEND!!

Gary finds his dead wife and has to go a round with Longfellow. Don Dohler's son, playing Scotty, grabs a sword from the wall and jabs it deep into Longfellow's back.

He looses the life force and drops dead on the floor, bringing an end to the insanity. The evil life force then heads back into outer space, from which it came!.. Do I hear an echo?

Tomorrow is another Halloween Countdown Saturday with Eegah!!