Dino Drac’s 2023 Daily Halloween Thing!
Wednesday, October 4th:
Shown above is one of the famous foam pumpkins from the Oh Lantern Family, released by SFX artist Todd Masters in 1987.
There were oodles of these things, in different shapes and sizes, and always with highly detailed faces. They were an absolute fad item in their day. EVERYBODY had one, and many people had several.
I bought this particular pumpkin a few years ago, but my family had others when I was young. I loved them, even if I could never resist picking at ’em until they lost their noses.
While my devotion was pure and total, it seems that other ‘80s kids had more of a love/hate relationship with the Oh Lantern Family. The faces were pretty creepy, after all, and under the right light – or lack thereof – I could see how some children might’ve been a bit jittery around them.
(PS, these came up on the latest Purple Stuff bonus show, which is what prompted me to drag this guy out!)
Tuesday, October 3rd:
Hey, did you know that Ghoulies Go To College was Matthew Lillard’s first acting gig?
You would, if you spent the dullest moments of your Halloween season doing what I do: Pulling up the IMDB trivia sections for every horror movie you can think of.
I mean, I do that all year, but it hits differently when it’s in-season. The trivia sections on IMDB aggregate facts from pretty much everywhere, so they’re great crash courses, especially if you’re scatterbrained like me and prefer your lessons in bite-sized chunks.
Maybe it’s a personal quirk, but sometimes I feel like I enjoy reading about movies more than I enjoy watching them. Like right now I’m on the IMDB trivia page for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and God, I think it’ll take longer to read all of this than it would to just watch the thing. Yet here I am.
The Halloween season always ends up being busier with non-spooky stuff than we’d prefer, so it’s nice to have a topical activity that you can almost always turn to, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes!
Monday, October 2nd:
Here’s a fun (and extremely rare) trade advertisement for Halloween III, from Universal in 1982. Pretty easy to theorize that there was no final cut at the time of its creation.
If you know anything about the film, you’ll be confused by this ad’s approach. I suppose it isn’t technically misrepresenting the plot – the film does have computers, and robots, and supernatural microchips that summon swarms of insects – but “high technology” isn’t really the main theme of it all.
Actually, my friend Ken pointed out that this would’ve been a better ad for 1981’s Evilspeak than Halloween III. True enough, but it’s a good looking image either way.
It just hit me that I haven’t watched Halloween III even once this season. Usually by now, I’m on my fifth or sixth viewing. Think I’ll make up for lost time starting tonight. (You should join me. It’s a great movie!)
Sunday, October 1st:
And here I thought the 2023 Halloween season was feeling a bit understated! October to the rescue, I guess.
Earlier today, Burger King dropped some MAJOR teases about their plans for this month. We’re getting a return of the Ghost Pepper Whopper, plus all-new Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries, which isn’t terribly surprising given that they ran a poll for both on their app last month.
…but it gets better.
Their teaser photos also show ghost pepper-themed Halloween crowns, AND SOME KIND OF BURGER KING HALLOWEEN BUCKET. A really good one, too! Sleek black and covered with ghost pepper chicken monsters!
So now we’ve got a Halloween season where both McDonald’s AND Burger King are gonna be offering spooky buckets. Begun… the Halloween pails war has.
UPDATE: Get out your sad trombones. Burger King has now confirmed that the Halloween buckets are only being given out in four locations in the entire country. Which sucks. But at least we’re getting a double-dose of spooky food, plus the crowns. Can I put lipstick on this pig?
Saturday, September 30th:
Look, I’ll level with you – I’m in a state of waking sleep right now. Completely exhausted. I can barely form coherent sentences, let alone write anything interesting. My brain feels like its swimming in flat soda.
Still, I didn’t want to leave you with nothing on the eve of October — nor break my streak of updating this feature every single day — so here’s one of my spooky TV commercial compilations. Enjoy, and I’ll be back tomorrow with my faculties back in order!
Friday, September 29th:
Can you handle this level of drip? Say hi to my latest acquisition, a vintage Pepsi/Doritos “Monster Bash” jacket, in classic ‘90s teal. I believe it was a “lower-end” prize from one of their many Halloween contests.
(I’m putting “lower-end” in quotes because it’s disgusting to call this jacket lower-end.)
Pepsi/Doritos Halloween junk from the ‘90s is my weakness. I cannot resist any of it. Luckily, I got this jacket off eBay for $35 shipped, which was a nutty price that probably left a bunch of watchers kicking themselves. If any of them are reading, sucks to be you. Feel free to dry your tears on any of my clothes EXCEPT this jacket.
And yes, I do plan to wear it. Just gotta wait for the right occasion for a teal windbreaker with a party-hatted Frankenstein on the breast. It’ll come to me.
Thursday, September 28th:
From 1985, it’s the Clue VCR Mystery Game! I posted this photo on my socials a few days ago, and was surprised to learn that pretty much everyone played the game the same way I did. Which is to say, not at all.
I had no idea how to play and never bothered trying to learn. Instead, I just watched the included videocassette like it was any normal movie. It certainly wasn’t, but it was still a major effort, with a giant cast and a killer atmosphere. The tape was crazy cheesy and came off like a local theater version of the “real” movie, but I watched the hell out of that thing, and apparently, I wasn’t alone!
I uploaded the whole cassette several years ago, so if interested, go check it out. It’s great background noise for when you want something on, but only want to pay attention to it like 5% of the time.
