Chilling Challenge! (#4)
For this week’s Chilling Challenge, I want you to (trick or) treat yourself.
Search the internet, and buy something that’s somehow connected to the Halloween season. (Even if it’s a super loose connection.)
If you’re strapped for cash, you don’t need to spend a lot. Even a cheap used book from Amazon or eBay will do. The idea is to just give yourself a little something to look forward to!
Figure on spending $20 at most, though if you search hard I’m sure you can find something cool for way less.
Blu-rays! Candles! Magazines! Weird video games! An old spooky action figure! Maybe some kind of pumpkin-scented soap!
The choice is yours. Report back about what you bought. If you MUST buy something in person, go for it, but this challenge was really about finding treasures online, and having that small thrill of anticipating something cool in the mail.
Tell everyone whatcha bought, in the comments!
(If you missed last week’s challenge, click here!)
Frightening Free-For-All Thread! (#3)
Another week, another giant update to Dino Drac After Dark!
Hope you’re all finding ways to enjoy the Halloween season — and I especially hope that you’re counting Dinosaur Dracula among those ways!
This is your Frightening Free-For-All Thread, where you’re free to talk about whatever you want, whether it’s Halloween-related or not. Just have some fun. We’ve got a great group of folks hanging out in the comments every night!
You can also check out this week’s Sinister Survey, Macabre Movies of the Week and Chilling Challenge. Plenty to see and do, if you’ve got time to kill!
PS: Don’t forget to fire up the Halloween Jukebox before you start hopping between the threads. It’s really something this year!
Sinister Survey! (#3)
Last week’s Sinister Survey was a banger. If you missed it, go read about everyone’s out-of-the-ordinary Halloween traditions.
This week, let’s talk about the LOCAL LEGENDS that freaked you out as a kid.
Every town has a few, right? Were there any stories floating around about nearby haunted places, or ghosts, or cryptids, or spooky cults?
What was the story and how did it affect you?
For me, it’s gotta be the whole satanists-in-the-woods thing. I was a little kid in the ‘80s, when “satanic panic” was out of control. Back then, we had a LOT of wooded areas. Our woods were at that point still large enough to get lost in, and there were constant rumors about satanic cults doing bad things within them. Some areas were strictly off limits to us, because even our parents bought the stories.
Those rumors didn’t stop us from playing in the woods, of course. We did! All the time! But there was always a nagging sense that you were just one step away from doom. It was part of the fun, in its way. Anything we found in there — an animal skull, a spare tire, a box of discarded Playboys — was chalked up to black-robed satanists.
Your turn! In the comments, share memories of local legends that freaked you out as a kid.
Macabre Movies of the Week! (#3)
For this edition of Macabre Movies of the Week, I decided to stick with my own uploads — partially because I trust myself to use decent YouTube thumbnails! Yeah, that’s a particular hangup of mine.
All three videos have appeared somewhere on Dino Drac before, but chances are, you kind of glossed over them while checking Instagram or whatever. Give ‘em a shot! This is all great stuff, I swear.
First up, here’s an immense playlist containing over 100 spooky TV commercials from the ‘80s and ‘90s. I created this playlist last year and it really got around! There’s a little bit of everything in here, from toys to food to movies and beyond.
Next we have a full episode of Friday the 13th: The Series, complete with its original TV commercials from 1988! This is the episode we did a podcast about back in June. It’s about a mother who must murder innocent people to satisfy the curse that keeps her baby alive. I love this episode, and it’s what made me give the series at large another look.
Finally, here’s The Wickedest Witch, a 1989 made-for-TV special that aired exactly once and was never released on video, let alone on DVD or streaming platforms. Rue McClanahan plays the titular witch, who rules over a horde of goblin puppets. (This was during Rue’s Golden Girls heyday, and yeah, there’s a bit of Blanche in her performance!)
Enjoy. If you’d like to see the previous Macabre Movies of the Week, click here.
