Spaced Invaders!
Bit of a weird one for you, tonight. I doubt that Spaced Invaders has appeared on many Halloween playlists, but I feel like it sorta fits?
Full disclosure: I haven’t seen Spaced Invaders in over 20 years, so my memories are pretty sketchy. I do remember me and my friends losing our shit over certain lines, though, back when the film was constantly on cable.
The movie came out in 1990, and if you’ve never heard of it, it’s a sci-fi comedy about funny space aliens who kind of straddle the line between the Ninja Turtles and ALF.
The Great Pumpkin, of course.
Well, you knew this one would appear on Dino Drac After Dark eventually…
It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
My reasoning: No Halloween season is complete without it, but not everyone gets the chance to see the annual prime time broadcast. So consider this your contingency viewing. (Frankly, I don’t even know when it’s airing this year, or even if it’s aired already!
Night of the Living Dead.
This’ll sound stupid, but I’ve always wanted to see the colorized version of Night of the Living Dead.
So why not now?
I’m usually a purist with this sort of thing, but I’ve long been curious about how the colorized version treated the zombies. Blue? Green? Purple? RED?
I’m about to find out. Join me.
Toxic Memory.
Below is a scene from The Toxic Avenger.
I’ll warn you: It’s gory as hell.
I randomly found it while searching for tonight’s movie and… God, I’m having a moment, here.
Until now, I thought that I’d never seen the original Toxic Avenger movie, barring a couple of clips here and there. As a teenager, me and some friends rented one of the sequels, and I was so grossed out by a particularly ridiculous scene that I kind of just wrote the whole series off as “not for me.”
But here’s the thing: I DID see the scene embedded above, and I’ve spent DECADES wondering if I’d just imagined it.
On some ancient evening, I was home alone with my sister, who’s around eight years older than me. She was having a small party with her friends, and naturally, I wasn’t invited. I’m guessing she was 14, which would’ve made me 5 or 6. So figure this was ‘86, or ‘87 at latest.
They were watching some horribly violent movie that I only now realize was The Toxic Avenger. Obviously a video rental. I remember them all sitting in our living room laughing over it, while I peeked in from a corner. The scene embedded above was the only portion I caught.
At that young age, I couldn’t believe that people watched this kind of stuff for the entertainment value. I was horrified. I distinctly remember wondering if that was what it meant to be a teenager — as if watching actors get run over was a rite of passage, or something. It seriously upset the shit out of me. (Ironic, considering how much I’ve grown to love horror!)
My mind is completely blown right now. I’ve solved a thirty-year-old puzzle!
So, I guess this lends itself to a survey:
What horror movies (or even just horror movie scenes) did you see before you were really READY to see them? How did they affect you?
