Horror

Well, here’s one of the biggest surprises of the 2019 Halloween season: Walgreens is now selling Universal Monsters Bend-Ems figures! Beautiful, aren’t they? The set includes Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, all wearing expressions that do litt

On October 30th, 1981, John Carpenter’s Halloween ran on television for the first time ever. Included as part of NBC’s Friday Night at the Movies series, I’m not sure that anyone could’ve predicted that this one specific broadcast would become as famous as it did. See, as part of t

If you didn’t hear the news, IHOP just unleashed a special SPOOKY menu in celebration of the new Addams Family movie, which hits theaters on October 11th. I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing the movie, but I was 100% sure that I’d be eating purple pancakes within 12 hours of IHOP’s an

Hey, did you hear? It’s Friday the 13th. I hope you’re making the most of this holy day, whether it’s with movie marathons or masked mirror selfies. I wasn’t planning anything special for the occasion, but on a hot tip from my pal Lindsey, I ended up in Blairstown, New Jersey, wher

At the tail end of 1984, Hormel introduced the most Halloweeny of all hot dogs. Probably not the kickoff line you were expecting, but whatever, you’re here. Let’s talk about Frank ‘n Stuff! I’ve mentioned Frank ‘n Stuff in prior articles, but I thought it deserved a proper, stand

I got my hands on a spooky nostalgia bomb. Behold, Imagineering’s 1989 Halloween catalog! If you don’t remember Imagineering, they were one of the major suppliers of costumes, makeup kits and assorted Halloween accessories. If you grew up when I did, you definitely bought their stuff.

People like you and me, we spend most of our time just surviving. We distract ourselves as often as we can with whatever we can, but there’s always this quiet pulse of survival, like it’s what we’ll settle for even if it’s nowhere near what we’re hoping for. But then, for two mon

Yesterday, Burger King unveiled the UPSIDE DOWN WHOPPER, a special tie-in with Stranger Things. There were a few catches, of course. It was only available on June 21st, and only at eleven locations throughout the country. Fortunately, one of those locations was in Manhattan — so me

I’m going to teach you how to make Halloween Chex Mix. Yep, in the middle of June. Above is a print ad from an October 1988 issue of some random magazine. Homemade Chex Mix is traditionally more of a winter thing, but thanks to this recipe for a “Hot ‘n Devilish” version, you’re

I’m so glad that I finally hopped on the Stranger Things bandwagon. Not only is it a great show, but it would’ve killed me to skip all of this wackadoo promo shit for its third season. First was that New Coke hoopla, and now the series has completely taken over Baskin-Robbins! It’s

I’m leaving to catch Godzilla: King of the Monsters in about, oh, two hours. I have no idea if I can finish this review before showtime, but I’m gonna try, because these half-baked paragraphs about weird cheeseburgers are surprisingly time-sensitive. Yes, Godzilla has invaded Johnny Ro

Make some tea, hit the lights and pray for a thunderstorm, because the latest episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast is gonna put you in a Halloween mood. This week, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit pay tribute to ten of our favorite pop culture WITCHES. We’re tackling movies like The Craft,

This was a good day. The weather was nice, I won a cheap eBay auction, and oh yeah, I made VINCENT PRICE’S SUPPER CASSEROLE. Back in 1977, Vincent Price shared this wonderfully weird recipe on behalf of Creamettes Macaroni. Price never shied away from paid endorsements, but since he was

I’ve been into space aliens for as long as I can remember. Whenever Unsolved Mysteries did a UFO segment, I led their cheering section. Whenever a flying saucer turned up on the cover of Weekly World News, I’d buy the issue. Aliens are one of my forever-jams. Jay from The Sexy Armpit i

I saw the new Halloween movie on Thursday night, with Jay from The Sexy Armpit. We hadn’t planned on doing a podcast about it, but why not? We spent an hour aimlessly running through the stuff we loved, the stuff we liked and the stuff we were maybe not totally sure about, but the non-sp

I’ll be honest: I wrote the rest of this article first, and saved the intro for last. Then I forgot to write it. Now I’m five minutes away from my arbitrary publishing deadline, and I have no intro. Words. Aalsalslals. Aososdoso. There, now this looks like a paragraph. Below: Three cer

I know you’ve heard me sing this song before, but before now, I didn’t have the proper materials to hit the right notes. Indulge me, please. I need to talk about SHOCKTOBER. SHOCKTOBER was an October-long stunt that WPIX ran in the early ‘90s. Every weeknight at 8PM sharp, WPIX broke

We visited a random party store in Jersey, and guys, this place was a goldmine. Looked like it hadn’t been renovated since 1992. The layout of their mask section was SO old school. Taking that as a hint, I dug deeper and found tons of vintage Halloween thingies hiding in the aisles. Tak

If the new Halloween film has reignited your passion for the franchise at large, we’ve got the perfect hour-killer for you: In this brand new episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit are proud to present our MICHAEL MYERS MISHMASH — ten weird and aweso

Remember that absurdly frightening drunk driving PSA from the ‘80s? The one with the skeletons? The 1984 TV spot was pretty famous in its time, partly for its use of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, but mostly because the PSA was so shocking in its execution. After four friends agree to let

The return of Dino Drac’s Halloween Countdown means I get to dust off one of my favorite recurring features: Classic Creepy Commercials! If you weren’t around for the eighteen previous installments, this is where I gush about old spooky TV commercials. I’ve spent the last six months

Here’s an inordinate amount of words about a GoBots figure. I have my reasons! Meet Creepy, one of the evil Renegades. As far as insectoid robot monsters go, he’s aces. Ghoulish purple claws, toxic green paint, and a name that would make me love him even without those things. What make

Back in the late ‘90s, I bought my first computer. It was hardly the first computer that I’d messed around on, but it was the first one that was all mine. I customized the shit out of it. By the time I was through, I don’t think there was a single default sound still in

Treasures from the Halloween 4 Pharmacy!

Ask and you shall receive! Well, not usually, but this time. If you’ve been hankerin’ for a new Purple Stuff, we’re finally ready to deliver: Yes indeed, we’re kicking off the 2018 Halloween season with our fifth installment of SPOOKY SONGS. This week, me and Jay from The Sexy Armp