Horror

Holy Halloween nostalgia! Here are five promotional trick-or-treat bags from the '70s and '80s, from Duracell, McDonald's and beyond! A pillowcase holds the most candy, but these are certainly more fashionable!

It's another batch of Classic Creepy Commercials from the '80s and '90s! This time, I'm tackling Mighty Max, Fruit by the Foot and the end-all, be-all of vintage Hallmark Halloween commercials!

In 1997, Burger King ruled Halloween by giving out four absolutely PERFECT Universal Monsters action figures, including Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Let's wax nostalgic!

In the ninth episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast, me and Jay play a Halloween-themed game. One of us rattles off two statements, and the other has to guess which is fact and which is fiction! Come play along!

If you're into Freddy Krueger, you're gonna love this one. Here's a collection of vintage newspaper clippings, all having something to do with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise! Stop the presses!

In one of this year's most surprising Halloween promotions, you can currently buy a candy-filled "Goosebumps Shake" at Johnny Rockets! If you choose to do so, remember to steal one of those swank Goosebumps table tents. I did!

It’s the first day of autumn! (Or the second, depending on when you read this.) What better way to celebrate than with another edition of Classic Creepy Commercials, featuring all sorts of eerie ads from the ‘80s and ‘90s? (I mean besides a cool walk under moonlight scored by the sw

Put simply, a yard haunt refers to the assemblage of Halloween decorations on one’s front lawn. Media attention focuses on those who go all-out, with thousands of dollars’ worth of spooky scenery. In truth, you could put two plastic skulls on your stoop and call it a “yard haunt.”

Apparently, my new thing is posting ten seconds before midnight. I’ve decided to roll with it! It’s time for the latest episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast, with me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit. In tonight’s show, we’re talking about all sorts of PUMPKIN MONSTERS from all walks of

While searching eBay for goodies to cover during this year’s Countdown, I discovered several items that were perfect in every way… except price. I’ll take a dive on certain items, but I gotta stop short of paying 400 bucks for rubber sharks. Still, some of those items were just too

Remember when watching shows and movies mostly amounted to taking what we were given? We’ve come a long way from needing a TV Guide! …and yet, I strangely find myself missing that era, back before we had instant access to anything we wanted to see… not to mention an internet

It’s time for the next batch of Classic Creepy Commercials! (If you read that in the voice of a game show announcer and hum happy music afterward, it becomes a stronger open.) Collected below are another five spooky TV commercials from the ‘80s and ‘90s, covering everything from to

I love that Halloween III’s reputation has improved so dramatically over the years. Once commonly reviled, it seems like most people love it now — and for the very same reasons that others used to… not. For those who don’t follow the series, Halloween III: Season of the Witch i

A few days ago, I drove past what’s now one of my city’s thousand salons, but used to be our neighborhood’s very first video store. Converted from a portion of a long, thin house that certainly wasn’t meant to carry a storefront, the place was — and remains — a slanted

The Purple Stuff Podcast normally goes live on Saturday nights, but an assortment of irritating factors forced us to push it off a bit. The good news? Now it’s ready! In this episode, me and Jay try to come up with our ideal Halloween television marathon. Like, let’s say you were put i

The third episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast is now live! (And I really gotta thank you guys. We never expected this to take off like it has, and the feedback on the first two episodes has been a great motivator for us to gut through the ten billion technical hiccups that seem to accompan

So I think I’m kind of maybe possibly doing a podcast. Maybe. Yes. The situation: My friend Jay from The Sexy Armpit had a history in radio, and has appeared on about ten thousand podcasts. For the last few years, I’ve been hounding him to start his own. A few weeks ago, I meekly offer

Can I be honest? When I heard about NECA’s SDCC exclusive “Jason & Pam” two-pack, I knew I was going to buy it, but I wasn’t exactly happy about buying it. When I had the set in my cart during the online sale, I could only click the appropriate buttons through gritted teeth. Fi

If you’ve ever looked something up on Wikipedia and wanted more information than its editors would allow, the good news is that there are dedicated wikis for practically everything these days. These wikis often lack the speed and crowd-edited finesse of Wikipedia, but they make up for it

When you hear the word “kaiju,” your mind probably drifts to Godzilla, or to the creatures from Pacific Rim, or maybe to the monster from Cloverfield. It’s all stuff like that, right? But see, “kaiju” just means “monster,” and by that definition, there sure are a lot of them

A long while back, I ranked all of the Friday the 13th films based strictly on the merits of their VHS boxes. It was only natural that I’d do the same for Freddy Krueger! That’s my weird goal for today, and it isn’t as pointless as it seems! As I’ve mentioned before, videocassett

One of the coolest-ever Nightmare on Elm Street toys technically had nothing to do with it: In 1988, Tonka launched a small line of Wrecking Crew toys. These were various construction vehicles that could plow through break-apart playsets. (Not a terribly misguided gimmick, given kids’

Thanks largely to the media blitz surrounding its 30th anniversary, Ghostbusters seems hotter than ever. You know how I’m always saying that every Halloween season has “one thing” that ultimately sets it apart from every other Halloween season? In 2014, it’s gotta be Ghostbusters.

Uh oh! It’s the return of Dinosaur Dracula’s… SCARY MARY HOTLINE. If you don’t know what this is about, I’d suggest reading this article from last year. Or, if you don’t feel like clicking around, I’ll just repeat myself! Back when pay-per-minute telephone hotlines were a hug

Welcome to Classic Creepy Commercials, Volume 7! (It was either this or another edition of Five Spooky Action Figures. The folks on Twitter voted for more commercials. If you would’ve preferred to read about plastic Draculas, blame them. #notmyfault) Larry P. generously provided the firs