Horror

Madd Matt is back, and he has a new doll! Actually, the doll isn’t new. It’s from 1988. Many of you should recognize this animated vampire figure, which for a time seemed as common a Halloween decoration as fake webs and plastic spider rings. Part of a larger line of battery-operated

This is going to be one of the shorter Halloween Countdown entries, but make no mistake, today’s subject means as much to me as anything else I’ve covered. From 1988, it’s the famous/infamous Chamber of Horrors cassette, which I’m sure will be immediately recognizable to a fair chu

I woke up at 4AM. By 5, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit were on the road. Exhausted and delirious, we drove in darkness, finally reaching our destination around 90 minutes later. This was a big day! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Yes, THE GHOSTBUSTERS DONUTS HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED AT KRIS

Okay, it’s Saturday night and none of you are here, but I’m already panicking about how close we are Halloween. A scant 48000 hours away! I don’t want to miss the chance to get even one more horrifying thing posted before the big day, so here I am. I’m so lonely. Here’s another

Back in 1991, Doritos and Pepsi teamed to give away cash prizes in a special Halloween promotion. It was called Monster Match For Monster Money, and for a short time, it was the best thing on the planet. On specially marked packages of Doritos and Pepsi, we got game pieces that could’

You should steal that image and put it on a t-shirt. Then, when you’re out in public, pretend that walking really hurts. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for us to talk about MONSTER BALLS. I’d wanted to write about these for over ten years, but the eBay prices were always too dissua

It’s time for our fifth batch of Classic Creepy Commercials, provided once again by my friend Larry. (Not that Larry. The other one.) If you’ve found your Halloween spirit weakening under the weight of the real world, these grainy old commercials will fix everything. And if

Oh goodie, it’s finally time to dust off one of my favorite recurring features from last year’s Halloween Countdown! Vicious Videocassette Boxes! As y’all know by now, I have a pretty immense VHS collection, with an especially strong lean on horror movies. There are eight hundred rea

This one means a lot to me. Weeks after it became a regular series, Unsolved Mysteries aired a special Halloween episode. They’d only cop to it being an “all ghosts” special, but given its debut date — October 26th, 1988 — I don’t think it’s a stretch to consider it a

I never expected 2014 to top last year’s incredible Halloween season, but man… I think we’re coming close. I already feel like I’m drowning in awesome Halloween shit, and we’re not even halfway through September. …and if I was on the fence about this possibly becoming an

I’m very glad to revive one of last year’s recurring features: CLASSIC CREEPY COMMERCIALS! In this series, I blather on about ancient TV commercials, each with some loose tie to the Halloween season. For the third year in a row, I have my friend Larry P. to thank for the ads, which wer

Continuing with my “Five Random Action Figures” series, I thought I’d make this edition a little more appropriate for the Halloween Countdown. This time, our five random action figures are all TERRIBLE MONSTERS! Camouflage Swamp Thing Swamp Thing, 1990 This toy series found root (he

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one was good for 1174. No, it’s not mine. I do not know these people. I bought the photo from someone on eBay of all places. It spoke to me in ways even my own photos rarely do. It’s from 1992, and it perfectly encapsulates

Remember last year’s SDCC exclusive Jason Voorhees figure? You know, the “8-bit” one? Of course you do. …but unless you’re a serious Friday the 13th fan, here’s something you probably don’t know: That figure started a minor revolution. I touched on this in my last Monster

One of my favorite Halloween activities is raiding old pharmacies and random variety stores, hoping to score some ancient spooky treasure. I’ve been running Halloween Countdowns since 2003, and lemme tell ya, a LOT of my material came from places like those. Over the weekend, I hit the

“Came, saw, bought a few things, made a fool of myself, went home.” That would be the summary of my experiences at the 28th Monster-Mania horror convention, which took place in Cherry Hill last weekend. I fear I’m not in any position to give you a full report, since we spent so much

Hi, I’m Matt. Child’s Play fan. I was a late bloomer with horror, but Chucky was an exception. From Day One, I was on his side. Of the right age to clearly recognize him as a riff on Hasbro’s My Buddy dolls, I stupidly assumed that the Child’s Play franchise was at least partially

I’ve been dancing around this subject for years, referencing it in throwaway paragraphs that have done little to capture its supreme mega greatness. Today, finally, I’m going to give Dinosaurs Attack cards everything they’re owed. Dinosaurs Attack (formally styled with an exclamation

On Friday, we found ourselves back on the familiar floors of Cherry Hill’s Crowne Plaza, ready to drink through the latest Monster-Mania convention. This was the 27th Monster-Mania. The first one I went to was only their third ever. Almost ten years later, and I still get a kick out it.

The rumors are true. I have eight balls. Made by Entertech in 1989, the SPITBALLS collection turned our favorite slashers, monsters and ghosts into… well, spitballs. Each set came with two hollow rubber heads, with pinholes in the mouths. Squeeze ‘em underwater to fill ‘em up, and sq

Madd Matt sure spent a long time making this video! Never heard of Spider Bites? Made by Topps in 1990, it was a collection of ghoulish spider figurines that dispensed awful, colorful candy. They came in a really great box! Thank you.

I’m back with another edition of “hey here are some videos sitting around the house that are tangentially related to Halloween.” Enjoy, and make sure you've read parts one and two!

Without meaning to, I’ve amassed a pretty diverse collection of Freddy Krueger merchandise. I guess the best explanation is that it’s very easy to do. Especially in his heyday, Freddy Krueger really stood apart from his slasher brethren on the merchandise front. His steady evolution in

While killing a few minutes at Walmart last night, I stumbled upon a costume that I could NOT leave without. This one: The UNKNOWN PHANTOM costume! The chances of me actually needing a Halloween costume this year are slim, but who could turn this down? It’s a full-body reaper outfit with

October is just around the corner, which, of course, is our universal signal to kick our spooky celebrations into second gear. I have much to prepare, so pardon me if I rush through this! Everyone knows about the Goosebumps books and TV series, but have you ever seen the amazing merchandis