Hello! Today is Shop Small Business Saturday. This new annual tradition of supporting the mom and pop local businesses in your own town follows Black Friday every year. Today, I’m celebrating the last day of November with one of my favorite small businesses.
Backstitch Bruja
It’s been a joy to watch Yvette’s business grow from a small online shop into a real brick and mortar store in San Dimas, CA. This busy entrepreneur still makes time to travel around to Halloween and horror conventions and spooky events around the SoCal area. Follow her on Instagram for details on appearances.
This is just a small taste of what’s offered up this Creepmas season. It seems that everything pictured is still in stock, but merch moves quickly at Backstitch Bruja.
But don’t fret if something sells out. If you can be patient, get yourself a Backstitch Bruja giftcard. They usually restock.
The theme this month is November’s Undead Embrace. Most vampire movies feel like autumn, or winter, with the exception of The Lost Boys, which had cool summer vibes.
My list of faves is made up of all older movies. Honestly, Abigail was the last good vampire flick I’ve recently seen. Some on my list are endearing, all the Draculas, because Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of my favorite novels. Dapper and mysterious, the hyponotizing Bela Lugosi is still the best, but Frank Lagella was sauve and sophisticated enough to make forget all about those bad disco effects. Gary Oldman was tall, dark, and handsome, but honestly, young Christopher Lee still might be my favorite, sinister and sexy. He turned me onto Hammer Horror, and no one does olde English victorian goth better than Hammer.
The original Swedish Let the Right One In, from 2008, the gruesome horror coming of age tale, had the best story of all the vampire movies I’ve ever seen (it was also based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist).
And the militia controlled religious zealotry of the American apocalypse featured in Stakeland is something I very much forsee happening to our great nation, minus the vampires, well, maybe…
The other films, oh hell, I just like sleek, fun action horror monster movies.
So, here’s the list. Perfect for a Black Friday movie marathon, or you can go fight off real life vampires at the stores if that’s your thing. Bwahahaha😄
Dracula, 1931 Let the Right One In, 2008 The Lost Boys, 1987 Stakeland, 2010 Horror of Dracula, 1958 Dracula, 1979 Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1992 Near Dark, 1987 Blade, 1998 Underworld, 2003
Honorable Mentions: Salem’s Lot Fright Night Afflicted The Hunger Only Lovers Left Alive A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Interview with a Vampire From Dusk til Dawn
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday or a very happy Thursday.
Spooky Sundays are all about reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms. Work is definitely getting in the way of celebrating my favorite holiday, but I managed to get all my posts up. Looking forward to this last week in October. Gonna carve my pumpkin, enjoy some more spooky classic movies and hopefully read some awesome entries for the Halloween Haiku Challenge. Four days left til Halloween! Here’s a visual recap of this past week.
Horror films have captivated audiences since before Universal’s wild heyday of Horror during the 1930s. Each era has had great scary films and some so good, they spawned sequels and created franchises. Jaws, a 1975 horror adventure from a new young director Steven Spielberg gave birth to the summer blockbuster! In fact, thanks to horror, some amazing technical achievements have been discoverd, like new camera and lighting tricks and, make-up, and special fx. Horror films are truly the backbone of Hollywood.
Art by Hao Shun Da
I personally have been a horror film fan for over 40 years and I pride myself on having seen a majority of scary films and always look forward to those I’ve havent found yet. But there’s just one thing I haven’t been able to figure out, and that’s which era had the best horror. Was it Universal’s monster era or the SciFi greatness of the 50s, or how about the great slasher films of the 80s? It’s so hard to choose! Help me out!
Spooky Sundays are all about reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms. I just realized I forgot to put up last week, so I’ll include last week too. Here’s a visual recap of this past week.
Lately, I’ve been rewatching a lot old classic horror movies and the Universal monster movies are still my faves. Fans of the 1930s viewed the supernatural fantasy as an escape from the daily misery, living through the depression. The films may seem tame or not as scary or sophisticated as the films of today, but for some movie goers, the stories were based on popular cultural myths and legends, while others had never heard of these creatures at all. Swamp creatures and the reanimated dead were the super scary, particularly to those who were extremely religious.
I tried to figure out which monster I thought was scariest but I’m on the fence. Help me determine which monster is the scariest.
Title: Little Shop of Horrors Director: Roger Corman Screenwriter(s): Charles B. Griffith Starring: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, and Jack Nicholson Distributed by: The Filmgroup Year: 1960 Run Time: 1 hr 10 minutes
Bumbling florist assistant Seymour and his pretty colleague Audrey work in rundown floral shop on skid row, run by the cranky Mr. Gravis Musgnick. After getting fired for messing up order for crazy local dentist, Seymour claims to be growing a unique surprise plant for the owner. A flower-eating customer Burson Fouch tells Mushnick a special plant can help his businesses grow, so Mushnick gives Seymour one week to drum up business.
Named Audrey Jr., affectionately named after his co-worker, Audrey Jr. is a scrawny little bud cultivated from unknown seeds that were given to Seymour by a Japanese florist. Seymour has trouble feeding Audrey Jr., that is until he pricks his finger and he realizes the plant feeds on blood. So, he begins a feeding the plant a steady diet of his own blood.
With business blooming, Audrey Jr. grows bigger each day and even learns to talk, demanding more and more blood, leading poor Seymour to realize he’s got a big problem on his hands. One day during a walk, he accidentally knocks out a drunk, who then falls on the tracks and gets killed by a train. Guilt-ridden Seymour feeds the man’s body parts to Audrey Jr., who grows ten times bigger.
Of course, with a man-eating talking plant, the body count rises and eventually, the film’s narrator Sgt. Joe Fink and local homicide come calling.
One of Roger Corman’s earliest films was never meant to be a comedy. Corman originally wanted to write a detective story. Screenwriter Charles B. Griffith wanted to write a horror-comedy. At some point, during development, Corman learned that the sets they used for Bucket of Blood were about to be torn down. Never one to miss an opportunity to save money, Corman and Griffith hammered out their script, which was heavily influenced by the original science fiction short story ‘The Reluctant Orchid’ by Arthur C. Clarke and set out to film the movie in three days.
Corman never thought Little Shop of Horrors would make any money beyond its first theatrical run, much less become a cult hit, so he mistakenly let the movie fall into public domain by failing to secure the copyrights.
It can now be found on several streaming services, including Amazon Prime.
Recently, I posted my choices as the scariest horror scenes in movies. What you all may know was just how hard making that list was. There were a slew of great horror films to come out of the 70s generation and choosing which had the scariest scene was kinda agonizing. I kept questioning which movies I thought were the best, which had the best story and characters, which seemed most popular with movie goers, and which was my personal favorite.
So, in the spirt of the election year, help me determine which is the best.
Title: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Director: Charles T. Barton (animated sections by Walter Lantz) Screenwriter(s): Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo, John Grant Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert Distributed by: Universal Pictures Year: 1948 Run Time: 1 hr 23minutes
Abbott and Costello play bumbling freight porters Wilbur Grey and Chick Young, who are supposed deliver the remains of Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster to a new House of Horrors. Dracula escapes with the monster, where they meet a mad scientist who plans to swap out brains of the monster with Wilbur, with the help of Dr. Sandra Mornay, under Dracula’s trance of course. Larry Talbot aka the Wolfman arrives from London to thwart the plan, but then the full moon rises and all the fun begins.
By 1948, war was over, America wanted to laugh again, and the slapstick antics of these two charmers were the answer. The Universal monsters craze was dying down but film stars Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. were down for one last ride.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a perfect blend of monster movie and the zany hijnks typical of Abbott and Costello, who were at the height of their fame. Reprising their famous roles, Bela Lugosi stars as Dracula, Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman lend a certain credence to the scary thrills, along with newcomer Glenn Strange, stepping in as the Monster for Boris Karloff.
You can catch this madcap horror comedy on Amazon Prime this month.
Happy October! I can’t believe we’re celebrating our 6th Halloween season! This year, work has been crazy busy and finding the time to keep up with blogging is a huge challenge, but I’m not quitting yet!
Although, I’m going to scale back a bit, I will still be celebrating all 31 days of Halloween. Our theme this month is Halloween Vintage Classic, bringing together two of my favorite things in the whole world, vintage style Halloween decorations and old black and white spooky movies.
Be sure to check back every day this October for cool, fun, and inspirational Halloween, horror, and haiku.
HALLOWEEN SCHEDULE 2024
Monday Macabre
Every Monday, I’ll be posting a brand new Halloween Haiku, honoring the theme of Halloween Vintage Classic.
Trick or Treat Tuesdays
Play spooky games and win spooky prizes! Every Tuesday, head over to Instagram for some fun and a chance to win some cool Halloween stickers and pins.
Wicked Art Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, I’ll showcase original Halloween art that most represents our theme of “Halloween Vintage Classic” from the world’s most talented artists.
Thursday Time Travels
Every Thursday, let’s travel back in time and revisit some great black and white haunted classic movies.
Friday Fright Nightcaps
It’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps and we’re gonna put the boos in booze!
Sinister Saturdays
Saturday nights are alright for fighting. It’s election year in the USA and what better way to get ready for November than by voting for your favorite scary movies!
Spooky Sundays
Spooky Sundays are for reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms.
Due to time constraints, I’ll be running a shorter challenge this year, starting in the last week in October, with me choosing a winner on Halloween night. More details to come, but for now, sharpen those pencils or pull up a blank page; I can’t wait to see those Halloween haiku!
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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