September 30th is upon us. And you thought it was dead. You thought the stake was in its heart, that you cut off its head and stuffed a Kenny G CD into its mouth…but you should know better. It cannot stay dead. And sooner or later, when you least expect it (despite the fact you own a calendar), it will rise again. Thus: 32 Days of Halloween X. Our tenth year celebrating the best goddamn holiday anywhere. Yes, even better than National Coffee Day. How is that possible, you ask? Because everyday is National Coffee Day. So coffee is a given. Like breathing. Which brings me back to where I started: the thing that should not be, and the thing that doesn’t need to breathe. Namely: this festival.
We begin in a random vein (ha!) with some Oingo Boingo, a band that just feels Halloweeny even when they’re not playing a strictly Halloweeny song…but they are playing it on Halloween. So it all works. Also, I think Danny Elfman is 65% water and 25% Halloween. Anyway, here’s “Clowns of Death” from their Farewell concert back in 1995.
For tonight’s feature film, we’re going to hit the quality straight out with 1956’s hit from the UK, Fire Maidens From Outer Space. According to Wikipedia (which is always right), it was released stateside as “Fire Maidens of Outer Space,” no doubt because Americans would be very confused about…okay, no, I actually have no idea. This has everything: a man with the head of a beast, an Atlantean colony on one of Jupiter’s moons, and…well, you know, fire maidens. Some of the actors involved include Harry Fowler (The Pickwick Papers (1952)), Sydney Tafler (The Monkey’s Paw (1948)) and Jan Holden (The Haunted House of Horror). How did any of them end up in this? No clue. Enjoy.
Update: The movie’s been taken down, so enjoy the trailer.
Now, if you need something to get that taste out of your throat, I recommend this. It won’t help much, but it will serve to confuse and astound you further.
