THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 31

(Stoker's Story)

So here we are on the final day of the Countdown to Halloween and, again, I have to say it's been a fun, if somewhat harrowing, ride getting here!

(A photo of the award itself)

It's called the "BRAM STOKER AWARD" for a reason--the award granted to the authors of the works in the Horror genre voted best of the best each year by the Horror Writers Association.

With his novel, DRACULA, Bram Stoker changed the face of fiction.  Defining the vampire for the world for over a century and creating a villain the likes of which had rarely been seen before or since. 

Knowing the history of the myths and legends of vampires and knowing DRACULA itself backwards and forwards via viewings and readings and alternate takes over the years is one thing, knowing about the man who created the Count as we met him in his castle is quite another.  So I checked out a documentary entitled DRACULA: THE VAMPIRE AND THE VOIVODE

and found it to be quite a good look at the life of Stoker,

the wheres and whens and hows of his life

and his work as a writer.

Highly recommended and you can watch it streaming on Netflix...

but here's the trailer c/o the YouTubes:

A book like DRACULA gets published in every language, but let's concentrate only on the English editions I could find pictures of after a few days scanning the hills and valleys of the internet.

Over the years, see what wonderful variations there are...

Besides his masterpiece,

Bram Stoker wrote eleven other novels and three collections of short stories

and some other tales that hadn't been collected.

For anyone interested in any of his writing, much of it, if not all, is available for FREE at:

BramStoker.org

And don't forget:

TCM

HALLOWEEN DAY

OCTOBER 31, 2013

6AM -- The Curse of Frankenstein

7:30AM -- The Mummy (1959)

9AM -- Horror Castle

10:30AM -- The Castle of the Living Dead

12:15PM -- Dracula, Prince of Darkness

1:45PM -- The Devil’s Bride (The Devil Rides Out)

3:45PM -- Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

5:30PM -- Horror Express

8PM -- Pit and the Pendulum

9:30PM -- The Haunted Palace

11:15PM -- The Masque of the Red Death

1AM -- The Abominable Dr. Phibes

2:45AM -- Twice-Told Tales

5AM -- The Tomb of Ligeia

6:30AM -- The Conqueror Worm

8:15AM -- Theatre of Blood

THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 24

(The Price of Fright)

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies features another slew of films

in which Vincent Price chews more scenery than a zombie can chew brains!

And it's all horror, all the time too!

It is impossible to go wrong with any of these films but I do want to let you know, dear reader, that this Goods Guy would more likely recommend HOUSE OF USHER, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL or THE RAVEN.

In USHER, Price's character takes a journey from refined, reserved and restrained to manically mad, madman and it is a pleasure to watch him bloom!

HAUNTED HILL is full of character intrigue as one wonders what to think of Price's character and his wager with those who are willing to stay locked in his house.

THE RAVEN is equal parts Dr. Strange, Edgar Allen Poe and all the while we have Price matching wits with Karloff all the while poor Peter Lorre tries to wiggle his way out of the whole situation.

At 8pm

HOUSE OF WAX

Here's the trailer for this 3-D masterpiece:

At 9:45pm

THE MAD MAGICIAN

The trailer...

At 11pm

HOUSE OF USHER

The trailer...

At 12:30am

DIARY OF A MADMAN

And the trailer...

At 2:15am

THE TINGLER

The tingling trailer...

At 3:45am

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL

The trailer...

At 5:15am

THE BAT

This is the Price himself selling the movie...

At 6:45am

TOWER OF LONDON

No trailer here, but the drinking contest scene between ol' Vinny and Basil Rathbone...

At 8:15am

THE RAVEN

Quoth the trailer...

Finally, Vincent gives Kermit insight into the method of acting...

Tomorrow it's back to vampires for the final week of our Countdown to Halloween!

Where does the time go...

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 11.5

Just a quick reminder

Tonight on Turner Classic Movies

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2013

8pm ET -- HORROR OF DRACULA

9:30pm ET -- ISLE OF THE DEAD

11pm ET-- DEAD OF NIGHT

1am ET-- THE HAUNTING

3am ET-- THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES

4:30am ET-- HORROR CASTLE

THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 10.5

In my earlier blog for today, I forgot to mention the continuing tribute to Vincent Price going on over at Turner Classic Movies all month.

Since Vincent is the artist of the month, they'll be playing a selection of his films every Thursday night and tonight Mr. Price gets to shine in some mainstream pictures...

At 8pm there's BARON OF ARIZONA

Then at 9:30pm it's HIS KIND OF WOMAN

And at Midnight we have LAS VEGAS STORY

Later it's DANGEROUS MISSION at 1:30am

And at 3am, SON OF SINBAD

Finally, at 4:45 it's SERENADE

THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 4

(WHY DRACULA ALWAYS IS THE NEW BLACK)

Dracula, being the ultimate pitch-man, the king huckster, the Count of self-promotion, always seems to have some new project in the works.  Hell, he's usually up to a few things all at once being the cunning pitchman that he is and that's why it's never surprising to see some new Prince of Darkness project show up...

(Not sure exactly what, but something is off with that vixen's face--otherwise, not a bad poster)

We live in a what have you done for me lately society, but Dracula always seems to have an answer--this month alone he launches a television show on NBC and today Dario Argento’s DRACULA 3-D launches into theatres and on iTunes!  Asia Argento stars and Rutger Hauer takes on the role of Professor Van Helsing in a sexy spin on the tale of the vampire Count.  From the trailer, it appears to feel a little Hammer and a lot Argento.

As I look at the clock, I notice that TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES has already begun it's feature  series on Vincent Price this month--every Thursday night, they will show several of Mr. Price's films, his work from all genres and eras.  I will not fail to inform you of these future days and the films scheduled to be shown.

And they also will feature some of the finest horror/suspense/sci-fi pictures on Friday nights this month with a few sprinkled in on the other days as well.  TCM is very good at setting the mood for the month and I always like to give them their due here at THE GOODS.

For example:

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4

8PM  -  Carnival of Souls

9:30PM  -  Night of the Living Dead

11:15PM  -  Das Testament Des Dr. Mabuse

1:30AM  -  Bride of Frankenstein

3AM  -  Frankenstein Created Woman

4:45AM  -  The Wasp Woman

6:30AM  -  Captain Nemo and the Underwater City

There it is, in one night the freakiness of a woman haunted by fate, a group of people hunted by the undead, a plethora of mad doctors, and much, much more!

You can't go wrong--unless you forget to tune in!

Until tomorrow night, kiddies, enjoy this evil vampire baby:

(Click for a closer look and a sniff of his dirty, undead diaper!)