The Franken Whopper! | Halloween 2021

This Halloween season has honestly been absolutely stacked with tricks and treats to the point where you almost stop appreciating all the cool and wonderful stuff that was thrown our way. I started seeing candy in early August, which is totally unheard of here in Nova Scotia, and I still managed to find these amazing Dare Halloween cookies at a late-season Walmart trip a few nights ago, in which the store was essentially devoid of anything spooky, already replaced with all things jolly and nice.

But I’m not here to write about cookies! Oh, no!

In the dying days of Halloween 2021, Burger King has come out of nowhere with what could have been a shining star of the spooky season! The Franken Whopper!

In years past, Burger King has often had a seasonal offering. Some of the greats include the A1 Halloween Whopper, the Ghost Whopper, and the Nightmare King Whopper with black, white, and green buns, respectively!

Sadly, the Franken Whopper does not come with a coloured bun. It’s really just a regular whopper, but topped with french fries and onion rings.

What’s especially weird about this Whopper is that it was only offered in Canada, which to the best of my knowledge has never had any of the other Halloween sandwiches from the past six or seven years, and you could only purchase it via the BK App.

If I’m being perfectly honest, this feels like a last minute call. Like, someone at BK Corporate said, “We need to boost BK App usage. Let’s trick all these Halloween nuts into using the app to get a Halloween sandwich!” Then they slapped some fries and onion rings on a Whopper and went out for drinks to celebrate.

There was little-to-no information about this happening. As far as I know, no news was released about the Franken Whopper until October 25th and it’s window of availability is legit one week, ending on Sunday, October 31st!

Although the BK I went to – which wasn’t my local BK, I had to go on a journey to get this bad boy, but that’s the fun of this stuff right? – had posters and images adorning every corner of the various burgers and sandwiches available, there was nothing for the Franken Whopper, further proof this thing materialized overnight.

Outside of a few images on the app, there wasn’t a whole lot of effort put forth. I mean, look at that “real shot” of a Franken Whopper. That is an obvious Photoshop job that screams 4:30 on a Friday. There wasn’t even a cool, special burger wrapper or bag. The only thing to identify my sandwich as something different was a sloppy scrawl of what looks like “Fran” on the side.

All that said, this was still a homerun for me. In the dying days of the Halloween season, when honestly even a hardcore Halloween nut like myself is kinda losing steam, having this drop out of the blue was a much-needed shot in the arm. I wanted to run out of my house screaming to get one on Monday, but due to being an adult and “priorities” I had to wait a few days, finally scoring one at lunch today.

No, it’s not really on par with the Halloween Whoppers of yesteryear, but it gave me an excuse to throw on a podcast (special thanks to the Purple Stuff Podcast) and go for a Halloween outing a few days before it’s time to pack it in for another year. For that alone, I loved it.

Also, although it was made clear to me that this lunch would be ~2000 freakin’ calories it was delicious. I modified mine to drop the tomato and double the pickles, which was the right move. I promise you.

So, that’s it. The Franken Whopper! It might fall to the wayside this year, but who knows? Maybe next year it’ll get an international roll out with a proper marketing campaign and a cool green bun! Here’s hoping!

Hope you enjoyed and Happy Halloween!
R

Here's the thing about Halloween Kills...

I’ve been seeing such a discourse on social media surrounding this film, which is AMAZING! Having a healthy discussion about the merits of a movie like Halloween Kills is super important and I like seeing everyone’s opinions, both for and against the movie. In fact, REGIONFREE will be doing a live discussion tonight that you should absolutely check out!

That said, I’ve seen a lot of folks out there trashing other people’s opinions because they don’t align with their own. This movie landed on Thursday night in advanced screenings and as I’m posting this it’s Tuesday and Halloween Kills is still dominating my Twitter feed and I’m not really liking the conversations I’m seeing.

In video gaming circles, we call it “fanboy”-ism (I added the -ism). I’m not sure what to call it in the film community.

Anyway, the video says the rest.

Hope you enjoy,
R

Halloween 2020 | The Raccoons – Monster Mania (1988)

If you’re from outside of Canada, you’ve likely never heard of The Raccoons, although it did air in the US on the Disney Channel, I think? It was a cartoon created originally as a Christmas special titled The Christmas Raccoons for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1980 by showrunner Kevin Gillis, who produced this show and more recently Atomic Betty.

After a series of TV specials, like The Raccoons on Ice and The Raccoons and the Lost Star, The Raccoons finally started airing as a regular television series in 1985 and ran until 1991.

It’s hard to describe exactly how beloved The Raccoons is up here in Canada, but I think you can liken it to something like The Smurfs. It was a wholesome, fun cartoon that anyone could enjoy. Oh, and they played hockey!

So, why am I bringing this show up now? It’s Halloween, for crying out loud!

Well, I always remembered watching an episode of The Raccoons that I thought was their Halloween special. I distinctly remembered watching TV one day and seeing a commercial that a monster episode was going to air around Halloween and that I was stoked! Well, I recently stumbled upon that promo – big thanks to the Betamax King on YouTube!

I saw this video a while ago, so I decided to add this episode of The Raccoons to my Halloween watch-list, which I curate during the off-months in preparation for September and October – yes, I’m a geek. It was just last week when I finally got to sit down to it!

And… this is most definitely not a Halloween special. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun and it definitely (kinda) had a monster in it, but it was apparent fairly quickly that this was simply aired around Halloween, but was not produced with that intent.

The Raccoons features anthropomorphic woodland animals that live in Evergreen Forest. It’s focused on three raccoons: married couple Ralph and Melissa and their live-in friend, Bert? Kind of a weird relationship there. They’re usually up against Cyril Sneer, a wealthy industrialist who is always trying to make a buck. His son Cedric is a friend to the eponymous Raccoons. It turns out the Sneers are aardvarks? I’ll be honest, when I was a kid I thought it was weird that they were the only two “monster” characters in the show, because I could never place what animal they were supposed to be. You live and you learn!

“Monster Mania!” is set during the summer. One day Bert and Melissa are hanging out by the lake (better watch out, Ralph!) and they see a fire-breathing monster emerge from the lake! Melissa grabs her trusty camera and manages to snap a blurry picture of the creature.

Ralph runs the local newspaper, The Evergreen Standard, so Melissa publishes her picture and the news story, which picks up national attention, bringing lots of news crews and monster hunters to the Evergreen Forest. This all plays perfectly into Cyril Sneers pockets as he benefits on the extra publicity.

The episode is an obvious nod to “real-life” stories about the Loch Ness monster or Ogobogo in Lake Okanagan, British Columbia. It even receives the moniker “Evie”, much like “Nessie” or “Oggy”. If you’re a regular reader, you know how much I love old paranormal TV shows, especially around Halloween, and they often prominently featured these stories, so I appreciate this premise for their “Halloween” episode.

As usual with the show, it features environmentalist motifs. Cyril Sneer wants to mow down the lake to make an amusement park to benefit from the monster’s exposure and all the news crews and thrill seekers visiting the lake are trashing the surrounding area. Guess who wins in the end? The environment!

When writing about The Raccoons you just can’t leave out the amazing music produced by Lisa Lougheed. For this particular episode, the producers featured a song called “Growin’ Up”, which plays in a hilarious scene while some of Sneer’s cronies – who were totally oblivious pigs – are trying to do a water-skiing demo. This is just one of the great songs Lougheed performed and produced for the series over the years, but the most notable song she did was without a doubt “Run With Us”, which was the outro music to every episode. Walk up to just about any Canadian in their 30s and 40s and ask them to sing “Run With Us”. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Anyway, spoiler alert – Cyril Sneer built the monster as a hoax to drum up business and, of course, The Raccoons foil his plans once again. Ralph – who was jealous at Melissa’s success the whole episode – gets to eat a little crow, too. Happy ending!

You know what’s really cool? It looks like Kevin Gillis is trying to reboot the series! I’ve seen some concept art for The Raccoons: The New Adventures, and it looks really great and pays homage to the old show quite nicely. I’m really looking forward to it! What’s also awesome is that it looks like all of the old episodes of The Raccoons have been legitimately posted to YouTube by the production company Run With Us Productions, so you can actually kick back and watch “Monster Mania!” for yourself!

It’s admittedly not a Halloween episode – in fact, another episode that aired years later titled “The Phantom of Sneer Mansion” would be a better fit – but it did play a part in my Halloween in 1988 and it was a great trip down memory lane revisiting The Raccoons!

Happy Halloween!
R

VHyesterdayS: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1996)

This past weekend officially marked Halfway to Halloween. I usually go out of my way to try and bring a little spooky into the springtime - maybe take out a decoration or two, drink some expired pumpkin coffee, whatever works - but this year all I could muster was watching an old movie... and that movie was E.T. The Extraterrestrial!

I know, I know. It's not a horror movie, but honestly I've been getting lots of horror in my diet lately, so watching something fun seemed just the ticket.

E.T. is, of course, the classic story of a young boy who befriends a wayward alien lost on Earth and trying to find his way home. The cast includes heavy-hitters like Dee Wallace (the ultimate '80s mom) and Peter Coyote, and has a excellent young cast with Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Henry Thomas as the film's main character, Elliott. Oh, and it was directed by Stephen Spielberg. You might've heard of him?

E.T. is a family movie, but don't let that fool you. This is perfect fare for Halloween.

The film is set in late-Autumn, although if you're not from Northern California it might be difficult to tell. Have no fear, though! There are several scenes set literally on Halloween night that include costumes, jack-o-lanterns, and decorations.

There's one costume in particular that I always wanted as a kid. As E.T., Elliott, and his brother Michael head out trick-or-treating they run into Yoda. It has to be a $200 mask and, when I was as kid, I thought it was the greatest thing, but I was stuck with plastic smocks and masks that made my glasses fog up.

For all its window dressings as a kids' movie, E.T. is damn scary. I might be a bit biased in this (E.T. scarred me as a child - something that took me a very long time to get over), but just watch the opening sequence of the film and tell me if you don't get a little creeped out. Also, I think every kid can remember being traumatized by E.T. lying half-dead in a creek with a raccoon literally waiting to feast on his soon-to-be dead body.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true (sorry for all the Star Wars references).

Now, onto the tape!

The original release of E.T. was in 1988 and it has an iconic tape with a black cassette shell and green tape guard. I don't, however, have that version of the movie. I have the 1996 re-release, which comes in a swanky clamshell (to further masquerade the movie as something for children) and has its audio remastered in THX.

This release also includes 10 minutes of special interviews with the cast and crew appended to the end of the tape. It plays out like a vignette. There are snippets of the film with commentary from some of the cast and crew, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and - of course - Stephen Spielberg himself.

These interviews are great and all, but they're actually a small sampling of an hour and a half long documentary directed by Laurent Bouzereau. His documentary about the making of E.T. was included on the Laserdisc, which released beside the 1996 VHS.

Bouzereau actually did several of these documentaries for Laserdisc releases of Spielberg films, most notably Jaws, and although many of the others have managed to find their way onto DVD and even Blu-ray, the documentary for E.T. has never escaped the '96 LD.

In 2002 the Special Edition DVD was released, which was infamously retouched with digital effects and included some deleted scenes. Everyone recalls those "walkie-talkies". Later for the film's 30th anniversary it was released on Blu-ray - in the original theatrical cut - and again on UHD in 2017 to coincide with the 35th anniversary.

Regarding the '96 VHS, the video quality isn't anything to write home about. I have definitely seen better VHS transfers of other movies, which surprises me considering this a Spielberg film. I mean, considering their was a widescreen Laserdisc release right there, it might've been neat to sell this as a widescreen VHS, but I digress. The audio is definitely crisp. The THX digital transfer here is on-point. As a result, this VHS is definitely serviceable and probably the best way to enjoy the film on tape.

So, if you're looking to scare yourself just a little on the road to Halloween this year, consider taking in the classic E.T. The Extraterrestrial. It's a fun (and freaky) stroll down memory lane and there's no better way to get those nostalgic vibes then on an old dusty tape you probably have tucked away on a shelf at your parents' house. Oh, and don't forget the Reese's Pieces!

Happy Halfway to Halloween!

I hope you enjoyed,
R

Halloween Cereals 2019

As is usually the case with Halloween, Christmas, Summertime, etc. all the big corporations find different ways to ingratiate themselves into your grocery list by offering strange seasonal fare you would otherwise never consider purchasing.

You see this sort of thing with all sorts of brands: everything from tea and coffee to snack foods and soda and even kitty litter! Now, I'm definitely a mark for this sort of thing in general, but one product that I seem to key in on is cereal.

I mean it's not hard. I love cereal! I don't eat it every day, but if I see something new and different I can't help it but buy a box.

Usually, you can expect to see some Autumn or Halloween themed cereals on offer at this time of year, but I must say that there wasn't much to be had. Gone are the days that every cereal company kicked out some pumpkin spice variant or kids' cereals spookied up their usual best-sellers.

After weeks of waiting and nearly giving up all hope, I walked into a grocery store the other day and found that they suddenly had a display of three General Mills seasonal cereals! I scored a box of each and the following are my thoughts on them.

Pumpkin Spice Cheerios

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This is the biggest surprise for me, personally, and although I was more looking forward to the other cereals on this list I had to try these first.

Now, these certainly aren't new: they've been on the market since at least 2016. I'm fairly certain I've seen them on Canadian shelves in the past, but I've always passed them over. I don't know what it is, but Cheerios have been cranking out new flavours left and right the lately and they're almost always sub-par. Honey Nut and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios are on high-rotation in my house, so its hard to pass up those for something different or limited.

This time around, however, the box completely caught my eye. It wasn't like the old orange box I remembered, and honestly it sold me on at least trying the cereal this time around.

On opening the box I was immediately smacked in the face with the smell of - wait for it - pumpkin! This may seem like a dumb thing to point out, but if we're being honest with ourselves how often does "pumpkin spice anything" ever actually taste like pumpkin? Can you even tell me what pumpkin spice tastes like?

No, you can't!

It's a melange of spices that any company can tweak and change at their will. It usually involves cinnamon and nutmeg, but I can honestly say that I've never had anything that actually included freakin' pumpkin in the mix!

Pumpkin Spice Cheerios actually tote this fact right on the box, stating that it is made with real pumpkin purée mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. A pumpkin spice recipe that's actually in writing! It's a nice touch and it pays off.

I'll admit that one of the reasons I wanted to try Pumpkin Spice Cheerios first was because I assumed I wouldn't actually like them. As I said before, these new flavours of Cheerios rarely land. Pumpkin Spice, though, just have a hint of pumpkin flavour and a dash of spices. There's nothing crazy going on here, which is nice. It almost tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios that had a light dusting and definitely seems light on the sugar. There's actually less of the sweet stuff in this box than Honey Nut or Apple Cinnamon.

I've had two bowls to date as I write this and its actually even grown on me, so I think I would give this a recommend, provided your into pumpkin spice and you're not a total Halloween Grinch!

Count Chocula

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The Monster Cereals from General Mills have been around since the 70s and were on any grocery shelf in the US up until 2010. There have been several different kinds, but the flagships have always been Count Chocula and Franken Berry. Boo Berry has become one of the strongest in the line up, with Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy being offered only occasionally since the late-80s, early-90s.

In 2010, General Mills started offering the cereals only seasonally. The staples are Chocula and Franken and Boo Berry, but in 2013 and 2014 all five were actually released.

Now what about up here in the wilds of Canadia?

It wasn't until 2014 that General Mills - after seeing the greymarket created by people near the border driving and selling boxes of their goods here in Canada - decided to bring the cereal to our great country. For whatever reason instead of going for the three main cereals, same as in the US, the only two on offer here were Count Chocula and Boo Berry.

I wasn't completely broken-hearted by this decision, but I was definitely unhappy with it, as well. More to come on that.

The truth is I'm not a big fruit-flavoured cereal guy and I never have been. I think Fruity Pebbles was the only one that I went for with any regularity as a kid. Now, chocolate cereals? You've got my attention! So, easily my favourite of the two since I first started buying them again in the mid-10s (we can say that now, right?) has been Count Chocula.

I've heard the controversy that they've changed the cereals and they're very unlike their original versions, but I never - and I mean never - had these as a kid.

I feel certain that they were available in Canada, but either my parents wouldn't buy them for me or they just weren't available in my neck-of-the-woods. I know that I always wanted to try them and my parents weren't known to be completely against sugary cereals, so I have to assume it was a limited availability issue.

As a result, I love Count Chocula! I get my requisite box each Halloween, share it with the fam, and have a few bowls of that chocolaty goodness. If the texture or flavour of the cereal and marshmallows doesn't stack up the original I am blissfully unaware! I really enjoy them and that chocolate milk created by the cereal is deee-vine!

Franken Berry

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And here we are! I've been searching different grocery sites off-and-on over the past few weeks and I've found ghost-listings for Count Chocula and Boo Berry, so I figured things would continue status quo this season, but suddenly a few weeks ago I found a listing for Franken Berry instead of his ghostly compatriot! I was absolutely in shock as this is one of the few "bucket list" items that I wanted to experience from my youth!

As I mentioned, as a kid I could never find these cereals, but being a child of Saturday morning cartoons I was bombarded with commercials for them as I watched channels like ABC or CBS.

I grew up loving the Universal Monsters and seeing these cereals immediately created that connection in my mind, which was literally explored by General Mills and Universal in 1987. My favourite of the monsters has always been Frankenstein's creature, so of course Franken Berry was the cereal I wanted the most.

Alas, it was not to be.

I have to assume these cereals were available in Canada, but that didn't mean they were all over the country. In fact, a lot of times that would mean they were only really widely available in Ontario and West. Here in Atlantic Canada, whether it was due to population or transportation, we often got slighted by different brands. Growing up on an island certainly didn't help matters!

I can remember many times scouring the cereal aisle looking for Franken Berry or any of the Monster Cereals, but never in my lifetime did I get to try this most coveted of cereals... until now!

As I said before, fruit cereals aren't really my jam... and unfortunately that statement remains true with Franken Berry. I didn't dislike it as much as others I've had, but I certainly can't say that this one trumps Count Chocula for me. I'm still floored that I actually got to have it, though! One thing I would say is that it tasted an aaaaawful lot like Fruity Lucky Charms to me, which I picked up as a promotion this summer. I'd almost like to do a side-by-side comparison to see if there's any funny business going on here.

The story doesn't end there, though!

I'm not going to act like I'm the first person to do this - I know I can't possibly be - but as I was sitting and having breakfast with my kids I thought to myself, What would be the perfect way to cut some of this sugary strawberry flavour, when it donned on me: mix Franken Berry with Count Chocula!

I have created a monster, Count Franken Chocoberry!

I actually don't think I can go back to just eating one of the cereals. I've experimented with different ratios and I think a 2/3s Count Chocula to 1/3 Franken Berry gives the best results. It curbs the incredible sweetness of the Franken Berry with the slight - and I emphasize slight - bitterness of the chocolate in Count Chocula.

So, it turns out this Halloween wasn't a bust for cereal! Or at least for me. I didn't manage to get anything new, but you have to work with you've got in getting the most out of the season.

Halloween is only a week away, folks! If it takes mixing together sugary kids' cereals, do what you've gotta do!

Hope you enjoyed,
R

VHyesterdayS: Halloween Anniversary Edition (1997)

In honour of the spooky season today we're going to talk about the Anniversary Edition of Halloween released by Video Treasures (a.k.a. Anchor Bay) in 1997 on VHS!

I realize now that the clip above appears in 4:3, so you can't tell that its widescreen. If you look reaaallly close you can just faintly see that it's letterboxed. Consummate professionalism...

It's hard to write about John Carpenter's Halloween, because it's all been said time and time again. It's a film classic and its antagonist, Michael Myers, is a horror icon. Halloween became the archetype and best-in-class of the slasher genre and it is still held in the highest of regards to this day.

I personally watch the film every October. My tradition is usually to watch Halloween followed directly by Halloween II, as I love the story the two combine to create. I've eschewed that tradition this year in lieu of focusing on some other titles in the Halloween franchise, but I had to take in the original to kick off October.

And what cooler way than on VHS!

This was probably the best way to watch Halloween in 1997. To my knowledge the DVD wouldn't be released until 1999 and this was the first edition of the film to be presented in widescreen.

And the film looks great on this copy. I actually have never owned a DVD of Halloween, which seems crazy, but I went straight from VHS to Blu-ray. I can't say how the VHS actually stacks up against the DVD, but I can say that its as close to DVD quality as a standard VHS can get.

There is some slight VHS blur, for sure, but the colours and blacks look awesome. I've watched VHS copies of the film where you can barely make anything out in the night scenes, but in this edition there are no issues in that department whatsoever.

The audio quality is digitally mastered and sounds great. I watched with my headphones on and I could hear everything crystal clear. The music and sound effects really pop.

The only gripe I have with this copy is that on the box it states that the film is shown in its "cinematic entirety", which I understood to mean that it included the additional scenes added for the broadcast television premiere of the film on NBC in 1981. Video Treasures did do a VHS release of the Halloween Extended Edition in 1989, so I kind of assumed this would include those scenes as well, but that's not the case. I think what they mean is that you could see the film in widescreen, so nothing was cropped.

So, that was kind of a bummer! The Blu-ray that I have of the film doesn't include these scenes either, so I'm in the market for a home video release that does. I think it would be super cool to watch the TV cuts of Halloween and Halloween II, which also had additional scenes included in its broadcast premiere. It might be the most complete way to enjoy their whole story!

That aside, this is still a really cool release of the movie. It's hard to suggest it, though, for a few reasons. The main one being that if you want to watch a proper widescreen release of the film, you have so many crisper options. Being able to watch widescreen on VHS isn't all its cracked up to be. I have my VCR hooked up to an old 4:3 CRT, so you end up watching the flick letterboxed on the top and bottom. Maybe if I'd hooked it up to a widescreen LCD TV it would've been more enjoyable, but I prefer a CRT for my tapes. Unless you have one of those cool widescreen CRTs, like a nice Sony Wega, it's probably recommended you just get the DVD or Blu-ray.

Now a VHS Extended Edition copy, that would be pretty cool. Maybe I'll keep my eye out for one of those in the future.

Oh, I almost forgot! This edition came with a special feature! This sort of thing was pretty much unheard of 1997, but at the end of the tape they included the film's original trailer. I'm sure this has been uploaded in one form or another to YouTube a million times, but here's the copy I garnered from my tape.

That's it for another episode of VHyesterdayS. It's October and a great time to break out some of your favourite spooky movies and for a nostalgia overload there's no better way than to watch them as you probably did for the first time... on VHS!

Keep it spooky,
R

Nostalgia Bomb! - Garfield's Halloween Adventure

What was it?

Garfield's Halloween Adventure was the fourth Garfield television special directed and produced by Phil Roman and written by creator Jim Davis. It was the second Garfield program created by the Film Roman company after Garfield in the Rough. The previous two specials, Here Comes Garfield and Garfield on the Town, were developed by Peanuts TV special producers Mendelson-Melendez.

The show featured the usual cast of Lorenzo Music as Garfield and Gregg Berger as Odie, with a brief appearance of Thom Huge as John Arbuckle, and included C. Lindsay Workman in the role of the Old Man. The music was handled by the usual writing team of Ed Bogas and Desirée Goyette and performed by velvet crooner Lou Rawls.

This time around Garfield convinces Odie to go trick-or-treating with him, a ploy to help the devilish orange cat garnish twice as much candy, candy, candy! But his greed leads him to a brush up with more than just kids in spooky costumes!

When was it available?

The Halloween special first aired on October 30th, 1985 and was followed promptly by an airing of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which was typical of CBS during this era. I can confirm for certain that it ran up until 1989 and I'm sure it was played for many years after that, but I don't know when the special officially stopped airing on CBS. It's likely it ceased to be shown in 2000, which was the year that A Garfield Christmas was last seen on live television.

It was released individually on VHS in 1992 and later on DVD in 2004 with specials A Garfield Christmas and Garfield's Thanksgiving. It was later released again on DVD in 2014. This release had the same specials listed in the 2004 disc, but included Garfield on the Town and Garfield in Paradise. It also has a new individual DVD release from 2018.

What about today?

You can stream Garfield's Halloween Adventure on Amazon Prime, which inexplicably has it listed as available since 1996. It's also on iTunes and probably any other streaming service you can think of. The easiest place to watch it, however is on YouTube. You won't get quite the same visual fidelity, although I'm sure it can't be that far off, but one thing you can get on YouTube is an airing of the show with it's original commercials intact!

As is always the case with YouTube links, I can't attest to how long this one will be live, but there are several versions of it floating around.

Oh, and there's that 2018 DVD!

Why do I remember it?

Garfield's Halloween Adventure was required viewing for any Halloween celebrations when I was a kid. I mean, it aired in conjunction with It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown every year! That's high marks.

I wrote about A Garfield Christmas last year, so I knew I had to give the Halloween special the same treatment, but the story is pretty much the same here. Inexplicably, CBS just dropped this show off it's Halloween specials list and it suddenly became difficult or expensive to find on home video.

Luckily, nowadays, it isn't difficult to get your hands on a copy of Garfield's Halloween Adventure, but why the Charlie Brown specials still air and not these is mind-boggling.

One thing I will say about Garfield's Halloween Adventure is that it is legit scary for kids. I believe Jim Davis has said in interviews that they sought to make it something that would genuinely frighten children and they certainly succeeded. Even for this 30-something grown man there is some creepy stuff to be found in this special.

From the monstrous trick-or-treaters Garfield and Odie encounter, to the Old Man covered in warts telling his ghostly tale, and finally the pirate ghosts searching for their hidden treasure, this isn't a light-hearted affair. I considered letting my five year old watch it this year, but decided against giving him those nightmares just yet (although I'm certain I would've watch it at that age).

As was usually the case with Garfield specials, the music here is on-point. I personally prefer the songs in A Garfield Christmas, but that's not to slight the great Halloween-y tunes present in this show. Lou Rawls' voice is perfectly deep to deliver these tracks and I'm glad that they really leaned into the spooky mood.

The TV special was adapted by Jim Davis into a book that was published in 1987 under the title Garfield in Disguise, which was also the working title of the TV special. The story is pretty much the same, but with some slight changes and a different ending tacked on. In the book, Garfield steals a pirate's treasure ring and the ghostly spooks chase after he and Odie until they return it. It was apparently story-boarded and considered for the TV show, as well, but was ultimately dropped, likely to make the 24-minute run-time required for a half hour slot.

I can't let October slide by without taking in Garfield's Halloween Adventure. I hope someday that it makes it back to broadcast television, but regardless it will always be a blast from my past!

Hope you enjoyed,
R

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987) - Nintendo Entertainment System

This one has been a long time coming.

First off, readers of the site might - if you try reaaaaally hard - remember that I wrote a review for the original Castlevania during Halloween... 2014. Pretty much right after I wrote that piece, I actually had designs to play its sequel and the years just kept flying by without me devoting the time.

Here we are five years later and I've finally done it!

Now, that's not all. If you'll take a quick trip back in time with me for moment, you'll see a young RyHo, sitting in front of a dusty old Nintendo Entertainment System in a cabin near a lake. It's summer and it's nighttime. After spending the day swimming it's time to find something to while away the long, hot night.

The young lad's cousin has an assortment of games that he's never played before. One of them is Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. With no manual to aid and a cousin who knows next to nothing about the game, the youth tries and tries again, but can't make heads nor tails of how to even play this title. It's not like the Castlevania game he's used to, but all the spooky monsters and bright vibrant colours keep him absolutely enthralled.

That was my first attempt at playing Simon's Quest, circa 1990 or so. This game has been a monkey on my back for approximately 30-effing-years.

This feels good.

I played the game on the new Castlevania Anniversary Collection, which released in May of this year in conjunction with developer Konami's 50th anniversary, alongside two other collections: Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection and Contra Anniversary Collection.

I've had the thing on the NES Classic since 2016, though, and I could've picked it up on just about any Nintendo Virtual Console since 2007, so I have no excuses. Not to mention the fact that copies of the game fall out of NES collector's pockets constantly there's so many of them around.

Be that as it may, I took the plunge and made Castlevania II part of my Halloween 2019 celebrations and I'm so happy I did!

Most people think of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as the first of the Castlevania "Metroidvania" titles, but the fact is that it all started with... Vampire Killer?

Oh, you never heard of that one? It's considered an alternative version of the original game, which released in Japan and Europe for MSX2 PCs. It landed on European shelves before the series made it to the US and would receive its branding under the "Castlevania" title.

Simon's Quest is the second Castlevania game of this style, which hit shelves in Japan in 1987 and in the US in 1988. That said, since most people don't even know Vampire Killer exists, many would consider this as their first open-world CV game.

All of the classic elements are there: an open, non-linear environment for the player to traverse and new weapons and upgrades that can unlock previously unreachable areas of the map. The player is just plunked in the middle of a town with no idea which direction to traverse and they must speak with the villagers to gain clues on where their adventure should take them.

The game brings back the hero of the original title, Simon Belmont, who after having defeated Dracula has found out that the Master of Darkness managed to place a curse on him before his demise. In order to remove the curse, Simon must find the five parts of Dracula (I dunno what the townsfolk did to the dude after the first game, but shit got dark), which are holed up in five different mansions around Transylvania, and resurrect the monster... so he can kill his blood-suckin' ass again!

As I mentioned, you can go anywhere you want in the game - no levels here- but in true Metroidvania style certain enemies will be too tough to deal with unless you've completed a certain area, retrieved a new item, or upgraded Simon's strengths.

Simon still has his trusty whip to aide him in his quest, which you can upgrade throughout the game thanks to finding hidden gypsies. Yes that says gypsies and I don't mean like kinda hidden. Whoever developed this game doesn't like you and didn't want you to complete it.

This is among a handful of titles for the NES that I usually refer to as the "Nintendo Power sellers", because they garnered subscriptions to the famous magazine like Evians in the desert. Not only are many of the required items and clues hidden in the most devious of places, even if you have all the right pieces to the puzzle the game requires you do the strangest things to progress.

Like, if you have the Blue Cystal, which you need to magically drain a river at the beginning of the game, what would you think? You'd equip it in the menu and hop in, right?

WRONG!

You'd equip it and kneel next to the water for several seconds until the game revealed the hidden path.

This kind of stuff cropped up in The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, as well. I'm sure it was all a scheme of sorts. You should see my conspiracy board sometime!

So, if you can find the right path, get the right items, figure out all the crazy hidden secrets, survive the mansions, and defeat Death and Lady Camilla, you can take on your old pal, Drac and say bye bye to that curse!

Provided you finish your quest in under 8 "video" days. If not, you die anyway. Yeah, that's what we used to call "Nintendo hard" back in the day, kids!

Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention the "day and night" mechanic, which is surprising, because it will drive you mad as you enjoy this perfectly wonderful game! Every night at 6PM in the game, which by the way you don't have a handy pocket watch or anything so you have no idea when, the game flips you into night. It pretty well just means that the colours get spookier and the enemies get harder, ya know, in case you weren't having enough troubles as it was.

All in all, Simon's Quest is a great game that I wish I had just tasked myself with completing a long time ago. Although I came of age with Symphony of the Night, which is certainly a much more playable Metroidvania, there's a lot to enjoy here. The only issue I would take from the game is the repetition.

They reuse a lot of enemy sprites and the music isn't very varied. I remedied the music problem by listening to Dino Drac's Halloween Jukebox (I can't promise if that link will work after October 31st or not), which I couldn't recommend enough, by the way! As for the enemies, they spice things up by giving them outlandish different colour palettes and I just can't get mad at a game that lets me fight nuclear green skeletons.

Once you get into the groove of deciphering all the crazy stuff the townspeople say and you figure out the trick to finding pretty much all the secrets (just throw Holy Water everywhere... that's it. That's the trick) you'll realize how much fun you're actually having. Just make sure you have that copy of Nintendo Power handy - you know, the one with the beheaded Dracula on the cover (how did they sell this thing to kids?) - and you'll be right as rain!

Like I said, there's no lack of ways to get your hands on Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, but I couldn't recommend the Castlevania Anniversary Collection enough, which is loaded with other awesome games from the series for the price of a pizza ($26 CDN, to be exact). Oh, and the Anniversary Collection also includes Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, which is the October 2019 Game of the Month for the Cartridge Club! See, win-win.

Keep it spooky!
R

Nestlé Scary Chocolate Bars

Here we are on September 25th (as I write this) and I'll be brutally honest: the 2019 Halloween season has been a bit of a bust here in Canada.

I've been scouring department and grocery stores since probably late-August and there's just been dribs and drabs of Halloween-y goodness here and there, but zero knock-outs. Heck, although Wal-mart started their displays off a few weeks ago it was only over the last week that they got all their stuff out. For a few weeks it was just lying in the middle of the display section in boxes.

I don't ever expect to see as much cool stuff in the Great White North as you see in the US, but since August it seems like it's been a Halloween onslaught down there. I don't know how they're all keeping up.

To list a few of the hot items just off the top of my head (I can't attest to how long these links will exist):

• Mountain Dew VooDew
• Yankee Candle Oh-So-Spooky Halloween
• Michael's Ceramic Halloween Tree
• Zombie Skittles
• General Mills Monster Cereals
• Kool-Aid Ghoul-Aid Popping Candy
• Creepy Cocoa Crisp M&Ms

And this is by no means a comprehensive list!

I can usually rely on the Monster Cereals Count Chocula and Boo Berry to show up in stores around now, as well as Reese Puffs Peanut Butter Bats, but I've seen no sign of them yet! I did find some ghost listings on Walmart.ca the other day for the Monster Cereals, but nothing on the shelves yet.

As a side note: I recently tweeted excitedly about finding the Boo Berry listing, thinking that we haven't had that cereal up here since the 2014 Monster Cereal re-launch, but as it turns out, it's Franken Berry we haven't had up here yet, so I guess if we do get Boo Berry it would be status quo. I'm more of a Count Chocula guy either way.

I was letting it all get me down a bit, but it's time to get out of the funk and start celebrating what we are getting here in Canada and one of the coolest is, without a doubt, Nestlé Scary chocolate bars!

From what I can tell, this is a Canadian exclusive, which rarely happens, but isn't that shocking since Nestlé Canada is a huge presence for the Swiss owned corporation.

So, for the uninitiated, every year Nestlé re-brands its biggest sellers and dresses them up for Halloween. The four bars that get spooky costumes are:

• Aero as "ScAero"
• Smarties as "Scaries"
• Kit Kat which keeps its name, but adds a black cat to the wrapper
• Coffee Crisp as "Coffin Crisp"

(I can't believe I used two bullet point lists in one post!)

The names aren't just where it stops. Each of these chocolate bars gets a fancy new spooky wrapper to top the whole thing off.

These have actually been out for a few weeks, so this post is coming late, but at first I hadn't even considered writing about the Nestlé Scary bars, because they've really become table stakes in the last few years. I reflexively pick up one of each whenever they hit store shelves, enjoy them with a good horror movie (or four), and then I don't really look back! But that's criminal, because these are so awesome.

There's really nothing different about the contents inside the wrappers, with the exception of Scaries, which are all brown and orange instead of their usual multi-coloured candy coating.

They usually cost a bit of a premium. These days you would never pay more than a $1 for each of these bars, but because of the Halloween branding they're usually closer to $2. This year they actually have an 8-pack available, which makes them much more affordable.

They also come in fun sizes, perfect for giving out for Halloween treats! Here's the one spot that I think Nestlé falls down on this one, however. In my mind, they should re-brand all of their fun-sized bars with the Scary wrappers, but they don't. If you wanted to give out Scaries instead of Smarties, you'll pay a premium there, as well. It's only the most hardcore treat-giver that would spend the money to actually stock these for the ghosts and goblins that come for trick-or-treating.

So that's Nestlé Scary bars! Like I said, before this year I've taken these for granted, but no longer. I've got one of each waiting for me at home so that I can enjoy them throughout October. It may be the same old chocolate, but you slap Halloween on that sucker and you've got a buyer right here!

Now if only I could wash them down with some of that VooDew...

Cheers,
R

p.s. Big props to my homeboy Elmer Bludd for helping me prop up the bars for these pics

Halloween TV: Spooky Documentaries

Well, here we are folks! We're about shin-deep in the Halloween season. I'd say the true kick-off for most enthusiasts is September 1st or so and I know I started dipping my toes in even earlier than that in August, but with only a few days away from the true start of Fall, there's no denying it: Halloween is coming!

One of my favourite traditions around Halloween since I was a little kid was taking in the seasonal fare on television. Now, I don't just mean the usual suspects, like the cartoon specials, or the Halloween episodes of your favourite sitcoms. Channels like A&E or History used to be rife with Halloween or horror-related documentaries and biographies and this stuff was honestly where I cut my teeth on the macabre.

I could've easily just chosen five episodes of Biography for this list, but I tried to vary, and the following is a selection of five spooky documentaries for you to check out this Halloween season. They're guaranteed to overload your nostalgia and give you those creepy vibes you're searching for until October 31st!

Pagan Invasion: Halloween - Trick or Treat?

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I might as well get this one out of the way right now, because it's actually a big cheat! You see, to the best of my knowledge, this show has never aired on TV. If you had asked me a few years back, I would've sworn I saw this on Vision TV back in the day, but I can't find any proof of that. It does have a tenuous attachment to another program we'll talk about down the line, though.

Pagan Invasion was a 13-video series produced by Jeremiah Films in the early 1990s, which is a Christian company that intended to (and I quote), "promote patriotism, traditional values, and the Biblical worldview of [the] founding fathers". I presume the "founding fathers" refers to the United States, where Jeremiah Films is based.

The series tackled all sorts of the world's "evils", including evolution, paganism, and the occult, and of course they made sure to highlight one of the most nefarious issues attacking America in their premiere episode: Halloween.

This video is Satanic Panic at its prime, folks. It is an extremist view of how our culture is letting evil and Satan into our lives by practicing a dark and pagan ritual like Halloween. There's a segment on how horror movies is promoting copycat killers across America (I feel like I've heard this one before *cough* video games *cough cough*) and all sorts of footage of neo-paganists performing rituals in the woods, which they try to edit in such a way to make the whole thing look ominous and it just doesn't pan out. They even have an interview with a man who says that he was forced into Satanism as a child and that every Halloween night occultists the world over are out slaying babies and young children right under our noses.

It's a really heavy-handed attempt at taking a holiday that is about kids trick-or-treating, bobbing for apples, dressing up for fun, and having parades and twist its image into devil-worshipping for the purpose of fear-mongering.

So, why do I suggest it?

Well, it is absolutely laden with clips of old video rental shops, film media events with VHS tapes and posters, and awesome Halloween stores, with lavish costumes and amazing decorations, like die cut cardboard cutouts, blow molds, and signs.

You can have a good laugh at the low-rent CG production values and content, but at the same time enjoy the nostalgic ephemera trickled throughout and that checks a lot of boxes in my book!

The Haunted History of Halloween

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This one is a must-watch for me each year!

Initially released in 1997 for A&E, The Haunted History of Halloween is a really cool hour long doc that goes back 3000 years to Ireland and walks through the history of Halloween from its very beginnings to (relatively) where it is today.

I come from an Irish background and have studied some Gaelic, so I immediately find all this Celtic history fascinating, but I still think that this is for just about anyone that calls themselves a Halloween fanatic.

It breaks down a lot of the different celebrations of Halloween, like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, and wearing costumes and shows how these traditions were changed by the introduction of Catholicism and how they ultimately found their way to North America.

There's even a blurb where they mention Pagan Invasion! Maybe this is why I was sure I'd seen that special on TV before? It's brief, but you'll see it, and I wouldn't say they mention it in a positive light.

This special is loaded with great imagery, from spooky old paintings of the pagan Samhain, to stock footage of Halloweens past in America and everything in between. You're going to want to set aside some time to watch this one!

The lineage here is a little weird. As you can see by the DVD art above, this show is branded by the History Channel, but I know for fact that it aired on A&E initially. The only thing I can figure is they continued to air it on History or aired it on both channels (they're both owned by the same company). I've heard there is an updated version that came out in 2012, but I'd say just stick with the 97 version, so you get that nostalgic video vibe, to boot.

Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood

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This was a new-to-me title this year, but I'm so glad I found it and I just had to share.

You see, every year around this time I get really nostalgic for the old black and white Universal horror films from the 1930s and forward. I mentioned before that my obsession with the horror genre started with a lot of the content that A&E put out in the 1980s and 90s, like biographies on the actors Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi, and that lead me to their many films beginning with Lugosi's Dracula and Karloff's Frankenstein in 1931.

I get my fix for these films on Turner Classic Movies each October, when they drop a ton of classic horror movie content. The last few years, to spice things up, I've noticed they've been reaching into a different classic horror movie vault: Hammer Film Productions, a company which basically single-handedly revived gothic horror in the late-50s with their takes on the classic monsters Universal made famous 25 years earlier.

This 1987 BBC production titled Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood (oh, don't ya love it!?) takes a deep look into the humble beginnings of Hammer through their heyday and finally to their demise in the late-70s. It goes without saying (and yet here I am) that as this film was produced in '87, there's no mention of the revival of the company in '07.

The show focuses heavily on the biggest stars in Hammer's cadré - Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee - but it does feature a few films outside of their influence and I know I learned a lot about the company I hadn't known before.

So, if you're accustomed to Hammer's films there's some great insight here or if you've never seen a Hammer production here's your gateway! And it's loaded with footage from their many, many films that are perfect for this time of year. It is made for Halloween, even if it first aired in June!

Biography: Vincent Price - The Versatile Villain

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I had to have at least one episode of Biography in this list.

To keep things fresh, I decided to try and think of a horror icon that maybe doesn't get as much of the spotlight and I settled on the incomparable Vincent Price.

The honest truth regarding this pick, however, is that unlike someone like Karloff, Lugosi, or Lon Chaney Jr., whose careers were - for the most part - embedded in the horror genre, Vincent Price fell into the spooky movies over time. It's 20 minutes or so into the special before there's even mention of a horror film!

That said, you get such a candid look at Vincent Price in this show, which of course talks at length of his career in horror, that it is so worth the watch.

The special has all the accoutrements of a horror-themed Biography; the classic organ music (I'm sure Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is in there somewhere), the gothic set pieces, skeletons, bats, and monsters, oh my! So for Halloween, it does have you covered, but if you want something a little more mired in the macabre, you might want to settle on some of the names I dropped above. But why not spice things up? I mean, did you know Vincent Price appeared on Hollywood Squares 900 times!?

You're not going to find that just anywhere. You can thank me later.

Rivals: Frankenstein vs. Dracula

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I had to have one deep cut.

Rivals was a 1995 series produced by the newly minted Discovery Channel, which never shied away from great Halloween content back in the day. The show was hosted by veteran character actor, Gerald McRaney, and took a look at different rivals throughout history. I have to assume this particular episode aired during Halloween of '95, but I can't be sure without a TV guide handy.

Now, Discovery is a Canadian station and Rivals only aired late on Fridays and Saturdays, so it was a pretty short-lived affair that I'm sure not many people are aware of. I personally had no idea it existed and only ever found it while I was searching for new videos to watch about Karloff and Lugosi.

The show documents the careers of both actors from the very beginning, through their launch to stardom at Universal, and ultimately their deaths in the 70s and 80s. It definitely hams up their rivalry to some extent (which it kind of had to, I mean look at the title), but it does offer up some candid information on each of the veterans that I personally hadn't seen and thought was very interesting.

For a show that had nothing to do with horror outside of this one episode, they made the effort of dressing it up right. McRaney hams it up in a Dracula cape a few times and there's appropriately spooky music throughout. It just goes to show with just a little bit of effort you can add a little Halloween into anything!

And that's the whole point of this, right? Let's grab these few short weeks in Autumn before the craziness of Christmas settles in and enjoy the Halloween season. So, light your pumpkin candles, enjoy the cool weather, throw some fake spider webs on the windows, and let's do this!

Keep it spooky,
R

Halfway To Halloween 2019

That's right, May 1st (or April 30th, depending on how you look at it) marked the halfway mark between Halloween 2018 and Halloween 2019, so all of us horror junkies are starting to get that spooky feeling!

I wasn't really sure how to best mark the occasion this year, so I started to think of some fun things to do to drag Halloween kicking and screaming into the cool Spring breeze.

Here are my findings!

A Scary Halloween Movie

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There's no reason you have to wait until Halloween to enjoy some of your favourite freaky flicks. If you're a horror hound, like myself, then you've likely been watching horror movies all year anyway, but the focus here needs to be on the upcoming season. So while taking in your 57th viewing of A Nightmare on Elm Street might seem like a good idea (and on any other day it is, good on you) maybe try something more autumnal? Night of the Demons, perhaps? It's tied to the season, but not so much as, say, Trick 'r Treat or Halloween 1 and 2, which are probably best left for September or October.

I typically find myself mostly interested in classic movie monsters during the Halloween season, so I think to get me into that festive mood I'll be taking in Dracula or The Mummy this weekend.

The big thing here is to make sure you do you. Whatever movies make you wish you were stuffing your face with fun size candy bars and washing it down with a pumpkin spice latte are key, even if it's Hocus Pocus.

Video Games Featuring Classic Monsters

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I'll admit this one is a little more personal, but I've definitely noticed a correlation between horror movies fans and video gamers. I think it's a timing thing. If you can name a kid that didn't have a Nintendo or Sega hooked up to their TV at the same time they were pushing scary movies into their VCRs, I think they're in the minority.

For me, horror-themed video games are an essential piece to the Halloween puzzle. September and October are usually the months that I take in my yearly playthrough of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Resident Evil, for instance.

These days horror games abound, but much like those classic creature flicks I crave around Halloween, I find myself thirsting (see what I did there?) for old chilling NES games during Halfway to Halloween. I think this year I'll play some Monster Party. It is chock-full of awesome little horror tidbits and crazy monster designs. I mean look at the cover art. It absolutely screams Halloween! That would be my kinda party!

Spooky Snacks

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It's kind of tough to get your hands on Halloween candy in May, unless your local pharmacy is just exceedingly bad and clearing off their holiday shelves, but you don't need bite size Mars bars to get that Halloween spirit.

Pumpkin spice may still be lying in wait for Autumn, but for me anything green, orange, or black can set the scene. Maybe some black tortilla chips and guac with orange soda? Too much? NEVER.

Heck, all it takes for me is breaking out the finest Halloween dinnerware and firing those everyday chips into a big orange bowl. Sometimes it's the little things, guys!

Halloween Decorations

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This one is a little out there, but bear with me. One great way to get in the Halloween mood is the simplest: dig up (I kill me) some of your favourite decs!

Now, don't go too overboard here. Maybe just one of your spookiest and simplest pieces will do the trick. For me, I almost always have a little skull candle-holder on my desk, so that can do the trick (or treat), but I might break out a light-up jack-o-lantern, just for the night. If you over-do it you'll find yourself getting sick of Halloween and no one wants that (if it's even really possibly, I have my doubts).

So that's it! If you're celebrating Halfway to Halloween this weekend, let me know in the comments or on Twitter how you're marking the occasion!

Happy (Halfway to) Halloween!
R

p.s. I noticed the typo, too, but I don't have my laptop with Photoshop handy, so it stands... for now. Consider it an Easter egg!

p.p.s Nothing to see here. Move along...