For the past twenty-seven years, one of my annual Halloween watches is the little known horror comedy The Midnight Hour. It first aired on ABC on November 1, 1985 (Yep, one day after Halloween and two days after Garfield's Halloween Adventure aired on CBS) when I was a four-year-old. At the time my parents and I lived in a two-story farmhouse in the country (which was also haunted) and my parents recorded it onto a VHS tape. I would pester my mother into letting me watch The Midnight Hour, even though The Elf would always freak me out.

The Midnight Hour is set on Halloween in the small town of  Pitchford Cove, New England. Five high school seniors, Phil (Lee Montgomery), Mary (Dedee Pfeiffer), Mitch (Peter DeLuise), Vinnie (LeVar Burton), and Melissa (Shari Belafonte), break into the town's museum. They steal (or should I saw "borrow") a few costumes and an old trunk. They open the trunk at the local cemetery, in which they find a mysterious scroll. Melissa reads the scroll aloud, unleashing a horrible curse.

A few minutes after the kids leave the cemetery, the undead rise from their graves. The undead's leader is Melissa's own ancestor, Lucinda Cavender, who was put to death over 300 hundred years ago for being a vampire.

Trick 'r Treat
Director: Michael Dougherty
Starring: Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Quinn Lord
Studio: Warner Home Video
ASIN: B002LMSWN2
Release Date: October 6, 2009
Running Time: 82 minutes
Rated R for horror violence, some sexuality/nudity, and language

Annually, my local Walmart sets out a few horror/Halloween themed movies. It's not even October and this year’s Halloween DVDs/Blu-Rays are already out, in which the majority of them are a mixed bag of good and bad treats. I already own all the good ones and a few that I don't are not my style, but I did pick up Trick ‘r Treat only because Anna Paquin was on the back cover.

Trick 'r Treat was released to one theater in December 2007 followed by a handful of screens in 2008 and 2009, mostly at festivals. The movie was finally released to DVD on October 6, 2009 and received mostly good reviews to the small amount of critics who viewed it.

In this anthology in the style of the Creepshow, a short trick-treater, Sam, wearing a worn-out orange pajamas with a burlap sack over his head, keeps popping throughout the movie. Emma (played by Leslie Bibb) and Henry are the couple that opens up the movie. Henry loves the holiday and has over-decorated their yard with ghost-scarecrows. She demands that he cleans up everything on Halloween night, but he says he'll get to it tomorrow, which she knows he is a lying. He goes inside the house while Emma begins to take down the scarecrows and comes face to face with horror.

Charlie a trick-or-treater stops by Principle Wilkins house and steals a few pieces of Halloween candy that was on the front porch, but he is in for a shock when the candy turns out to be poisoned. It seems that Principle Wilkins drags Charlie's lifeless body inside. Later that night, he digs a hole in the backyard and tosses Charlie on top of another corpse. He is in a hurry to get the bodies covered up, help out his son carve a unique jack-o-lantern, and get ready for his date.

4 Movie Collection: Hollow Man/ Hollow Man 2/ Fortress 2/ The Harvest
Directors: Paul Verhoeven; Claudio Fäh; Geoff Murphy; David Marconi
Starring: Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Peter Facinelli, Laura Regan
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment 
ASIN: B008XAT0OG
Release Date: October 9, 2012
Running Time: 394 minutes
Rated R

Review:

I've always been a fan of The Invisible Man film series that blended horror and science fiction together. Tower PR and Mill Creek Entertainment kindly sent me a complementary copy of the two discs movie collection, containing Hollow Man, Hollow Man 2, Fortress 2, and The Harvest, for me to review.

Hollow Man is an updated version of The Invisible Man that was released back in 2000. Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, a scientist, who has created a serum that can turn a gorilla invisible, but now he wants to experiment on himself despite the objections of his ex-girlfriend Dr. Linda McKay (played by Elizabeth Shue)and her boyfriend Dr. Matt Kensington (played by Josh Brolin). Within days, Sebastian starts to go mad with his new power of invisibility. At first he is just pranking his fellow colleagues, but then he starts killing them one by one.

I saw Hollow Man when if first came out and now again on DVD. It's not as bad as other reviewers have claimed it to be. Yes, the characters are not well developed, but horror movies never have much character depth. Even twelve years later, the special effects are pretty amazing.

Three months after the worldwide zombie outbreak that wiped 99.9% of the population, a small group of British survivors are trying to survive. They have heard that there is a ship at sea that is taking the remaining survivors to safety. The group is lead by Maddox (played by Philip Brodie) whom has just taken in a few more survivors at the beachside compound, which includes the sole survivor of the first movie's film crew, Leanne, (played by Alix Wilton Regan who is replacing Victoria Summer). Before long the zombies invade the compound causing Maddox, Leanne, Jonesy, who is constantly filming with his camera, and a few others to runaway.

With no vehicles, they run on foot looking for any place for shelter. Eventually they come across some booby-traps and the remains of headless zombies in a wooded area. The carefully survey a cabin from a distance where a group of human bandits are watching another man sexually assault a female zombie. The deadly Goke (played by Russell Jones) comes out of the cabin and murders the man. That is when Leanne recognizes Goke and his henchman Manny as she had encountered them in the first movie.

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare
Director: John Hough
Starring: Romy Windsor, Michael T. Weiss, Antony Hamilton, Susanne Severeid, Lamya Derval
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
ASIN: B00023BM4S
Release Date: June 15, 2004
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Rated R 

Unlike the previous films in the series, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare was released to direct-to-video (aka VHS) in 1988, originally released by Warner Bros., but Echo Bridge Home Entertainment now owns the rights to it.

I've only seen a handful of the Howling movies out of the eight movies that have been made so far, the last one, Howling Reborn, came out last year. I recall seeing this movie advertise on a local channel in the early 90s and of course my mom let me watch it probably just so I would stop pestering her about it. The movie had commercials, so naturally it would be edited for broadcast television. For the actually movie, I only remember bits and pieces of it until I finally bought the DVD a few months ago for only five dollars.

For anyone who has actually read Gary Brandner's The Howling novel, you'll know that the first movie barely went by it, but Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is the only movie that almost completely goes by the book except that the names have been changed and there is no rapist in it. The film was made for fewer than two-million dollars. It won the 1988 Golden Chainsaw award for Best Direct-to-Video Feature from Fangoria, but it received mostly negative reviews from fans due to the small amount of time the werewolves appeared.

Giveaway Details:

Pumpkin Madness 

by Melissa Stagi-Zepeda

Mommy Bear Media is giving away a Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Combo Pack, which would make the perfect Christmas Gift! They are also giving away ten $5.00 gift codes. Remember shipping is always free!

To enter visit http://www.mommybearmedia.com/blog/news/enter-win-20-5-gift-codes-mommybearmedia-com#a_aid=coffeeramblings

Question of the week: What are three of your favorite book blogs and/or communities?  Why do you like them?

My Answer: 1. Shelfari - I have all the books I own on there. I love the shelf widgets that I can display on my blog. 2. GoodReads - a great book community. It also has giveaways you can enter to get free books. 3. Book Blog Ning is a community for book blog reviewers. I have made several publisher/agent contacts from there. 

During the late 1980s to the middle 1990s, the horror genre was very popular in the middle grade and young adult market, many thanks to Point Horror, but there where other publishers that released horror books as well. Archway Paperbacks tried to release a new series titled "Tombstones", but only two books were brought out in 1995.

Jared Irving is determined to find out if the Full Moon Enterprises is dumping toxins into the local streams in Tombstones: The Last Drop. The Full Moon Enterprises is breaking federal laws by using deadly chemicals, but the town people seem to ignore it, or they just don't want to believe it as the company has brought in many new jobs for the area.

While getting samples at a nearby stream, Jared meets a creature of the night and it will be the last thing that he will ever see.

Killer's Law
By L. Ron Hubbard
Directed by Jim Meskimen and Tait Ruppert
Voice Cast: Jennifer Darling, Brooke Bloom, Corey Burton, Bob Caso, R.F. Daley, John Mariano, Jim Meskimen, Enn Reitel, Richard Rocco and Tait Ruppert
Studio: Galaxy Press
ISBN-13: 978-1592122769
Release Date: October 22, 2012
Running Time: Approx. 2 hours

Review:

The 1930s and 1940s were known as the golden age, a time when many unknown writers published their work in Pulp Fiction magazines as they were paid around a penny a word. Unlike the higher-class magazines that were printed on glossy paper with higher production values, pulp magazines were published on cheap brown pulp paper and featured adventures, science fiction tales, mysteries, and many other stories.

Galaxy Press has been releasing the short stories written by author L. Ron Hubbard that were published during the golden age under the Stories of a Golden Age line of paperbacks and audiobooks. They nicely sent me a free audiobook of the "Killer's Law" for this review.

"Killer's Law" was originally published in the September 1947 issue of New Detective Magazine, where Sheriff Kyle travels from Deadeye, Nevada to Washington D.C. to personally deliver evidence against a rich copper king to Senator Meringue. Suddenly, Kyle is knocked unconscious. When he awakes he is surrounded by policemen asking questions and reporters snapping pictures. It seems that the Senator was murdered and Kyle is holding the murder weapon.

Grave Doubts is simply one of my favorite books from my childhood as it has always stuck in my mind after almost twenty-years later. I recall ordering many books from the Scholastic flyers when I was an elementary student. I was in the sixth grade (aka - the year I got glasses) when I read Grave Doubts during study hall.

In book three of the Shockers series, Matt Howard had blocked out the murder of his older sister, Penny, for ten years, but now those unwanted memories have resurfaced. A family friend, Mr. Ciprelli or known as Uncle Joey, went to a mental hospital shortly after Penny's brutal murder, but he has now returned and is moving into the house next door. Matt finds the man to be very odd as he is always watching him.

Matt doesn't have many memories about his sister, except for what people have told him about her. It seems that Penny was the perfect daughter and student. Matt gets into trouble at home and at school. He is told constantly from his parents and teachers that he was nothing like Penny and that she shouldn't have been the one to die.

The Way of Oz: A Guide to Wisdom, Heart, and Courage
By Robert Y. Smith
Illustrations by Dusty Higgins
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
ISBN: 978-0896727403
Pub. Date: September 1, 2012
Pages: 288

Review: 

It seems there is a new self-help book being released every week that is suppose to magically change your life if you buy it. I am one of those people that fell into the hype, but I have found the majority of the books offer nothing new, just common sense that every human being already knows.

Even though I wasn't in the mood to read another so-called self-help, I went ahead and signed up to review The Way of Oz: A Guide to Wisdom, Heart, and Courage by Robert Y. Smith, only because it showed Dorothy, Toto, Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow walking on the yellow brick road toward the Emerald City.

Author Robert Y. Smith shows how you can learn about life lessons through the original L. Frank Braum's fourteen Oz children books, which teaches kids to read, write, and communicate with others. The first two chapters is a biography of L. Frank Braum and the Oz books. The author then focuses on the characters and plots from the books and how they can be applied to our daily lives.

I've been a zombie fan ever since I saw Night of the Living Dead on Monstervision back in the 1990s. Since then I have watched about every zombie flick that has came out. Recently, I started watching the hit undead series The Walking Dead.

When I got an opportunity to review a zombie t-shirt, I took it as I have never owned any Zombie survival gear before. Brain Eating Tees nicely sent me an XL men's black standard Zombie Kills tee. Shipping was extremely fast as I received the tee in only a few days. It seems that the XL shirts in the stores are not wide-enough in the shoulders for me for me anymore, but this tee fit perfectly.

Halloween is only a week away and the Zombie Kills tee would make the perfect costume for someone who hates to wear costumes. Or you can show off your new tee in front of your pals when you're watching The Walking Dead.

Wes Craven Presents: Dracula III: Legacy
Director: Patrick Lussier
Starring: Jason Scott Lee, Jason London, Rutger Hauer, Diane Neal
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
ASIN: B004P7CNMC
DVD Release Date: April 26, 2011
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated R for Vampire Violence, Language and Nudity


Taking place five years after the dreadful Dracula II: Ascension, Luke (played by Jason London) and Father Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee) find the whereabouts of Dracula (played by Rutger Hauer). The vampire has returned to his castle in Carpathian Mountains and has brought Elizabeth (played by Diane Neal), Luke's girlfriend, with him.

Luke and Father Uffizi travel to Romania, where the people there are in a Civil War, so the cities look like a war zone. They find a reporter and her cameraman that had barely survived a helicopter explosion. They must battle local rebels and vampires to find their way to Dracula's castle, where Luke finds out that Elizabeth is now a creature of the night.

A serial killer known as "The Hinsdale Slasher" has been terrorizing a small Midwestern town. Holly Brand learns that Graham is actually the killer and he has kidnapped her best-friend Zakiya. With the help of her aunt, Police Chief Debra Dorn, Holly finds out where Graham has taken Zakiya, but this killer is not what meets the eye. He is actually a werewolf!

Holly becomes a hero and a media sensation after she kills "The Hinsdale Slasher", but only her aunt and best-friend know that he was in fact a werewolf. Suddenly, the ordinary teenager's, Holly, life is completely changed. All the media reporters wants her to do an exclusive interview and the poplar boys want to date her, including the star high school football player, Jeff.

She gets nominated to be the Midwinter Dance Queen, which upsets a popular girl, Gina, who wants revenge!

Slaughter
Director: Stewart Hopewell
Written By:  Stewart Hopewell
Starring:  Lucy Holt, Amy Shiels, David Sterne
Studio: Liongates
ASIN: B001P9N9A8
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Running Time: 96 minutes
Rated R for Disturbing Violent Content, Language and Some Sexuality


Slaughter was released to theaters back in 2009 as part of the After Dark Horrorfest III (aka 8 Films to Die For). As of writing this review, it is only the second After Dark movie I have viewed.

The film opens up with a twenty-something Faith (played Amy Shiels) arriving in Atlanta and leaving her small town life, her horrible mother, and her abusive ex-boyfriend. At a nightclub, she meets a twenty-something Lola (played by Lucy Holt), who is care-free type person. They chat and exchange numbers.

Just as Faith starts to adjust to the city life, she receives dozens of hateful emails from her ex-boyfriend. Not having anyone to turn to, she befriends Lola, who lives outside of Atlanta on her family farm with her father and brothers. Faith moves out of the city after she recognizes her ex's truck parked near her apartment and she ends up living with Lola in the upstairs part of the barn that has been turned into an apartment.

Lola lives a wild life; letting rich older men buy her stuff in exchange for a one night stand. The men are always gone by the time Faith gets up in the morning, but then she notices strange things. One of the men left his watch behind and Faith finds a set of car keys in the weeds.

Hostel/ Hostel Part II/ The Tattooist/ The Hunt for the BTK Killer
Directors: Eli Roth, Peter Burger, Stephen Kay
Starring: Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Lauren German, Heather Matarazzo, Jordan Ladd
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
ASIN: B008R5SYEY
Release Date: October 9th, 2012
Run Time: 371 minutes
Rated: R
Buy Link: Amazon.com


With Halloween just days away, there's nothing better than watching horror movies, which are constantly being aired on cable channels, but most of them are edited for content. Mill Creek Entertainment recently released four shocking horror films onto a two-discs set. Tower PR and Mill Creek Entertainment kindly sent me a complementary copy to review. This pack contains the splatter-fest Hostel (2006) and its sequel Hostel II (2007), along with The Tattooist (2007) and The Hunt for the BTK Killer (2005).

Hostel starts out as a typical college vacation trip film, where Josh, Paxton, and their new friend Óli just want to have a good time. They get a tip that there are 'easy' beautiful women in Bratislava and of course they go. Things seem normal as they meet three women who seduce them, but they have no idea of what horrors await them.

Hostel is not for the weak-hearted! It, along with the Saw movies, created what is known as the "torture porn" genre. The first half is more-or-less a raunchy comedy, but then after a few twists and turns, the mayhem begins. It is sick to think that there might be rich powerful people that want to torture and kill a person. The movie is well acted and the last thirty-minutes is intense, but it is also twisted.

The Mammoth Book Slasher Movies 
An A-Z Guide to More than 60 Years of Blood and Guts
By Peter Normanton
Publisher: Running Press
ISBN: 978-0762445967
Pub. Date: October 23, 2012
Pages: 512
Buy Link: The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies

For twenty-three years, I have been a diehard horror fan ever since my grandma let me watch the horror classic John Carpenter's Halloween. It was the censored version that aired on network television, but it was my first introduction to the horror genre. Of course I was excited when I learned that Running Press was releasing a new book about slasher films. Running Press nicely sent me an advanced review copy earlier this month in exchange for this review.

Author and Editor Peter Normanton compiled the best slasher movie from 1916 to 2011 into one nifty guide for horror fans, starting with 28 Days Later and ending with Zombie Flesh Eaters. You might be thinking “Why is there zombie movies listed in a slasher book?” as that was the exact question that popped into my mind when I began reading it. The tagline on the front cover does say "An A-Z Guide to More Than 60 Years of Blood and Guts," and the back cover does mention that book contains more than 250 slasher and splatter movies. So that explains the zombie flicks, such as Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead and a few others.

"Blood on the Walls" opens up the mammoth book and gives a history lesson on horror cinema throughout the years, followed by an A-Z listing of each movie containing a synopsis and several facts about the movie.

The movies listed are:

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Director: Dwight H. Little
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, Michael Pataki
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
ASIN: B000FA57UI
Release Date: July 25, 2006
Running Time: 88 minutes
Rated R

I originally saw Halloween 4 when I rented it and the fifth movie a few weeks before The Curse of Michael Myers came out to VHS. I only had basic cable as a kid, and Halloween 4 & 5 never aired on any of the channels. The first thing I noticed was the horrible cheap looking mask. You would think Moustapha Akkad would want a decent looking mask, but I guess they ran out of money for it. All the VHS covers and DVD covers have Michael wearing the 1978 mask, so it can be a little misleading.

After the box-office bomb called Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the franchise took a six year break, coming back in 1988 with Michael Myers surviving the explosion at the end of Halloween II. For the past ten years, he has been in a coma at a sanitarium. Without Dr. Loomis's approval, Michael is being transferred to another hospital by an ambulance. He awakes from the coma and kills the paramedics.

Dr. Loomis arrives at the crime scene on Halloween morning. After a quick glance he knew that Michael is alive. On his way to Haddonfield, Illinois, he stops by a gas station/diner where he finds two corpses and Michael, now dressed  in a mechanic's clothes. Dr. Loomis pulls out his gun, but it is too late as Michael has escaped in a tow-truck, causing a fire that explodes Loomis's car and the gas station/diner.

Eight-year-old Jamie Lloyd is still grieving over the death of her parents, whom died in a car accident. She continues to live in Haddonfield with her foster family, the Carruthers. On Halloween night, Jamie's foster parents are spending the night out and Jamie's foster-sister Rachel is going to take her (dressed in a clown costume) trick-or-treating for the night, even though Rachel is going to miss her date with her boyfriend. The girls are unaware that they are being watched by the bogeyman!

Q: 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Goosebumps! Why do you think Goosebumps has endured for twenty years?
A: I am totally amazed by this. I feel so privileged to be able to scare so many generations of kids. I think the series continues because everyone likes a good scare.

Q: What inspired you to call the series Goosebumps?
A: I was stumped. I couldn’t think of a name for the series. Then I saw an ad for a TV station that was showing horror movies. The ad said, “It’s Goosebumps week on Channel 11.” There it was! I knew that had to be the title.

Q: You returned to Goosebumps in 2008 after an eight-year break. What inspired you to go back to Goosebumps?
A: My readers! Everywhere I went kids asked me: When are you going to write new Goosebumps books? I always listen to my readers. So now I'm having fun writing more books for Scholastic.

Q: What is the most surprising thing that has happened to you in the last twenty years as a result of the popularity of Goosebumps?
A: Everything that has happened to me has been amazing and surprising. I got the chance to do things that Idreamed of when I was a kid: I got to travel around the world; I had my own Goosebumps attraction at DisneyWorld; I’ve been on TV and had three TV series. I got to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium (actually I let my son do that). I met some of my all-time heroes, including Ray Bradbury. But the biggest thrill was and continues to be meeting and hearing from so many kids who enjoy my books.

Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask
By R. L. Stine
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 9780545417938
Pub. Date: July 1, 2012
Pages: 240

A few months ago R. L. Stine released a new book, Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask, in a rare hardback edition. The new sequel doesn't include the characters of Carly Beth and Sabrina, but focuses on two new kids, Lu-Ann Franklin and Devin O'Bannon.

The books begins at William's Mask Emporium, in which the owner and his dog, Hansel, get a late night visitor - his brother, Randolph, who happens to brought along a few creepy masks that were made from human flesh. William recognizes that the masks are nothing but pure evil. He plans on destroying the masks, but the masks may get him first.

The plot jumps forty years into the future, where twelve-year-old Lu-Ann and her friend Devin are dreading the upcoming annual Halloween party that is being hosted by their classmate Polly Martin. Every year the party gets more boring and if Lu-Ann has to attend, she is going to make it a frightening evening by pulling some pranks with her best-friend Devin. Her plan changes when she learns that Devin can't come to the party. She attends the party anyway and talks two other friends, Marcus and Brad, into following her to Polly's Attic while the other kids played a silly balloon game. They hear an unknown voice coming from a closet - a half skeleton, half human corpse holding the green haunted mask falls out of the closet when Lu-Ann yanked it open. It was the ugliest mask that Lu-Ann had ever seen and it would make the perfect prank, but once she slips the mask on, the mask becomes part of her flesh.