Collectible of the Week: Mad Scientist Dissect-an-Alien Kit (Mattel; 1986)

This Mattel toy from 1986 was my son Joel's toy "pick" from The Mad Monster Party in Uptown Charlotte last weekend.  

His eyes fell-upon this vintage toy, and he knew he had to have it.  

And what's more, he knew his Dad would purchase it for him...

This strange 1980s-era toy encourages the intrepid young scientist to "yank out alien organs dripping in glowing ALIEN BLOOD!"  

The Mad Scientist Dissect-An-Alien Kit box also relates that inside the alien body there are "12 body organs" and "only one way they'll fit together."  In other words, "it's the slimiest puzzle on Earth."

The bug-eyed scientist featured on the box also opines "Yeech! What an oozy operation! Can you make all the organs fit inside the alien?" 

You know, it's actually much harder than it looks...

The Mad Scientist Dissect-an-Alien Kit includes: "alien, 12 alien organs, Glow-in-the-dark Alien Blood compound, plastic scalpel, Operating Mat, Alien body bag, and a Journal of Mad Experiments with Instructions."

The interesting thing about the Operating Mat is that the colorful background names all twelve of the alien's unusual organs.  

You've got the "veinausea," "heartipus," "liverot," "spleenius," "mad bladder," "stumuckus," "blooblob," "fleshonius," "branium," "gutball" and "lungross." 

The toy also comes replete with a short comic-book describing the scientist's discovery of the alien creature.

Joel and I have played with the toy a couple of times already (after washing it off, because, in my wife's words, it was "mega-sticky") and the best part, after inserting all the organs, is bandaging up the poor old alien with a giant plastic band-aid.  It's ouchless.

Mattel, the makers of the Mad Scientist Dissect-an-Alien Kit also released (and sold separately) some Alien Blood Monster Kits ("Squeeze Em! Alien blood oozes from their eyes, mouth or nose!")

Now where am I can going to find those for Joel?!

Hatched from a Mutual Zygote: Piggyback Spaceships

Starman TV series lands on DVD in one week...

Yesterday, I announced the impending arrival of a 1970s cult-tv series, Ghost Story,  on DVD and today I want to remind sci-fi fans that Starman: The Complete Series lands in the same format on April 3rd.  

Based on the 1984 film from  director John Carpenter and starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen, the TV spin-off of Starman starred Robert Hays as the titular alien.  His son, Scott, was played by Christopher Daniel Barnes, and Erin Gray assumed Allen's role of Jenny Hayden for a special two-part episode entitled "Starscape."

Starman aired on ABC in 1986 and 1987 for twenty-two episodes, and was a series squarely in the familiar mold of The Fugitive (1963 - 1967), The Incredible Hulk (1978 - 1981) or even The Phoenix (1982).

In other words, our heroes were on the run from a hapless/dogged pursuer, in this case government agent George Fox (Michael Cavanaugh), and each week Starman and his son would interface with normal Americans in need of help as they attempted to remain free.  In search of Jenny Hayden, Starman would not only help people in need with his unearthly powers, he also learned more of what it meant to be a human being.

I have not seen this TV series in 25 years, but I remember two things about it.  First, the format was absolutely uninspiring, as were the individual stories.  The science-fiction elements were pretty minimal, and the "man on the run" elements were primary.

But beyond that, the Starman series possessed an almost magical sweetness in terms of how it played, particularly in terms of Hays' central performance.   I remember liking the show quite a bit, even though I hated to see yet another genre program in The Fugitive mode.  I definitely look forward to seeing the series again after a quarter century.

Here's the link to buy Starman: The Complete Series on Amazon.

The Horror Lexicon #7: This Boy's Bedroom

Beginning perhaps in the late 1970s, many horror filmmakers began charting a new domain important to the horror film: the suburban child's bedroom.  

In films and TV-movies such as Salem's Lot (1979), The Funhouse (1981), Creepshow (1982), Poltergeist (1982), Gremlins (1984), The Stuff (1985), Invaders from Mars (1986), Neon Maniacs (1987), The Lost Boys (1987) and The Monster Squad (1987), movie brat nostalgia, product placement, and production-design combined to create a perfect storm in terms of this familiar setting.

Suddenly, a teenage or pre-adolescent child's bedroom carried a whole new resonance. This domain now reflected the director's (and audience's?) love of movie monster/horror movie history, as we can see prominently in the works of Tobe Hooper, Joe Dante or George Romero.  Because these directors love monsters and horror movies so much, they champion them in their films, showcasing how the genre possesses moral (and survival) value.

In Hooper's Salem's Lot, a love of magic and monsters is important, because that's the "training" by which you detect the real vampire in your midst.  When  Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin) is visited in his bedroom by friends transformed into menacing vampires, he knows what they are and that he is in danger.  The reason why he survives, explicitly, is his love of horror, and that love is reflected in the production design of his bedroom.

Similarly, in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) utilizes his love of monsters and even his talent making monster masks to put (a temporary) end to the monster Jason.  In this situation, once more, the love of horror is the factor that saves and protects lives.

In Romero's Creepshow, a little boy reads a comic-book (that his father does not approve of), in his bedroom, and he ultimately gets revenge on his Dad for being so cruel.

There's a point to all this.  For the movie brat generation, parents did not always understand or approve of a love of the horror genre.  In fact, kids who liked horror were teased and mocked not just by parents, but by classmates too.   So this isn't merely homage to E.C. Comics or Aurora Models. It goes deeper than that.  By featuring these bedrooms in these films -- bedrooms filled with monster posters or models -- the directors are making a point that horror is in fact normal, and possesses value. The unjust or villainous are punished here, and those who "know" horror also realize how to survive because of their "training" in the genre.

The production-design dictating the shape of "this boy's bedroom" is important for another reason too:   The media's understanding and application of advertising techniques.

Specifically, toys from popular movies or television series (such as Star Wars) began appearing in prominent genre films in the 1980s; ones that, like Star Wars, guaranteed big, devoted audiences.  Return of the Jedi (1983) bed covers appeared in The Stuff, and Star Wars figures and spaceships appeared in Poltergeist (along with Milton Bradley's Big Trak).  

Accordingly, fans of horror films and non-horror films such as E.T. became, like me, life-long collectors of toys, models, trading cards and other movie/tv-related goodies. I must wonder if, in part, this is specifically so because of these films, and the product-placement that appeared in them so frequently.  

When I first watched Poltergeist or Gremlins, I knew what I wanted my bedroom (and now my home office...) to look like.  This idea was recently resurrected in J.J. Abrams' Super 8 (2011), which also charted a late 1970s/early 1980s bedroom, replete with models, toys, posters and board games.  These pop culture items are not just period details, they generate nostalgia.  I played with those trading cards!  I had that model kit, and so forth...

More satirically, the notion of product placement run amok was commented upon in Tom Holland's extraordinary horror film Child's Play (1988), which saw a little boy menaced by the very Good Guys toys he loved. Here, your favorite franchise -- down to the sugary Good Guys cereal, I suppose -- could kill ya!

In terms of narrative or thematic utility, the bedroom of a child is a pretty important location in a horror film.  When we go to sleep, we are all vulnerable.  Poltergeist, Child's Play and Gremlins all play on this conceit, whether with clown dolls, evil Good Guy dolls, or monster eggs.


When we sleep, we can't defend ourselves, and so "This Boy's Bedroom" is the very place where children feel most ill at ease.  They are alone.  Their parents are away.  The room is dark.  When the bedroom is invaded, terror  blossoms.   The bedroom is the gateway to dreams -- and nightmares -- so it makes perfect sense that many horror films feature scenes set in this domain.  The bedroom is the last conscious sanctuary we have before monsters can enter our (unconscious) minds and threaten us.  Hoopers' Invaders from Mars (1986) makes a lot of this fact, and the film's horror plays out, specifically, in the (mental) span between bedtime and morning.

This Boy's Bedroom is the place where we face the monster, the place where we surround ourselves with the tools for defeating the monster, the realm that showcases nostalgia for youth and the "monsters" we grew up with, and even, finally, a venue for selling us very expensive toys.  It's hard to make a horror movie featuring kids without at least scene set in this important, and multi-faceted setting.
  

Cult-TV Flashback #151: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: "The Guardians" (January 29, 1981)

The second season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is not generally high-regarded among fans. In its sophomore sortie, the Glen Larson series eliminated the characters of Dr. Huer, Dr. Theopolis and the Draconians, downplayed Buck’s (Gil Gerard) strong sense of fish-out-of-water humor, and moved Buck from sexy secret agent work on Earth to a deep space assignment aboard the Earth ship Searcher. These format changes cast the new Buck Rogers rather firmly in the mold of Star Trek or Space: 1999 with the new series acting as a vehicle for “civilization of the week” stories. 

In that particular format, success or failure rests largely on how well interesting and likable main characters interact with intriguing or convincing alien cultures. The Fantastic Journey (1977), for example, got the former aspect of that alchemy right (the likable main characters), but had a difficult time coming up with good stories, and original alien cultures to explore. In broad terms, this was the very problem with the second season of Buck Rogers. Episodes that involved mischievous dwarves, (“Shgoratchx!), or backwards-aging men spray-painted gold (“The Golden Man”) failed to impress or persuade either mainstream audiences or die-hard sci-fi fans. Some second season episodes were better, including the dynamic “The Satyr” (reviewed here), a show that pinpointed a great “alien” metaphor for alcoholism and its impact on families. 

The subject of this cult-tv flashback, “The Guardians” may not work as effectively as “The Satyr” on a metaphorical level, but I still estimate it’s one of the best episodes of Buck Rogers’ second season, in part because it deploys a tried-and-true Star Trek technique for better developing the dramatis personae.

On Star Trek, an alien disease or weapon was often utilized to examine emotional aspects of the characters that they normally keep hidden. “The Naked Time” or “The Naked Now” are two such notable examples.  In those episodes, a disease that mimicked alcohol intoxication “exposed” the underneath characteristics of our favorite Starfleet officers. The character revelations were sometimes funny, sometimes extremely moving. 

That general idea informs “The Guardians,” only an alien artifact is the catalyst for the character reveals.

Here, Buck and his new friend Hawk (Thom Christopher) investigate a “Terra Class satellite.” Although the exploration of the planet is supposedly “strictly routine,” Buck and Hawk soon hear a distant bell ringing over the wind's howl. They follow the noise and discover that the bell tolls for Janovus XXVI, an old man now on his death bed. This ancient “Guardian” informs Buck that he has been waiting for Captain Rogers for over five hundred years. Now, he must pass on to Buck – “The Chosen One,” an ancient green Pandora’s Box. This jade artifact must be transported to the old man’s unnamed successor and only a person of both “the past and the present” (like Buck) can get it to its destination successfully. 

That night, Buck sleeps in proximity to the jade box and dreams of his life on Earth. In particular, he experiences a vision of his mother, one from the eve of his disastrous mission on Ranger 3. After the box is brought back to the Searcher, it begins to have strangely deleterious effects on the ship and crew. The ship inexplicably goes off course and makes a setting for the edge of the galaxy.

 This trajectory especially concerns Lt. Devlin (Paul Carr), since he is due to be married on Lambda Colony in only a few days. 

When Admiral Asimov (Jay Garner) is exposed to the box, he imagines his crew…starving to death on the long journey in the void from the edge of the galaxy to Lambda. When Wilma (Erin Gray) is affected by the box, she sees herself as a hopeless blind woman wandering the corridors of Searcher alone. Then, in a matter of an hour, Wilma is blinded in real life, and realizes her vision was prophetic. Even Hawk is affected, and he experiences an emotional moment with his dead mate, Koori (Barbara Luna). 

As the Searcher reaches the edge of the galaxy, Buck realizes the box must be passed on to a Guardian, a “saintly figure” seen throughout many cultures and on many worlds. When a Guardian does not possess the box, chaos ensues, and that sense of chaos explains a lot of Earth’s violent history. Buck realizes that the Time Guardian is the very one that they now must seek… 

By and large, Buck Rogers is a pretty light show, a fact which distinguishes it from the original Battlestar Galactica or Space: 1999. There’s often a great deal of humor on Buck, and a tremendous amount of physical action too. In some sense, “The Guardian” showcases how the series could have approached more serious sci-fi storytelling.

 This episode is not without flaws (and the ending looks cheap...), but the crew member visions of people starving to death and going blind are authentically disturbing. I remember watching the program for the first time in 1981 and feeling pretty jolted by Asimov’s vision of a crew dying from hunger…and looking like zombies.  This moment resonates, and is probably the strongest in the show, despite the fact that Gil Gerard, in the vision, hardly looks emaciated...

"The Guardian" also delves into some pretty dark territory regarding erstwhile Lt. Devlin. While Searcher is lost and heading to the edge of the galaxy, he learns that his fiancé on Lambda Colony has died.  She was killed while out searching for him and his lost ship. Again, this bit of drama is just a bit darker than the typical Buck Rogers show, and here it all works well.  A sense of panic and anxiety builds up as "The Guardian" reaches it final act.  

Frankly, the writing for the main characters here is also amongst the best in the series' second season. We learn how heavily Asimov carries the burden of command (imagining a future of starvation, in which he is incapable of helping his crew…), we come to understand Wilma’s fear of appearing vulnerable or being pitied. And we are reminded once more of Hawk’s utter isolation and alone-ness. 

Of all the phantasms featured in "The Guardians," Buck’s may be the least effective. It’s great to meet a Rogers family member, since we know very little of the astronaut’s family history, and yet Buck doesn’t really do or say anything important in this dream. You’d think Buck might want to warn his Mom about the coming nuclear holocaust…tell her to go into hiding, or something. Instead, she’s the one worried about his mission. 

Buck’s dream is a bit off tonally, though it’s fun to see the special effects from “Awakening” recycled as a callback to the Buck Rogers pilot.   In toto, I would have preferred to see a dream in which Buck revealed some personal flaw, foible or fear.  Like the fact that he was afraid of never again making a meaningful connection with the world around him.  I don't know.  But something other than an idyllic dream of lemonade and small-town Americana.  This dream tells us where he came from, but in a sense, we already know that.  Better to explore how he feels about where he was, or where he is, or where he might be headed.

Like many cult-tv programs, “The Guardians” also imagines an external force as being the guarantor of peace or war in the galaxy. On the original Twilight Zone, the great (and incredibly atmospheric) episode “The Howling Man” postulated that man would experience peace only during those intervals during which he held the Devil captive. Whenever the Devil escaped captivity, world war would occur.  

Likewise, in Star Trek’s “The Day of the Dove,” an alien monster that thrived on “hate” was believed responsible for the violent, war-like aspects of humankind’s long history. 

Here, the Guardians preserve galactic peace, but during the uncertain periods of succession, elements of the space-time continuum “jump” their tracks, and chaos is the result.  In all these situations, "fate" is determined specifically by some agency outside of man's dominion and yet he can  still struggle to rein the situation back in during each crisis.  

Probably the best aspect of “The Guardians” is simply the fact that the episode creates a sense of terror (especially in the scene wherein the box is jettisoned from the ship…but then re-appears aboard her…) without ever focusing on a humanoid villain. There are no bad guys to be found here, at all, only a strange alien artifact that the crew of Searcher, including Buck, doesn’t quite understand. 

This conceit was very much of the Space:1999 playbook: terror is forged because man doesn’t have all the answers, and his curiosity or other emotions only create more danger. It’s nice to see Buck Rogers operate on that more intellectual, spine-tingling level, at least for a short duration. Had later episodes followed this relatively intelligent formula, the second season might today be much better perceived.

I don’t often return to the second season of Buck Rogers today because of some of the really dreadful episodes, but “Time of the Hawk,” “The Satyr” and yes, “The Guardians” reveal how the changes from season one to season two could have truly created an interesting space opera and interesting, early 1980s alternative to Star Trek.   I don't know if the second series was too rushed, it was difficult to find good writers, or there were problems elsewhere that needed to be addressed first, but at least for "The Guardians" everything seems to come together for Buck.    

In this case "opening up Pandora's Box" gave the sci-fi series a pretty visceral and intriguing hour.

Theme Song of the Week: Salvage 1 (1979)

Coming to DVD: Ghost Story/Circle of Fear (1972)

My friend Fred -- who keeps me in the loop on all of these matters -- just e-mailed me with a link to TV Shows on DVD to make me aware that the William Castle horror series Ghost Story/Circle of Fear (1972) will become available to own on May 1st.  A 6 DVD set is being produced for Sony's MOD program.

This William Castle TV series was a horror anthology that ran for one season on NBC, but under two formats.  In the first format, Sebastian Cabot hosted from creepy Mansfield House as "Winston Essex."  In Circle of Fear, the narrator and location were omitted, but the stories were equally horrific.  Many of the episodes involved vampires, or evil animal spirits, for some reason.

The series premiered on September 15, 1972 and stories were penned by Richard Matheson, Dorothy Fontana, Robert Bloch, Anthony Lawrence, Jimmy Sangster, Seeleg Lester and Halsted Welles.  Directing episodes were Richard Donner and John Llewelyn Moxey.  Guest stars included Janet Leigh, Patricia Neal, Angie Dickinson, Kim Darby, Martin Sheen, Susan Dey, Patty Duke, Tab Hunter, David Soul, Meg Foster, Gena Rowlands, James Franciscus, Carolyn Jones, and Karen Black.

Fourteen episodes of the anthology were featured under the title of Ghost Story, and many of these shows were absolutely terrific.  Matheson's series pilot "The New House," was one of the very best, by my recollection.  Nine additional episodes were produced under the title Circle of Fear, and among those was Fontana's "Earth, Air, Fire and Water," adapted from a story by Harlan Ellison.

I reviewed Ghost Story/Circle of Fear in its entirety for my award-winning 2001 book, Terror Television, and as I recall many episodes of the series felt overlong and over-emphatic, but there were also some scary, unsettling gems in the mix too. 

I must confess, this is one of those obscure TV series I never thought would make it to DVD, so it's a real thrill to see this bit of terror TV brought back for the 21st century.  

Now, if we could just get The Evil Touch on DVD next...

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Serial Killers

Vampire, Werewolf, Mummy, Zombie...Serial Killer?

At first blush, the formulation in the above sentence may seem strange.  But there can be little doubt that in the past quarter century of horror cinema and genre television, the serial killer has emerged as an important addition to the pantheon of famous"monsters."

A serial killer is (broadly) defined as a person who has murdered at least three people and done so according to some internal clock or schedule.  In general, serial killers are extremely intelligent, and boast some history of trauma or instability at home.  Serial killers were often abused as children, and began their "career" in death by harming small, defenseless animals.  The late 1980s and early 1990s brought a new awareness of the serial killer into the mainstream national dialogue. Ted Bundy, who killed more than 30 people, was executed in Florida in 1989.  Aileen Wournos, a female serial killer, was apprehended by police in 1990.  Perhaps the most notorious serial killer of this era was Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered seventeen victims between 1978 and 1991, before his capture.

The new popularity of the serial killer as a movie and TV "monster" coincided with a period in the pop culture during which audiences had begun to demanding more gritty naturalism, and less theatricality or artificiality.  The serial killer movie format, often a police procedural, not only studied the psychology of this new monster, but detailed the scientific - forensic - methods by which to catch the beast.  No longer were crucifixes, holy water or "faith" going to do the trick.  Nope, we needed DNA samples, fingerprints and other tricks of the new trade.

The 1990s represents the great era of serial killers in film and television. This was the epoch of Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal Lecter and his cinematic progeny (in Copycat, Scream, Se7en, etc.)  

On television, Chris Carter's brilliant initiative, The X-Files (1993 - 2002) often featured serial killers in standalone "monster of the week" episodes, including "Irresistible," "Grotesque" and "Paper Hearts," thereby setting this human "monster" deliberately alongside fictional creatures like Fluke-Men, shape-shifters, the Golem, the Djinn and more.

Carter's second series, Millennium (1996 - 1999) tread even more deeply into the territory of serial killers, gazing at human monsters that seemed made by our modern society, and which exposed some crucial aspect of life in the 1990s.  I've always made the claim that Millennium uses the individual serial killers in the program in much the same fashion that Star Trek utilized the different planets visited by the Enterprise.  Each week on Millennium, Frank Black had to countenance a different serial killer, and study, investigate and understand the context that had created him or her, as the Enterprise would look at the problems and accomplishments of each world it explored.  In undertaking his task, Frank was able to reflect meaningfully on some important or controversial aspect of American society as it neared the millennium.

Serial killers were featured on Millennium in episodes including the Pilot, "Dead Letters," "Kingdom Come," "Blood Relatives," "Wide Open," "Weeds," "Loin like a Hunting Flame," "The Thin White Line," "Lamentation," "Broken World," "Paper Dove," "The Beginning and the End," "The Mikado," "Through a Glass Darkly," "Darwin's Eye" and others.  

 Again, in many of these situations, the "monster" was merely the dramatic avenue by which Carter, Spotnitz and the other series writers could explore some intriguing aspect of our culture.  "Loin like a Hunting Flame" gazed at the line between reality and (sexual) fantasy in the new age of Viagra.  "Weeds" examined the notion that gated communities could provide safety for well-to-do residents, and concluded that the wolf might already be lurking inside the affluent sanctuary.   "Wide Open" also gazed at the idea of safety and security, and wondered whether security systems could prevent the "darkness" from entering our suburban homes.  "The Mikado" brilliantly and diabolically tallied the ways that new technologies could be exploited by a monstrous serial killer.

What I have always admired so deeply about Millennium is this notion that by facing the darkness created by serial killers, Frank actually observes and critiques the world that created such monsters.  Sometimes it seemed the world he faced seemed like one without real emotional connection between people ("Blood Relatives") and sometimes it felt like a world that had lost all sense of mercy or decency ("Through a Glass Darkly").

After Millennium, the most significant serial killer series in TV history is likely Dexter (2006 - ), which focuses on the anti-social Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a blood-spatter expert who would have been a creature as monstrous as any Frank Black ever captured had his father, Harry (James Remar) not intervened early and become his mentor and role-model.  Now Dexter, according to Harry's Code, kills only those "monsters" (other serial killers) that the law cannot reach.  Dexter's monstrous drives and appetites have been harnessed and directed, so much so that many people view the character as a hero, not just a protagonist.

What makes Dexter so intriguing is not merely his pro-social vigilantism, but rather the fact that the series positions the character -- again a Star Trek reference -- as a character very much like Lt. Data or Mr. Spock.  Like those predecessors, Dexter is an outsider from humanity, observing the "emotional" human race from some distance.  

Because (again like Spock or Data), Dexter lacks the capacity to feel or understand feelings, he can with great dispassion comment meaningfully on human contradictions, curiosities and frailties.  He is the serial killer as alien outsider, wishing he could be human, but knowing that his humanity is but a mask.  He'd like to belong, but he can't.

Lately, serial killers have been the beneficiaries of another interesting twist. In programs such as True Blood (2008 -- ), all manners of supernatural monsters exist and intermingle with man's world.  We've met vampires and werewolves, for instance.  But in the first season, the real evil is presented not by such creatures of the night.  Contrarily, it is a human serial killer, Rene (Michael Raymond-James), who symbolizes the ultimate danger, and therefore the ultimate villainy.  I suspect this development is a literalization of the notion that the evil lurking inside the heart of man, is, in some sense, the scariest thing we can imagine.

Creatures that go bump in the night are scary, but men that do so are downright terrifying.  We know they are real, and that in this case, there are such things as "monsters."

The Cult-TV Faces of: The Serial Killer

Identified by Will: Redjac (John Fiedler) in Star Trek: "Wolf in the Fold."

Identified by Will: Micky Gilbert in Kolchak: The Night Stalker: "The Ripper."

Identified by Will: Bob (Frank Silva) in Twin Peaks.

Identified by Will: Donald Addie Pfaster (Nick Chinlund) in The X-Files: "Irresistible."

Identified by Adam Chamberlain: The Frenchman in Millennium: "Pilot."

6

Identified by Chris G: Nip/Tuck's "Carver."

Identified by Jaime Nelson: Mark Sheppard as Dr. Walker in Medium.

Identified by Will: Sylar (Zachary Quinto) in Heroes.

Identified by Will: Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) in Dexter.

Identified by Chris G: Rene (Michael James Raymond) in True Blood.

Identified by Michael Falkner: Sam Witwer as Doomsday on Smallville (season 8).

Television and Cinema Verities #12

"I think what some people are doing with digital effects is starting to get silly. It's overused, but we always do that. I remember when the zoom lens came in, and every director couldn't zoom enough – zoom in, zoom out, zoom up, zoom down...But I think what CGI will boil down to is that it will be just validating something and not getting carried away with "what can I do that nobody's done before."

- Superman director Richard Donner discusses CGI effects at IGN.  From 2001.

Mad Monster Party Dispatch #2

The Dealer's Room. Notice the plush face-huggers on the far right.

Saturday was another fantastic day at The Mad Monster Party con in uptown Charlotte.  I met a lot of cool people, and caught up with some great friends and authors.

In the morning, Joel and Kathryn visited the show, and we toured the vendor's room.  Joel was in a state of nirvana looking at all the monster toys and costumes.  He had his eye on a plush face-hugger (!) and a Boris Karloff Mummy figure, but what finally got the nod from my monster-loving five-year old was a cool collectible he found at the Rebel Base table.  

Specifically, Joel saw a Mad Scientist "Dissect an Alien" Kit (Mattel; 1986), and that was absolutely the thing.  After we purchased it for him, Joel was ready to go home and start dissecting aliens with the kit's (plastic) scalpel.  I'll do a full "collectible of the week" feature on this neat toy in the days ahead, but for Joel, it was certainly the find of the day.  As I walked Kathryn and Joel out (following their tour of the horror vehicles on display...) we ran into Dee Wallace, and she was so sweet to Joel. 

Here's the thing about Dee Wallace, in case you haven't met her in person.  She has absolutely not aged a day since 1982.  Seriously.  I'm not exaggerating.  I'm not being nice or polite.  She is as beautiful and youthful and vivacious as she was in E.T. (1982), The Howling (1981) and Cujo (1983).  I kept looking for some sign that three decades had taken a toll -- any toll -- and it was impossible.  I told her she must have a picture aging in an attic somewhere.

Joel also got to meet Camden Toy, the "gentleman" who played some of the absolute creepiest characters on Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  He's a great guy, and put Joel at ease immediately, despite the huge banner of ghoulish demons behind him...

Kenny Caperton, of N.C.'s Myers House.

After Joel and Kathryn headed home, I caught up with my friend Kenny Caperton, the young gent I met in 2010 when we both appeared in the Biography Channel's Halloween movie special.

Kenny had his house in Hillsborough built to the plans and specifications of Michael Myers' famous house in the original Halloween (1978), and it is an amazing sight and a great horror enthusiast destination.

There are so many cool things about the N.C. Myers House, including Kenny's extensive collection of Halloween memorabilia, but I also love the details of the property itself.  The Myers House is out there alone, at the end of a long, isolated dirt road, on this vast parcel of land, with a great view of fields and farmland beyond.   It's...perfectly scary. As I gear up for my next web series, I'm hoping to shoot an episode at The Myers House.

Zachary Kelley and your truly, at our booth.

Another great joy yesterday was that I got to meet up and talk with Zachary Kelley, the blogger extraordinaire of The Lightning Bug's Lair.

He is such a great guy (in addition to being a great writer), and he was extremely patient with me as I tried to shoot a brief video with him.  I'm hoping to catch up with Zachary again soon, since I had forgotten we're practically neighbors here in the South.  That happens when you get to be middle-aged like me...

Today is the last day of the Con, and I'm hoping to sell a few more copies of Horror Films of the 1990s or The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi.

If you come  to Mad Monster Party, come visit me at our booth!