Friday, October 3, 2008

Dr. Geektarded's 31 Films of Halloween



To kick off the Halloween festivities, I've cooked up a Netflix list for all you Horror fans
http://www.netflix.com/ReviewsAndLists?prid=783247454&showList=252025


Dr. Geektarded's 31 Films of Halloween

Halloween
The first flick in the trilogy from director John Carpenter, Halloween almost single-handedly invented the 1980s slasher genre. Escaped lunatic Michael Myers (no, not the Austin Powers actor) goes on a murderous baby-sitter-slaying rampage on Halloween. Only baby sitter Jamie Lee Curtis (the quintessential scream queen) and psychiatrist Donald Pleasence can stop him.

Halloween II
This bloodier sequel picks up where the original ended. An injured Jamie Lee Curtis recuperates in the hospital not knowing that murderous Michael Myers is licking his wounds in a nearby room. The hospital setting makes for spooky sequences with Myers' slow footsteps echoing loudly on the tile floor. The diagnosis for impressionable viewers: long nights of insomnia.

High Tension
Students Marie (Cecile de France) and Alex (Maiwenn Le Besco) have no idea of the horrors that await them when they head off to a remote country home to study for their upcoming exams. When night falls, a psychopathic stranger attacks, tying up Alex and taking her away. It's up to Marie to save her friend -- but first, she must figure out what is really going on. Philippe Nahon co-stars in this twisty-turny tale of terror.

Fright Night
Nobody believes horror-movie addict Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) when he discovers that his suave new neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), is a vampire. Kith and kin believe Charley is certifiable, and his single mother develops a romantic interest in Dandridge. When the bloodsucker starts stalking Charley, he turns to TV horror-film host and ghoul-hunter Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) in this hysterical spoof.

Night of the Comet
Earth has been ripped to shreds after a run-in with a killer comet, and those who have survived are in a fight for their lives in this campy cult classic. Valley Girl Reg (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her sister (Kelli Maroney) discover they're two of the lucky few. But scientists are after them, and now they must run. Why? Because the researchers believe they need the blood of survivors to concoct a drug that can save them all from further ruin.

Tenebre
An American novelist comes to Rome to promote his latest book, "Tenebre." After his arrival, a shocking sequence of brutal homicides occur which strangely resemble the murders he's written about in his book ...

Silver Bullet
Adapted from author Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf, this campy thriller tells of a sleepy American town that's terrorized by extreme sadistic murders -- seemingly, by a werewolf. While all the town's inhabitants prepare to lock themselves up at night, Marty Coslaw, a 13-year-old, wheelchair-bound boy, is the only person brave enough to try to track down the mysterious killer.

Friday the 13th: Part 4: The Final Chapter
Hockey-masked psychopath Jason Vorhees (Ted White) is back in business at Camp Crystal Lake in the fourth (but far from final) installment of the popular, long-running horror series. As randy teens are slain one by one, Tommy (Corey Feldman) comes up with a plan to distract the killer. Makeup master Tom Savini provides much of the gore, and actor Crispin Glover turns in an unusual performance as a stud in training.

Friday the 13th: Part 7: The New Blood
The legendary horror series continues! After lying dormant at the bottom of Crystal Lake, Jason is released from his watery grave by Tina (Lar Park-Lincoln), a telekinetic teenager who returned to the site where her father supposedly drowned in hopes of using her psychic powers to solve the mystery of his death. But, with the hockey-masked murderer on the loose, the killing spree begins again. Can she control her powers enough to stop Jason?

A Nightmare on Elm Street
A group of high school friends are being slaughtered in their sleep by the hideous fiend of their shared dreams. When the police ignore her explanation, one girl must confront the killer in his shadowy realm.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
It's been many years since Freddy Krueger's (Robert Englund) first victim, Nancy, came face to face with Freddy and his sick, evil ways. Now, Nancy's all grown up; she's put her frightening nightmares behind her and is helping teens cope with their dreams. Too bad Freddy's decided to herald his return by invading the kids' dreams and scaring them into committing suicide.

Phantasm
Often considered one of the icons of 1970s independent horror cinema, director Don Coscarelli's classic nail-biter follows two boys who, in pursuit of an odd-looking grave robber, may wind up as the newest members of a freshly dead slave race. Jody (Bill Thornbury) and Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) discover that the creature (Angus Scrimm) stealing cadavers walks the earth but lives in the afterworld -- and that it needs more corpses.

The Return of the Living Dead
The freshly risen undead are ready to party in this horror-comedy that finds two employees of a medical supply company unwittingly releasing several zombies from cylinders in which they've been trapped for years. Soon, the local citizenry is forced to deal with a large-scale zombie epidemic as the nasty, brain-eating creatures go on a rampage, hungry as ever and eager to make up for lost time!

Return of the Living Dead 2
What's that smell?? When a large container of top-secret, classified gas rolls off an army truck, a group of curious kids open the lid … naturally. But that turns out to be a fatal mistake, as the lethal stench soon wafts into a nearby cemetery, reanimating an army of gnarly zombies who want nothing more than to feed on the flesh of the living. Better send more paramedics!

Scream
Not your average slasher flick, Scream distinguishes itself with a cast of attractive up-and-comers and a self-parodying sense of humor. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campell) is terrorized by a murderer intent on paying homage to the teen horror classics (Halloween, Prom Night) by offing everyone Sidney knows. As in the grand tradition of popular horror films, sequels were born, along with the parody Scary Movie and its offspring.

Jeepers Creepers
A college-age brother and sister (Justin Long and Gina Philips) get more than they bargained for on their road trip home from spring break. When the bickering siblings witness a creepy truck driver tossing body bags into a sewer near an abandoned church, they investigate. Bad move! Opening a Pandora's Box of unspeakable evil, the pair must flee for their lives -- with a monstrous "shape" in hot pursuit.

Child's Play
A chubby toy doll named Chucky becomes an instrument of terror in director Tom Holland's unnerving tale of horror. Before cops gun down a serial killer (Brad Dourif), he invokes a spell that transfers his soul into the body of Chucky -- who ends up as a birthday present for 6-year-old Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent). When a rash of murders ensues, he knows Chucky is the culprit, but neither Andy's mother (Catherine Hicks) nor the police believe him.

Re-Animator
Based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, this campy send-up follows an egotistical medical student (Jeffrey Combs) who develops a serum that revives the dead. Together with his girlfriend and his obdurate roommate, Combs reanimates a corpse but doesn't factor in certain complications that arise. Filled with equal parts laughter and gore, Re-Animator spawned a similarly outlandish sequel.

From Beyond
After inventing a way for creatures from the fourth dimension to come into his own world, Dr. Edward Pretorious (Ted Sorel) suffers a gruesome decapitation at the hands of those he brought "from beyond." But authorities suspect his assistant (Jeffrey Combs) is to blame. Barbara Crampton co-stars as a beautiful psychiatrist brought in to help police solve the case in this classic 1980s thriller based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft.

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
Stranded in a cabin in the woods, Ash (Bruce Campbell) and his girlfriend accidentally invoke a spell that causes the Evil Dead to rise and kill! As a lone man pitted against hordes of walking corpses, can Ash survive until the safety of sunrise? Director Sam Raimi's whip-crack direction and Campbell's comedic skills induce hair-raising fear and gales of laughter.

Hostel
Seeking out the quintessential college experience by backpacking through Europe, two American students (Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson) befriend an eccentric Icelander (Eythor Gudjonsson) and head to a hostel that's said to be brimming with women. But once they arrive, their desires are quelled by the discovery of unimaginable horrors. Quentin Tarantino presents this grisly tale based in part on actual events, directed by Eli Roth.

Candyman
While researching urban myths, grad student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) learns about the Candyman (Tony Todd), a hook-handed creature who's said to haunt a Chicago housing project. In this creepy film based on a Clive Barker story, the Candyman is made flesh by other people's belief in him. Not surprisingly, Lyle manages to summon him. Soon, the Candyman has committed a series of murders, and the cops are holding Lyle responsible.

The Hitcher
Never pick up strangers; that's a lesson Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) will wish he'd learned. While driving from Chicago to San Diego, he picks up hitchhiker John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) but regrets it when he begins to suspect Ryder may be a serial killer. Before Halsey can say, "Get out of my car," Ryder kills again -- and frames him for the murders.

The Ring
It sounded like just another urban legend: a videotape filled with nightmarish images, leading to a phone call foretelling the viewer's death in exactly 7 days. Newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) was naturally skeptical of the story -- until four teens died mysteriously one week after watching such a tape. Curious, Rachel tracks down the video and watches it … and now, she has just 7 days to unravel the mystery of the "Ring."

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Director Tobe Hooper's horror classic is a gruesome reminder that a movie need not be complicated to scare the daylights out of viewers. Sally (Marilyn Burns), her wheelchair-bound brother (Paul A. Partain) and their friends travel to a vandalized graveyard to see if their grandfather's remains are intact. En route, they come upon chainsaw-wielding maniac Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), and it's a fight to the bloody death between good and evil.

Dawn of the Dead
Picking up where Night of the Living Dead left off, this classic horror flick from director George Romero begins with zombies taking over every major city in the United States. Running for their lives, Peter (Ken Foree), Roger (Scott Reiniger), Stephen (David Emge) and Frances (Gaylen Ross) find refuge in a remote shopping mall, only to discover they must fight a motorcycle gang as well as the undead ghouls.

Day of the Dead
The third chapter in writer-director George Romero's classic zombie film saga finds a group of scientists and soldiers hiding in an underground bunker to escape a world overrun by the flesh-eating undead. The scientists desperately seek a way to control the zombies, while the military just wants to kill as many of them as possible. But infighting between the two groups takes a backseat when the zombies invade the subterranean facility.

Night of the Living Dead
Director George Romero's low-budget horror classic continues to inspire heebie-jeebies, in part because of the randomness of the zombies' targets. As dead bodies return to life and feast on human flesh, young Barbara (Judith O'Dea) joins a group of survivors in a farmhouse hoping to protect themselves from the hordes of advancing zombies. But even with assistance in slowing down and killing zombies, soon only one person remains in the farmhouse.

The Thing
Kurt Russell leads a team of American scientists at a base in Antarctica. Their uneventful lives are disrupted by a group of Norwegians in a helicopter firing at a lone dog. When the chopper crashes, the dog moves in with the scientists. During the night, the canine metamorphoses and attacks other animals at the base and members of the team, who soon discover that an alien that can take any shape is in their midst. John Carpenter directed.

The Burning
Years after a summer camp janitor (Lou David) is severely burned and disfigured as the result of a teenage prank gone awry, he's released from the local insane asylum and returns to the scene of the crime to seek revenge against those who harmed him. Several yet-to-be-famous stars pop up in this classic teen horror flick, including Oscar winner Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld."

Freddy vs. Jason
It's the showdown horror fans have been waiting for! This slasher movie produced by Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham pits two of cinema's biggest, freakiest, scariest ambassadors of evil -- the nightmarish Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and the sinister Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) -- in the ultimate face-off. It's a battle to die for -- literally! Co-stars Kelly Rowland, Jason Ritter and Monica Keena.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Children's Palace and Child World toy stores revisited

Had some new Children's Palace and Child World items to share. So lets take another look at my all-time favorite toy store.

New to my collection:

A Children's Palace & Child World Ertl toy truck, in the box



Close up of the trailer


An old Child World toy truck by Majorette, on the card


An old Children's Palace toy truck by Majorette


A double page CP/CW video game ad from Marvel's Robocop II adaptation


Peter Panda puffy stickers


Some CW/CP items graciously sent in by readers

From Bernard, a former Child World employee was nice enough to take pics of some of the memorabilia he had saved.







From Brandon, an excellent shot of the old style CP store sign.


From around the web: (i.e. photos are not mine, I'm just sharing what I've found)

A Peter Panda board game


An old store pic


Former store locations around the US










So, so, so close...
In my constant search to find a photo of the old Omaha Children's Palace location, I found this great old pic of the store prior, to CP. The spot was occupied by a Handy Dan (long defunct Hardware store chain)


A must read
Here's a excerpt from a reader of the original Children's Palace post
http://geektarded.blogspot.com/2007/06/lets-go-shopping-childrens-palace.html

"Dr. Geektarded, I had the pleasure of helping to open the store in Omaha. Unfortunately, this is the only time I have ever visited your fine city. I was involved with over 20 store openings.

I also remember when they filmed "The Color of Money". We were excited that Children's Palace (CP) would be in a major movie. I recall that CP was paid $25,000 for a day of shooting for the scenes. This equated to one days average sales for that location. The "customers" in the scenes were filled in by store personnel and their families. I still watch the movie on occasion.

Dr. you ask what happened to all of the clearance items? Well, we sold them! (obviously) But here is the rest of the story: The reason why CP had so many "old" items was their "pack-away system". We would store all boxed merchandise above the area in the actual aisles of the store. All pegged items (i.e matchbox, hot wheels, seasonal) would be boxed up and stored in the warehouse. Here is where the issue happened. As the store sold down items like Matchbox cars, we would get another few cases in on our truck so we would fill the shelves with this product. The overstock Matchbox cars in the pack-aways stayed in the warehouse, never seeing the light of day. This inefficient way of stock balancing was one of the many factors to the demise of CP. Ideally, today's retailers have eliminated the back stock all together as to not tie up these dollars. I recall meeting a Matchbox collector who asked to see any unopened cases in the warehouse. He was like a kid in a candy store as he looked through the 5+ year old cases.

During the closeout procedures, we had incremental markdowns that were sent down by corporate for 10 weeks. (i.e. 10% off, 20% off) It was in the last few days that we went from 70% off to 90% off retail prices. We continuously pulled the old pack-aways out of the back room as merchandise sold down. WOW.... all of these old items came out!!! Old Mego figures (like the Spiderman you have pictured. I bought a case of 6 for 50 cents each!)Michael Jackson dolls, Starting lineup, and so on... I bought several items... but I couldn't buy them all. I still have these items MOC. I only had one child then (age 1) and boxed them up. Now, I see these items on EBAY so I never let my kids play with them. (Shame on me)

The last hour of the last day, my liquidator consultant had me put up a sign that said "Everything you can fit in your cart - only $10". Needless to say, everything was gone within the hour. I took a video camera and video taped some of the mayhem on the last day. Fortunately, I had a job lined up and was paid nearly 3 months severance/remaining vacation pay if I stayed to the end."
--------------------------------------------------------

I'm was so happy to hear about this "pack-away system". That explains all the old stock and why the aisles were literally packed to the rafters. At the Omaha location, on the shelving above the new stock, was this Tetris like packing of old boxed vehicles, playsets, etc. Then, along the back of the store was more boxed toys and aisles of carded toys. And lastly, the front entrance of the store was filled with closeout items too. Huge displays of Masters of the Universe, Voltron, Gobots, Rock Lords and the like, years after they had run their course.

The store was probably 1/3 closeout items. It was honestly a crazy way of doing business, but all those old toys are some of my fondest memories of the chain.

Netflix Picks of the Week: 9/21/08



Having just recently joined Netflix, I thought it might me fun to do some mini-reviews of what shows up in the mailbox each week.

So, this week: "Diary of the Dead", "The Eye" and "The Abandoned"

Diary of the Dead



Ole' Uncle George is back to his zombie-shenanigans with a mockumentary taking place during the first few days of the zombie outbreak. There's a great deal of heavy handed social commentary on media, the internet and other tired subjects. The movie is enteteraining, but feels like it's trying too hard to force a point. But there's a few cool zombie kills and I dug the pool zombies scene.
I give at a 2.5 out of 5. Not great, but worth a look.

The Eye



An american remake of a J-Horror movie I've never watched. Jessica Alba stars as a blind violinist who appears to have a personal make-up artist on hand at all times, since she looks like she's always coming from a Cosmo shoot. Jessica gets a cornea transplant and starts seeing weird shit. So, the game's afoot to slove the ghost mystery and stop the crazy visions. Alba does a decent job and moves past the standard hot girl role. The scares are fairly run of the mill in the post Ring and Grudge era. At least there wasn't a long-haired japanese girl as the ghost, so that's something.
I give it a 3 out of 5. Entertaining, but fairly disposeable. One of Alba's better roles.

and lastly
The Abandoned



One of the After Dark "8 Films to Die For". An orphaned woman returns to Russia after receiving news of her dead birth mother and the creepy old farm she now owns. Some scary-ass shit hits the fan, a long lost twin brother shows up and undead dopplegangers shamble about. The film maintains a constant air of dread and the Russian countryside looks to be a scary, scary place.
I give it a 4 out of 5. Great, creepy ghost story.

Local Color: Random Omaha and Council Bluffs pics

Downtown Omaha






The old Center Mall




The old Richman Gordmans/ Half Price Store in Council Bluffs


Old building ads



W.C. Franks sign at gas station in Council Bluffs
I have to look further into this. W.C. Franks was a local chain of arcades that served hot dogs that I used to go to all the time, from grade school through high school. The last one disappeared years ago (It's now a Nickle A Play arcade). So, I was a bit surprised when I looked up while filling the car and saw a W.C. Franks sign.


The old Florence post office.

Miiiiighty Muggs!!!







The toy crack that is "Mighty Muggs" has invaded the Geektarded undersea base. It started with a Darth Vader ("I'll just buy one...") and has blossomed with every trip to the store. Star Wars, Marvel, Indiana Jones and soon Transformers and GI Joe.

-DR. G

Just a shout out...



I've become a podcast junkie over the last year and one of my favorites is the Horror Etc. Podcast with Ted and Anthony. If you're a horror fan of any kind, I highly recommend the show. It's funny, insightful and the duo has turned me towards some new films. Anyway, downloads are available through their site and itunes (just subscribe, cuz it's an excellent show). Their show on shocksploitation from a couple weeks back was seriously one of the best analysis of the genre I've come across and probably one of the best film discussions I've head in years.

http://www.horroretc.com/

-DR. G

Dr. Geektarded Returns

Hey, hey, hey.



It's been a long, hard summer. But, after taking some time off to catch up on some personal things, work, rest, movies, comics, games and ther assorted day-to-day nonsense, I plan to be back posting on a regular basis.

Smell ya later,
Dr. G