Topic: Halloween! 2013

[Ratty]

Hell, might as well get the Nerd horror episodes in here.

Frankenstein - Angry Video Game Nerd

You forgot the Frankenstein episode!

But while we're reposting things for completeness I think I posted these in last years thread, but no harm in posting them again.

Terror T.R.A.X. - Track of the Vampire (Part 1 of 3)

Have your own copy of Track of the Vampire to download and play free courtesy of Wizards of the Coast here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20011026b you'll need VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html) to play them (they're old rmj sound files) but you should have that anyway .

Terror T.R.A.X. - Track of the Werewolf (Part 1)

Just like Track of the Vampire, you can get Track of the Werewolf free here http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnD_TRAX_1.asp

Spoony also did a very funny let's play of the full motion video choose your own adventure Terror TRAX game. Which was basically just a remake of Track of the Vampire with a few alterations and starring the actor who was Motaro in "Mortal Kombat Annihilation" doing a Solid Snake as surfer impersonation.

[Lelygax]

Thanks for these links, Dracula reminds me of Fred Fuchs. xD

About this exclusive content in A Nightmare on Elm Street, I never knew of this difference, they only added this scene on the beggining or they added more material to it? How did you discovered it?

[Abnormal Freak]

It's just that when he initially did it, he had an introduction, whereas the YouTube version just continues where the previous episode left off. Quite a number of his older episodes are slightly altered on YouTube, and for the DVDS he couldn't have footage taken from copyrighted movies, so the Rocky and Back to the Future episodes are different.

[Lelygax]

Yeah, I knew about the DVD ones because our blog owner have them, I think the only one that escaped us was this episode

[Zannibal]

Holy fuck Aridale. I scrolled down and had a heart attack from your mask ;_;

Sadly enough, Finland doesn't have any culture for Halloween. None. Nothing. So basically I haven't learned to celebrate it either in any way. What I would like to do, is buy Machine for Pigs and play it through (it's very short game, so it goes in one sitting I guess), but I doubt I'll have that much money in a week. I'm also planning to make a metal cover of certain song that matches with the Halloween theme But that takes time, so I only release it on Halloween, not actually make it 

[Abnormal Freak]

If I stroll into Target this Tuesday and they don't have the 35th anniversary edition Blu-ray of Halloween, I'ma raep.

New transfer from negative approved by the DP, much better detail, contrasting, and grain structure than previous release. Only possible hitch is the color timing is very muted, but it's a look I'm willing to accept.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Halloween-Blu-ray/54082/

[Ratty]

but I doubt I'll have that much money in a week.

Do you mean in a month? Halloween is always on the 31st of October. Back before it had the name it does today, it was one or more popular pagan holiday(s) that was/were still widely celebrated around the same time after the Catholic Church got a hold on Europe. To dissuade Christians from practicing it the church created a religiously important Holiday around the same time on the first of November. (Much as they had done in placing Christmas on the 25th of December and Easter in the spring to edge-out and replace older pagan holidays.) The name of the holiday the church created was "All Hallows Day", today better known as "All Saints' Day". Unlike with Christmas and Easter this backfired, people kept celebrating the pagan holiday, they just called it "All Hallow's eve" which degenerated into Hallowe'en and eventually just Halloween. It didn't really become the holiday we know and love until it reached America though. It's too bad there's no costumes and spooky decorations where you live, but you can still watch horror movies and gorge on candy, maybe even make a jack'o lantern and display it outside.

[Zannibal]

Do you mean in a month? Halloween is always on the 31st of October.

  Well, you can clearly see we don't have Halloween there. I was so sure it's 31.9. Thank god someone corrected me Would've been stupid to release Halloween stuff too early.

Yeah, we have the Saint's Day too. And.. it's not a "party" day, really. We just go to graveyard and bring a candle and that's it. Woohoo. I don't even know the people who died (well, my granny's there, but she was totally out of this world already during my lifetime, so I can't say I knew her), so I don't even take part of that.

But you're right, I can still do it. And maybe I will, if I buy the pigs. Or maybe I should watch some horror movie. The only ones I've seen are Dead Silence, Alien and Eraserhead (not really horror tho), so there's plenty to choose from..

[Ratty]

The only ones I've seen are Dead Silence, Alien and Eraserhead (not really horror tho), so there's plenty to choose from..

Yep! You can see a list of 31 of my top recommendations on the previous page. You could start watching some of them now, there's plenty of time for lead up and as with any major holiday half the fun is anticipation and celebrations leading up to it. If money is an issue several of my recommendations are in the public domain (Night of the Living Dead (1968), Nosferatu, White Zombie, The Last Man on Earth, and I think the original 1959 House on Haunted Hill) and can be watched freely on archive.org (ad-free) or youtube.

If you want movies that have influenced Castlevania, I recommend Vampire Hunter D and Bram Stoker's Dracula. As well as Universal Studios' Dracula (1931) and Son of Dracula and Hammer Studios' Horror of Dracula. Though beyond that you get to the list of movies that have probably or possibly (rather than definitely) had a lasting or notable influence on the series, and that list is considerably larger.

[Johnny]

I usually leave my apartment before any of the kids show up to trick or treat cause I don't ever buy any candy. Thing is that most of the kids could be desperate enough to show up at midnight looking for candy though I doubt it. Hopefully I don't have to buy some. Good thing I work at Costco cause I may actually be working that day. Then I can get home by 8:00 PM and hope most of the kids won't come out because they are getting ready for school the next day.

[Abnormal Freak]

Two of the most fun Halloweeny movies are Coffin Joe's At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul and This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse. You just know by those names that they're great.

There's also a third, Embodiment of Evil, which retains some of that spirit but is much more modern and gruesome.

[Zannibal]

Yep! You can see a list of 31 of my top recommendations on the previous page. You could start watching some of them now, there's plenty of time for lead up and as with any major holiday half the fun is anticipation and celebrations leading up to it. If money is an issue several of my recommendations are in the public domain (Night of the Living Dead (1968), Nosferatu, White Zombie, The Last Man on Earth, and I think the original 1959 House on Haunted Hill) and can be watched freely on archive.org (ad-free) or youtube.

If you want movies that have influenced Castlevania, I recommend Vampire Hunter D and Bram Stoker's Dracula. As well as Universal Studios' Dracula (1931) and Son of Dracula and Hammer Studios' Horror of Dracula. Though beyond that you get to the list of movies that have probably or possibly (rather than definitely) had a lasting or notable influence on the series, and that list is considerably larger.

Hmm, interesting. Yeah, money is kind of problem. Of course it's easy to get them for free, but I could.... (I absolutely had to).

I'll surely check some of those. I like Gothic stuff, so Dracula movies are a must, I guess. Other movies I'd like to see, are Halloween (and the sequel) and Shining at least. I see Shining didn't make it to your list, tho. Is it bad, or is it even horror ? Also, Psycho.

The only problem might be, that some of them just don't work anymore. I watched Dawn of the Dead, and my god was it boring. It wasn't scary at any point, it wasn't also bloody or anything to be a splatter either. And it was like 5 hours long. But I'm not saying it's a bad movie, I'm just born too late I wish I was born earlier, to experience all these movies when they were new. Or games. Hell, playing Castlevania when it was the best game out there, instead of something anyone could make with Game Maker nowadays.. 

[Ratty]

Well, all of the ones in the public domain on my list are much older and less scary than Dawn of the Dead, though they do exude a spooky atmosphere I always associate with Halloween. But I've liked old movies from the 30s and 40s since I was a kid. Those old movies were already decades old by the time I was born but they had stayed culturally relevant through continual late night movie showings in the days before VHS and infomercials, when TV stations often just went off the air at midnight until the next morning. Even when I was a kid such late night showings were already all but completely gone. Which is why, sadly, year by year Universal and Hammer's classic monster movies carry less and less cultural clout. At least in America.
American Scary
^I don't know if it's available in your country but this gives some more info about said late night fright movies. Focusing on the "TV Horror Hosts". The last host of real note was Elvira and she'd stopped hosting Movie Macabre by the time I was born as I recall, though she had a short revival a few years ago.

I think Abnormal Freak could probably point you towards movies that'd be more to your taste. Also don't wish you were born before, there's never been a better time to be a media buff. I'm guessing you don't know what it was like before the internet. But back in those days your selection in entertainment and knowledge about the world was to a large degree dictated by the limited resources of your local library and video store.
Video Store Memories with James Rolfe & Mike Matei - Cinemassacre.com
Trust me, things are way better today in terms of being able to enjoy and learn about media.

As for Castlevania being "something anyone could make with Game Maker nowadays" I have to emphatically disagree. You might be able to make a platformer easily today (which I think is what you really meant) but Castlevania and Castlevania 3 had a degree of artistry and brilliance of level design which sets them near the very top of the entire genre even a quarter of a century later.

[Zannibal]

*snap*

Hm, good points. Not all old movies are problem, luckily. I just guess Dawn of the Dead was too old. I guess 80s and 90s horror could still be scary. I think the most scariest things are the unknown / weird things. When you can't understand what is that moving creature. I also found Dead Silence scary as hell, when I watched it. But I was very young back then.

I actually did live without internet to the age of 10. So, I know how it is to live without it

Also, I knew the Castlevania thing sounded a bit too negative Yes, I meant that it's easy to make one easily. I mean, when I put the game in, I don't go like "OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THESE GRAPHICS! THE QUALITY!", it's more like "I could make better graphics. And gameplay". But I do agree they are good games in design, and music. I wouldn't be able to top that. But it just doesn't have the same effect as it most likely had to kids in 80s.

[Ratty]

Dracula - Angry Video Game Nerd

After watching a documentary about text adventure games. (Or "interactive fiction" which seems to be the preferred term these days.) I got curious about "The Count" and found out its author, Scott Adams, has released it for free along with most of his other old text adventure games. So if you'd like to play what Wikipedia says is the very first (1981) Dracula video game you can get it free here. http://www.msadams.com/downloads.htm though this version is slightly different from the one on the Vic-20 ("fuck you" "'fuck' is a word I don't know ...sorry!") and I recommend keeping the pillow out of your mouth and in your inventory because you'll probably need it to solve a puzzle later.