Welcome to the second week of X-E’s Halloween Countdown. Oh, the times we’ll have. Let’s kick it. You’ve heard the rumors, and the rumors are true: Mountain Dew Pitch Black IS BACK. Sort of. It’s back in ICEE Freeze form. This isn’t as big of a cause for celebration as a legit Mountain Dew Pitch Black III in cans & bottles would’ve been, but it’s something, and it’s allll good. Read all about it!
It got really hot this weekend. If the sun doesn’t knock it off and let the leaves do their orange thing, I’m going to beat it up.
Oh, remember my tribute to former NY television station WPIX’s old Shocktober events? If not, and you don’t feel like reading a two-year-old article, I’ll summarize: What later became the WB Network in New York was formerly WPIX, a mostly identity-less station that managed to stay relevant with its weekday afternoon airing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and reruns Saved By The Bell. The station also ran popular-but-obsolete movies on a regular basis, but nothing was as cool as their “Shocktober” events, where horror/slasher/spooky films were broadcast with all the good parts and dirty lines cut out almost nightly.
If you want to know more about Shocktober, read the old article, but new for today’s post are two of the movie-specific promos that fell under Shocktober’s umbrella. In the original article, I talked about the Shocktober kickoff ad. Here are some of that ad’s children…
A lot of people like The Gate, and they should, because the movie holds up with equal levels of nostalgic and horror appeal, kind of like the less good-looking cousin of The Lost Boys. The Wraith was more of a science fiction film, and a pretty poorly received one at that. Both movies came off looking aces in their Shocktober promos, because Shocktober promos were AWESOME. They used WPIX’s standard voice-over guy, but that guy had range, and knew how to make something sound creepy even if it really wasn’t.
I have such fond memories of those long ago Shocktober months. Sometimes I’d watch ‘em alone, sometimes a few friends and I would feel all privileged by being able to both stay up late and watch scary movies. Some of the movies were better than others, obviously, but as every commercial break was littered with Hallmark Halloween commercials and promos for other Shocktober movies, who cared?
Click here to download the Shocktober promo for The Gate.
…or here for The Wraith.
Posted by Matt. E-mail me!
Ghosted by 
I forgot we were even talking about Freddy’s Dead, earlier. My bad! I honestly can’t even remember going to see it, though I do love Freddy, and I think I really would’ve remembered, if I had 3D glasses for it. Hmm…
(ok except for the Icee version…)
Heh, those of us on the West Coast are just getting ready for work, actually.
I just saw Anchorman for the first time. It was funny, but not THAT funny. Wedding Crashers and 40 Year Old Virgin were both funnier, IMHO. On the subject of movies you’ve slept on, I’m halfway through watching The Graduate for the first time. Just watched Freaks for the first time as well, and I thought it was pretty amazing, though it made me nostalgic for Carnivale. As far as other horror goes, I’ve missed out on basically all the major franchises, even F13. I CAN highly recommend Shaun of the Dead to anybody that’s missed it so far.
Could I use the word “just” any more times in this post? Ooh, I just did!