Did you see that? A slight movement in the photograph…almost as if it were haunted. Don’t be frightened, it’s just a cinemagraph. Cinema..what? Don’t worry, I didn’t know what they were until just recently. “Cinemagraphs are still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement action occurs. The term “cinemagraph” was coined by U.S. photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck, who used the technique to animate their fashion and news photographs beginning in early 2011.” Read more »

Wait a minute…are those cops giving Ernie Hudson a ticket? Even Ghostbusters get no breaks. Just kidding…they just posed like this for fun in the city of Burbank back in 1983. As long as they don’t cross the streams. That would be bad!

As a child I would love to get scared from watching horror movies. My imagination would run wild, and it seemed anything was possible. But as I got older, the supernatural type movies seemed to be less and less fearful for me. Now I hate to say it, but it’s very difficult for me to truly be scared by a movie. Unless they are superior films, like Blair Witch Project or the first Paranormal Activity, most newer movies don’t do anything but make me wish for those better times when the stories were truly chilling tales that didn’t rely on cheap gimmicks to scare their audience. Looking back, some of the most terrifying movies to me were one’s that had an element of reality…something that could actually happen. Real monsters…people! The Boogeyman. Every culture has its own version of who the Boogeyman is, and the most terrifying thing is, he/she could be real.

I’m from California, and so we grew up with our own versions of the Boogeyman. The most real one that I can remember in my generation is the Night Stalker, the crazed Satan worshiping murderer that terrorized the Southern California neighborhoods in the 1980′s. I had no idea there was another, maybe even more terrifying figure on the East Coast. More specifically in Staten Island, New York. There is a legend of “Cropsey”, a man that hid in the woods and the tunnel systems around Willowbrook Park. Kids would dare each other to visit the old dilapidated buildings in the area, but be warned that “Cropsey” may come to get them and chop them up in pieces with his axe, or his hook hand. Of course the stories were only meant to scare kids, until they became true! The movie “Cropsey” is a true documentary told in a horror story like fashion that tries to uncover the mystery of what happened when kids started showing up missing and how a generation of terrorized parents tried to take action in order to protect their families from the very real horror.

Cropsey is available on Netflix instant streaming. I highly recommend watching this one. I’m almost surprised no one has ever done a movie about this story, but maybe because the pain is still too fresh from what happened not that long ago. Perhaps the Nightmare On Elm Street series got some ideas from this story. In any case it is truly a gripping tale and it won’t leave my mind any time soon. Well done.

If your home tonight, be sure to catch Spike TV’s Scream Awards 2011. Not only do they have some great movies that are up for awards, but the skits they do in between are always entertaining. Plus they will have some great horror guests as always including Quentin Tarantino, Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), and Kate Beckinsale.

October television programming in the 80′s was always fun. The few TV networks that existed (pre-cable of course) would bring out all their Halloween and Horror movie programming and play them round the clock it seemed. I could flip on the tube on a pleasant Sunday afternoon and catch a Vincent Price film, a bizarre oldie from Elvira’s Movie Macabre, or other movie that seemed perfect for the season. One that brings back fond memories is The Ghost and Mr. Chicken starring Don Knotts. This movie came out in 1966, but the networks played it religiously every October in the 80′s…and I watched it every time. Don Knotts stars as Luther Heggs, a newspaper typesetter who is challenged to spend a night in the Simmons mansion, a supposedly haunted house. No one respects him and thinks him a goof. However, Luther demands to be paid attention to, and when he reports strange organ music coming from the old house, he gets laughed at by the local townsfolk. In order to prove what he saw and heard, Luther decides to spend the night in the mansion. But he’s not alone. Will Luther last the night and gain the respect of his town? This movie is great. It is a lighthearted comedy, with enough mystery and creaking doors to get you in a really good mood. And Don Knotts has enough scare scenes to bring out the best of his…what I call Mr. Furley face. Definitely a kid friendly movie that should not be forgotten!