I won’t start this by saying, “it’s that time of year again,” because whenever I come across Halloween content during the off-season and they say “it’s that time of year again” I feel a wisp of sorrow. Anyway, I’d like to share some media discoveries that could help spookify any time of year. As someone who regularly mines the caverns of the internet in search of Halloween-enhancing content, sometimes I worry that there’s little more to discover. Thankfully, these finds have proven me wrong.
Halloween in Edison, NJ (1984)
Frank of Ghoulish Terrors Magazine sent this to me with a description saying they "actually found this footage on a VHS tape retrieved/bought at an estate sale, years ago." This sounded like the setup for a fun modern throwback, but the moment I hit play, its authenticity cried out. A mysterious found videocassette is already the stuff of legends, but in this case, the contents are even more impressive. It’s essentially a short film about a quartet of monsters in search of a victim. They only pause along the way for the sake of growling, infighting, feasting, spell-casting and the destruction of small objects.
I’m deeply impressed with this production on so many levels. First, it’s a youthful fantasy scenario realized– the type of dream I might have concocted while standing in the Halloween aisle. Sure, costumes are meant for parties, trick or treating, and perhaps even uniforms for haunted house workers. But what might a costume’s ultimate purpose be? The answer is demonstrated in this video– camaraderie and art.
The makers of this featurette had access to resources that were seemingly unattainable in my youth. They had the spending power to get head-to-toe outfits, including accessories like rubber hands. They also had single-use perishables like smoke bombs. The budget even accommodated a full bag of destructible groceries. Most importantly, they shared a common vision, and possessed the technical tools and know-how to capture it all on videotape. I’m amazed at how well each shot is framed, and how steady the camera stays.
The artistic decisions are just about perfect. The scant dialogue and loose narrative eliminate distractions, allowing wistful viewers to get lost in their world and in their time. Each character is a timeless classic, and the characterization of each villain stays true to our longstanding expectations. The Frankenstein grunts and flails, the witch cackles and casts, and the ghoul growls. Speaking of audio, they use the classic Horrible Sounds of Halloween cassette as a realtime soundtrack. (The sound effects on that album were stolen from Sounds to Make You Shiver, but that one is tough to find on cassette, and I’m betting they used the more portable format.)
The wooded setting is also universal. The set design follows youthful Halloween logic in that the monsters’ lair is a cabin in the woods covered with dime store decor, complete with a smoky cauldron. On top of all that, it’s an unintentional period piece, especially at the end when we’re treated to a classic car show and an interior done up in the New Jersey vernacular. Finally, the story culminates in the triumph of good over evil. The antagonists are beat at their own game with opposing human stick-wielders.
This is a rare snapshot of American Halloween in the 1980s boiled down to its essence. I can't say I've ever seen another slice of Halloween as pure as this one.
Halloween Night II by Kendall J. Redburn
I happened across this 1991 Mac game on archive.org and I can’t understand how this bit of gaming history isn’t constantly referenced and celebrated throughout geek culture. It’s a trick-or-treat simulator from the perspective of the candy giver, except that all the visitors are real monsters, including a few that appear to be of the cosmic horror persuasion. The surprisingly intense artwork and sound design create an atmosphere that is both fun and genuinely chilling. As a kid, my household had an early Mac that was necessitated by my dad’s educational pursuits. Thanks to a clearance bin, we had one game called Airborne, and it dominated my mind and artistic life for a season. I can’t imagine how different my youth (and my life!) would have been, had I discovered this wondrous piece of software.
Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories from the Pickwick Papers (1987)
I’m going to scale way back on these write-ups so that I can go ahead and post this piece, but this animated TV movie is way more artful and atmospheric than I was expecting. A great, spooky-time watch.
Night of the Headless Horseman (1999)
This animated Fox special manages to squeeze some real chills and atmosphere out of the relatively early computer animation, something I've been warming up to recently. My main criteria for Halloween entertainment is that if feels like Halloween, and this one does from start to finish.
Amazing World of Ghosts (1978) with commercials from 1986
I’ve talked about this movie in another Halloween write-up, but yes, this version is seasoned with late night commercials! The beginning is cut off, but that’s even better because this would be the PERFECT show to discover during a restless night in 1986. I’ve had this on repeat for months now. Its power to soothe my spirit is unmatched.
WKBW Halloween Archives-Radio Broadcasts from Buffalo, NY 1968-1973
This collection of radio broadcasts taps into the same vibe as Amazing World of Ghosts, especially the episode on Vampires. It's full of sensationalized, unchecked information, aided by the audio enhancements of the era. Like the above documentary, I can enjoy this as standalone entertainment, but if I want to maximize my pleasure, I envision the surrounding circumstances from when it aired— deep in the 1970s up in the exotic (to me) northeastern United States. It would have been the perfect program to find on the transistor radio after turning off the porch light, and flipping the TV to a black and white horror movie, volume turned down.
This Halloween Night walking tour of Ontario is amazing.
Witching Season Halloween Atmospheres
These vignettes seem to be inspired by the legendary opening credits of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. The do a good job scratching that spooky itch.
Pure Halloween on Spotify
Lastly, here is a playlist that I personally hand-picked, chock full of genuinely eerie music. It avoids the common Halloween staples and goes light on the film scores. There’s a healthy dose of Dungeon Synth in there, and plenty of brooding symphonic stuff. Turn it on while you’re running errands at dusk and watch the world turn creepy in a good way.
Secret Fun Spot readers might enjoy this new photo book about the Magic Fun Shop— and not just because both names sound alike. Photographer Adam Wallacavage immortalized the defunct Philadelphia landmark with a collection of photos he took between 1995 and 2005. But they may as well have been taken in 1975 because the place was timeless. Sadly, I never made it to the Magic Fun Shop, but if feels entirely familiar. Every old school, big city novelty shop I've ever visited share the same earmarks, like mint green pegboard, hand-labeled boxes of essential gags, and stray, faded packaging from the mid-twentieth century. They came from the age when magic, jokes, and costumes got equal billing, unlike today's "Party" shops, which still struggle to survive.
About 75% of the 90 pages feature dangling rubber masks that are fun to see, especially when distorted by clothespins and years of gravity. But I'm most excited by the pages that offer glimpses of the ancient behind-the-counter prank packaging. Even when the place was still in business, the leftover stock served as a dazzling historical exhibit.
The book is available on the Secret Headquarters site. SHQ also happen to be one of the best comic shops I've ever visited. Full disclosure: I too am working on a project with them, but even if that were not the case, I'd still be all over this book.
Welcome back to Secret Fun Spot, your source for the latest news in Halloween audio cassettes from thirty-five years ago. This year I completed a set of five Halloween titles from a Canadian label called Madacy. Or so I thought! As I was finishing up this review, looking for audio links, I made an earth-shattering discovery. There are multiple versions of some (possibly all) of these tapes! The realization essentially ruined everything I’d written about them. Re-writing, and revising has been overcomplicated and confusing. The review as it stands still feels half baked and lacking the hilarity and hijinks that I like to include, but if I don’t post it soon I could miss this year’s Halloween season.
I've been especially interested in this set because I bought the one called Horror at the Graveyard for my previous Halloween tape reviews and it may be my single favorite Halloween recording of all-time. When I figured out that it was part of a series, I couldn’t wait to hear the others. My curiosity intensified when I saw a video from a Youtuber named Zaranyzerak where he reads reviews of various Halloween cassettes that he wrote when he was a kid. Two of his highest-ranked picks are from this Madacy series. I put them in my ebay search alerts a couple of years ago, and finally, a string of affordable auctions let me assemble the five titles. I was already excited to be the first-ever human to review these as a whole, and that was before my stunning revelation about the different versions. So even though I only own half of the recordings I will proceed with my partial review.
Madacy was a Canadian record publisher that operated from 1968 to 2009 and distributed a wide variety of musical genres. They catered to bargain seekers, often utilizing public domain material. Their annual releases were sparse until the 1990s when their output ramped up. That’s when they (probably) released their first Halloween tapes. The five earliest Halloween titles feature unified cover art and typography along with the a warning not to listen in the dark. They also share the same group of voice actors. As with most Halloween audio, the artists, writers, and performers are not credited. The copyright dates of all the albums are equally mysterious. Discogs lists Sounds of Halloween as a 1990 release. While I have trust issues with some Discogs Halloween audio dates, that does gel with the Youtube video I mentioned earlier because he bought his copies in October of 1991.
These five titles were each released with two different item numbers. The first sequence runs from #H-13 to #H-17, and the second one goes from #HA-20 to #HA-24. The ‘HA’ series features a white oval around the item number. My grand revelation revealed that the ‘HA’s are re-recordings of the content on the ‘H’ series. So with the help of online audio, I will attempt to do a tape-by-tape breakdown covering both recorded versions of each title. I’m going to list them in what I’m guessing to be chronological order.
*Halloween Tricks and Treats (H-13 version)
I bought a factory-sealed copy of this one, but I discovered that the cassette inside is labeled The Haunted House (H-14) which is another tape in this set. I thought they just put the wrong tape in the case until I realized that my legitimate copy of The Haunted House has completely different audio. I was unsure if a “true” copy of Halloween Tricks and Treat (H-13) even existed until I came across this archival list of Halloween audio that shows that there is indeed one. Inconsistencies like this one are making it difficult for me to achieve my singular goal of creating the greatest document on Madacy Halloween tapes in all of humankind’s collective knowledge.
My The Haunted House that was in the Halloween Tricks and Treats (H-13) case has a story spanning both sides of the tape where a serious-sounding narrator tells of his experience in a mysterious haunted house that appeared out of nowhere on Halloween night. The tale is driven by the expected haunted sounds of laughter, footsteps, bats, creaking, eerie music, and such. It turns out that everything was just a bad dream. Or was it? It seems likely that random sound effects were gathered and then strung together with narration after the fact.
*The Haunted House (H-14 version)
To complicate things even more, this tape has The Haunted House (H-14) printed on one side, and Halloween Tricks & Treats (H-14) on the other! It too contains a story that takes up both sides. It’s about a group of kids who decide to explore the mysterious Dalton house that’s rumored to be haunted. It plays out in the Scooby-Doo tradition where a series of supernatural scares happen, followed by a natural explanation. The tale is told by a female narrator and the voices of the kids sound suspiciously like the same lady.
Sounds of Halloween (H-15 version)
The French cover version is Sons d’Halloween (HF-10).
I’ve only heard the H-22 version of this one (see below) so I’ll update this entry if I ever come across this version.
*The House that Died (H-16 version)
This one has a story on one side and sound effects on the other. It’s about a woman who inherits her uncle's mansion and attempts to walk through it with dreams of restoring the place. The house itself turns against her, cutting her tour short. Unlike The Haunted House, there are supernatural forces at work, and even the weather is affected. Some eerie moments could easily freak out a kid, like when the house whispers at her, but even scarier is her discovery that the renovations will be more expensive than expected.
Horror at the Graveyard (H-17 version)
The only evidence I can find that this version exists is that list of Halloween audio on this site. I’m ridiculously curious about what’s on it. The version that I own is listed below.
_________
Now we have reached what I call The Great Madacy Re-Recording. It would seem that the initial releases sold well enough to merit another retail wave, but for reasons unknown, the recordings have been updated with heavily processed, reverberating vocals, all provided by the same man. They also feature a new, original synth score. Different variations of the musical theme can be heard on the different stories, which I think is a nice addition. Aside from the new item numbers there is no outward indication that the products were “new and improved” which is a baffling choice. Unless it was some legal move to deny payment to the original voice actors, or something like that. Or could it be that it was a genuine effort to deliver a more sophisticated product? I certainly think the re-recordings are better. The cheesy, stylized storytelling is what puts them in a class of their own.
The mysterious Dalton House from The Haunted House (H-14) is back, along with the young explorers, except in this re-recorded version, each kid has a different style of audio processing to differentiate their voices. They all share the same severe reverb that the spooky narrator has, which makes zero sense, plus it makes the dialogue difficult to understand. But these flaws only make me love it more.
The Haunted House (HA-21 version)
I see pictures of this version online, but until I find a cheap one, I can only speculate on the contents.
*Sounds of Halloween (HA-22 version)
This is a better-than-average montage of music and sound effects that encompasses both sides. It’s the only album in this series that is entirely made up of soundscapes. There are so many subsequent versions of this one that Madacy released through the years that I’m too overwhelmed to thoroughly tackle its legacy here. This is the only version I’ve heard, so I don’t know if it was re-recorded.
The House that Died (HA-23 version)
Thanks to the Youtube upload we know that this re-recording replaced the female narrator from the original with my favorite narrator, Mr. Reverb. More of that guy is exactly what I was hoping for when I started buying these. Being able to compare and contrast his performance to his predecessor is the type of experience that we geeks live for.
This is the one that kicked off my entire obsession. It’s the gold standard of Halloween audio. Told in first person, a man finds himself in a sinister cemetery where he is plagued by evil spirits. It’s less a story, and more of a loose sequence of events designed to showcase a variety of sound effects. For me, the droning storytelling accompanied by the thin synthesized score captures the essence of Halloween in the analog age. The final line of dialogue and the musical crescendo that follows never fails to delight me.
I enjoy fantasizing about the project origins of this line; the business meetings, and the creative process. Were these products purely driven by market data, or did someone wish to express their spooky side? Were they handled like just another Madacy album, no more or less special than their last Engelbert Humperdinck release? Or was there was a desire to explore the possibilities of compact cassette technology, in an effort to give kids fuel for their frightful fancies? I can’t decide if I prefer to romanticize the whole thing, or if it’s more fun to think of a bunch of work-a-day employees forced to whip up disposable ghost junk for the kiddies.
But there it is. Everything I know about these things at this point in time, presented to the internet at the request of nobody. Alas, I’m only halfway there; a thought that is both exciting and a bit exhausting. Perhaps we’ll have more to discuss next Halloween.
As usual, I started celebrating Halloween pretty early this year, and when I say celebrate I mean hunting for Halloween stuff to mark the new season. I’m no longer alone in this. Data shows that peak Halloween buying has moved up by several weeks in recent years. There was a day this July that I visited four different stores which all had fully stocked Halloween sections. (If you’re wondering: Dollar Tree, Party City, Cracker Barrel, and Joanne’s Fabric.) ”Summerween” didn’t feel right to me at first, but my brain is adapting. The early product reveals add another chapter to the whole experience, and I’ll take it, because it spreads out the fun.
There are four tiers of Halloween consumerism for me: general retail, thrifting, the curated secondary market, and online shopping. The latter offers the best treasures while the earlier ones give the best experiences. This year, I’ve already taken part in all of these, and I will share some of my spoils with you here.
General Retail
I love the annual invasion of monsters in nearly every retail outlet. I go out of my way to explore shops all over my region. Hardware stores become well-lit spook houses, and routine grocery shopping suddenly involves a walk through a gallery of horrors. I don’t typically load up on new Halloween items, save for cheap dollar store offerings. I prefer old stuff. But Target got me this year with their new line of 80s-infused decor. They tapped into punk, Richard Simmons, shutter shades, clear telephones and a color palette straight from the carpet of a video arcade. But my favorite is a mayoral looking jack-o-lantern-headed blowmold. He’s one of several recurring characters like a green-skulled skeleton, and the mohawk skull. I appreciate the idea of Halloween mascots, even if they’re corporate. I mean, Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer was created for Montgomery Ward stores, so why not?
My Target purchases defied my usual taste for vintage things. But with each passing year I wonder how long I’ll continue to find things from thirty, or even fifty years ago. I’m ever thankful that holiday decorations tend to stick around longer than other home goods. They become part of tradition and turn into family heirlooms. There are dedicated Halloween storage bins in garages and basements across the county. That’s likely why this year didn’t disappoint in that area.
Thrifting
Thrift stores are such a unique experience; a proverbial marathon of drudging through discarded, depressing objects in hopes of finding the proverbial gems. It’s a numbers game. I make near-daily walkthroughs only to buy something about one in every fifty visits. But when it hits, it can truly be a proverbial jackpot. This year hasn’t yielded any proverbial white whales yet. It’s as though I’m the embodiment of a proverbial proverb. Anyway, one of my local thrift stores had an inordinate stockpile of Halloween stuff that they’ve been rolling out for weeks, so there have been enough little finds to liven up my season. The best was probably a Telco battery operated Creature from the Black Lagoon for four bucks that I lifted off the clerk’s cart before it was shelved. There’s no picture here because I gave it to a spooky-loving friend. (I already own two.)
Among my favorite finds is this Con-tact paper from 1991. I relate to the original owner in that I’m not sure what to do with it, but I bought it anyway.
I’m particularly fond of this treat bucket from 1986 labeled Myrle’s Original that I got for fifty cents. It was covered in flecks of green paint and other gunk, but to my surprise it cleaned up great, so now it feels well-earned.
It’s the sort of thing that begs me to consider its entire history, from production design to the day I bought it. I imagine someone at a drafting table in the mid ‘80s, poring over a book of clip art. They pause upon seeing a skeleton in a tuxedo. (And who originated that?) Tux-skeleton became the star of the bucket, while the spider and web were necessary to fill the space. The choice of typeface is perfect. I wonder if this container was ever used during trick-or-treating. Its utilitarian value likely ensured its survival in someone's garage all these decades. It sure came in handy when they wanted to paint something green.
Then in this year of two thousand twenty-four, why was it finally time to let it go? The owner’s age? A move? Or just a thorough spring cleaning? Then it was my turn to become its keeper. I restored it, and now I get to honor and preserve it on the same internet that’s used by all the world’s governments and religions. After
I typed all that, I spent a half hour on archive.org trying to find the
clip art book where the skeleton came from, but no luck. Myrle’s (whatever that
is) used the same skeleton in 1998 bearing a different message, and in
color!
The Curated Secondary Market
The region where I live has a wide selection of flea markets and antique shops, but this area doesn’t have the history, the economy, or the taste of places like, the northeast for example. The standard Pennsylvania junk shop is museum-quality in my eyes. Many of my local flea markets are only slightly better than thrift stores. Many of the products are just marked-up thrift store finds. But that doesn’t stop me from frequenting them. This next item did come from a northeastern flea market, and I actually got it two years ago on a trip to VHS Fest, but I shamefully forgot to put out for Halloween until
now. That slanted, dripping typography has such a sense of gleeful
urgency. I can barely handle it! And I think the ghost has a tongue!
There
is a category of Halloween items that I’ve long admired, but only
recently got into. It’s the 1980s and 90s battery operated imports that I usually saw in drug stores and oddball shops back in the day. They are decidedly off-brand, though I suppose Halloween doesn’t really have too many big name brands. They often have poorly translated English, and the packaging usually
shows a picture of the product in a monochromatic void.
I never bought these when they were new because I assumed they were poorly made and short-lived, plus they could be relatively expensive. But I can no longer deny that they are truly wonderful. My appreciation has snowballed over time. So a couple years ago I picked up this Vincent the talking skull, and a “Wizard” candy container at a cool second hand toy shop. Both of them still work great, contradicting my theory about their quality.
The very name of this product seems to be mistranslated, and the instructions are poetic.
“…IT WOULD HAVE THE HAT OPENED
SLOWLY WITH HORROR
LAUGHT & GRINNING
LIGHTING EYES
ALL ACTIONS STOP PLAYING
UPON THE HAT BE COVERED”
I recently noticed the “Wizard” in a Walgreens commercial from 1992.
(I admit theirs seems to have different eye makeup, so maybe both a witch and wizard exist.)
Sheesh, that group shot of them floating in the foggy forest is the definition of Halloween magic.
Finding those two in the wild was an anomaly so this year I turned to eBay after seeing a post from Trash Witch that clued me into the existence of the Pumpkin Monster! I found an auction for significantly less than the rest of the listings, and bought it.
How I love the fact that the three figures all seem to be copied from other Halloween decorations of the time. (I may be reaching on the witch, but she's from the same Eureka line as the skeleton and she's got those same little symbols on her hat.)
EDIT: I also found the purple vest, green bow skeleton in the form of a ceramic light.
Ebay
Sure, we all know about eBay, but let’s take a moment to appreciate this.
I discovered an obscure Halloween item while sitting on my couch in the middle of the night as I half-watched some horror movie. It’s possible it wasn’t even sold within a hundred mile radius of my small town. But I was able to instantly go shopping at a dream store that isn’t bound by time or place. There I located a pumpkin monster of my own that still functions. It’s like I reached across the decades to grab it off the shelf of some arcane drug store. This type of transaction has only been available to humanity for a couple of decades.
Fueled by that experience and my frothy greed, I searched for more lesser known Halloween stuff in this vein. I found the Boo Bunch creepy walkers from 1993. Once Heddy the pumpkin guy arrived, I noticed that he was branded specifically for K-mart and my heart turned into a warm puddle.
There is one other way to obtain amazing Halloween goods that is superior to them all. Occasionally friends have gifted me some wonderful items. Like this Living Skull key chain that my friend Eddie Guevera gave me years ago. It falls squarely into this ‘no brand’ type of stuff. I adore it and its blood-splattered grid. “When put it in your palm it will murmur with terrible sound & gleam in eyes.” Oh, that is the stuff.
Now that all of these items are hung, shelved, displayed, lit-up and full of batteries, I believe I’m prepared to venture into the heart of October. Stay tuned!
