Editorials
Black Friday Chopping List: Toys
| MOVIES | GAMES | TV | MUSIC | TOYS |
Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! As many of you probably already know, that means Black Friday is right around the corner. While stores aren’t necessarily as packed as they used to be thanks to online deals and events like Cyber Monday, Black Friday is nonetheless a very stressful and busy day for some people. There are just so many deals out there! I don’t know about any of you, but I choose to stay out of the brick-and-mortar stores and stick to online shopping in my pajamas at my home. Here is a list of some of the must-have horror toys that we think you should consider purchasing this Black Friday!
Penny Dreadful CLUE (Penny Dreadful)
If you’ve never watched Penny Dreadful, you’re really missing out, but that’s an argument for another post. Showtime has gifted us with a Penny Dreadful game of Clue, and it couldn’t be more glorious. You know how Monopoly has a bunch of different editions themed after different movies, shows and themes? Parker Bros. should really do that with Clue and horror movies. They’ve got a Simpsons edition and even a Big Bang Theory edition, but it would probably boost sales put out more horror-themed editions.
From Showtime:
Mina Murray has been killed and the murderer remains at large– lurking in the darkest corners of Victorian London. In this classic mystery game of CLUE: Penny Dreadful, it’s up to you to uncover the clues and find out WHO killed Mina, WHERE they killed her, and with WHAT weapon. Was it Dorian Gray with a Syringe at the London Zoo? Or was it Vanessa Ives in Ferdinand Lyle’s Mansion with Arsenic? 6 Suspects: Vanessa Ives, Sir Malcolm Murray, Dorian Gray, Brona Croft, Ethan Chandler and Victor Frankenstein Custom Sculpted Weapons: Pistol, Syringe, Tarot Cards, Arsenic, Handkerchief, and Sword Cane Beautifully illustrated game board represents locations from the show set in 1891 London Movers & Personality Cards Intrigue Cards – 24 card deck comprised of 16 action cards and 8 tarot cards Clue Sheet & Envelope Instructions
Betrayal at House On the Hill
If you’ve got an hour to spare and at least two friends nearby, play this game. There are fifty different ways the game can play out and they all involve some truly horrific events. It’s a must-have party game for any horror fan.
From the Manufacturer:
The creak of footsteps on the stairs, the smell of something foul and dead, the feel of something crawling down your back – this and more can be found in the exciting refresh of the Avalon Hill favorite Betrayal at House on the Hill. This fun and suspenseful game is a new experience almost every time you play – you and your friends explore “that creepy old place on the hill” until enough mystic misadventures happen that one of the players turns on all of the others. Hours of fun for all your friends and family. Designed for 3–6 players aged 12 and up, this board game features multiple scenarios, a different lay-out with every game, and enough chills to freeze the heart of any horror fan.
Bat Gremlin (Gremlins 2: The New Batch)
This guy won’t be in stock on Amazon until March, so now is your chance to pre-order it before they sell out!
From NECA:
One of the most requested Gremlins figures of all time is finally here! Our latest deluxe action figure from Gremlins 2: The New Batch is the spectacular Bat Gremlin, with a massive wingspan of nearly 18 inches. This detailed re-creation of the puppet seen in Gremlins 2 is fully articulated, including hinged ears, hinged jaw, and jointed arms that allow the wings to spread open and fold closed! At approximately 6 inches tall, it’s perfectly in scale with our previous Gremlins action figures, too. Comes with a “flight” display stand.
Freddy Krueger Potato Head (A Nightmare On Elm Street)
If you’re a horror fan with kids, then this is the perfect present for them! They even have a Jason one. Who says you can’t start ’em early?
Life-Size Xenomorph Egg (Alien)
This one is a real steal at only $600 on Amazon! In all seriousness though, it’s a pretty nifty toy. If you’ve got the cash, this would make for a fantastic addition to your home décor.
From NECA:
Transform any room into a deadly alien breeding ground with this Life Size Xenomorph Egg — complete with its own eerie lighting and life size facehugger! As seen in the 1986 horror classic Aliens, this full-sized replica stands almost 36” tall, and articulated flaps with a wire armature allow you to actually open the top folds of the egg. The included full-size facehugger has a bendable tail, so you can pose it anywhere… waiting to drop on unsuspecting prey from overhead, or simply lurking inside the egg. The Life Size Xenomorph Egg is made of detailed, hand-painted foam and stands on its own. A switch activates the LED lights inside the base to create a menacing, otherworldly glow effect. Requires 3 AAA batteries, not included.
Friday the 13th 25th Anniversary Boxed Set (Friday the 13th)
This guy is about 10 years old, so he’s a little pricey. You can buy him on Amazon though. The set comes with sack-head Jason from Friday the 13th Part 2, along with Mrs. Voorhees and her severed head.
8-Bit Jason (Friday the 13th)
Once upon a time, there was a Friday the 13th video game, and it was terrible. This action figure isn’t terrible though!
From Toys on Fire:
Based on his appearance in the classic Friday the 13th video game, released in 1989 for the popular 8-bit home console, Jason stands 7″ and has over 25 points of articulation for great poses. The figure comes with machete, axe, harpoon gun and removable mask, plus new mother’s head accessory. New paint deco reproduces the game’s pixilated look. And not only does the window box packaging re-create the look and feel of the classic video game cartridge box, lift the front flap and it plays music from the game, too!
Jason Mug (Friday the 13th)
This mug is a magic mug. It gets a picture as it gets hotter! It makes for a perfect gift for any coffee (or tea) drinkers out there!
From Entertainment Earth:
Prepare for the day everyone fears…with a nice, warm cup of coffee. This 11 oz. Friday the 13th Jason Voorhees Morphing Mug transforms from black to full color as hot liquid is added! Watch as the heat-activated process reveals a hidden image of Jason in vivid colors. Hand wash only. Not safe for dishwasher or microwave. Measures approximately 3 3/4-inches tall x 3 1/8-inches in diameter.
Shaun and Ed (Shaun of the Dead)
These adorable figurines will make an excellent addition to your horror-comedy shelf. Wait, you don’t have one of those? Well time to make one, and what better way to start with these guys?
Freddy Krueger Syringe Glove (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)
Freddy’s razor glove gets all the attention, but there was a time when he turned his razor hands into syringes, and it was awesome. Now you can get the replica of that glove and show up your friends who dressed as mere regular ol’ Freddy Kruegers on Halloween!
From Entertainment Earth:
- Wear the syringe glove from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors!
- Features articulated fingers and syringes that light-up in blue.
- Makes for a great addition to your Freddy Halloween costume!
From A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, it’s the Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger Syringe Glove! This glove inspired by the horror movie features copper metallic articulated fingers and plastic syringes that light up in blue. The plastic glove features a copper metallic paint deco. Whether you want to use these as part of a Halloween costume or as display at home, you’ll love the realistic replication of the Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger Syringe Glove! Requires 3x “AG13/LR44” batteries (included). Ages 17 and up.
Demon Sam Statue (Trick ‘r Treat)
He walks! He stalks! He’s also adorable! Buy little Sam to make an excellent desk decoration for anyone’s desk.
From Entertainment Earth:
Decorate your desk at work or home with the Trick ‘r Treat Sam Animated Table Top Statue. This 8-inch tall plush statue of the burlap-sack-wearing Sam actually walks and plays music and audio taken from the horror movie Trick ‘r Treat! Just press the button on his left foot and watch him go! The exterior of the statue is plush. Ages 17 and up.
What are some horror-themed toys you’ve seen out there that you just have to have? Let us know in the comments below or shoot me a Tweet!
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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