Halfway 2 Halloween~ Why so Glum?

Ultimately, Halloween is all about candy to some folks. Which is a big part of the night I suppose. Our little cowboy here sadly lost his before finding a new friend who offers to share a full sized bounty. But wait a minute... that a ghost! It's hard to make fun of this commercial, literally a perfect taste of Halloween. Since we're halfway there, it's a little of that scary flavor we all savor. With it our Halfway 2 Halloween special event comes to a close. Thanks to everyone that read along for some spooky fun. With code orange alerts to be going off soon in the summer before the Zone Base Halloween goes into full scary swing in August... I don't know what I was going to say. Happy Halfway 2 Halloween!

originally posted on 5/12/2023

Halfway 2 Halloween~ Macbre Marathons

We're Halfway to Halloween as you're aware and with that comes a little spooky fun in the springtime. An easy way to do that is a scary movie night, simple to do with most streaming apps. Many of us have fond memories of the horror marathon on local TV during October. It was such a regular thing that characters are doing it in Halloween 1978 and Halloween 2 1981. Long before AMC was known for it's original programing, the channel just showed old movies. They have their annual Fear Fest to this day, but it's roots were more classic. Halloween night with the Universal Monsters? Heck yeah!

originally posted on 5/5/2023

Happy Halloween 2025!

It's the main event, Halloween is here Zone Base readers! Happy Halloween! Thank you for celebrating my favorite time of year with me again. As much as I love putting up the decorations and handing out the candy, Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem is one of my favorite things to do each year and I'm so happy to have spent it with you all. Speaking of you all, this year we've reached all new highs. A record breaking metric ton of you all showed up to go trick or treating with me this Halloween season.

Thank you all so much for coming and reading Zone Base. I really do appreciate each and every one of you all for supporting my little site. Normal posting will resume next week as we pack away the pumpkins and skeletons for another year. But don't worry, every day is Halloween on Zone Base! There's always monsters creeping out and random scares around every corner! Once again, thank you all for reading and remember to check your candy before you eat it. Mutual Spooky High Fives everyone!

Who Spooked Rodney?

Rodney is a a big old fraidy cat. If there's a superstition, Rodney is scared of it. Which one begs to reason... why does he even go trick or treating? Or even to a haunted house? Does he just relish is pooping his pants or something? And what's up with that one kid while they're in the haunted house? Is he ok?

originally posted 10/26/23 

We Need To Talk About Safety AGAIN

I don't know who needs to hear this, but... Halloween is a dangerous holiday. When you've got all sorts of ghosts, and monsters, and demons just roaming around - things are bound to happen. Add in trick or treating and that's just one more thing that's going on. I swear I was going somewhere with that train of thought. Oh well, fuck it. It's a damn fucking dangerous holiday full of danger and fucking devils and all sorts of evil spooky shit and we fucking love it. That being said, to quote Okefenokee Joe, you've got to be swamp smart. Somebody put a needle in your Twix? Sorry to say, things like that are bound to happen. It's best you take in a safety tip or two before the big night. Trick or treat, you're dead meat.

originally posted 9/28/21 

Daniel Mouse Went Down To Georgia

The Devil and Daniel Mouse was a Halloween special produced by Nelvana and first aired on CBS on October 5th 1978. It's an adaption of the short story 'The Devil and Daniel Webster'. I made a point to be informative at first because it's slightly obscure now. This is the information super highway, right? Daniel and Jan mouse are folk musicians struggling to get by when one night at the peak of their struggles Jan makes a deal with the devil while Daniel is away. She signs her soul away for fame and success and becomes a huge star leaving Daniel behind.

I know, this has never worked out in the past, but to her credit, she doesn't realize it's the devil she's talking too. Somehow. All is going well before she realizes who her new agent is actually when he comes to claim her end of the bargain. She runs away and finds Daniel and begs him to help. Daniel represents her in court and you've probably figured out the rest. It's a retelling of an old story that's been redone a million times. This particular version though is pretty cool. Despite the cute animal characters, the devil and assorted imagery are still pretty scary.

Taking place in the 70's, they change from hippy folk music to hard rock really driving home the thematic change. There's such a change in tone from the folksy innocent Daniel and the newly glam Jan that I can't help to see it as commentary from the production crew. I do suppose it was a pretty stark change from flower power to gritty and glam. Either way it's a pretty unique little cartoon that may not be specifically pumpkin spicy as a Halloween special, but works tonally.

originally posted 9/9/21 

Eat something Scary

Heinz Scarios were a spooky shaped pasta in sauce available throughout the 80's in Canada. For the record, I'm very jealous of those of you in Canada who were able to eat these. They look amazing. Admittedly I'd probably eat them all year, but it would be perfect on a cold October night spent inside watching Sleepy Hollow.

originally posted 9/21/22

Ichabod's Bogus Journey

Sleepy Hollow has problems. For one, the damn Headless Horseman is constantly terrorizing the town. The other? That whole milk crate thing. Where the hell do they keep getting those anyway? There's a serious problem with a Headless Horseman and these damn fool kids all have broken hips! The local school teacher, Ichabod Crane, is into the paranormal. So he forms a team with Rip Van Winkle and some dog to go confront that damn headless fool. He's a shitty teacher, so the whole milk crate thing doesn't even get a speech in homeroom. Things don't go how you'd expect them to as they face all sorts of monsters in a spooky showdown with a wicked witch. For the record I didn't make any of that up, that's what happens, and yes this is one weird cartoon. Also people keep hurting themselves climbing milk crates. Happy fall y'all.

originally posted 8/27/21

Ultra-Spooky Tiga!

Oh no! There's a witch causing problems for children on Halloween! What do we do! SEND IN ULTRAMAN! It's Halloween and the GUTS team suspects a monster. The team investigates (in costumes, it's Halloween... duh) and soon discovers a witch handing out lollipops to children. Trick or Treat? It's a TRICK! The witch is stealing the children's dreams and converting them into energy! Good thing Ultraman Tiga is here to save Halloween!

originally posted 9/16/22 

 

The Fever Dream Of Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod Crane is a weird guy. He likes to eat food and whoop dat ass. Unfortunately he's not thicker than a toothpick once stuck in a Snicker, so the only ass whom he whoops dat is of his students. Well, the ones who don't have any food for him anyway.

I'm sure you're well versed in the story of Sleepy Hollow, so you know exactly what happens to Ichabod. However, you may not have seen this bizarre animated version from 1972 that doesn't wait until the end to bring forth the scares.

originally posted 8/3/21

Horror Hotel, it's up to you

"Hey man, it's Halloween. Let's do something scary!" You might find yourself saying during this time of the year. It's the Spooky Season after all, and nothing says that better than a trip to the local haunted house or scary attractions set up for the season. In 2000, you might have found yourself at the Horror Hotel surrounded by masks and dummies of famous monsters! It sounds like a great time, even though somebodies Aunt keeps trying to scare you.

originally posted 9/15/22 

Don't be a Halloweenie

Growing up is hard, especially in those early teenage years in that limbo of leaving childhood and becoming an adult. I was the youngest of my siblings, so there never was that little brother or sister still doing those things I was now 'too old' for. Big Pete, well, he has Little Pete to deal with. You try resisting him. Little Pete wants to set a new world record for most houses visited for trick or treat. Sounds awesome right? Well it is, but he needs help... and the only one who can do it is Big Pete... whose now 'too old'. Good thing he can wear a mask to hide his embarrassment right? Well... Halloween is a dangerous holiday sometimes. One such danger is older kids who like to bully Halloweenies.

originally posted 9/8/23 

1-900-660-UGLY

It's Friday night. You're warming up a frozen pizza in the oven while playing SEGA. Maybe after the pizza is done, you'll watch a scary movie. It's Halloween time after all, time for some creepy fun. Hey... how about calling that scary phone hotline? Heck yeah! This will be great! Time to take a JOURNEY INTO TERROR!

originally posted 9/30/22 

Beware of the Terror House!

I'm mostly aware of Takeshi Kitano from Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, a funny dub job of the show Takeshi's Castle that was on in my early 20's. I still watch it regularly and it introduced me to Takeshi Kitano. Who's been in so many things... it's hard to list them all. It's no wonder why Bandai asked him to help sell their line of handheld LCD games in 1982, he's a big star. This one in particular is perfect for a spooky night with a horror marathon on in the background. Or something creepy to do in between handing out candy to kids on Halloween night.  Known here as Terror House and in Japan as Akuryo no Yakata, the game has some pretty great spooky graphics. I kinda want to play it right now.

originally posted 9/27/23

Garret Rising

You take the good. You take the bad. You take so much of Joe's crap and there you have... what the crap? Holy Crap. Days in and out of tending to the girls has lead to something horrible. Somewhere between un-clogging the toilet (she pronounces it 'turlette') after another one of Natalie's 'special episodes' and Tootie microwaving another fork... Mrs Garret apparently snapped. Turns out all that head wobbling was an early sign.

originally posted 8/2/22 

Halfway 2 Halloween~Tonight we Scream

fatsAlien Nation was a science fiction/crime drama hybrid that delt with lots of social themes. It was also pretty dang good. Of course we're here for Halloween and hey, this pretty good show had a Halloween episode! It's the spooky season as as the Newcomers are adapting to life on earth they're of course learning about our cultures and holidays. Halloween is pretty weird for people that don't celebrate it as is, but imagine being from another planet. It's a pretty big culture shock, not to mention dealing with jerks. Emily is looking forward to her first Halloween, but some of the kids are of course not to friendly towards somebody different. Did I mention the social themes? Yeah, they go pretty hard. The Francisco's are having an interesting spooky season.

It doesn't help that George is tracking a serial killer. Oh hey, a serial killer at Halloween! This episode hits all the major notes! The killer however is targeting Newcomers in a very specific way. In their old culture, there was Overseers and slaves. Now on Earth, they're all equals... but the former Overseers still think they're better than others... sound familiar? It gets pretty heavy. Well the killer is specifically targeting the former Overseers in the manner of a scary folk legend the Overseers would use to scare the slaves into obedience. Needless to say, this isn't your average show or Halloween special.

Originally Posted: 09/01/2023

It's Gotta Be Halloween... sooner or later

"It's Gotta Be Halloween"~ Chuck E. Cheese

(it's a banger)

Halfway 2 Halloween~Monstro vs. The Wolf Hound

I love watching old Heathcliff cartoons, but it brings to mind a question. Why did they split it up with another group of cats? I wanted to watch Heathcliff. Regardless, the Catillac Cats are a fun group of felines who get into various adventures and are generally likable. What's this got to do with Halloween? They watched a scary movie and have nightmares! Classic Halloween episode plot! Watch the gang act out classic monster tropes in obviously outsourced animation!

originally posted 8/18/2023

Happy Halloween Zone Base Readers!

It's Halloween, Happy Halloween! Get out your costumes and make sure you have a glow stick for safety! Me? I'm looking forward to trick or treating the kids and watching some spooky shows. I hope every one has a great holiday. Of course this means the last of the Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem for 2023. As happy as I am to celebrate the holiday with all of you, it is a bit sad to see it come to an end again. However you know the spooky stuff will return next year for Halfway to Halloween in spring, Code Orange fun in summer, and the big party when Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem returns in the fall. In the meantime, the site will return to regular programming... you know the stuff in between all the Halloween stuff? Thank you for celebrating Halloween with me again this year. Thanks for supporting Zone Base, and please share with your friends!

Halloween almost Wasn't but Dracula saved the World

It's getting close to the big day. That means it's time to share my all time favorite Halloween special. The Halloween that Almost Wasn't or also known as The Night Dracula Saved the World is a special little slice of Halloween that just doesn't get made anymore. It's Halloween and the Witch refuses to fly over the moon unless her demands are met by Dracula. If she doesn't fly over the moon, then no more Halloween! Dracula and the other monsters try to convince her other wise in a charmingly low rent production. It's hard to say anything bad about this special, even it's flaws are endearing... and funny. Check out the Mummy straight up falling more than once. I don't think he can see where he's going...