I discovered this ad for a showing of Halloween 2 on the USA channel while remembering the old urban legends of the 'real' Michael Myers. These days kid call him Stanley Stiers lol, but in my day he was the escaped mental patient that comes out at Halloween to kill people. It may sound silly now, but he was the source of real terror for the kids in my neighborhood. I still remember a commercial for Halloween 4 airing while my brother and I were watching The New Leave it to Beaver.
Immediately after the commercial was over, my brother told me about the real killer attacked his home room teachers friends when he was in school. Yikes! This commercial is fun as it's another airing of Halloween 2 on Halloween Night (2 and 3 usually together) with the same set of clips from the movie. Though USA did something I've always appreciated, they added their own homemade flair. This time in the form of an animated pumpkin. In today's age of streaming fast channel apps, little things like a TV station making low budget commercials from media package clips full of charm feels like a Mandela Effect. But it happened, and it was glorious.
It's no surprise that a movie series named Halloween would be popular during Halloween. Though, if you're around my age, you'll remember it being a more forbidden thing. The escaped mental patient that killed kids on Halloween urban legend spread like wildfire during October. At the time, Halloween was a popular movie... but not the institution that it is now. Kids were often more sheltered by their parents from these movies, and Michael Myers was one of the more taboo movie monsters. So of course your local television station commercials had an aura of mystique. I'm glad these old local spots somehow survived and got uploaded. They're firmly a relic of days gone by.
Ever hear about that scene in Halloween where they find a bloody pumpkin with a knife sticking out of it? I used to hear about it all the time. That and how Michael Myers was based on a real guy. I'll get to the 'real guy' thing later, but for now I kind of want to chat bloody pumpkins and the Halloweens they weren't in. It's the weirdest urban legend as I never see anyone talk about it online. The Jason using a chainsaw thing? Yeah, I still see that occasionally. Bloody pumpkin? As offline as the official Bloody Pumpkin MySpace profile I planned on making in 2005.
It wasn't even that long ago my mom said it when I mentioned looking forward to the new Halloween (wait, that was 2018... ) and she said the original was 'so scary with that big knife sticking out of that pumpkin'. Clearly, it's folks mentally combining imagery. Maybe just a little excited playground exaggeration from the one kid who's parents let him stay up and watch it.
See the commercial up above? It's an old school homemade spot for a local stations airing of Halloween 2. Homemade commercials used to be pretty common back in the day. Did you uh... notice Michael? Somebody got creative to make him look 'badass'. Making monsters look badass is a staple of Halloween and teenagers really into Ozzy Osbourne. Named Chet.
I think it's from some of these type of commercials where folks get that bloody pumpkin imagery. A bloody pumpkin with a knife sticking out of it isn't exactly rare at Halloween. I know I've seen one or two in the past. I've even poured fake blood over a pumpkin myself. Why not? Make it look badass.
Every once and awhile I'm reminded of Annabelle. Not just because I enjoy the paranormal and scary stuff in general... but because I was terrified of her a a kid. I've talked about it before. Of course back then I didn't know her name. She was just the 'possessed Raggedy Ann doll' that kids talked about. Like Bloody Mary or the escaped serial killer on Halloween, she was a urban legend that scared us all. At the time, it wasn't uncommon to see a Raggedy Ann doll either. I strongly recall one sitting in a display at the local library and another owned by my cousin. Her popularity as a fictional character was waning by that then, but her presence was still there. Every sighting of one seemed evil. Is that the possessed one? Spring has had been a little extra spooky this year and as we near Walpurgis and Halfway to Halloween... it's a good time to remind those who may not be regular readers that it can get scary during the warmer months here on Planet Zone.
It's no surprise that a movie series named Halloween would be popular during Halloween. Though, if you're around my age, you'll remember it being a more forbidden thing. The escaped mental patient that killed kids on Halloween urban legend spread like wildfire during October. At the time, Halloween was a popular movie... but not the institution that it is now. Kids were often more sheltered by their parents from these movies, and Michael Myers was one of the more taboo movie monsters. So of course your local television station commercials had an aura of mystique. I'm glad these old local spots somehow survived and got uploaded. They're firmly a relic of days gone by.
Everyone will bring up Krampus each year. It's to be expected during such a happy and cheery time. Real ones know about Christmas time monsters that terrorize kids and adults alike during the most wonderful time of the year. It used to be time for scary stories after all. Probably one of the most fun Christmastime creeps would be Gryla, the Christmas Witch. In Iceland, she's believed to take naughty children back to her cave and eat them. Her story goes back a long time and has several variations thought history, but that's the general gist of it.
She's not alone either, her kids (or brothers depending on story) tend to cause all sorts of troubles in the homes of these naughty children. They eat the kids back at the cave along with Gryla and her lazy husband. Just like most witches, Gryla has a cat who eats those that didn't get new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve. Suddenly all those socks and crappy sweaters from grandparents don't seem so bad. I think whats really funny, is that thanks to so many parents using Gryla as a way to scare their children into behaving, it was actually against the law for a while. Gryla is still somewhat a common mythological character that terrorizes Iceland during Christmas. That says something to her spookiness that she's been around so long and still somewhat a real world terror to those who hear about her every Christmas. Happy Holidays... if you survive.
Public restrooms can be scary enough sometimes, let alone the ones ata school. Though I think a ghost terrorixzing you while sitting in there just might be worse than some bully banging on the door and laughing. Depending on who tells you the story, Hanako-san was either murdered by a stranger or a parent in a school restroom. Sometimes the story says she (sadly) killed herself or was the victim of an World War II air raid while in the restroom.
All of the origin stories are pretty sad. If you choose to summon Hanako-san, you must individuially go inside a girls restroom inside a school, knock three times on the third stall and ask if Hanako-san is present. If she's there, she's answer with form of 'yes, i am'. You'll then see a ghostly or bloody hand. Either that hand or Hanako-san will pull you into the toilet or straight to hell! Or maybe just eaten by a three-headed lizard for disturbing her privacy. Like most urban legends there's a lot of variations depending on who's telling the story. I'm assuming that person didn't actually attempt it themselves...
It's Halloween and this month we'll be celebrating the spooky season! Rob talks about his cherished Dynabot (Snarl) costume before a look at Halloween urban legends! There's all that and even vampire robots. It's sure to be a scary good time!
Trick or Treating is fun... and possibly dangerous. One danger that everyone knows is bad people could tamper with the treats being handed out and cause some real harm or even kill someone. Now, this old urban legend is often dismissed with 'studies show blah blah'. And it's true, there's a lot of myth to this. However... there's always a little truth to these kind of things. Not to mention... what studies? It's not like the local urgent care or emergency room is reporting everything that's going on. It's always better safe than sorry? Well, I can't tell you how many times I've seen or heard of a towns hospital offering to x-ray your candy to find any razor blades or straight pins in those snack sized Snickers. It's a good thing too... because dang. Remember that scene in Halloween 2?
It's not uncommon to be told something spooky as a child as a way to keep you in line. One childhood horror of mine was not to talk about the devil or say the word hell. Doing so would cause the devil to visit me in my sleep. Now obviously this was partially a easy way to keep kids from having a potty mouth and probably a little of that Satanic Panic I've talked so much about here.
It's safe to say, the idea of the devil visiting you while sleeping is enough to mortify any 6 year old. This extended to various visages of the devil and other demons. It was already pretty scary for a small child, but adding in the additional danger of that night time visitation? Sometimes I wasn't sure the adults were taking it serious enough. The devil would show up randomly, unexpected, terrifying a young me. Lunch wasn't even safe. Satanic forces were lurking everywhere.
Which is why the commercial I've posted above hits particularly hard. I was so uncomfortable with Dirt Devil vacuums, it was a small relief that my parents never bought one. We were a Black and Decker household thankfully. Of course now I have a Dirt Devil and so far no unholy visitations (that I know of). But I still remember when such evil things were unspoken.
Working overnight can be weird. I've done it for going on 11 years now and have had prior night shift jobs before. The world can be quieter at night, but also, more creepy. I can't tell you how many random weirdos I've ran across doing something as simple as getting a soda at a convenience store. Sometimes I run to the store for something at lunch, or just taking a break outside early in the morning. Not every time has been simple. There's a reason so many late night workers have spooky stories and so much media has been made from it. Fortunately I've not dealt with the red room like in the video above. Though, in those early days of the internet, I saw some weird and scary stuff. Still do, but these day's it's a little better hidden. There's just always something weird going on and sometimes it's just better not to look.
I heard a story once, that it was Monday and that meant a new week on Planet Zone. According to the kids on the playground, there's a new Not as Brightly Lit available as well. If that's your sort of thing. There's a fun week planned ahead for you readers. Please share with your friends and help it spread. Don't forget to put salt at your door. You never know what's trying to come in.
It's another new week here on Planet Zone! While Kuchisake-onna has been around longer than the pandemic, sometimes I wonder if sightings of her have been increasing over the past year. Scary huh? I hope you find all the fun stuff I'm gonna post this week pretty. There's a new episode of Not As Brightly Lit for your weekly dose of something spooky and we're rounding the corner on our weekly look at the Final Faction toys from Dollar Tree. Just two more figures to cover until the next batch gets released sometime later this year! As always, thanks for reading Zone Base and please share with your friends!
Every neighborhood has a haunted house, but what if a Satanic guy also
lived there? This week, Rob revisits the neighborhood that Suicide Hill
was located in and talks about it's other place of horror. The haunted
house that a Satanic guy lived in.
We've all heard an urban legend or two that's given us the spooks. This week, Rob talks about one from his childhood called Suicide Hill and the adventure to it's location one spring day.
I've got something to admit, I was terrified of Raggedy Ann as a child. While The Conjuring movies are great, most people don't know those "true stories" they're based on happened somewhat recently.
Thanks to The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror, paranormal and occult stuff was pretty much all over the place during my childhood. Add in 80's Satanic Panic and you've got the recipe for much needed therapy. One popular ghost story was the possessed Raggedy Ann doll.
I'm of course talking about the real life Annabelle, which was an object of terror to a generation of children. It doesn't help that Raggedy Anne dolls were still everywhere at the time and someone gave her a Halloween Special. It's about the doll bringing a lonely pumpkin and child together. You read that right.
Ever hear about that scene in Halloween where they find a bloody pumpkin with a knife sticking out of it? I used to hear about it all the time. That and how Michael Myers was based on a real guy. I'll get to the 'real guy' thing later, but for now I kind of want to chat bloody pumpkins and the Halloweens they weren't in. It's the weirdest urban legend as I never see anyone talk about it online. The Jason using a chainsaw thing? Yeah, I still see that occasionally. Bloody pumpkin? As offline as the official Bloody Pumpkin MySpace profile I planned on making in 2005.
It wasn't even that long ago my mom said it when I mentioned looking forward to the new Halloween (wait, that was 2018... ) and she said the original was 'so scary with that big knife sticking out of that pumpkin'. Clearly it's folks mentally combining imagery. Maybe just a little excited playground exaggeration from the one kid who's parents let him stay up and watch it mixed in.
See the commercial up above? It's an old school homemade spot for a local stations airing of Halloween 2. Homemade commercials used to be pretty common back in the day. Did you uh... notice Michael? Somebody got creative to make him look 'badass'. Making monsters look badass is a staple of Halloween and teenagers really into Ozzy Osbourne. Named Chet.
I think it's from some of these type of commercials where folks get that bloody pumpkin imagery. A bloody pumpkin with a knife sticking out of it isn't exactly rare at Halloween. I know I've seen one or two in the past. I've even poured fake blood over a pumpkin myself. Why not? Make it look badass.
Running a marathon and camp, two beloved summer traditions that many take part in each year. While I've never ran a marathon, I used to go to a summer day camp when I was a kid and my brother went to a scout camp a few times. I don't know of many horrible things happening at marathons, summer camps though are often plagued by so many nightmares you often wonder why they're so popular.
Snake bites, poisoned wells, ghosts, and murder is just some of the urban legends surrounding the popular summer getaways. There's a million movies about masked murders at summer camps, but none more popular than Friday the 13th. Jason Vorhees, his mother, and even Roy have killed so many people... why do people even go to that camp anymore?
I would say it's a summer tradition to have a Friday the 13th marathon on TV. But to be fair, they'll do one at any point all year. Summer and Halloween time are usual picks. I remember in 2016 SyFy had one every weekend for the entire summer (with some Elm Street sprinkled in for good measure). But whenever there's a Friday the 13th throughout the year, some channel will have some sort of marathon on. Don't worry about the schedule, it'll only be part 5.
Enter the former cable station, TNN. I'm assuming this marathon ran after the channel switched from 'The Nashville Network' and during it's phase as 'The National Network' before transforming into 'Spike TV' (now The Paramount Network... I remember the damnedest things). Honestly it would have been a good choice during it's life as a country music channel. Carrie Underwood's got a bigger body count than Jason at this point.
I truly miss ads like this. Back in the day, channels would often have custom ads for their various programing. Either montages made from movie footage with some random song added for comedic effect or super serious narration. That or the original production as seen here. The original productions is often where odd urban legends like the bloody pumpkin in Halloween. There's not one in the movie, but there's a million blood covered pumpkins in odd home made advertisements. Jason with a chainsaw, same. Here Jason is chasing those foolish enough to have a marathon at Camp Crystal Lake to maim and murder. He's not getting revenge for his mother or his own death. Just can't take the 'runners high' talk one more minute.
