Oddball Films presents Vintage Halloween Cinema Spooktacular, a program of vintage 16mm films to get us in the mood for All Hallows' Eve with cartoons, ridiculous educational films, giant genitalia costumes, Satanic smut, witches, ghouls and made-for-tv terrors. Halloween Safety (1985) gives us valuable lessons about awesome robot costumes, horrible face makeup and of course, tainted candy. One man heads out to the Halloween parade in Greenwich Village dressed like a real dick in the mini-doc Halloweenie (1986, print courtesy of the Jenni Olson Queer Archive). Comic strip Krazy Kat comes back to the big screen to fight off ghosts and other haunts, while his puppy fights with a skeleton in the silly romp Krazy Kat in Krazy Spooks (1933). Be careful what you wish for, you might just bring back the undead in the classic tale of horror: The Monkey's Paw (1979). Visit a seance to bring back the ghost of the greatest illusionist of all time in a segment of Houdini Never Died (1978), narrated by Burgess Meredith. Bud and Lou meet up with Frankenstein's monster, Dracula and the Wolfman for one crazy monster-mash in the ridiculous condensed version of Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1944). With rockin' musical breaks featuring some interpretive-dancing spectres in an Old-West ghost town from John Byner's Something Else (1970), the dancing witches of Ida Lupino's La Strega (1962), and Stone Cold Dead in the Market (1946), a Soundie about justifiable homicide. Plus, a coffin full of Horror Movie Trailers, Sweet Treats, Scary Surprises and more!
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In a rockin' spooktacular clip from this eclectic musical variety show, the Action Faction dancers don ghoulish garb and get down in a ghost town. These whirling ghosts will get your hairs on end and your feet a tappin'!
The Monkey's Paw (Color, 1978)
A classic tale of horror originally scribed by W.W. Jacobs and adapted by Martha Moran. An old man is given a mysterious monkey's paw as a gift and told it will grant him three wishes, but each will come with a price. When the man's son is killed as a result of one of his wishes, he asks to have his son returned from the grave, but that will have its own horrific consequences.
Harry Houdini is perhaps the best-known magician and escape artist in American popular memory. In addition to his death-defying feats, he was also committed to debunking spiritualism and otherworldly claims. His magic was grounded in the physicality of his acts; they were simply fantastic escapes and illusions, rather than something supernatural. Both sides of Houdini are on display in this fascinating documentary, which contains rarely-seen archival footage of Houdini, narrated by Burgess Meredith. In this excerpt witness the yearly seance held to attempt to conjure the spirit of the infamous Houdini.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (B+W, 1944, condensed version)
In this film (excerpted), directed by Charles Barton, see two hapless freight handlers who find themselves encountering Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man! The film opens with Dracula and a lovely fur-coated woman discussing what they should do with Frankenstein’s body! Abbott and Costello and the lovely dame convene at a party with Dracula. Is she under his thrall? A stranger recognized Dracula and starts yelling about how Dracula is the “real” Count Dracula. But everyone dismisses him and the woman takes Lou Costello into the forest for a lover’s walk! What will happen next?!
Curator’s Biography
Kat Shuchter is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric film hoarder. She has helped program shows at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009. She has programmed over 250 shows at Oddball on everything from puberty primers to experimental animation.
About Oddball Films
Oddball Films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like The Nice Guys and Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Transparent and Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.