Gremlins Scares Us! (And We're Back Back Back Again!)

We're reporting to you from the doldrums of winter, even though now it's the beginning of June!  So travel back in time with us to the dark horrible-ness of January and experience the awesome-ness that is my favorite holiday movie ... Gremlins!

My newest touring play! 

Below is the Orson Welles' Macbeth so you can watch Lady M leap from the mountain, hit the side ... and bounce.

And here is the trailer for We Have Always Lived in the Castle!

For Lindsey -- some Carmilla action!!!

And some Vampire Lovers!

A reminder repost of how amazing Lindsey is with these birds.

Gremlins cereal!  Basically Captain Crunch in, what I'm guessing are supposed to be Mogwais.  Mogwum?

Me with my stuffed Gizmo that I wish was the original that I received for Christmas in 1984.  That one is lost to the ages; this one I picked up in Paducah, Kentucky, while I was in grade school.

Mrs. Deagle's death grimace!  I will own this someday.

More Gremlins merchandise!!!  I had most-to-all of this stuff.

Dammit, Shannon!

I feel like this still exists at my parents' house somewhere ... wonder if I could get it to work?  Anyone ... anyone ...?

Henry Thomas and the woman with one finger from Cloak and Dagger ...and I think that's Roman Castavet from Rosemary's Baby!

The Howling!

Belinda Belaski faces a werewolf in The Howling!  "But Mr. Quist, it's Christmas!"

 

Amazing makeup from The Howling:  Eddie Quist, werewolf extraordinaire. 

C'mon ... it looks so real!!!

When does after midnight become before midnight?

Buy this and read it right now.

The hotness that is Zach Galligan.  I guess I had a very specific type when I was a kid.  Observe Charlie from Fright Night ...

... and David from An American Werewolf in London ...

Oh man.  I really did.

The poster for Ted Geoghegan's We Are Still Here!

See, Katya?  See????

Deputy Brent, then and now.

"I need help, Rose!"

Kate's monologue.  Watch it, we'll wait.

The Coreys.

Tiger Beat, just for you.

Lynn Peltzer versus the Gremlins (don't watch this if you ... you know what, just watch it.  Be a grown up.)

And here's something cool ... a few months after we recorded this episode, I picked up this lunchbox at Time Bomb Collectibles in Spokane, Washington -- check 'em out when you're there!  (And here's Gizmo in his famous pink Barbie car!  Supah dupah queer.  Gizmo as a gay pride icon!)

Here's the Gremlins don't drink and drive PSA (featuring Stripe's awesome death):

Original Gizmo ...

...and Gizmo from Gremlins 2!

The Haunting of Hill House Scares Us!

I'm hoping that some of you listening to this episode are fans of Netflix's adaptation of Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, which also happens to be my favorite novel of all time.  I understand why you liked it -- many, many people did; you're not alone -- but I'm hoping you might check out the book, and give the original Eleanor Vance a shot.  Enjoy the semicolons; enjoy, heartily, the adverbs; enjoy the shifting of reality, and see if you agree with me or not:  if Hill House is haunted, what is it haunted by?

If you're playing along at home and you're trying to guess the number of copies of HoHH  I possess, you can start counting the hardcovers.  Many of them are gifts from my friend Angie (the blue British edition in the top left hand corner; the gorgeous embossed copy from Easton Press; the blue and yellow hardcover on the bottom row).  The two with the creepy yellow flowers and the house lurking in the background were Holy Grails for me; one I found on Etsy for a bit of a price, and the yellow copy (with the jacket attached), which was rebranded in 1968, three years after Shirley's death, I found for a song on Abe Books, I believe (check 'em out).  I am not, however, a huge fan of the copy from Guillermo Del Toro on the bottom left.  The copy displayed on its spine is the Reader's Digest Condensed version I found in a thrift shop in Glasgow the summer of 1994, when I discovered Shirley initially; it has stunning illustrations that perfectly encapsulate the characters for me, exactly as I pictured them.  I'll post those below as well.

Here are the paperback copies.  It's amazing to me how many different editions exist, especially in softcover; as I've said before on the podcast, if I like a book I will buy as many different editions asI can get my paws on (which explains why I have sixty billion copies of The Wizard of Oz, Dracula, and King's 'Salem's Lot).  The two copies in the bottom right corner are the two I referred to during the episode:  the one with the gingham-looking border, featuring Luke glaring at the audience, was the first copy I ever owned, and the one beside it is the first copy I actually ever read, donated to me by the librarians of Hellgate High School.

An excellent British paperback edition I do not possess (yet).

A closeup of the Penguin edition from 1984, and the first I ever owned:  there's Luke, looking directly at us, and Eleanor, huddled in the corner; headless Dr. Montague; and Theo, tucked neatly into the chair with her legs over the arm.  I have been known to attack a chair myself in just that manner.  While I enjoy it, it certainly doesn't seem to proclaim that this is a horror novel, or even a ghost story.  (Although I do enjoy the "fatuous little cupid" statue Jackson describes perched up on the mantle.)

Summer of 2010, showing Ryan my (as-of-yet unowned) Holy Grail (in the Glasgow library). 

A closeup of the first edition dustjacket.  Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon, has a signed first edition for $2000.

The illustrations by Ben Stahl from the 1959 Reader's Digest Condensed version.

 

Eleanor tries to run over Dudley-at-the-gate.

 The core four hanging out in the shadows of Hill House.

Theo tempts the statue of Hugh Crain.

Eleanor and Theo clutch each other as something unseen bangs on the door.  What was it?  Stephen King insists that the door be opened; I disagree.

A giant shift in tone:  the arrival of the irascible Mrs. Montague and cowardly Arthur Parker.

Eleanor spies on Theo and Luke, who aren't talking about her at all.

Eleanor, going higher and higher ...