Return of the Creature Features

November 1, 2016

I had a great Halloween with my son yesterday. It was raining for a change, so we stayed in and watched a few scary movies at home...Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, The Old Dark House, and Fright Night. Later, after things dried up a bit, we took a walk through downtown Santa Cruz and had a bite to eat. When we came back home we talked for quite a while about writing. I am so proud of how he is maturing intellectually, cultivating a great interest in a craft which my father handed down to me. It was a different sort of Halloween, but a memory that I will always cherish.

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March 26, 2016

So, while I have been on an extended Spaghetti Western movie kick since January, I have also managed to see a number of classic horror - psychotronic films. These would include 1973's THE BELLS, 5 TOMBS FOR A MEDIUM (aka, TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE) starring Barbara Steele, and HARDWARE WARS (1978). A week or two since, Zach and I have screened THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF HER GRAVE, THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE, and THE REDHEADED CORPSE (all starring Erika Blanc, and from 1972). We also watched a creepy flick called MAGIC (1976), and a western with Klaus Kinski titled THE GREAT SILENCE, and the timeless DJANGO with Franco Nero.

December 14, 2015

Zach and I had planned on going to Psychotronix last Saturday, December 12. Early in the week Zach scored two new part-time gigs here in the 'Cruz, and on one of them he was expected to close the night of the film festival, so we opted to not go. It's too bad, too, because Sci-Fi Bob always shows really excellent vintage Christmas-themed shorts.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the latest highly anticipated fantasy film these days, which is due to open locally on December 18. We don't yet have tickets, but they are available

It's strange having been away from my Return of the Creature Features blog for so long here--over two years! During that time Zach has upgraded his projector to a hi-def unit, and added many new titles to his ever-growing collection of movies on Blu-ray disc!

December 12, 2012

Yet another Psychotronix Film Festival is approaching, as this Saturday marks the Twentieth Anniversary of the festival!

My son Zach and I have been a part of this event for a number of years now, and it's become a family tradition of ours. With Psychotronix the presentation is a veritable mixed bag: some of the films are funny and entertaining as hell, while others are "less accessable," frankly. But it has been a terrific experience over these years...

It has been great getting to know some of the great folks involved in organizing and presenting the variety of vintage film material--true film experts like Sci-Fi Bob Eckman and Paul Etcheverry! We got to know Mr. Lobo--in the past somewhat of a regular on the program--at the Psychotronix event.

October 1 and 2, 2012 were two very hot days here in Santa Cruz. It seemed a bit hotter on the 1st, with temperatures downtown topping out at about 106 Degrees! Both evenings were perfect for watching our horror films outside on the projector, which Zach and I set up back in the yard.

The first night we settled down to watch Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires, which we followed up with Bava's cult film, Danger DIABOLIK! Thanks to a kick-ass projector, the movies came out looking really crisp on the wall of our apartment. And the weather, well, it was simply perfect, having cooled down pretty quickly once the sun set down.

Universal Studios had just released their first classic monsters film set in the blu-ray video format this past week, and Zach thoughtfully had ordered the set in advance.

For our first feature on the second evening, Zach chose Dracula--the 1931 classic starring Bela Lugosi! It was very impressive quality-wise; I've never seen it look better =D. This night had been pretty close to perfect, with very little wind, still somewhat dry, like the previous night. Of course, being in the company of my son, I was just as happy as I can be. From the same new set I selected The Invisible Man, 1932, starring Claude Rains. This too, was a delight to behold, as it's picture and audio are much improved from the dvd release.

June 17, 2011

A lobby card made by Sci-Fi Bob Ekman, projectionist and film collector who is the creative force behind Psychotronix Film Festival. Tomorrow night, June 18th, is the night for seeing a DRACULA/FRANKENSTEIN double bill at the Bal Theater, in San Leandro. Been looking forward to this since hearing about it while attending the ROCK N' ROLL HORROR SHOW at the Bal last month!

Bob won't be projectionist at this show, but was gracious enough to design these great lobby cards for give-aways at tomorrow night's horror show! It is the 80th anniversary of the debut of James Wale's FRANKENSTEIN, and Karloff's immortal performance! What a great way to celebrate, with these two classic horror epics shown as they were meant to be seen: on the BIG SCREEN!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

This was the day of our family reunion, held at my cousin's house in Ben Lomond. Zach and I left home at about 1PM and drove to Ralph's house, where my cousins from Watsonville, the San Joaquin Valley, Colorado, Oregon and Oklahoma, had assembled. My dad's cousin, Dennis, had brought along a chart detailing our family tree--which goes back to New England just after the Mayflower, but even farther back in English history.

This was also the day Zach and I had planned to attend our first Lobotronics film show, being held in San Leandro from 7:30-11:00 in the evening. Before leaving the house this afternoon, I had thoughtfully baked some chocolate chip cookies to take on our little trip to the Bay Area! These made a great hearty snack right when a great hearty snack was needed. We had left my cousin's place at about 4:30, setting our course for San San Leandro via the beautiful city of San Jose! The Bal Theater, a historic movie theater in San Leandro, is not far from Highway 880, and is located in the older part of town, judging by appearances. The show started roughly around 7:30 with Mr. Lobo and Ernie Fosselius doing a brief skit on the theater stage involving a puppet of Mr. Lobo. Soon afterward, the projectionists launched into the films, which included a little bit of everything--from Scopitones to theatrical trailers, cartoons, and abridged 16MM Castle Film presentation of "The Creature Walks Among Us."

At about 9PM there was an intermission break, and we all filed into the lobby for refreshments. I had the pleasure of chatting with Mr. Lobo regarding his show CINEMA INSOMNIA and the many DVD's which he'd put on display and for sale there. I got to meet and chat with his marketing person, Olav Phillips, whom I'd only previously heard about through the CI Yahoo Group. This was the first Lobotronic show to be held at this particular venue, which still retains its original vintage design, with exterior tiling, fancy red marquee sign, and original seats and wall coverings. Most refreshing--and reminiscent of the theaters I frequented as a child--was the solitary (though large) single screen! Not 9-plex or a 4-plex or even a 2-plex...just a one-screen! A film collector and exhibitor at this show, Bob Eckman, told me that the venue is independently owned and operated and that future film events are likely to be scheduled there in the future.

There was a costume contest at 9PM followed by more 16MM rarities afterward, and which ran well past the 11PM closing time. Zach and I left to go home at about 11:30 or so, and finally arrived home in S.C. at around 1AM. This had been a great deal of fun for us both, and was much more accessible than having to drive 2+ hours all the way into San Francisco as we had done for "Shock It To Me," and the premiere of "Watch Horror Films" a couple years before. Only about 1 hour from San Jose, I'm sure that Zach and myself will be taking more trips to San Leandro's Bal Theater in the future!

August 29, 2010

Got back home a couple of hours ago from Los Altos Hills and the second Psychotronix Film Festival event of this year. We got to see some really funny Scopetones, some strange cartoons, and truly bizarre shorts and educational films as well. The show kicked off at 7PM and took intermission at about 9:00. Me and Zach headed to the parking lot and ate pizza in our car which we had bought earlier from Round Table Pizza. We stayed until almost 11:30 PM when we finally departed and headed home! This was the second time that neither Zach or I won any prizes during the raffle at intermission.

We brought a camcorder with us and I filmed Mr. Lobo doing his "insomniac's oath" which I will post when I get around to uploading it from the cam.

August 21, 2010

During one of our visits to San Jose a couple weeks ago, Zach and I found an original theatrical poster for BLACK SABBATH, the 1963 Mario Bava classic. Time Tunnel Toys had an impressive assortment of old posters, priced variously. For this item, which is in beautiful shape--very clean--I paid $175. This might seem like a lot, but for this collectible gem of cinema history it was worth every dollar, and will make a great display for my wall once I get it framed!

On August 28 Psychotronix Film Festival returns to Foothill Community College in Los Altos, and Zach and I are planning to attend. We'd gone once before (last March) and had a great time. Hopefully Mr. Lobo will be attending this time too, but I haven't heard whether he will be able to make it. John Stanley has done a couple of appearances recently at special CREATURE FEATURES events being held at San Francisco Giants baseball games. I have not been able to confirm if there will be a SHOCK IT TO ME event this year, but I'm anxious to find out, since there just aren't enough classic horror happenings these days in my opinion. We can only hope! The big event for this summer is the forthcoming release of the 1960s THRILLER television series on DVD, scheduled to happen at the end of this month. I already own the bootleg of this classic series hosted by the inimitable Boris Karloff, but this release will be chock full of commentaries and special features not to be found elsewhere. Also, in the area of classic Horror memorabilia, I located PDF documents for several old E.C. Comics titles including THE HAUNT OF FEAR, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, etc. It is the next best thing to having the physical books, and they look great! I was fortunate enough to have located these on a blog dedicated to strange comic books, called "There's A Cross-Eyed Cyclops in My Basement!!!" - one of the best around! http://cosseyedcyclops.blogspot.com

August 3, 2009

A couple of months ago my son and I discovered a wonderful little store on Bascom Avenue, called Time Tunnel Toys. It is a collectibles outfit which features items associated with sci-fi and fantasy movies, and comic book figures. I chanced upon an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland examining the life and career of Bela Lugosi, and which I promptly snapped up--being a big admirer of Lugosi films! They carry a good selection of posters and vintage magazines. Time Tunnel also has prominently featured near the entrance, a coffin prop from the set of Bob Wilkins' "Creature Features."

September 14, 2008

Today my son and I drove over to San Jose, thinking we'd check out their comic book stores--something new for us to explore. Usually we just go to see what Rasputin has in the way of old dvds--which we did this time, too. Worried earlier that it was going to be hot over there, it turned out to be a gorgeous day--only about 71 Degrees and clear with a cool wind blowing.

The comic stores in Campbell were pretty fun to see; they carried a few of the older horror comics, but unfortunately not the ones I'm looking for. However they did have a couple dozen of the vintage STAR WARS comics, which I collected as a kid. They had a 50% off sale going on, so I bought about ten of them!

At a place not far from the old Burbank Theatre, on Bascom Ave., we found an old dark collectibles-pawn shop called Space Cat. It's the kind of joint that sells all kinds of comics, cards, and action figures (my son loves the new STAR WARS figures, and picked up a number of these). But they also had a huge inventory of books including Marvel and Dark Horse comics compendiums. There was an edition of E.C. Comic's "Tales From the Crypt" multi-volume set chronicling this classic series, but I didn't have the $50 on hand, thinking its probably cheaper on Amazon! You don't really see stores like these anymore...it's especially unusual to see anybody carrying VHS and cassette tapes nowadays!

Proceeding down Bascom, we went to Rasputin. I don't know whether to call it a record store or what, because they have music on vinyl, tape, and cd. But almost an entire wall is devoted to cult-style tee-shirts and such. It's mainly a music store, nevertheless what we have always come here for are movies! Today we were lucky enough to have found a used copy of I VAMPIRI, an old film from 1957 completed by Ricardo Freda and Mario Bava, and starring Paul Muller and Maria Canale. I passed this one by years ago, but had still needed it to round out my Bava film collection; great to finally have it! One of the comic stores being kind of cramped and dull notwithstanding, exploring some interesting stores, and cruising around with my son on just the perfect Northern California afternoon, I can't imagine having had a better time anywhere else on my 43rd birthday!!!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

An Evening of Creature Features - Halloween Double Feature!

October 23, 2008 at the Del Mar Theatre, in Santa Cruz!

Bay Area Film Events brings its latest show to the Del Mar Theatre in Santa Cruz. “An Evening of Creature Features” is a horror-fying double feature! The show opens with the new documentary WATCH HORROR FILMS, KEEP AMERICA STRONG! A JOURNEY INTO CREATURE FEATURES, followed by the 1968 horror cult classic, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

For 14 years, from January 1971 through September 1984, CREATURE FEATURES ranked in the Nielsen ratings as one of the most popular TV shows in San Francisco Bay Area television history. Broadcast on KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland, California, the Saturday night series was hosted by former TV advertising writer Bob Wilkins for eight years, followed by San Francisco Chronicle entertainment writer John Stanley who kept the series alive for another six. To those who grew up watching with family members and friends, the mixture of host commentary and classic (and not-so-classic) horror movies remains a nostalgic memory. Wilkins' wit and unusually droll personality and Stanley's celebrity interviews and satiric mini-movies are all part of this full-length documentary journeying back through those years. Featuring interviews with Wilkins, Stanley and other key figures close to the show, as well as classic clips, this historic journey illuminates an era of television that should never be forgotten.

Our two special guests for the evening are “Creature Features” host John Stanley and “Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong!” producer, Tom Wyrsch.

For six years (1979-84) John Stanley hosted the highly rated "Creature Features" in the San Francisco-Bay Area TV market, introducing science fiction and horror movies to a midnight audience, and interviewing the leading actors, producers and directors of the time. He also spent 33 years as an entertainment writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, specializing in interviewing TV and movie stars. He has written 13 books, including six editions of The Creature Features Movie Guide series. His novels include World War II and Bogart/'48. He edited and published Them Ornery Mitchum Boys by John Mitchum. He is a noted Elder hostel instructor (specializing in movies, TV and music) and he constructed crossword puzzles for TV Guide publications for eight years.

Tom Wyrsch has worked diligently over the years to keep the Creature Features flame burning bright. Through books such as the Bob Wilkins and John Stanley Scrapbooks, DVDs of classic clips and interviews from the show, products, convention appearances and now our feature documentary, Tom has promoted both John and Bob and kept the Creature Features success growing and becoming more popular over twenty years since its final broadcast on KTVU.

Proceeds from this event will go to assist in the care of original “Creature Features” host Bob Wilkins.

"Don't stay up late, it's not worth it," Bob Wilkins warned as he leaned back in his yellow rocking chair, smoke wafting from his big cigar. But monster movie fans in Northern California stayed up with him every Saturday night anyway. “Creature Features” was an immediate success with its grade-Z horror films and Bob's dry sense of humor. His cool, low-key deadpan helped him rise above it all. Bob once remarked, "We kicked off this show with “Horror of Party Beach”, and we knew we had our work cut out for us that night… and it seems it's been that way every Saturday night."

Bob hosted the show from 1971 through 1979, as well as the children’s show “Capt. Cosmic and 2T2”, becoming one of the best-remembered and much loved personalities of Bay Area TV history. Unfortunately Bob is now suffering from Alzheimer’s, a disease causing his memory to diminish and taking away his wonderful sense of humor and deadpan wit. As Bob is one of the biggest inspirations for all of us that do these movie shows, we are showing our appreciation for his constant motivation over the years, as well as countless hours of entertainment he has provided. Proceeds from this show will go to pay for the care of Bob Wilkins and help his family to get through this very difficult time.

More surprises to come! Mark your calendar, because THE CREATURE’S GONNA GET YOU THAT NIGHT!

Del Mar Theatre, 1124 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA. Call (831) 469-3220 for more info, or follow the links at left.

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Shock It To Me! 2008 Festival Teaser

Shock It To Me! Classic Horror Film Festival!October 17-18, 2008 at the Castro Theatre, in San Francisco!

Your chance to see on the Big Screen:

Spider Baby (10/17)

Night of The Living Dead (10/17)

Horror of Dracula (10/18)

Curse of Frankenstein (10/18)

Night of Dark Shadows (10/18)

House of Dark Shadows (10/18)

On hand will be CREATURE FEATURES host/author John Stanley, and other special guests! Each show is a double feature! Tickets are only $10 and available at the box office, or through Ticket Web!

Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., San Francisco, CA. (415) 621-6120 for more info, or please follow my link in the links list on the left side!