Night 25 of the Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween

 

Welcome to night 25 of the 3rd annual Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween. Make sure to stop by our Giveaway Post and enter to win a $400+ Prize Pack full of frightfully good treats from 24 spooktacular shops! Tonight we have the next movie from the Halloween Movie Marathon. Follow along for an extra 10 entries in the giveaway and play the Guess The Movie game for even more. We also have the next clue in the Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt. Gather clues for daily entries and a surprise at the end of the giveaway. But that's not all! Keep reading to find the next feature on one of our participating shops. Visit us each day during October so you do not miss any of the fun.

Haunted House Charm Bracelet  $55

Purchase any item(s) from Laughing Vixen Lounge through October 31st and get 10% off your order. Use code OTOBER10 at checkout.


***When you are done with today's activities make sure to check out our other giveaways running this month. You can get extra entries for this giveaway by entering the others. You'll find them listed on the Rafflecopter on the main Giveaway Post***

ENDS OCTOBER 31st ~ ROCKtoberfest Giveaway Hop Giveaway. This is a music themed giveaway and you can enter to win a Custom Mystery Grab Bag from Laughing Vixen Lounge. These grab bags are custom made to suit your style and have been very popular prizes! Enter here on the LVL Blog.

ENDS OCTOBER 31st ~ Spooktacular Giveaway Hop Giveaway. This is a book themed giveaway and you can enter to win a Custom Mystery Grab Bag from Laughing Vixen Lounge. If you win I will create some fun designs just for you. Bags have at least a $50 value and can include bracelets, necklaces, earrings, compact mirrors, purse holders and more. Enter here on the LVL Blog.

Scares That Care
In addition to having lots of fun we want to try and do a little good too Many of our shops have chosen a charity to fund raise for. A certain percentage or dollar amount of each sale made through the participating shops, during the giveaway, will be donated to the charity of their choice. You will find each shops details on the main Giveaway Post and on their shop feature.

Laughing Vixen Lounge will be donating $1 from each item sold during October to Support Supernatural to help A Dog's Life Rescue. The amazing gals at Support Supernatural (as in the TV show) have been fundraising for A Dog's Life Rescue since 2009 and have raised over $100,000 to help animals in need.  

Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt - Night 25
Our scavenger hunt will work like the game Clue this year. Every week you will be looking for clues to a different part of the mystery ~ Settings, Suspects, Rooms, Weapons and Escapes. They will be hidden within an item listing inside one of our participating shops. On each daily post you will be given a hint as to where the main clue is hiding. Once you find the clue go to the main Giveaway Post and find that night's entry on the Rafflecopter widget. You must leave the clue through the Rafflecopter! Do not post the clue anywhere on the blog. If you do it will be deleted and will not count. If you have any questions just ask.

Make sure to keep a list of all the clues as you collect them. On the last day of the giveaway you will be able to submit your guess of how the murder happened. Anyone who actually guesses correctly will win a Surprise Goodie Bag from Laughing Vixen Lounge. These goodie bags are made to suit your taste and usually end up being at least a $50 value! You can start the scavenger hunt game at anytime during the giveaway and go back to find past clues. Clues will stay posted through the entire giveaway.

Night 25
An object lay on the ground.
This week you will be collecting clues to the weapons of the crime.

Tonight's clue is hiding in These Are But Shadows.
You will find the clue somewhere in the Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween post.


Featured Blog - These Are But Shadows

These Are But Shadows is run by Shannon. Her blog is filled with book reviews and giveaways.

How did you choose your blog's name or where did the inspiration for your blog's name come from?
"The inspiration for the name of my blog came from a  fantasy novel idea that I've been wrestling with that deals with shadows.  I also thought the idea of book reviews were really just glimpses of a book, or a shadow of the real thing...so it kind of worked for the blog title."

These Are But Shadows Blog

Why you chose to start your blog?
"Okay, so don't laugh, but back in May 2013, I started my blog so I could qualify to enter for a chance to win an ARC of Unhinged by A.G. Howard (it's book 2 in her Splintered series - which is a dark and twisted take of the classic Alice in Wonderland - if you haven't read it yet, I totally recommend it to every fantasy reader!)  Anyway, to sign up, you had to enter your website or blog address, and I didn't have either.  So, I hopped online and typed in "free blog" and a couple popped up.  I chose Wordpress because another favorite author of mine (Patrick Rothfuss) uses it (I think). The first thing I posted was my recent review of Splintered.  (At the time, I only had 200 followers and all of those were my FB friends.  And I didn't even have a Twitter account.)  Once that was done, I completed and submitted the ARC request form!  Since then, I've become addicted to blogging!"

What genres are your favorite to read?
"Fantasy, anything fantasy.  I prefer series and epic fantasies.  Oh, and if a books has dragons, I'll read it!"

What new plans or ideas do you have for your blog in the future?
"I've always wanted to be a writer, you know, publish a best selling novel (I know, big dream, right?).  So, my thought was that I could use my blog to network.  That way, if I ever do finish one of the many novels I've started over the years, then I'll have something to use to springboard the book.  For now though I'm happy meeting new people and making new friends!  Oh, and my to-read list has skyrocketed!"


You'll have a chance to win a $10 Paypal Gift Card from These Are But Shadows. Enter now on the main giveaway post. 


Visit These Are But Shadows Blog.

Since it's Halloween I asked the shops to share their favorite spooky movie.
"This one is tough because, although I LOVE supernatural stuff, I'm a Huge Wimp when it comes to scary movies.  I'm that girl in the theatre with her hands over her ears, eyes squeezed shut, and knees drawn up into my chest.  The Ring Freaked Me Out.  Room 1408, yeah, had to watch that one in 2 sittings, during the day.  I slept with the light on for a week after watching The Boogeyman - but in my defense that was about a closet monster and one whole wall of my room was a freaking closet!  I even had nightmares after watching Gremlins when I was a kid.  Don't even get me started on classics like Chucky or Freddie or Jason.  And I SO don't do Zombies (well, except for Warm Bodies - that one was ok).  So if I have to choose a favorite scary movie, I guess I'll go with Thirteen Ghosts (2001)."

Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween Movie Marathon.
Follow along with us for a month full of classic and modern spooky movies. For something a little different this year we have decided to do themed weeks. Week 1 ~ Zombies, Week 2 ~ Werewolves and Vampires, Week 3 ~ Stephen King, Week 4 ~ Classic Double Features and Week 5 ~ Lounge Favorites.

On each daily post there will be a review of the next movie in our movie marathon. Leave a comment on each post with your opinion of that movie. On the last day of the giveaway you will find the Magic Phrase you will use to unlock the entry on the main Giveaway Post worth 10 entries. You must comment on each movie post to qualify.

Guess The Movie Game
This year we decided not to post the movie list in full so we can play a fun game instead. Each daily post will have a clue to the next night's movie. Leave your guess on the Rafflecopter widget, on the main Giveaway Post, for 1 entry in the giveaway. Please do not post guesses anywhere else on the blog or they will be deleted and not count.

**Guesses must be posted the same day as their clue to receive the entry** Rafflecopter runs on Eastern Standard Time. You can only post 1 guess per 24 hour period. So if you miss a day you can not make it up.  

NEW ~ This week is Classic Double Feature Week. 2 classic movies that have something in common. So you need to guess 2 movies and you can try to guess what their common link is. Some of these will really test your B movie/classic monster movie knowledge. Good luck!

Tonight's Clues ~
Movie #1 ~ Surviving a car accident throws her world into a living nightmare.
Movie #2 ~ A brother and sister find out why their new manor was so cheap.


Week 4 ~ Classic Double Features


Night 25 - William Castle - House On Haunted Hill and The Tingler
 
First Feature ~ House On Haunted Hill

 

Tagline - The 13 greatest shocks of all time!
              First Film With the Amazing New Wonder EMERGO: The Thrills
             Fly Right Into The Audience!


Directed by William Castle (Thirteen Ghosts and I Saw What You Did) and released on February 17, 1959 by Allied Artist Pictures (Not rated). 5 guests are invited to a supposed haunted house for a party. Anyone who can stay until dawn will receive 10,000 dollars. But as the night progresses everyone begins to wonder if they will make it out alive.

Tonight's double feature honors two greats in horror history, William Castle and Vincent Price. First we will start with Mr. Castle. If you are not familiar with this name you are really missing out on a piece of cinema history. William Castle was the king of using shameless promotion and crazy gimmicks to promote his low budget horror films. House on Haunted Hill promoted "Emergo". This was a skeleton flying over the audience at just the right time during the movie. The 1993 movie, Matinee, was a loving tribute to the career of William Castle with John Goodman playing a fictional version of him. I remember seeing it when it was in the theaters but now that I am much more familiar with the real man I would love to see it again. Look for it to appear on a Fear Friday review! 
  
All silliness aside, House on Haunted Hill is actually a pretty good movie. Great spooky atmosphere, twisty plot and wonderful performances by Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart. Vincent Price was a very talented actor who could have easily made a career out of much better movies. But, as is the way in Hollywood, sometimes the movies pick you. And for those of us that enjoy the horror genre we are lucky to have had him in so many fun movies. 

There was a modern remake in 1999 and, while there are some elements I liked, overall it just did not work well enough for me. Definitely not a bad movie but it could have been so much better. 


Take a look at the original trailer.




Some trivia about the movie...
1. The Ennis Brown House in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1924, and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was used for the exterior shots of the haunted house during the film's opening sequence.
2. William Castle had related the story of meeting Vincent Price on a day when Price had learned that he had been passed over for a part. Over coffee, Castle described the premise of this picture. Price liked the idea and it led to a two-picture collaboration, this and The Tingler.
3. The popular theme music originally had haunting lyrics by Richard Kayne, but only the orchestral version was used in the final film. For the record, the lyrics went as follows: There's a house on Haunted Hill / Where ev'rything's lonely and still / Lonely and still / And the ghost of a sigh / When we whispered good-bye / Lingers on / And each night gives a heart broken cry / There's a house on Haunted Hill / Where love walked there's a strange silent chill / Strange silent chill / There are mem'ries that yearn / For our hearts to return / And a promise we failed to fulfill / But we'll never go back / No, we'll never go back / To the house on Haunted Hill!
4. The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
5. William Castle used a gimmick called "Emergo" in theaters. When the skeleton rises from the acid vat in the film, a lighted plastic skeleton on a wire appeared from a black box next to the screen to swoop over the heads of the audience. The skeleton would then be pulled back into the box as the skeleton in the film is "reeled in". Many theaters soon stopped using this "effect" because when the local boys heard about it, they would bring slingshots to the theater; when the skeleton started its journey, they would pull out their slingshots and fire at it with stones, BBs, ball bearings and whatever else they could find.
6. The Cadillac funeral cars in procession at the beginning of the film are various model years. In the next scene when they pull up in front of the house they are all the same year.
7. After Lance pulls Nora out of the way of the falling chandelier his arm alternates back and forth, from being around her shoulders to being around her waist.
8. After Nora throws everyone out of her room and the others are talking in the hall, someone's hand comes into the shot in the lower left corner of the screen.
9. The large grosses for this film were noticed by Alfred Hitchcock. This led him to create his own low-budget horror film Psycho. 


 Second Feature ~ The Tingler

Tagline - When the screen screams you'll scream too...if you value your
              life!
              Can You Take PERCEPTO? 
              Amazing NEW TERROR Device Makes You A Living Participant in the 
              FLESH-CRAWLING ACTION! PERCEPTO!


Directed by William Castle (Straight Jacket and Macabre) and released on July 29, 1959 by Columbia Pictures (Not rated). A scientist discovers that "fear" is actually a creature that lives inside us all and ends up releasing the creature. The only thing that can save you now is to Scream! Scream for your life!

Unlike our first Castle feature, The Tingler is a big cheesy mess of a movie. It is bad in such a fabulous way you can not help but love it. I laughed so much the last time I watched this it was so much fun. If you can appreciate a fun bad movie I highly recommend The Tingler.

The big promotion on this film was Percepto. This involved placing buzzers under some of the seats so at the right moment you would feel a "tingle". The movie guaranteed that The Tingler would be released in the theater during your movie. They would also place people in the theater that would scream and then faint at appropriate moments to help spread panic. There were fake nurses to carry them out and an ambulance waiting outside the theater to take them away only to return for the next showing. 

This style of showmanship and movie promoting was so great! The passion they had is greatly missing in an era where Hollywood churns out so many over budgeted movies that disappear after a week from the theater and our memory. No one ever claimed these old movies were Academy Award winners but they put the effort and creativity into trying to make them a entertaining movie going experience. How fun would it be to have the chance to see these movies in their full Castle-ized glory!

There is a 2007 documentary called "Spine Tingler - The William Castle Story". I will have to look this up!


Take a look at the original trailer.




Some trivia about the movie.
1. William Castle toyed with other ideas to frighten audience members, in addition to 'percepto'; among them: rolling bean bags to brush against the legs of audience members, speakers mounted at different areas that would give a 'screech' when the tingler appeared, and possibly even using 'shills' to operate some type of mechanical device to tickle the legs of the audience members; but the only viable way of doing it was by attaching buzzers in select seats to coincide with the appearance of the tingler- 'percepto'.
2. In Oct. 1959, Columbia Pictures distributed this film on a double bill with Juke Box Rhythm.
3. The Tingler is a large scale model of velvet worm, also called peripatus. It has its own phylum - Onychophora. It is about half way between and earthworm and an arthropod.
4. Co-stars Vincent Price and Judith Evelyn previously starred on stage together in 1941 during the Broadway performance of "Angel Street", based on Patrick Hamilton's play "Gaslight".
5. This film is listed among The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.
6. Whenever blood-curdling screams occurred in the movie, hidden buzzers vibrated the seats. (This feature was called "Percepto.") Shills planted in the audience let out their own screams.
7. The earliest film to depict an LSD trip.
8. In almost every scene in which the Tingler appears, the wires maneuvering it are visible.
9. When the Tingler is breaking out of the cage you can see a wire at the bottom pulling it open.
10. Originally had a short sequence filmed partially in color. It was the scene when the deaf-mute Mrs. Higgins, terrified by unknown forces, runs into a bathroom to hide and sees blood coming from the faucets of her sink and her bathtub filled with blood. Everything else in the scene is black and white except for the blood, which appears in garish red color - a typical William Castle gimmick. The USA home video release and the Turner Classic Movies print shown on Oct. 31, 2008 include the restored partial-color sequence. The short sequence is grainy and appears to have been inserted from an old deteriorated copy, or possibly a 16 mm print, as the rest of the movie's quality is crisp and sharp. 
11. Columbia provided a slightly revised version for drive-ins. The black-out sequence with Vincent Price saying the The Tingler is loose in the theatre, is replaced with black footage with William Castle saying that The Tingler is loose in the drive-in and actors screaming that The Tingler is in the back seat. The Columbia exchanges could simply splice in the replacement footage to make an existing print suitable for drive-in bookings.