We are finalizing plans! Me, Hester Grimple, Vespera Howler and Winifred Hawthorne enjoy a cup of my brew while discussing the decorations and activities for the Monster Bash. It’s going to be a scream!
Greetings, My Children!
Old Granny Creech here just bursting with excitement! Why? Because it’s Halloween week! Things have been very busy in Squirrel Hollow because we’ve all been getting ready for our annual Monster Bash at the Witchwood Cemetery late Halloween night. It promises to be the best ever as we have a lot of new residents eagerly waiting to join the festivities.
For this installment of radio spots, I’ve decided to feature 15 odds-and-ends that capture the wide spectrum of spooks and apparitions that will surely make an appearance at your house this Halloween evening to terrorize and torment you. I hope you appease them with some delectable treat of some sort, dead or…alive (hee hee). These spots are from my collection and that of the old cadaver himself, The Radio Reaper.
I’ll be back next week to see how you all survived and to give a report on the ghastly goings-on at the Bash. Oh…and by the way…you are invited if you dare to come and join in the fun after you’ve finished appeasing the little monsters that come to your door. The party starts at midnight. Just wear your favorite disguise or, if you are scary enough, just come as you are. We all will be there. There will be lots to do and goodies to eat. Plus, lots of my Witch’s Brew to go around!
I hope to see you there! Bring a date, if you can dig one up. And, remember: “Don’t spook until you’re spooken too!” Beware!
Happy Halloween!!
4D Man, Circus of Horrors, The Blob and Dinosaurus Radio Spots
The Creeping Flesh, The Green Slime, The Haunted Strangler, The Thing From Another World, Thirteen Ghosts (Lobby Spot) Radio Spots
Old Crazy Gary here again…Granny is still taking care of her ailing mother but she hopes to be back here soon.
I was just sitting around the other night reading my newest book when I decided to take a break and snoop through Granny’s computer to see what she has in store for the coming weeks. Wow! What a line-up! Anyways, I saw a folder titled The Radio Reaper and I decided to take a peek inside. I know he has been supplying Granny with a bunch of neat stuff, but I wanted to see what all else was in there. Oh boy! I spent the rest of the night going through over 2000 spots of all kinds from all genres. I had a ball.
I heard spots from horror and science fiction movies I was familiar with and some I was not. I wrote down the names of the ones I thought were especially good and thought you should hear them. These are crazy good and have received the “Five Thumbs-up Crazy Gary Approval Rating”.
Granny would more than likely never feature these because they are not from the 1950-63 time frame she specializes in but they are too good to pass up. They will make you shudder; they will make you scream; they will make you want to see them; they are that good.
So listen, if you dare, to these tidbits from The Radio Reaper’s Reliquary. They will haunt you forever!
13 Terror Radio Spots for Alligator, Crocodile, Midnight, The Bat People, The Black Belly of the Tarantula, The Legend of Spider Forest, The Projected Man, and The Twilight People.
Crazy Gary here, filling in for the ever vivacious and witty Granny Creech. I am her much-loved nephew and I work in the Dead Letter Office at the post office in Squirrel Hollow.
Granny’s mother, Hattie Jones, suffered a stroke recently and is in the intensive care unit in the hospital in Geyser Springs. Granny went to be with her. Before she left, she told me to carry on her weekly radio spot column, and I agreed, hesitatingly of course, because I don’t have the way with words Granny does nor her knowledge. I told her I would do the best I could. She patted me on the head and said I would do okay. I just wish she hadn’t had that hammer in her hand when she did it. Ha Ha. Just kidding.
Granny gave me a tentative list of the spots she wanted me to cover, and there are some good ones, believe you me. I just hope she gets back in time to do them justice. Until then, though, I will do the best I can.
Today we will feature radio spots for a movie I have never seen. It’s a 1949 comedy murder-mystery feature from Universal International called Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.
Now I’ve seen several Abbott and Costello movies in the past, but this one has always escaped me. My favorite, of course, is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Isn’t it everybody’s?!), a classic in every way. I had to look up the synopsis for this one on Wikipedia to see what it was all about and it sounds very confusing…a typical ‘who-dunnit’ with lots of suspects and the patsy, of course, being poor old Lou Costello. The odd part about all of this is the title of the movie. From the synopsis I see that the killer isn’t Boris Karloff at all, and why he is billed as such is a mystery to me. Even the radio spots can’t decide the proper name for the film, announcing it in some cuts as Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer. It must have been a ploy by the marketing department to capitalize on Karloff’s reputation and drawing power.
The spots are some of the oldest Granny has, and she said to thank The Radio Reaper. He dug deep into his reliquary to provide these. An audio rarity to be sure…
So, as Granny would say, sit back and enjoy these spots from 1949, and give a toast to The Radio Reaper the next time you meet with friends to enjoy cups of Granny’s witch’s brew.
I’ll see you next time…
15, 30, and 60 second radio spots
Do you have any radio spots you would like to share? Contact Gary (Granny’s nephew) at [email protected].
Granny Creech digs up the radio spots for The Day of the Triffids…
It is hotter than blazes here in Squirrel Hollow!
I was working in my garden the other day, sweating, cussing and cursing at the top of my voice, when my neighbor and best friend, Esmeree Grimshaw, came around the corner of the house into my backyard. She was carrying a small box.
“Granny!” she exclaimed, setting the box down on my back porch. “What in the world is going on? Why are you yelling so much?”
“These…danged…triffids are driving me crazy! Every summer when I come out here I am faced with pulling up all of these blasted weeds. I don’t know where they all come from. Danged triffids!”
Esmeree smiled gently at me. “Oh, Granny, you’re so silly. Here…let me help.”
So, for the next hour we sat in the dirt, pulling out all the invaders that seem to choose my garden to grow in, year after year. I don’t know how they keep coming back, but they are ugly little critters. I “fondly” call all these ugly weeds and stalks in my garden “triffids”. As we pulled them out, my grumbling continued.
“Well, why don’t you just use salt water to kill them?” Esmeree asked.
We both looked at each other and started to laugh.
“Okay,” I said. “You got me. Enough about triffids.”
“At least they don’t pull themselves out of the ground and chase you,” she said, with a sly little grin.
We went into the house and washed our hands. We cooled off with glasses of sassafras iced tea. Esmeree told me the reason she came by was to drop off a box full of radio spots from The Radio Reaper. She opened the back door and brought in the box she had left on the porch. We spent the next few minutes going through it. Suddenly, Esmeree began to laugh. She handed me a record. “Here’s your next story,” she said.
I looked at the record she was holding and started to laugh, too. “That’s it,” I said. The Day of the Triffids. How fitting!”
The Day of the Triffids is a 1963 British film based on the 1951 novel by John Wyndham. When most of the entire world is blinded from watching a spectacular meteor shower, it is soon discovered that the meteorites contained spores which grow into giant mobile, man-eating plants. The story follows several characters who survive the blindness for various reasons and the trials they face.
The movie features many disturbing scenes of the general populace faced with sudden blindness: streets deserted of vehicular traffic while crowds of people stagger about; a train full of blind passengers crashing into a train station and the ensuing panic as injured passengers desperately grope their way around; and the moment when passengers on an airliner realize they and the pilots are all blind and the realization of their impending doom. Composite shots of burning cities and excellent matte paintings of landmarks and streets with dozens of crashed vehicles, and a shot of hundreds of triffids growing in a giant crater, add to the terror.
When I first saw The Day of the Triffids, I felt I was watching two movies rolled into one. I later found out I was. It seems that, according to the Internet Movie DataBase, the initial film starred Howard Keel and Nicole Maurey and centered on their adventures with the triffids. When production was over, the producers found they didn’t have enough footage to release as a full length movie. So, they brought on Janette Scott and Kieron Moore, created a new storyline set in a deserted lighthouse, and filmed their encounters with the triffids. The two stories were blended together into the movie we have now. It ends with a rather “War of the Worlds” tone as Moore and Scott find out that sea water dissolves and kills the triffids. Sea water, from whence mankind got its origin, now serves as its preserver.
The radio spots are awesome! They reflect the mystery and terror of the movie. Complete with amazing announcers, effective sound effects and music, the spots are some of the best I’ve heard. So, thanks to The Radio Reaper, have a listen and beware the unknown weeds in your garden: They may be…triffids!
Here are 10, 30, and 60 second radio spots to fill you with terror.
Direct to you from The Radio Reaper’s not so small reliquary (by way of Granny Creech’s overgrown backyard, through some creepy woods, and now here at last, are the almost endless radio spots for the creepy cult favorite: Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972). It starts off as a horror comedy but gets dark and deadly as the children learn their terminal lessons. This is one of those movies best experienced on VHS, but hell, digital is easier to use these days. For 50 grand, you get a slow but really eerie story where you wind up rooting for the zombies (yeah, admit it, you always root for the zombies, you sick bastard). Stay tuned as we have thousands of cool radio spots just itching to light up your night, courtesy of two very generous horror hoarders, Granny Creech and The Radio Reaper.
From the super secret radio lair of Granny Creech and The Radio Reaper…
The other day I called up my brother Ambrose and asked him if he wanted to go into town to the grocery store with me. He did. I picked him up and we rode into Pumpkin Hollow to the General Store. We shopped for the month’s groceries and departed. We used the time together to catch up on all the latest gossip and to see how each other’s families were doing. I dropped him off and headed home. When I arrived, I noticed a large manilla envelope on my porch, leaning up against my front door. I took it in and then unloaded my many sacks of groceries. When I finished that task, I opened the envelope. It was from The Radio Reaper with a note that said, “Here are some interesting spots to go with the spots you ran a few weeks ago. I hope you enjoy them.”
I took out the record. “Ah, yes,” I thought, “the second feature to an interesting double bill. We finally get to hear the radio spots for Creature With the Atom Brain. Released in 1955 as the companion feature to It Came From Beneath the Sea, Creature is a delightfully atmospheric detective murder-mystery with science fiction elements thrown in. The opening scene showing someone or…something…walking toward the camera with a heavy back light while a beating heart is heard instantly grabs your attention. Later, when the mysterious figure bends iron window bars and breaks into a mansion, it attacks the man inside. Bullets can’t stop it and we see, quite graphically via shadows on the wall, the man picked up overhead by the powerful intruder and getting his spine snapped. And I don’t mean slightly snapped, I mean the poor guy gets folded in two…backwards…with a loud crack! Yeowch! My teeth hurt every time I watch that scene. …
I’ll be back next week to see how you all survived and to give a report on the ghastly goings-on at the Bash. Oh…and by the way…you are invited if you dare to come and join in the fun after you’ve finished appeasing the little monsters that come to your door. The party starts at midnight. Just wear your favorite disguise or, if you are scary enough, just come as you are. We all will be there. There will be lots to do and goodies to eat. Plus, lots of my Witch’s Brew to go around!
