Chadwick H. Saxelid's Blog: Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties, page 30

Jaws (1975) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - April 25, 1975
Here's an ad alerting San Francisco filmgoers of their chance to see a Major Studio Preview of the soon to be released 'Super Thriller' Jaws at 8:30 on Saturday night. While The Great Waldo Pepper, which was in general release at the time, was shown before and after Jaws, I don't known if the screening was considered part of a double-bill. 
Chances are good that it was, as the idea that a schlocky thriller like Jaws would go on to draw huge crowds, and become a pop culture phenomenon, seemed ludicrous. They also did not clear out theaters after each showing like they do now. If you bought a ticket, and there was room, you could stay for as many showings as you liked.
Well, that is how I remember it being back then, at least.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #40

Cautiously, the three space explorers enter the mysterious, oval-shaped doorway to the derelict. Captain Dallas, teeth gritted, fists clenched, leads the way... 

The Boys from Brazil (1978) - Soundtrack

The film adaptation of The Boys from Brazil may or may not have pinged my pop culture radar when it was released in October of 1978. I kind of sort of remember being intrigued by a newspaper advertisement for the film, but that's all.
Until 1980, that is. September 28, 1980, to be exact. That is when The Boys from Brazil made its network television debut. I remember watching that version of the film. 
I did not know that there were different versions of the film. Nor that the abrupt ending of the network television version would become the most notorious of them. I just thought the movie ended with Mengele (Gregory Peck) getting ripped apart by dogs.

In 1983 or 84, while my family was living in Hong Kong, I bought the original soundtrack for the film, because the music was by Jerry Goldsmith and therefore it must be good. It was, but I had forgotten how Goldsmith, via a request made by the film's director, Franklin A. Schaffner, had drawn musical inspiration from Wagner and Strauss. But it worked.
When Intrada released this expanded edition of The Boys from Brazil soundtrack in 2008, I was more than happy to make an upgrade and had no regrets when I gave it a listen.
Goldsmith, who received his 11th Academy Award nomination for this score, wrote 55-minutes of music, although only a mere 39-minutes of dramatic score (minus source cues) wound up being used in the film. 
Jon Burlingame's liner notes for this release details what was and was not used in the film, information that will be of interest to film music nerds like me.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #42

Heather's Journal 10.23.94
In any case, the rain stopped, it was a breathtakingly beautiful night. We got some great beauty shots today (yes, more!), now I've just got to write the narration to go with them. Maybe use some of the interviews. The image of the little girl putting her hand over her mother's mouth as she told what she knew of the Blair Witch story still haunts me. Weirdness. Total weirdness. 

Fear No Evil (1981) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - April 24, 1981
44 years ago Fear No Evil opened at theaters and drive-ins throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. I remember seeing ads for it on television and reading about it in Fangoria (Issue 11). Although I would have liked to have seen it, I was unable to see to do so until its release on home video. So it goes.

Another (fond) memory I have is of watching John Stanley interview Frank LaLoggia, on Creature Features, and showing a clip from the film, which was its (in)famous dodgeball scene.

I was overjoyed to find the interview available on You Tube.

eXistenZ (1999) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - April 23, 1999
Although I have not watched eXistenZ from start to finish, I did catch the film's final fifteen or so minutes on cable television at one point. That was enough for me to conclude that Cronenberg had decided to return, revisit, and, if one wants to think uncharitably, recycle themes and elements from his seminal reality-bender Videodrome.

At that moment I thought it would be cool to watch both films as a double-feature, to see if that impression did, in fact, play out. I have yet to do that, but still hope to do so at some point in the future.

If I do, then I expect I will write a more nuanced blog entry about it. Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows?

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #39

Before the wonder-filled eyes of Dallas and his party stands an incredible derelict spaceship. Can this be where the alien transmissions are coming from?

A card with another iconic and oft-used image from the film. 

Boogeyman (2005) - Soundtrack

I remember visual snippets from select moments of Boogeyman, but nothing at all of the film's storyline or characters. Those memorable snippets include an almost comically unnerving action figure (i.e. doll) in the film's opening scene, a tormented soul encased in what looked to be Saran Wrap, a nightmarish hallucination, or dream, involving the protagonist's deceased mother, and a post-credits scene, from the POV of the titular boogeyman, peeking through a cracked open door at a frightened child, who is calling for her mother because she has seen him. That's it.
Yet those snippets seemed to have left enough of an impression on me that I purchased this limited edition soundtrack album of Joseph LoDuca's score for the film, despite my having no idea or memory of what that score sounded like. Turns out that was by design.

"...the Evil Dead films [were] musically big [and] fun as hell," director Stephen Kay remarks in Daniel Schweiger's liner notes. "Yet Boogeyman was going to be very different, because we wanted to get inside [the main character's] head."
This approach resulted in a score with melodic sections woven through a soundscape of ambient dissonance that creates what Schwieger describes as a "continuous mood of tension and pending doom." 
Which is a good explanation for why this score is one I notice and appreciate in snippets, but not as a cohesive whole.

Mystery House - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - April 22, 1946
Mystery House was a syndicated anthology show produced by "that strange publishing firm owned by Dan and Barbara Glenn, where each new novel is acted out by the Mystery House staff before it is accepted for publication."

What an odd and seemingly unethical business model for a publishing company to undertake. Perform adaptations of a submitted work, which may or may not even be accepted for publication? Even worse, Dan and Barbara never seem to cite the episode's source material. You know, the actual book that they may or may not accept for publication. Who wrote it? Where can the books they did publish be found? Or ordered? Listeners would need to be told these things, if you want to, you know, sell actual books.

But none of that matters, because "that strange publishing firm" did not exist, of course. Neither did Dan and Barbara Glenn. It was all just a nifty little framing device for the show.

Only 15 or so episodes of Mystery House seem to have survived. One of those might feature a performance by Bela Lugosi. You can listen to the show here, or here, or here.

According to the archives, the episode that might correspond with the publication date for this posted ad might be Murder Takes Practice. Enjoy.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #41

Heather's Journal 10.23.94 Part 2
Gaining their trust (and respect) has been my biggest issue all along. I am so different from both of them, aside from just gender, that it makes it difficult sometimes for us to relate to each other and to communicate clearly. But, I think things are cool now, as far as I'm concerned my motives were fully justified last night, but my methods lacked refinement. There's something about being jolted from a deep sleep to hear strange noises in the woods, that greatly limits one's capacity to think straight.