Spooky Season At Zayre

October Sales Circular
Zayre (1987)
This page from a Zayre sales circular was shared by Dinosaur Dracula last month.

The highlight for me is the ad at the bottom left corner for Friday The 13th, Deadly Friend, Fright Night, The Believer, A Nightmare On Elm Street 3, and Halloween on VHS for $16.99.

This is the candy that we all wanted to find in our bag after we were finished trick or treating... except maybe for the Smarties, which had about the same flavor as the packets of sugar on the table at the Blue Comet.  Also, I still say that Reese's Peanut Butter Cups tasted better when they came in a paper wrapper.

The Count Dracula Chocolate Flavored Candy at the top left of this part of the ad is the kind of thing that savvy kids would trade to their friends for their old boring Hershey and Snickers bars.  The package may be awesome, but they didn't usually taste very good.

Once in a while, there would be a seasonal goodie that you didn't want to give up, like these Alma Skull Crushers which oozed strawberry blood when you bit into them.  I don't think these are still sold in stores in the United States, but I was able to find them for sale on UK eBay and other online retailers under the name Hannah's Skull Crushers.

I was more of a rubber mask kid when it came to Halloween, but makeup was always a solid option.

These cardboard wall hangings sold for a buck and a half back in the 80's,  My grandmother used to wait and buy things like this when they went on sale after the holiday to put away for next year.  These old decorations are considerably more expensive when you can find them on eBay, especially if they're in good condition.

The last thing that caught my eye were these Halloween pinatas.  I can't say I ever remember seeing pinatas out for a Halloween party when I was a kid.  The witch in the center is giving off Viola Swamp vibes.

Frightful Fun

Halloween Body Stickers
Mello Smello (90's)
These were scanned and shared by Dinosaur Dracula earlier this year.

Porky The Paper Eater

Piggy Garbage Can
Knoebels (2025)
Every time I see this garbage can at Knoebels, I'm reminded of something that I used to see at Angela Park when I was very young.  For the longest time, I thought that this was the same garbage can from Angela Park, but I found a picture of the old one and realized that they're not the same.

Citizen's Voice - Wilkes Barre, PA  (May 8, 2017)

The one that I remembered from Angela Park was called Porky The Paper Eater, and you've got to give a lot of credit to whoever came up with this.  They managed to turn a garbage can into popular attraction that is still remembered almost forty years after the park closed.

Porky The Paper Eater was a large square garbage can with a roof that was painted to look like a little cottage with a pig's head poking out of the front window.  There was a vacuum hooked up to the inside of the pig's mouth so that it would take garbage right out of your hand.  Feeding the pig your garbage also triggered an audio recording of the pig thanking you and munching on whatever you put in its mouth.  It was an ingenious idea because kids would pick up garbage off of the ground just so they could feed Porky, but it nearly backfired because if there was no garbage to be found, kids would sometimes take napkins from the food stands that they didn't need just to throw them away by feeding them to Porky.

Bananas! Bananas Everywhere!

House

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
We made it back from Knoebels on Sunday night to not miss the screening of a bizarre Japanese horror comedy flick from the late 70's, House.

Someone donated an incredible wood carving of the movie's logo as a raffle prize.

I watched the first twenty minutes or so from the front gate where I was giving Donnie a hand, and caught the rest of it from my regular spot.  I'm not even sure what to say about this film.  I didn't hate it, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it, but man... I don't get it.

Halloween At Knoebels

Knoebels Hallo-fun
Elysburg, PA
I've always wanted to check out Knoebels in October, but this is the first year that I made it down here for spooky season.

You Can't Kill The Boogeyman

Halloween-A-Thon III
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA

The third annual Halloween-A-Thon featured a pumpkin carving contest, a hell of a lot of folks cosplaying as Michael Myers, and six horror films that are centered on the spookiest day of the year.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Show poster designed by Justin Miller

Night One - Friday, October 10

Halloween / Halloween II / Trick Or Treats

The first movie on Friday night was the 1978 film that kicked off a franchise; Halloween.  This is my fourth time seeing on the big screen at the Mahoning.  This is going to be a trend throughout this post, and very likely throughout many of my future posts about the drive-in.  I've been coming here for five years and spent at least three nights a week on the lot for the past two seasons, so there are going to be a lot of repeat screenings.  I may not have as much to write about without repeating myself, but my experience in seeing classics like Halloween on this screen are just as incredible the fourth time as it was the first time.

The 1956 Loony Tunes short Broom-Stick Bunny was screened during the first intermission.  I've seen this print at the Mahoning at least two times before.  It might be more than that, but I haven't kept up with a list of all of the 35mm cartoons shorts that I've seen here the way that I've kept track of the movies.  I might have to go back and see if I can put a list together.

Halloween II was next, and like the first film in the franchise, this was my fourth time seeing it at the Mahoning.  Unlike most horror sequels, or movie sequels in general, this film picks up at the exact moment that the first film ends.  It's an intense follow-up that ramps up the violence and was intended to be the final Michael Myers movie when it was filmed.

The first two Halloween movies fit together so seamlessly that they've been combined to produce a 2 hour and 34 minute fan-edit called Halloween: The Night That Never Ends which I highly recommend.  This fan-edit cuts about a half hour from the two films to preserve the continuity, most of which is taken out of the sequel, and it's an interesting way to experience this story.

The final film of Friday night was the 1982 slasher Trick Or Treats.  There have been a lot of horror movies that use some version of "trick or treat" in the title, and it's been a bit challenging for me to keep track of which one is which.  This was my first time seeing this film to the best of my recollection, and it's a lot of fun.

The movie starts off with a seemingly untroubled man named Malcom being taken away from his home by two orderlies from a mental asylum while his wife Joan watches on with approval.  I'm not sure if I'm right, but the film gave me the impression that there was nothing wrong with the man at the start of the film and that his wife made arrangements to have him committed to get him out of the way so that she could leave him for a man played by David Carradine.  The story then picks up a few years later with Malcom breaking out of the asylum to take revenge on his wife and to find their son, Christopher, who is an absolute bastard who tortures his babysitter with magic tricks and practical jokes.  It's a cheesy black comedy, but an enjoyable one, and an excellent way to end a Halloween-themed triple feature.

Night Two - Saturday, October 11

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch / Trick Or Treat / Satan's Little Helper

The first film on Saturday night was also from 1982.  Halloween III: Season Of The Witch is my second favorite film in the franchise with only the original 1978 film ranking higher.  I've seen this one at the Mahoning in 2023 and 2024.  As far as I'm concerned, they could show this movie every October and I'd be happy to come out and see it.

Saturday night also featured a cartoon during the first intermission.  This time, it was the 1960 UPA short Magoo Meets Frankenstein, which features the near-sighted protagonist mistakenly entering the castle of Dr. Frankenstein thinking that it's a Hilton hotel.  It's a fun cartoon for the season.  It's available to stream from several channels on YouTube including this recording from an occasion that it aired on Boomerang.

 

The second film on Saturday night was the 1986 film Trick Or Treat.  I've seen this at the Mahoning once before when it was screened on the final Saturday of the 2022 season.

Trick Or Treat is a horror flick that's centered around rock and roll and the goofy Satanic Panic fad of the 80's that had uptight parents and school board members whipped up in a frenzy that was entirely a product of their imagination.  It's a hell of a lot of fun, and it features Ozzy Osborne in a cameo role as a televangelist who rants and raves about the evils of rock music.

The final movie was Satan's Little Helper.  This 2004 film tells the story of a young boy who unknowingly befriends a deranged killer thinking that he is the Satan character from his favorite video game.  It's a twisted horror comedy that's enjoyable overall, but it has so many inconsistencies and plot holes that it's hard to watch it without picking it apart.  I'm not overly supportive of the concept of film remakes, but this one could probably benefit from another person taking a crack at it at some point down the road.

And that's a wrap on Halloween-A-Thon III.