Synchtube Tropers (Riff on Videos and Movies)

Thanks. I updated the list.

Anyway, tonight it's the 1985 classic The Return of the Living Dead, with more brain hungry zombies! But before that, it's some more miscellany, some Halloween-themed and some not. So come on in! Stop by: http://cytu.be/r/tropercoven

I can show up completely at random. It all depends on whether or not I'm in the mood for what's playing.

I can not wait for Saturday. The Amazing Bulk looks hilarious. I averted my gaze to avoid seeing spoilers. Then I made the mistake of doing a Google search for the movie, seeing SCREENSHOTS, and cracking up laughing. Okay, avoiding spoilers until Saturday, definitely.

In the meantime, I added to the Deadtime Stories works page and have reviewed it. I only have 3 more episodes to go. The page is filling up nicely with lots of tropes.

edited 30th Oct '14 6:59:46 PM by BonsaiForest

I've got some suggestions for pre-movie videos for post-Halloween.

A guy uploads these weird, unnerving videos on YouTube after purchasing them at a garage sale.

edited 30th Oct '14 8:04:42 PM by AnimeBadger

I just watched the stupidest, worst episode of Deadtime Stories. I realize horror shows are very much hit-or-miss, and this one was a huge miss.

It took place in the Deep South and was loaded with all the southern US stereotypes you can think of. Family members with names like Billy Bob and Bob Bob, a pair of white dress-wearing Creepy Twins who don't talk, family members with names like Ernie and Earl, several of whom are morbidly obese, gross-out humor involving food such as pig's feet, and of course, banjo music.

It involved the family secretly having a pet omnivorous hairball with a mouth named Gus-Gus, who is very aggressive, especially if he eats anything with meat in it. Well, they kill it by sticking a pig's foot on a firecracker and having him eat it, causing him to fly up into the air and go boom, exploding into pieces.

So naturally the Cruel Twist Ending is that the pieces are now miniature versions of the monster, giving the family even more problems.

The whole episode felt like a giant middle finger to the south, with its many ridiculous stereotypes. I'm from New Jersey, and I'm politically the opposite of the south, so it's not as if this was insulting to me, but I still found it absurdly offensive. Not to mention it was a dumb story.

My favorite eps are still the ghost one, the magic time-freezing ball one, and the Bloody Mary wish-granting one.

Happy Halloween!

Have fun, everybody, and enjoy the holiday. If you were planning on visiting the chat later, you're not gonna find a show there tonight. See you Saturday.

Okay, confession time.

Even though I deliberately avoided looking at the trailer for tomorrow's movie while it was playing, I did Google it. And looking at just one particular SCREENSHOT, I cracked up laughing, and closed the browser window, not wanting to spoil it any more.

Then later, while in bed, I started cracking up again just thinking about it. For like a half hour, I was just laughing on and off, tears streaming down my face.

I really hope I didn't use up all my laughter and I still have plenty saved for the movie. I see a future classic in the making.

EDIT: Oh god. I'm trying not to laugh now just thinking about it. It's not easy.

EDIT 2: It's not working. I may not be laughing out loud but I have tears again. I really hope I didn't exhaust all my laughter.

edited 31st Oct '14 7:33:24 AM by BonsaiForest

I posted my review of chapter 4 of the book on my liveblog. Go check it out, and witness the demise of some Spanish naval captain-themed bullies via soapy water balloons, as I continue tearing The Adventures of Archie Reynolds a new asshole.

The classic 1959 House on Haunted Hill Featuring none other then Vincent Price himself.

Full vid

I have seen tonight's offering. Should be interesting for you guys.

We're not meeting tonight actually, since we're taking Halloween as a day off. Tomorrow night is The Amazing Bulk.

Ha I misread the date. I have seen last nights offering. What did you guys think?

We've showcased it here once every Halloween season since we've been doing this, and I've been personally familiar with it long enough to recall renting out an old VHS copy from Blockbuster as a young teenager and finding an old copy of the soundtrack on CD at a Tower Records.

It's practically the greatest horror film of the 80's. Was gonna watch it by myself soon, after having to miss it last night.

edited 31st Oct '14 5:03:58 PM by SeanMurrayI

My dad wanted to join us for The Amazing Bulk, but he thought it was tonight. He's unable to join us tomorrow. Since I didn't want to spoil the whole movie for myself, I showed him the "best chase scene ever" video and the screenshot that had me in stitches. He laughed quite a bit (not nearly as hard as I) and thanked me, then later asked me the name of the movie so he could look up more info on it.

I think I first saw "Return" when I was 8 years old. I got up one Saturday morning at 5, thinking it was 6 to watch some cartoons. I saw people running around a cemetery, and then the zombies rising up out of the graves as "Party Time" played. I waited for the scene to change, then switched off the TV and went the hell back to bed for an hour.

I dressed up as a slightly frumpy, disgruntled, lazy college student for Halloween

I dressed as a capitalist cause I had work.

I got bored and did a bit of Halloween makeup in case any TOTers showed up.

None did. Got a new facebook profile pic out of it, though.

edited 1st Nov '14 6:04:13 AM by Bisected8

And I watched The Good The Bad And The Ugly. Not quite as fitting as the next movie I'm watching (Cabin in the Woods), but it was going off Netflix in a few hours. Besides, some people out there dressed up as cowboys I'm sure.

I've been hearing that trick-or-treating isn't quite the tradition in the UK as it is in America. My American-born aunt who moved to Essex before the turn of the millennium was telling me a story this past week about how she dressed her kids up for their first Halloween in Britain, and they were apparently the ONLY trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood that year... and most other locals had no idea what to make of them showing up at their front door. She said it's caught on a bit more since then (after Wal-Mart bought Asda and began importing Halloween decorations or something), but I suppose it's not quite on the level.

5xWhat batshit syndicated network would play a movie like that on an early weekend morning as a lead-in to their cartoon block? And how much shittier must that same channel be today?

Anyway, we are BACK! And this evening, our brains are gonna boil inside our skulls as The Amazing Bulk assaults our senses.

edited 1st Nov '14 6:58:47 AM by SeanMurrayI

Pretty much. My Grandma's quite fond of telling the story of the first time she encountered some (this was a few decades ago, naturally). Apparently she responded "trick" to some teenagers, expecting a magic trick and got her windows paper machéd.

I think most of the kids just went off to parties.

I think Halloween, at least, has been a thing in the UK (the non-Celtic parts, anyhow) since the 90s. Can anyone confirm this?

Can't be here tonight. Going to my local Comic Con. I'll be working it off for the rest of the day.

edited 1st Nov '14 7:04:02 AM by Aldo930

Halloween's been a thing here for centuries.

Trick or Treating's more or less an American import, though.

With the rest of Europe, I know it wasn't a thing till the 90s.

Nope, it originated from Christian tradition (or more likely Celtic-Christian tradition) - All Hallows Eve is the last day before All Saints Day, and thus the last chance for various malign spirits to have a bit of fun.

There's evidence and records of various Halloween traditions on the continent going back as far as the 15th century.

edited 1st Nov '14 7:10:43 AM by Bisected8

True. Outside of English-speaking countries, however, it was brought in with US culture in the 90s. At least I think.

I'd had no idea of that, though.

edited 1st Nov '14 7:13:13 AM by Aldo930