Some things were destined for one another, just like Harry Manfredini and his Echoplex. 

The summer of 1985 was one of the hottest in decades for Los Angeles. Having just arrived, the place seethed with electricity, zapping me with my first sensations of culture shock. Not really shock–more like electrocution. Music, gritty urban danger, and opportunity seemed to be around every corner. The media went batshit over Live Aid and the fact that serial killer Richard Ramirez was still on the loose. The daily high temperatures, which blasted way past 100 degrees in the San Fernando Valley where we now lived, made all these new symptoms even more severe. So, as our frozen yogurt melted, the blacktop squished under our feet, and people keeled over the middle of crosswalks, I’d be fibbing to say it wasn’t a way of life that took a long time to get used to. 

As August crept up, it was time to get registered for school, and things like finding me and my sister’s immunization cards suddenly became more important than my upcoming birthday. I’m sure my poor mother had no idea what to get me after such a whirlwind year highlighted by a cross-country relocation on a very tight budget. 

As soon as I visited Boulevard Music Mart at the corner of Winnetka Avenue and Ventura Boulevard, I wanted only one thing for my 11th birthday: Harry Manfredini’s soundtrack to the first three FRIDAY THE 13th films, which was originally released by New York-based Gramavision Records. The copy I came across that day was the only time I’ve ever seen it. The $8.99 price tag was hefty for that era, and so I had to leave the store that day without it. It was a horrible feeling. 

In the following weeks, my mum finally agreed it could be my birthday present, and so off we went back to the store the weekend before my big day. I remember being so excited as I walked into the store…until I flipped through the “F” section of the vinyl soundtracks and it was gone. I almost puked up my heart, liver, and everything else, just like that woman in CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD. I couldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t. Vinyl sleeves flew through the air and cashiers started to side-eye me as I refused to leave the store. I was on a quest, prepared to flip through every motherfucking soundtrack album, from APOCALYPSE NOW to ZORBA THE GREEK. 

Finally, there it was. Someone had nestled it in the “J” section (for “Jason”?), probably in a George Costanza-like attempt to hide it so they could purchase it at a later time. Nice try, jagoff. This one’s mine.

The 3-D album sleeve appears to be a zoomed take of a FRIDAY THE 13th PART 3 promo poster that was in stores during the second half of 1982. The album even came with its very own blue/red glasses for proper viewing! Most of maestro Harry Manfredini’s now-classic music cues from the first three FRIDAY THE 13th movies can be found here, sometimes combined into mini-suites with such fitting names as “Introduction to Horror” and “Moments of Madness”. And yes, for all you boogie-down disco fans, we get this party started with a full-length take of the theme to PART 3. 

After more than a dozen moves over four long decades, I still have my beloved 11th birthday present. I easily could have sold it, broken it, or forgotten it over the years, but I will never part with it. Except for maybe Amy Reilly in first grade, horror was my first true love, and some things are meant to be together forever.

#spookysoundtracks #fridaythe13th #harrymanfredini #losangeles #vinyl #boulevardmusicmart #gramavisionrecords

Here at UBHB, we’re gearing up for tomorrow’s entry spotlighting the first vinyl soundtrack release from the FRIDAY THE 13th series. In the meantime, dig this original advert I saved from the summer of 1986 when JASON LIVES stormed theaters. It wasn’t a huge blockbuster for Paramount–if I’m not mistaken, it was the first film in the series to not hit the top spot at the box office–but it’s garnered a surprising amount of critical praise, both then and now. Writer/director Tom McLoughlin injects a lot of meta fun into the usual slashings, ultimately winning over a big chunk of fans who still list the sequel as one of the very best Jason films.

#fearflashbacks #fridaythe13thpartvijasonlives #tommcloughlin #paramountpictures

Regardless of how you feel about the film adaptation of RAWHEAD REX, you gotta admit he’s quite the spectacle. However, he always seems to lose out to those other pesky Clive Barker creations, the Cenobites from HELLRAISER.

Today, we have a great fold out of our rarely-seen snaggle-toothed guy, who was inspired by an English folktale dating back as far as the mid-16th century.

And yes, for all you alternative music fans, the legend also inspired the 1988 Siouxsie and the Banshees song, “Rawhead and Bloody Bones”.

From Fangoria Poster Magazine #2 (1988).

#onesheetwonders #rawheadrex #clivebarker #cenobites #hellraiser #siouxieandthebanshees #rawheadandbloodybones #fangoria

The savvy folks at Bloody Disgusting dropped the news that yet another EVIL DEAD film, this one titled EVIL DEAD BURN, will gallop into theaters in 2026. Director Sébastien Vaniček, recently coming off his creepy-crawly genre entry VERMINES (INFESTED), will be working from a script he co-wrote with Florent Bernard. How this will impact the previously announced EVIL DEAD film slated to be directed by Francis Galluppi is anyone’s guess.

Needless to say, it’s too soon for details about Vaniček’s project, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground for updates in the coming months! For now, you can check out Bloody Disgusting’s original article here.

#horrorhappenings #evildeadburn #sebastienvanicek #vermines #infested #florentbernard #francisgalluppi #bloodydisgusting

It’s time for another neat prop that was on display at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, WA. Today’s offering is an actual ‘facehugger’ Xenomorph from the ALIEN franchise!

#fearflashbacks #alien #facehugger #xenomorph #museumofpopculture #mopop #seattle #washington

I know I’m just recovering from COVID and my brain is still a little crispy around the edges, but this made me laugh way harder than I expected.

#killermemes&comic #scream #ghostface #ratatouille #pixar

Here are another few items that were on display at the Museum at Popular Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle.

This time, we get a pair of power tools donated by director Eli Roth, including a chainsaw and circular saw used in his films HOSTEL (2005) and HOSTEL: PART II (2007), respectively.

#fearflashbacks #hostel #hostelpartii #eliroth #museumofpopularculture #mopop #seattle #washington

I hallucinated last week, folks. It’s not something I do frequently, but I was in the thick of my very first ‘lucha libre’-style wrestling match with COVID-19. Though even my illnesses can’t arrive fashionably on time (“You have Covid? That’s so 2020!”), the notion aligns nicely for a man running a retrospective blog that’s today highlighting one of the most experimental filmmakers of our time, a perversely crazy demi-genius by the name of Alejandro Jodorowsky.

A 95-year-old Chilean who’s been making films since the late 1950s, Jodorowsky rose to prominence in the 1970s with avant-garde offerings such as EL TOPO (1970) and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973). The director quickly cemented his place in midnight movie history, becoming synonymous with heady blends of hallucinatory, religious, violent, and erotic imagery in the spirit of such surrealist film pioneers as Luis Buñuel.

SANTA SANGRE may be a bit more cohesive and straightforward from a narrative sense than Jodo’s earlier and more widely-known works, but it’s no less astonishing. Commanding a sense of color like few other directors can, he is able to ingratiate a troupe of circus performers to his audience through a visual mix of psychotropic theatricality and earth-bound grotesquerie. All things are normalized in a Jodorowsky film; here, elephant funerals, children forced into being tattooed, and coked-up Down Syndrome patients on the search for hookers are in their proper places in this world. The sacred and the profane are braided forever into one. There are no ‘freaks’ in our universe, you see–all are family. If you don’t have any family, some will be assigned to you.

I feel the less I tell you about the plot the better, which comes in very handy here because, much like every other Jodo film, an explanation takes longer than the experience itself. Simply put as possible, the narrative follows a boy into manhood, where he eventually crushes under the weight of parental influence. The film dances with the dueling notions of control versus fulfilling fate’s prophecy, whether you do it yourself or, ironically, have someone force it on you. Ultimately, we are witness to a curious study in trauma, continually questioning who’s the victim of it, who can atone for it, and what dangers arise from using grief as a false idol.

Don’t just watch SANTA SANGRE. Taste it. Smell it. Wrap your arms around it, and never let it go.

#unclean&unseen #santasangre #alejandrojodorowsky #eltopo #theholymountain #luisbunuel #surrealism #midnightmovies

After all these years, part of me still has a problem wrapping my head around the fact that Mel Brooks (yep, that Mel Brooks) not only produced David Cronenberg’s captivating 1986 remake of THE FLY, he also came up with one of the best taglines of all time: “Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.”

It’s time we recognize this man is good for way more than just farty bean jokes and sprightly Broadway numbers about Hitler.

From Fangoria Poster Magazine #1 (1987)

#onesheetwonders #thefly #davidcronenberg #melbrooks

This is the epitome of those wonderful VHS-era horror adverts from the late 80s.

In the pom-pom wavin’ spirit of all those school-set slashers like STUDENT BODIES, SLAUGHTER HIGH, FINAL EXAM, CUTTING CLASS, NIGHT SCHOOL, PROM NIGHT, and probably about 22 others I can’t recall at the moment, RETURN TO HORROR HIGH went on to take its place in the horror pantheon mostly because it featured a very young George Clooney. That’s right, folks, Johnny Depp and Kevin Bacon weren’t the only heartthrobs to get their start in slashers!

#fearflashbacks #returntohorrorhigh #newworldpictures #videorelease #georgeclooney