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Showing posts from 2021
💀💀The Age Of Gods And Monsters lives on in the hearts and imaginations of those that wish to keep it alive. Ghoulish Grin Films is a small entity but its heart is on fire with the ghosts of old. It is an entity that cherishes the classics and gives it a modern platform. Long Live Indie Horror! 💀💀 Welcome to the site...and thank you for your support! Enjoy!

Leave 2021 Behind. Embrace The Possibilities.

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 2021 didn't fulfill the promise of a new day. It seemed a continuation of the previous year, complete with divisiveness, pain, and limitations. Maybe we assumed too much. Maybe we were putting the cart before the horse. Who knows.  But we can't continue to think like that. There seems to be an endgame forming. A rough month or so to go but definitely light at the end of the tunnel. It was just that tunnel was a bit longer than expected. 2022 promises the same as last year. Let's keep that feeling alive. We can get through all of this and make our way back to feeling whole again as a community. Maybe that's expecting too much too soon, but we can hope and dream. Let's make our way out of this tunnel. Let's bring in the 20's the way it was supposed to be brought out...roaring. 

Carrie On Forever (Happy Birthday Carrie Fisher)

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 She was an actress, screenwriter, novelist, advocate. To us Star Wars fans, she is forever the role she unfortunately couldn't shake. Princess Leia. Like any actor or actress that is typecast or shadowed by a signature role, it seemed like she was making peace with the legacy. Unfortunately she passed much too soon.  I skipped the first two Star Wars films in my youth (in my defense I was only 1 when the first one came out and 4 when the second one came out.). I was quickly brought into the fold thanks to my cousins brilliant retelling through roleplaying as kids and the great Kenner toys. Once "Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi" came out I was an excited 7 year older ready to go. This was my first introduction to Carrie Fisher. Disguised as a bounty hunter rescuing her galactic love, Han Solo. Kidnapped and turned 'Slave Leia,' which was impressive for a whole other reason. Then ultimately hero of The Republic with her Jedi brother Luke Skywalker. It was

The FREE HORROR MOVIES Playlist Hits 1M Views!

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  The Free Horror Movies Playlist The Ghoulish Grin Films YouTube channel just hit an amazing milestone. The FREE HORROR MOVIES Playlist, consisting of films from Ghoulish Grin Films, public domain classics, top fan films, and hard-to-find cult classics, has just recently hit 1 MILLION VIEWS! I had a feeling it would make it once 'Spooky Season' hit this year, but I must say it was sooner than expected.  It is indeed years in the making and I'm very happy to have one of the long lasting horror movie playlists on the #1 streaming platform on the internet. And I have all of you to thank for this wonderful accomplishment. THANK YOU to subscribers old and new, to the horror fans looking for free movies, and the random folks who ran into this playlist and decided to watch a few films. And to the amazing underground horror community. You ROCK! We have gone through some ups and downs these past couple of years, but this playlist has always been there...through good and bad. And as

20 Years Gone, Yet We Will Never Forget

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 20 years later, we will never forget the terror of the day, and the heroic unity of the people of America. God Bless those that lost their lives on 9/11. 

Universal Monsters Royalty (Happy Birthday Glenn Strange!)

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 George Glenn Strange was born on. August 16th, 1899 in New Mexico. At a commanding 6 foot 5 he took over the role of the Frankenstein's Monster when the legendary Boris Karloff decided to retire playing the character after playing him for the last time in "Son Of Frankenstein," closing out the original Frankenstein Trilogy.  When legendary make-up artist Jack Pierce noticed Strange in "The Mad Monster," he was cast as the Frankenstein Monster in 1944's "House Of Frankenstein" with John Carradine replacing the great Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. The only original member of the monster mash was Lon Chaney Jr., playing his iconic Wolf Man role. A follow-up, "House Of Dracula," featured the same trilogy of Universal Monsters and is a fun team-up for fans of the classic monsters. But it was his appearance as the Frankenstein's Monster in the horror comedy "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" that came the closest to a full on

King Of The World (Happy Birthday James Cameron!)

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 In the Summer of 1991, I went to the movie theaters to see the Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster "Terminator 2: Judgement Day," nowadays known simply as T2. It was easily one of the best summer movie experiences of my life. Not just because I was seeing a highly anticipated Arnold film but the film itself delivered in spades. Not only was it one of Mr. Schwarzenegger's best, but it was one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, and arguably the best action/sci fi film. And the reason for this amazing execution of story and special effects was thanks to the great James Cameron. Funny enough, T2 is in competition with "Aliens" as the finest action science fiction film...another follow-up directed by Cameron. His masterful execution of spectacle and story (with such fare as "The Abyss" and "True Lies") are among the greats of the blockbusters. Easily up there with the likes of Spielberg and Lucas. I was a crazy fan of '80's/

My Favorite Ghostbuster (Happy Birthday Dan Aykroyd!)

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 Back when I was a kid in the '80's, my family and neighbors invited me to see the first Ghostbusters film. For some reason I decided to stay home. I 100% regretted that decision because when The Ghostbusters franchise blew up and they had the cartoon show and toys I jumped on the Ecto-1 ride immediately.  I became obsessed with the cartoon, had the toys, enjoyed the Hi-C Ecto Cooler (I still love it!), and when the opportunity came to make up for my earlier mistake, caught the film on television. It's still to this day one of the greatest (if not THEE greatest) horror comedies of all time. And I finally went with family to see the sequel. Most people dismiss the film and though I agree it's not as good as the classic original, I have massive nostalgia for it. And it kept my love for all thing Ghostbusters alive to this very day. Among the four original Ghostbusters, I always gravitated towards Ray Stantz played by the brilliant SNL original member Dan Aykroyd. His amus

A Thrilling Legacy - Happy Birthday Vincent Price

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 When I was very young in the '80's, my dad bought me my first Walkman. And my first physical piece of music...a cassette tape of the blockbuster album "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. As my sister and I laid in the back seat of our parents car listening to our tapes, I came across the title track. It set up a very spooky vibe (at least for a kid my age!) and it concluded with a very eerie voice. Darkness falls across the land The midnight hour is close at hand Creatures crawl in search of blood To terrorize y'all's neighborhood And whomsoever shall be found Without the soul for getting down Must stand and face the hounds of hell And rot inside a corpse's shell The lyrics were quite chilling. Then...it's epic closing! The foulest stench is in the air The funk of forty thousand years And grisly ghouls from every tomb Are closing in to seal your doom And though you fight to stay alive Your body starts to shiver For no mere mortal can resist The evil of the

The Great And Powerful Oz - Happy Birthday Frank Oz!

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 As I have stated numerous times, I am a massive Star Wars fan. Have been since I was a young boy. And growing up with Star Wars I was familiar with one of the great cinematic characters, Jedi Master Yoda.  And this character was brought to life by the magnificent Frank Oz. But even BEFORE that, I knew Frank Oz. From my toddler years watching Sesame Street. When I first heard Yoda I thought he sounded a lot like a Sesame Street character I was familiar with, Grover! Turns out I wasn't too far off. At all. He's voiced iconic characters like Grover, The Cookie Monster, and would team up with the legendary Jim Henson as he would voice Ernie, Mr. Oz would voice Bert. As Mr. Henson would voice Kermit The Frog, Mr. Oz would hilariously voice Miss Piggy. He would form brilliant collaborations with Mr. Henson with projects from Sesame Street and The Muppets franchise and with the great George Lucas with the Star Wars sequels. His partnership with Jim Henson also included the '80

Lon Chaney Double Feature Streaming At Amazon!

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  http://www.amazon.com/v/ghoulishgrinfilms The silent horror classics from the legendary Lon Chaney Sr., "The Unholy Three: Ghoulish Edition" and "He Who Gets Slapped: Ghoulish Edition," are now streaming on Amazon Instant Video! Enjoy these two films with either an Amazon Video rental or purchase and witness an actor who is arguably the finest actor of the silent era.  Thank you as always for supporting Ghoulish Grin Films on all media platforms! Here's to a 2021 we can celebrate together as one. Also enjoy Lon Chaney classics on the Ghoulish Grin Classic Horror YouTube channel!

BREAKING NEWS! Tom Cruise Is Darkseid AND Green Lantern In The SnyderVerse!

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Easter has come early for Tom Cruise fans! According to WeGotThisSmotheredNews, the legendary Hollywood icon will be doing double duty as DC baddy Darkseid AND as the long rumored Green Lantern Hal Jordan in the now newly rebooted SnyderVerse! With the undeniable success of HBO Max's "Zack Snyder's Justice League," the momentum has swiftly gone towards continuing the adventures of Henry Cavill's Superman, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa's Aquaman, and yes...Batfleck. And what better way to add that star power and take it over the top than to add Mr. Cruise!  Having lost the Mother Boxes and the battle to The Justice League, Darkseid will ultimately plan his return along with the dreaded Legion Of Doom! At his side will be Joe Manganiello as Slade Wilson, A.K.A. Deathstroke, Jared Leto as The Joker, Danny DeVito as Solomon Grundy, and with another bit of updated casting...Mark Zuckerberg as Lex Luthor! And joining Tom Cruise as the Lantern Corp will b

The Greatness Goes On And On... (HEAVEN AND HELL - A Black Sabbath Tribute)

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 Many, many years ago I went into a Sam Goody store. Not a lot of physical music media sold these days. A small section at places like Target and Walmart, and though I'm lucky enough to have a local record store in my city, they just aren't plentiful like they used to be.  When I was in there I saw a cassette tape that was a two-for-one special. Two whole albums, one on each side of the tape. The first side was Black Sabbath's classic PARANOID. I had heard a handful of songs from the album on classic rock radio and loved the band. Grabbing this was a no brainer. On the other side was another Black Sabbath album. And this one was HEAVEN AND HELL. This was a while back and they never really played Ronnie James Dio's music on the radio. I think I had heard him fleetingly but not enough to make a judgement on him or the music. But since I was buying the tape for PARANOID, this album was a bonus for me. If I didn't like it...oh well. I can still wear out Side A. So when

The Ultimate Heavy (Happy Birthday Jack Palance)

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 Back in the heyday of mom and pop VHS video store rentals, I used to pick up a lot of videos based on the classic monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and so on).  One day as I was searching through titles with my parents in the new releases area and I in the horror area, (and proud of it!) I came across a version of "The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" that I was unfamiliar here with in The States. It was a Canadian-American made for television adaptation. This was my first bit of exposure to the late, great Jack Palance.   Not only did I get a riveting (and in my opinion underrated) version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, but a splendid performance from Mr. Palance. It was also a joy to know he was one of a handful of actors to have played the iconic bloodsucker Dracula. For many of the younger generation (if they even know him at all), he's the old man that accepted a Best Supporting Actor Oscar doing one-handed push-ups. Truly a bizarre disp

A Legacy Of His Own (Happy Birthday Lon Chaney Jr.)

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 Born on February 10th 1906, Creighton Tull Chaney was the son of screen legend Lon Chaney Sr. and Frances Cleveland Creighton Chaney. Having lived in various homes as the result of his parents troubled marriage, he eventually rejoined his father when his life became stable. Chaney Jr. maintained that his childhood was tough. Understandable, with this early struggle with family and the early choices to avoid the shadow of his larger than life father.  After his fathers death in 1930 he began to act, first under is born name, then under his stage name. His early work included small roles and even stunt work. He had steady acting jobs under 20th Century Fox in various roles, including Lennie in the United Artists 1939 John Steinbeck adaptation "Of Mice And Men." It wasn't until he was given the role of Larry Talbot in the Universal Studios Monster blockbuster "The Wolf Man" that he became the star that we all remember today. Unfortunately this resulted in his type

A True Giant Of Fandom (Happy Birthday Warwick Davis!)

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 In 1983 I saw (what I thought was at the time the end of The Skywalker Saga) "Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi" in theaters and my life was changed forever. However, an actor that I would later come to respect and love was in this film...and I didn't know it.  To be fair, no one would have known little Warwick Davis in an Ewok suit, even if he was famous. He was originally meant to be an extra in the film, but when Star Wars icon and R2D2 actor Kenny Baker fell ill, George Lucas hand picked Warwick to be the great Ewok Wicket, seeing how he carried himself as an Ewok. Thus his great career as a fan favorite was born. He would later reprise the roll of Wicket in the television films "Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure" and "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor." Five years later he would appear in one of my all-time favorite '80's fantasy films "Willow." I absolutely loved this film, having been a fan of circles & rings, dragons

The Day The Music Died (Reflections On "La Bamba" The Pioneers Of Rock)

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 I am a Bicentennial kid, born in 1976. And as a member of Generation X, I always felt like I had one foot in the past and one foot in the future. I would grow up adopting new technologies as they would be released to the public, but also would be exposed to classic television syndication and classic music through local radio stations like K-Earth 101 in Los Angeles.  Some of my fondest trips with the family would include being in traffic headed to L.A. or Anaheim and listening to an amazing collection of Rock & Roll icons. With those 'golden oldies' stations I would listen to legends like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Righteous Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly (I would listen to him quite a bit with my cousin Matt), and all the greats of Motown. But it would be in 1987 that I would realize that my own identity would be reflected in this music that I originally thought wasn't. This was when "La Bamba," the biopic based on the life and t

Happy Groundhog Day From Ghoulish Grin Films!

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 Happy Groundhog Day! It seems as if we're ALL the groundhog these days, but here's to better days...when we can all enjoy the sun as one and greet each other with a hug and a conversation. I believe it will happen, so hang in there.  11 more months of 2021 but maybe soon our days of hibernating in our holes will end. Maybe sooner than later.

Snapped Back Into Reality - "WandaVision" So Far

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 As a fan of the MCU, I was pretty excited about WandaVision simply because it was part of the larger story. Once it was revealed that it would be a partial tribute to classic television my excitement level increased. I grew up with syndicated television reruns, everything from "I Love Lucy" to "The Brady Bunch" and onward. I was ready. And just like that, watching the first two episodes (which were tributes to "Lucy," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," and "Bewitched") sent me into classic T.V. nostalgia warmness. All the while dropping weird glitches and hints at something much more serious and sinister. Many fans were just outright confused. I can't say that I truly knew where all this was going but the nods to T.V. were keeping my attention. The third episode (being a "Brady Bunch" homage) brought even more glitches and weirdness and MCU fans were slowly starting to have their own theories about what was going on. As this fourt

A New Age Of Gods & Monsters ("Godzilla Vs. Kong")

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 Much like a good chunk of 2020 theatrical releases, the much anticipated monster mash "Godzilla Vs. Kong" was pushed into the new year. And fans had to temper their expectations just a little while longer.  And so here we are into 2021. And though this was never the ideal rollout for this Hollywood blockbuster in the making, the delay and the overall pent up demand for big screen mega films has actually HELPED what was already a film fans were greatly looking forward to into a frenzy that is boiling over.  The trailer release is nothing less than a rousing success. What fans were expecting from the meeting of these two titans of movie monster history was met with great action and exciting visuals. Nothing less should be expected for The Two Kings Of Monsters. Would we have gotten the same amount of fan excitement for this upcoming smash had 2020 not left a giant hole in the normalcy of humanity and were there not a yearning for the days of fresh popcorn, refreshments, a fanc

"The Unholy Three" Now Streaming At Vimeo On Demand!

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  https://vimeo.com/ondemand/unholy3 "The Unholy Three," the 1925 Lon Chaney thriller which recently fell into the public domain, is now a new release from Ghoulish Grin Films! Watch "The Unholy Three: Ghoulish Edition" for FREE with an Amazon Prime membership! You can also rent or purchase the video for your collection. Rent or purchase the film at Vimeo On Demand! And all Ghoulish Grin Films releases are 99 Cent rentals! Thank you as always for your support and let's make 2021 a great one. http://www.amazon.com/v/GhoulishGrinFilms https://vimeo.com/user60705981/vod_pages  

Long Live The Goblin King (Happy Birthday David Bowie)

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Jareth The Goblin King. Starman. Ziggy Stardust.  Call him what you will. He was many things. But most of all he was David Bowie, one of the most influential musicians/artists of his day.  A visual genius of the glam rock genre, he presented himself as an actor would in performances. His roles would change as he progressed. But make no mistake...he wasn't a 'all flash and no substance' type of artist. His music was indeed great and stands the test of time to this day and will for generations to come.  Aside from a legendary music career he was a magnificent actor. I knew him from the '80's as a kid watching the "Let's Dance" video and as the Goblin King in Jim Henson and George Lucas' classic fantasy film "Labyrinth." A combination of dark whimsey and fantastical rock the film made a lasting impression and it is what comes to mind when I think of him, despite his iconic rock moments. He was born on January 8th 1947 and though he left us o