Win Free Tickets to Frightmare Manor

What scares you?

Clowns with bad teeth? Slimy creatures clutching at you out of the darkness? Maybe it's watching a presidential debate??

Find out what brings on the Fear for you with some free passes to the most popular haunted attraction in the state! Free tickets to Frightmare Manor can be yours via their Facebook page - and freebies include those VIP passes which means a no-wait entrance into the grisly hallways and haunted woods surrounding this annual 4-attraction scream park.

If you're headed to this terror-filled house of horrors, you might want to grab some solid rest and relaxation by staying overnight at the nearby Hampton Inn or Comfort Suites, which offer special packages for Frightmare Victims ... I mean Guests. Yeah, Guests. Just call them for information:

Hampton Inn Morristown: 423-587-0952
Comfort Inn Morristown: 423-585-4000

Also new this Frightmare Manor is a gigantic outdoor movie screen so that Victims - Guests, sorry - can get in the mood for the scares and scream which await them.

And if you are looking for some classic scares to take home with you, then you'll want to check out the 100th Anniversary of Universal Pictures, as they offer a very special first-time-ever release on Blu-ray of some of the most famous monsters of filmland.

This new release of 8 movies - from Dracula and Frankenstein to the 3-D Creature from the Black Lagoon - went on sale this week and it includes over 12 hours of bonus materials too. A full rundown of all 8 movies and all the extras are right here at Dread Central.

It's October - time to get ready for some Frightmare Nightmares!

Butting In or Butting Out?

As a public service, let me offer a very simple and basic rule from the Guide to Living a Good Life - Rule Number 25: Never, ever place yourself in a situation where you have to deny you participated in something called "butt-chugging" or "alcohol enema".

This press conference by the UT student, his attorney and an army of silent frat brothers, is a grim comedy of horrors.

The press release here notes the events of this case are similar to those in "The Wizard of Oz" but never says just how it is similar. I personally do not recall any consumption of booze via any orifice in that story, though the character who laments "if I only had a brain" does seem most appropriate.

Otis Redding's "Tennessee Waltz" plus Al Green and Superpup

From the most impressive album, "The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul" comes a most memorable soul version of the country music tune "Tennessee Waltz", featuring Otis and backed by the legendary Booker T. and the MGs.

Reinventions in pop culture are often merely lost in time, even though they stand as unique creations all on their own. Another stunning example, is Al Green's super-soul version of the country ballad "For the Good Times", a Kris Kristofferson tune, which Al brings to vivid life in this Soul Train appearance.

Reinventions do not always succeed, yet the sheer brazen oddity of such creations stand out - for example, the immensely popular 1950s TV series version of the "Adventures of Superman" inspired some folks to create a TV show about ... um ... well, Superman had a dog named Krytpo in the comics, but these TV producers decided to make a show called "The Adventures of Superpup". A pilot episode was filmed, which you can watch on YouTube and it is uniquely bad and yet certainly memorable.

Superpup is secretly the mild-mannered reporter Bark Kent, working for the gruff editor Terry Bite and he's got a girlfriend named Pamela Poodle. And for some reason Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen is now Superpup's pal, but he's been transformed into a hand puppet mouse. Just check it out.

Just goes to show ya, reinventions and remakes have always been with us, some are wonderful and some too strange to be anything other than historical oddities.