How Can You Kill Them When They're Already Dead?

Shockabilly - Live at Nightshades, Greensboro, NC (10-9-82) 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Did a cover like this one ever give you the shivers as a kid, peeking out at you from the magazine rack at the grocer's or the local drugstore? They used to get to me. And I had to get to them. Living in the boondocks it was hard to find Famous Monsters of Filmland but every time we went into Madison to my Mom's favorite butchershop (near our old neighborhood, because before he was a country boy, the 'monkey was a city tyke), I'd beg and whine for one. I'd love to smell that cheap crappy paper again!

(Dig the almost hallucinatory colors on that cover painting! The movies and the monsters on the front of FMoF were always cooler and scarier than the reality. Hmm. Unreality?)

A grown up monkey now, I can thank FMoF for my love of B-movies, I'm sure. Lately, while I work out, I've been watching a lot of movies and my choices have fallen into a rather narrow range of categories: 50s and 60s B-movies, Clint Eastwood films, and early 70s cinema. Sometimes the genres cross; I watched The Exorcist for the first time without commercials a few weeks ago. Still holds up; still creepy, even scary; very smart and well-done.

This last weekend I watched the Criterion edition (ooh, ain't I fancy - Criterion! Not - got it at the public library) of Equinox, a film I read all about in FMoF and dreamed of seeing as a kid because that monster looked so freakin' cool! Ya know, it was worth the wait. It's a really fun little horror movie, totally Lovecraftian in concept - not the Mythos Lovecraft, but the "scary thing in the hills with crazy old men and disturbing tomes of ancient evil lore" kinda Lovecraft story - and while the acting is almost universally wretched, it has a lot of fun with its concept. The special effects are truly amazing for the budget and experience of the kids who made the movie, including the amazing Jim Danforth.

The music was superbly weird and over the top too. Just like Shockabilly. Wow, a lot of work for that, eh?

Enjoy! (This is an awesome recording, probably soundboard, best live Shockabilly I've ever heard, and more than 90 minutes long. You are lucky bastards.)

PS Nazz reminded me that the Grand Ghoul himself, Forry Ackerman, is now gone from our sad mortal plane. I urge you to read this lovely tribute from what I'm sure will be one of my favorite blogs now that I've found it, John's Forbidden Planet.