Nope, we never get tired of posting these every year!
The first one is from Disney’s “House of Mouse” special; the second one is a really great fan tribute with all kinds of perfect Disney clips, and a slower song.
Keep your eye out for the “Night on Bald Mountain” clips in the below version. If this doesn’t put you in the mood for Halloween, well, you’re riding in the wrong end of a hearse!
aaand here’s a new one for 2014- the Halloween light show at the real Haunted Mansion (with the voice of the “Ghost Host”). It includes the the extra verse and MAN would we love to be there one of these years on Halloween!
If you’re not quite feeling the Halloween spirit, this will do it for you… especially if you watched Disney‘s “Night On Bald Mountain” (from Fantasia), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (also the Disney version), or “The Skeleton Dance” (very old-school Disney cartoon) growing up. Oh, and if you could get in that Doom Buggy 100 times in a row and still be in heaven every time, you’ll dig this even more.
There’s lots of Disney’s Haunted Mansion compilation tributes up on You Tube with various clips, but this one is by far the best… plus you get a little peek at the Grand Ballroom, and this awesome room which is my sentimental favorite (even though there’s no projections, just animatronics. Every part of the ride is breath-taking, but this part? I’m strangely sentimental about “the Conservatory”:
Lemme outta here!
Even had the “Sounds of the Haunted Mansion” LP on VINYL, which I greatly regret losing my original copy of (probably in the third grade or so). Next time we go to Disneyland, I’m picking up that cool-ass “Haunted Mansion” poster (the original one advertising it, with the Hitch-Hiking Ghosts). Check out the Related Articles section at the bottom, it’s PACKED with awesome Haunted Mansion-related goodies to read!
Halloween came and went so damn fast this year. Oh well, there’s always” room for one more”…
Here’s a re-blog of one of our favorite pieces. As we sat earlier, watching the lackluster Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live, I remembered how, a year ago, one of the funniest sketches of the last few years aired. Naturally, at the time I had to put it up. Damn, The Maryville Brothers hold up to repeated viewings! Having a shitty day? Not quite into the Halloween spirit yet? This’ll turn things around for you! Do yourself a favor and check it out–it’s worth the extra mouse click.
Oh, and Thursday night, NBC is running a prime-time Halloween special that includes the sketch –we’ll be there!
The sketch begins with the welcome return of the creepy/hilarious animatronic figures known as the “Merryville Brothers” and initially follows the format of their previous appearance in almost every way. A couple finds themselves stranded in an amusement park haunted house, right next to the those creepy robots who grow increasingly threatening every time they’re activated. Even without its big celebrity cameo, the entire scene is still fantastic — we could watch the terrible/amazing pantomiming of the Merryville Brothers all day.
Yes! I agree. I cracked up the first time I saw them (could have sworn this was the third time they appeared, not the second)…
Hey! I’m pretty sure you’ll all be busy tonight. Whether you’re waiting for your friends to come over and watch some scary 80s classics and get tipsy, taking your kids out to trick or treat, going to a party, or to pass out candy yourself, or to watch Trick ‘R Treat and wait for American Horror Story to come on like we are, you may have some time to kill. Here’s some last-minute suggestions.
1. Remind yourself of the four Halloween Rules with this twisted, fun list Fearnet.com put together to promote their Trick ‘R Treat marathon last year. You can tell they had a pure blast creating them. Check them out below!
3. Want to see one last really great Grim Grinning Ghosts video (until the 2012 Halloween season, that is), this time that someone who knew their old-skool Disney put together? Depending on your age, it may very well take you right back to your childhood. Being forty-COUGH COUGH…ahem (clearing throat) years old, I didn’t think this was still actually possible for me. If you remember watching Disney’s Sleepy Hollow on TV when they used to run it the Sunday before Halloween and getting the hell scared out of you by the Headless Horseman chasing Ichabod Crane over the covered bridge, this will warm (or chill) you right up. Those skeletons really know how to kick up their heel-bones and dance, too.
4. Have you heard of perhaps the scariest goddamned flash horror games on the internet, The House and The House 2? Well, if you haven’t seen them, hold off since I’ve been working on a piece for both. However, this truly frightening, interactive Halloween greeting-game from the same studios that created the aforementioned soil-yourself frightening games. When I played the flash games, I got the suspicion they were created by a team in South Korea, Japan, or Thailand, because they had a serious Asian Horror vibe. At the time (in between my high, girly screams and yelps caused by jump scares), I also remember thinking, There is NO WAY anyone in the US could have come up with something this fucking terrifying. Well, after I finished playing this one, a card hops up from the team that created it, and wouldn’t you know, the studio that created all three was Sinthai studios in Thailand. Patted myself on the back for that call!
Before I give you the link to “The Halloween”, some hints: at least three things will be swooping down or rushing past you onscreen. Just start moving your cursor around and clicking on everything it indicates you can click on. It’s not a first-person shooter game, it takes place all in one room, (unlike, say, House or House 2) and not really a puzzle game. The closet it comes to being a puzzle game is you have to click on everything multiple times, in various orders, sometimes many times, for the sudden scares. Light switch, the corner of a piece of paper sticking out of a grate, a pumpkin, if you can click it, keep trying.Turning the lights on and off a bunch of times will give you something …but at some point when you click them on and the room is light again, something blood-curdling may be there this time. You’ll see something when the lights are off, too.
It could take you up to fifteen minutes to get to the grand finale that wraps up the game (and the biggest scare), depending on whether you’re new to this style of point and click game, maybe less if you play these kinds of horror flash games on a regular basis. If you need hints, comment or drop me a line. If all else fails, I’ll post a walk-through, but since there’s not much exploring to do, you’ll probably get it. You’ll discover just how brave you are, based on knowing you have to click the same item a dozen or more times before it activates the next big scare. Oh, and don’t bother scanning the code with your smart phone, it just takes you to the Sinthai company’s URL–nothing much to see there. Well, you CAN get the URL, I’m just saying it’s not a missing puzzle piece or extra to the game. I believe at the end some kind of thank-you note from the creators pops up with a friendly message and Halloween wishes. I’m sure as hell not going to play the game NOW to find out.
I know this was a very tough event to get into—in fact, I thought at first you had to be a VIP/insider of some sort. After some digging, I just read that the limited number of tickets available to the public were upwards of $300 per person (I would have coughed it up), and sold out within minutes (unfortunately, so many people went online that the server crashed).
They really pulled out all the stops for the special dinner show. I mean, they went to freakin’ TOWN. I wish I could travel back and RSVP to Constance and George’s wedding! Well, there’s always the 50th Anniversary Event (and it’ll probably take me seven years to save up the scratch to attend, anyway)…
The official press announcement was: The Plot Thickens. . . After five husbands and five untimely deaths, the Black Widow Bride of the Haunted Mansion will wed once more. Has she found her soul mate? Or will another groom meet his doom? Join us, Foolish Mortals, and we’ll dig up the answers at our ghostly celebration that everyone’s dying to attend.
This event (which took place on 9/9/09, get it?) clearly utilized lavish planning, rehearsal, craftsmanship, and talent to organize. They pulled out all the stops and managed to incorporate every element they possibly could, even including the “ghost host” as the MC (well, his voice, anyway, as far as I know there was no corpse hanging from the rafters). Watch the 15-minute special “Dinner Show” event below, in HD:
If that’s not enough incentive for you to watch this, SEE! A member of the wedding party transported to the altar via a Doom Buggy. SEE! Madame Leota perform her séance to make sure the groom shows, and SEE! her officiate the ceremony (the actress they cast has her and her voice nailed). SEE! A cameo from our three ghostly friends looking to hitch a ride (the trio’s surprise appearance, and the Doom Buggy, got the biggest crowd reactions of the wedding)… and more, including the “Newly-Deads” cutting the wedding cake on the Haunted Mansion upper balcony. I’ve seen other coverage of the evening’s festivities, and as of yet, the above video is by far the best (though I’m sure there’s other stuff to look for).
Even if you’re pretty familiar with the story, every fan should check out DoomBuggies.com. You couldn’t ask for a better, more thorough, comprehensive, loving tribute/fan site to the Haunted Mansion. Hours and hours of entertainment! I simply cannot recommend it enough.
Hurry baaaaack… Hurry baaaaaack…
there’s always room for one more!
As the moon climbs high o’er the dead oak tree, Spooks arrive for the midnight spree. Creepy creeps with eerie eyes, Start to shriek and harmonize. Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize!
I can’t believe this FIRST aired in 2003 (according to this great Disney Wikia); it looks so old-school –AND SO COOL! “House Ghosts” was the 50th episode of House of Mouse, originally aired on Toon Disney‘s New For You! Show on October 10, 2003. Plot: It’s Halloween, and Pete unleashes some grim grinning ghosts onto the club to try to scare everyone away. This is definitely the highlight of the episode! OK, I haven’t seen the entire epiode, just this, but I find it hard to believe anything could top this show-stopper. Oh, and I forgot all about the Disney character “Pete” until I saw this. Among others, look for an appearance from Constance, AKA the Ghost Bride, who resides in the attic section of the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. She had a fun back story; a “black widow” who had chopped off, I think, her last six husband’s heads!
Maybe this is a tribute to the rare “Hatbox Ghost” from the attic. The mid-60s-looking Herman’s Hermits/Brian Jones shag hairstyle threw me off.
Yep, I think that’s him. Either way, both these guys are beyond cool-looking!
OK, I actually stumbled on the whole 8-minute “House Ghosts” episode, and it had so many great references, including appearances by James Woods Hades (and his demo reel), the Devil in Night on Bald Mountain, and …more than I can count. Worth watching just to see the cameo by Mr. T alone! Nope, I am not making that up. Check it out below!
Ooooh BABY! The featured photo above isn’t from the Orange County Register re-press, but from a Huffington Post article on the sale of the home (on eBay!) – by far the coolest pic I’ve seen of this rockin’ pad.
At the risk of sounding petty due to my envy, I have to say they’re doing the house a disservice by only having one slightly haunted room. Man, you have that kind of time and money to do this little side projects? Go ALL OUT.
You don’t need to have Doom Buggies installed to shuttle you from room to room (though I could live with that) and I know you can’t recreate the Disney holograms, but come on, if you’re going to go to all that trouble, construct a ‘stretching room’ and at least one hallway with transforming paintings on the walls. Have your door chime play an abbreviated version of the chorus of “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” The place doesn’t have to look like it’s decaying, or be so dark you can’t walk across a room without tripping over something …but would having your dinner table be in a Grand Ballroom with a few holograms you designed yourself be so bad? You got that kind of bread, go to fucking town!
It’s located in Atlanta, too, so have kudzu vines around the exterior and make it look like a sturdier, cleaner version of the mansion from the classic Thriller episode “Pigeons From Hell“* OK, you should have the place be more structurally sound than the PFH mansion, since you probably won’t have much company in the place if it has vermin and it’s rickety enough inside you’re worried the grand staircase won’t hold you.
Get one of those pipe organs for the Ballroom. Hey, fun fact: the one at Disneyland Anaheim Haunted Mansion was the actual pipe organ used in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Yeah, I’m a Disneyland –classic Disneyland you know, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jetsons-era Tomrrowland, The Enchanted Tiki Room, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride–geek; the hardcore, loyalist type who becomes enraged about older rides being “updated” or tweaked, and who actually goes through the stages of grieving when I hear about a beloved ride or attraction being shut down despite all the letters, petitions, and emails to save it. But that’s a story for another piece.
Honestly, until a day or two after I posted this, I hadn’t read the captions for the eight photos included with the article, and there’s only one exterior of this new place. The remainder of exterior photos consist of the actual Disneyland New Orléans Square attraction. I’d been thinking, “great detail, they have the Disneyland Haunted Hearse outside, and looks like people must line up to see it on Halloween!” Those are of the real thing (I was going on zero sleep due to jury duty at the time, and not exactly detail-oriented). To the owner’s credit, they did include a plaque outside their gate just like the real one:
This is the replica of the plaque, from the “replica house” now on the market.
Now that’s not too shabby. Look for a couple more pieces from Horror Boom on The Haunted Mansion (Halloween season seems like great timing), including some cool links. If I wrote full-time from now to Halloween, there’s no way I could completely do that Disneyland attraction justice, and there’s some sites out there with such loving attention to every cool detail that they simply cannot be missed. Here’s a Disney version of Grim Grinning Ghosts originally aired on a Halloween special that takes place at a “swinging wake”…that’s one catchy-ass song!
We want a framed copy of this poster! Should have picked a copy up at the gift shop, but we couldn’t figure out a way to get it in our luggage without crumpling it up.
*if you’re not familiar with “Pigeons From Hell”, it’s way scarier than it sounds. It took me literally over 20 years to finally see from the time I first read about it in the early 80s in Stephen King’s first non-fiction title Dansé Macabre to the time I found it on iTunes to buy the single episode. Not because I was too scared to, but because it was hard to find, plus there was a HORROR BOOM! kicking off in the early 80s that distracted me with so much other kick-ass horror movies, books, TV shows and even comics that my schedule got crowded and I could barely keep up with the new stuff, let alone stuff from the 60s besides Night of The Living Dead. Do yourself a favor if you’re unfamiliar; PLEASE go in as clean as possible! All you need to know is it’s a very frightening Southern Gothic tale (filmed in black and white, introduced by Boris Karloff) that takes place in the early 60s. I can reveal that the titular pigeons are the SO least of the character’s problems, though.
The sketch begins with the welcome return of the creepy/hilarious animatronic figures known as the “Merryville Brothers” and initially follows the format of their previous appearance in almost every way. A couple finds themselves stranded in an amusement park haunted house, right next to the those creepy robots who grow increasingly threatening every time they’re activated. Even without its big celebrity cameo, the entire scene is still fantastic — we could watch the terrible/amazing pantomiming of the Merryville Brothers all day.
Yes! I agree. I cracked up the first time I saw them (could have sworn this was the third time they appeared, not the second) when Jim Carrey hosted, he was funny but Bill Hader‘s face was what made my husband and I started laughing so hard we almost had tears rolling down our faces. For the Bruno Mars-hosted Halloween episode, he (my husband, not Bruno Mars) fell asleep between the opening and the first sketch, and he sleeps like a log. However, I was howling with laughter so loud it actually woke him up. He squinted at the screen, said, “Oh yeah, those ride guys again,” and fell back to sleep (he says he doesn’t remember).
You don’t need to be a member, just watch– though if you’re on your iPhone, it might not be compatible, but it’s you can still watch it online. Not a good idea to throw popcorn at them if you get bored. “Why did you do that? They’re gonna get mad!” I like the “Grim Grinning Ghosts“-type vocals (‘GGG’ is the theme song they play towards the end of the Haunted Mansion Ride at Disneyland, when you’re going through the graveyard and seeing the swinging wake with the singing busts, the terrified caretaker, etc.)* Wanna hear it for comparison? Watch THIS more up-tempo “classic” version below! It makes me want to grab my suitcase and freakin’ RUN to hop on the nearest plane to Disneyland.
*I’d purchase that song if I saw it on iTunes, DAMN I love The Haunted Mansion! The version I posted isn’t even the most elaborate and awesome, either. There’s a ton of ones that light you up even more. Saving those for a later post!
HORROR BOOM 