Although Halloween has taken over the mantle of ghostly encounters and terror in the U.S., the Victorian Age (where we get most our modern notions and practices of Christmas and the holidays from) believed that Christmas Eve was the day where ghosts and spirits would return as Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol so aptly portrays. Not wanting to be caught short around the holidays, especially if you have a horror fan to buy for, here are some suggestions to make December special for that creepy friend or relative:
Godzilla Apparel
Finally, Toho has opened a Godzilla web store (https://godzilla.com/pages/store) and it’s amazing. If you have a fan of Kaiju (Japanese giant monster movies) on your shopping list, you can’t go wrong with Godzilla wear. From shirts to jackets to hoodies that celebrate every Godzilla film from the 1954 original to the new Godzilla movie Godzilla Minus Zero. Godzilla.com offers a plethora of products all guaranteed to please the Gojira otaku in your life.
Lite Brite Stranger Things Special Edition
The phenomenon of Stranger Things has brought retro horror back into the consciousness of 2023 so why not go back to the 70’s/80’s through the magic of Lite Brite? This special themed edition of the ageless illuminated toy can help you send messages to the Upside Down or create your own cute colorful Demogorgon in the safety of your own home.
Rob Zombie Presents Carnival of Souls Vinyl Soundtrack
For those horror music obsessives who need everything on vinyl, Waxwork Records with the assistance of horror fan extraordinaire Rob Zombie, have released the soundtrack to the eerie 1962 film Carnival of Souls on “Carnival Ghoul” Blue Pinwheel Colored Vinyl. The soundtrack consists of the spine-chilling pipe organ/weird carnival music that haunts the film as a woman who narrowly missed dying in a car crash is followed by the undead. When you get sick of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas,” dim the lights and play this macabre record, although it’s debatable which music is more horrific.
François Baranger’s The Dunwich Horror
Francois Baranger is an insanely talented French artist who has been visually interpreting some of H.P. Lovecraft’s greatest works such as “The Call of Cthulhu” and At the Mountains of Madness. Now he turns his paintbrush to one of Lovecraft’s most grotesque stories ‘The Dunwich Horror” in a brand new graphic novel. Focusing on the occult terrors conjured up in a decaying backwoods village, “The Dunwich Horror” is the perfect text for Baranger to bring to hideous life through his morbid artistry. Filled with stunningly bleak and foreboding images, Baranger’s The Dunwich Horror will make you never want to visit Massachusetts ever.
Hallmark Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger Tree Ornaments
It’s the holidays all year round at Hallmark (especially on that nauseating cable channel), but this year their usually sentimental tree ornament selection takes a dip into the dark side with effigies of two of horror’s most popular maniacs. The stars of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises are immortalized as murderous keepsakes that can be hung on your holiday tree just awaiting the snowmen, reindeer, and Santa Clauses that usually occupy the branches of o Tannenbaum.
Resident Evil 4
The deathless Resident Evil franchise comes roaring back with the latest installment in the long running series of video games with Resident Evil 4. This newest reiteration is a remaster/reboot of the 2005 game in which the player must recue the president’s daughter battling through a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas with not only zombies and bioengineered mutated animals on your heels but also a cult worshipping the hideous Regenerator looking to sacrifice the young girl. Often cited as one of the greatest video games in any genre, this enhanced release has improved visuals and sound, which makes the effect of blowing zombies away even more satisfying.
Alien Xenomorph Plush Toy
If a company can make one of the most horrifying creatures in all of cinema into a cute stuffed toy that even your grandmother would cuddly with, I have to tip my hat to them. Quantum Mechanix’s Alien Xenomorph Plush Toy turns the biomechanical nightmare of the Alien franchise into an adorable moppet that is just begging to hug your chest rather than rip out of it. The zipper mouth that hides the disgusting retractable teeth is a nice touch.
Puking Regan Funko Pop
As the new holiday season dawns on us, the inevitable new crop of Funko Pops has sprouted up like weeds. Alongside the usual suspects from Stranger Things, Child’s Play, and Goosebumps comes a Pop that memorializes one of the most unexpected and gross scenes in movie history: Regan MacNeil projectile vomiting in The Exorcist. Although she’s standing rather than sitting in bed (as in the film), the toy version of Regan gets all the colors right, especially that pea soup green puke. This year’s disappointing sequel The Exorcist: Believer might have had more contemporary special effects but it couldn’t top the original’s regurgitation scene and it’s nice to see that someone at Funko Pop cares enough to bring this to our attention.
