In case you’ve been living inside Gollum’s cave of blissful ignorance, renowned specialty horror tee company Fright Rags is the bee’s knees when it comes to horror shirts. From brilliantly awesome images on the soft quality tees, buttery-soft lounge pants, and kick-ass enamel pins, Fright Rags continues to outdo themselves seemingly at least twice a month.
With the online store constantly updating their merch, I feel like I should have a goddamn Fright Rags fund jar set up next to my rent monies. Yes, it’s that bad.
Anywho, this past Wednesday, the website that will force me to declare bankruptcy in the near future, launched an officially licensed Child’s Play collection that will make any fan of the original films drool all over their Good Guy overalls. The Chucky Collection includes four new tees, two pairs of socks, and FIVE enamel pins (including a RED VARIANT pin of the iconic Good Guys Feet)! Featuring original artwork by Eddie Holly, Nathan Milliner, Jason Edmiston, Matthew Skiff, Matt Ryan Tobin, and Sara Deck, the collection is available right now!
If you were of sound mind in 1993, you may recall a horrific little made for TV movie entitled The Secret Life of Jeffrey Dahmer. Or technically speaking, The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer.
Oh yes, we’re going to talk about this fuckery.
Frankly speaking, I’m not sure why this film isn’t talked about more often in horror circles. Visually the 1993 film looks pretty dated however, the movie that in my opinion, has most accurately depicted Dahmer’s perception of life and twisted state of mind, to this day holds up as THEE legit Dahmer movie out of the several that have popped up since the twisted killer’s arrest on July 22, 1991. And regarding gorehounds out there, it’s DEFINITELY the most brutal and by far the most unsettling to sit through. I’m not sure how I got away with watching this completely fucked up movie with my virgin 10-year-old eyes, but I most certainly did. Bless the golden age of HBO and the days when the boob tube was an acceptable babysitter for rugrats.
Directed by David Bowen and starring a convincible Carl Crew as the infamous Dahmer, The Secret Life is told from the killer’s point of view and laid out through the horrific 14 years of Dahmer’s life of murder and madness that resulted in the deaths of 17 young men and ultimately, leading up to his arrest. Crew (Dahmer) with those hauntingly calming voice-over monologues as a well-aware killer with an eternal fear of abandonment throughout the movie and ability to go from calm as a cucumber to unhinged is in my opinion, pretty underrated as Crew’s performance is quite the treat for fans of this type of film.
The Secret Life was released two years after Dahmer’s real-life arrest and one year prior to his death in prison, so the terrifying discovery of the acts from Dahmer was still fresh in the world’s mind. And the fact that the film played the no hold’s barred card with extremely violent sequences involving the murder of Dahmer’s victims, really set some folks off in the sensitivity department. Curious audiences who had followed the case knew to an extent, of the horrors Dahmer unleashed upon his prey, but I’m not so sure anyone was really prepared for the brutal savagery displayed on film that seemed like something out of a snuff flick but was in fact, reality of the final moments of the casualties of Dahmer. Bowen’s telling of the grisly murders and semi-humanizing Dahmer in a way to look deeper behind the monster didn’t sit too well with a lot of critics and viewers back in ’93 so the film seemed to drop off the face of the earth with the ending of the VHS era until a few years back when Intervision released a DVD that includes the original trailer, audio commentary with director Bowen, and a featurette with Carl Crew.
The Dahmer true tale of torture and terror is unsettling enough as it is and this movie goes balls deep right into it without adding any flair or big-budget fluff. And frankly, it works better that way. It feels like you’re watching something maybe you really shouldn’t be looking at. However, the story is told so well that behind the brutality of severed heads proudly on display in Dahmer’s fridge, are secondary elements in Bowen’s movie. Even so, it’s not for the queasy folks. And I wouldn’t suggest eating any beef stew during a viewing.
For those interested in revisiting or for first-time viewers, The Secret Life is available over on Amazon.
Remember when we had those weird PSA announcements in between those now retired amazing Saturday morning cartoons back in the day? You know, the little segments starring Smokey the Bear, stranger danger, and the infamous “This is your brain on drugs” frying pan and cracked eggs gem. Also, I don’t think we could never forget about the time Pee-Wee Herman warned us about the dangers of crack.
It’s pretty entertaining when you stumble on these beauties and remember how the boob-tube was once upon a time.
Celebrities using their star power for bringing awareness to dangerous situations to our fragile little minds of yesteryear, wasn’t an uncommon thing by any means, as you can see above. As a matter of fact, master of horror himself Stephen King used his status as well, the king of literary fright, to make a PSA on the subject of public libraries and the importance of reading. Some of you may be asking yourselves, “Public libraries? What is this mythical place?” Well, let Sir King give you a quick run-down in this fantastic retro rewind from 1992!
Kind of makes you want to wipe off the dust off that old library card now doesn’t it?
