Horror movie memorabilia and the horror fandom go hand in hand in a beautiful unholy matrimony of genre devotion; and now a couple of super lucky, and assumingly rich, fans get to own some of horror flick’s most coveted props.
I’m already insanely jealous.
The prop ax that Jack Nicholson used on-screen in the film is now available on the auction website Gotta Have Rock and Roll. The prop comes with “a 25 x 2.5 x 40.5 shadow box frame with photos from the film” for display and multiple documents that certify authenticity. At the time of writing this little diddy, a little less than a week remains on the auction, with the current bid standing at $60,000 with only three bidders waging war like Jack smashing down a door.
More attainable however financially speaking for us peasants, is a really cool JAWS prop fin. It’s described as in “very good condition” and of course also comes with a certificate of authenticity. Even better, there NO BIDS on this as of currently, which is wild to me as the minimum bid is only $1,000. Considering everything, that’s not a bad deal.
Anyways, if you have some money to blow, I wouldn’t be mad if you used it on this my nostalgic nuggets. Happy auctioning!
Horror and Halloween fanatics long for the days when Spirit Halloween opens its doors signifying the official arrival of the spooky season and now Spirit has one more grand Halloween treat for us to look forward to- A SPIRIT HALLOWEEN MOVIE!
I don’t even care what it’s about. Just put it in my eyeballs right now.
In an exclusive with Variety, the iconic seasonal costume and prop store with 1,425 locations across North America, has teamed with Strike Back Studios, Hideout Pictures and Particular Crowd for a feature-length family movie simply entitled, “Spirit Halloween.”
The premise so far is as follows:
“When a new Spirit Halloween store appears in a deserted strip mall, three middle-school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick-or-treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night. But they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.”
With a screenplay by Billie Bates, the movie is billing legendary actor Christopher Lloyd alongside Rachel Leigh Cook as the main stars for the film alongside Donavan Colan, Dylan Frankel, Marissa Reyes, Jaiden Smith, and Marla Gibbs with Director David Poag, making his directorial feature debut.
Filming is reported to have been completed and is eyeing an October 2022 release date.
The Nickelodeon block in the early 90s’ was something really special folks and nestled right in-between Hey Dude and Are You Afraid of the Dark on a typical Saturday afternoon, was Salute Your Shorts; the light-hearted show about a group of kids spending their Summer at Camp Anawanna. We held it in our hearts, and when I think about it, it definitely doesn’t make me want to fart. That is reserved for the Zeke the Plumber episode where we not only farted but shit our pants entirely.
The episode entitled “The Ghost Story”, came out swinging as the second interlude in season one, and goddamn that shit should have had a warning label put on it! The campers channel their inner Midnight Society and try to scare each other with PG tales of terror until good ol’ Budnick (Danny Cooksey), the camp douchebag, breaks off this Freddy Krueger like-story about Camp Anawanna’s former toilet cleaner that lost his sense of smell because of an angry parrot in the Philippines, (I have since looked at said beautiful birds with a watchful eye now). The story goes, according to Budnick, Zeke was digging a hole and hit a gas line. With no sense of smell, the poor custodian couldn’t detect the gas leak and for some reason lit a match, causing an explosion. Or by Budnick’s own colorful description, becomes a “human party popper”. His body was never found, but his plunger remained among the ruins and the only remnant of a sad toilet cleaner’s life. The legend states, anyone who finds and touches the plunger is cursed with nightmares of Zeke.
If this isn’t a pre-curser gateway tosome of the greatest slasher films of our generation, then I don’t know what is. Camper Z.Z. (Megan Berwick) even states, “What is this guy, the Freddy Krueger of custodians?” Yes dear, Z.Z. You are correct.
Michael (Erik MacArthur) and Telly (Venus DeMilo Thomas) both have an unpleasant night full of Zeke nightmares where they are threatened with murder. MURDER FOLKS. In a daytime kids program, that’s pretty traumatizing to the right age crowd. For the younger generation of the 90s’, Zeke the Plumber was the stuff of nightmares and quite literally, a true gateway to the world of the horror genre. Played by Kirk Baily (Ug), who sadly passed away at 59 due to lung cancer recently, I felt there was no better way to honor a Gateway Horror Icon of our childhoods than to give the guy credit where it’s due.
Zeke the Plumber is a combination of the holy trinity of horror icons Freddy, Michael, and Jason. Zeke died in a fire and is badly burned; also haunts your dreams, (Freddy). He then hides his face with a stiff as hell human mask that is probably more terrifying than what’s hidden underneath, (Myers). And of course, he terrorizes campers, (Jason). To be quite frank, Zeke was way scarier than he rightfully should have been. That mask was nightmare fuel for many years and traumatized the shit out of an entire generation. Much more so than the network’s actual “somewhat scary” program, Are You Afraid Of The Dark? In all honestly, Zeebo the Clown didn’t have shit on Zeke.
There truly is no better introduction to the slasher genre than Zeke the Plumber to a group of young, curious kids. And if you’re in the mood, the entire episode is available here via Halloweengoodies and Dailymotion!
RIP Kirk, aka Zeke. Thanks for all the nightmares including a fear of parrots and plungers.
![[Watch] Remembering An Icon Of Gateway Horror: Zeke The Plumber](https://nightmarenostalgia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/zeke-the-plumber-nn.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
