Welcome back to day four of Branded’s Countdown to Halloween! Today’s ad is really cool because it features a ton of masks, and for the first time in the countdown they’re in glorious full color! This two-page spread of Don Post masks comes from a 1979 issue of Starlog…
If you look closely at the thumbnailed pictures in the ad you’ll probably recognize a good chunk of these from previous Famous Monsters of Filmland and Creepy ads that I posted last week (the Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi Dracula masks, the multi-colored werewolves, and Uncle Creepy to name a few.) But there are a lot of new additions to this advertisement, in particular a series of non-monster entries like the Sheik, Mr. Kool, the Pirate, Fatherhead, and the Mad Scientist (which looks more like a pissed off Moses mask if you ask me.) There’s also a smattering of branded offerings like a few from Star Wars, the Wizard of Oz and the 70s Hertzog remake of Nosferatu…
On a side note, that Nosferatu mask and gloves show up in some scenes in the 80s vampire flick Fright Night. You can see them incased in glass (just like in this ad) in the background of Peter Vincent’s (Roddy McDowell) apartment. This ad is also pretty fun as it illustrates a story from an old episode of the Art & Story podcast, where Mark Rudolph and Jerzy Drozd were reminiscing over some Halloween memories that involved seeing that Alien Facehugger prop in a local store when they were kids. I saw a lot of cool masks in Spencer Gifts as a kid, but never any props as cool as that facehugger!
Anyway, come back tomorrow for more mask tomfoolery, and if you’re looking for a ton of Halloween content all through the month of October, make sure to stop on by the official Countdown to Halloween site and check out the list of participating blogs for 2011. You’ll be glad you did!
