Now Hear This - Halloween 2026 The Reckoning

Now Hear This is coming to you a day early for reasons that will be apparent tomorrow (stay tuned!).

 

 

You know the drill: click on the album cover to go to its Bandcamp page where you can purchase it or listen for free.

 

The Goldstars contacted me through the blog to let me know about their latest release: The Halloween Album.! 13 tracks of garage rock dedicated to the most awesome holiday. This one isn't on Bandcamp but you can still listen to/grab it for free. 

 

 The Monster Mashup series comes back strong with the 22nd(!) compilation album of assorted artists giving their spin on maniacal mashups. Be sure to check out Volume 2, they're both FREE!

 

Halloween at High Noon rises from the grave for their annual October offering. This year's The Grim Dark features 22 different artists bringing you an assortment of electronic music. This one would be great for party background listening.

 

Speaking of rising from the grave, It Came From the Desert! is also back. Volume 4 is a compilation of 25 artists that plays like a Halloween night broadcast radio show complete with a host and listener call-ins.

 

Our final (?) audio treat for 2026 is reconthuse's 2023 Dark Voices in Strange Places, a Halloween/autumn themed mashup album bringing 13 tracks of pop, rock, EDM and more. You may recognize some of the songs but you've never heard them like this!

 

Be sure to check out all the Countdown bloggers by clicking the link below. 

 

Spooky Playing Cards by Puckator UK

 Puckator is a UK based retailer and I picked these up early in the season so I don't even remember where/how I found them. They're easy enough to find if you want to pick them up.

 

 I think this is the first deck I've had that has purple cards! The cards themselves are really nice and have a linen finish. They're a bit thicker than your regular playing card.

 

 Most of the number cards are standard but these have some extra art on them. I'm not sure what the decision process was in choosing these specific cards to get a little ghastly glow up. The art style reminds me of sticker sheets from the 80s.

 

 All of the face cards have unique art featuring ghosts, black cats, graves, and cauldrons.

 

 

Even though this one doesn't have art on every card, it's a pretty good Halloween themed deck from the purple cards to the cutesy art style. You could probably even come up with a game where the numbered art cards have special abilities.

 

Hitch a ride with the ghostly gentleman to see the participating Countdown to Halloween blogs. 

 

Here's Lucy - Lucy Cuts Vincent's Price

Today's post came about from a random reel that I saw on Facebook featuring a clip from this show. I don't think I even know the show existed. It ended it's six year run when I was only four years old. If anyone did see it, they would no doubt remember it for it's stop motion opening.

 

 In the show, Ball plays a widow raising her two children (her real-life kids Luci Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr) and working for an entertainment agency owned by her brother-in-law played by her long time comedy partner Gale Gordon. The show featured a number of guest stars over its run and that's what brings us here today!

 

  

Season 3, episode 9 is titled "Lucy Cuts Vincent's Price" and starts out with Lucy and her kids at an art auction because it's educational, they have nice refreshments, and it's free. The kids fight over who gets a cookie and Lucy yells out they can split it 50/50 which the auctioneer takes as bid on a painting.

 

 

Back at the office, Lucy frets that she doesn't have enough money in her checking to cover the cost of the painting. Her co-worker says it may be worth more than it appears and suggests getting it appraised. Lucy remembers her agency provided entertainment for the Prices and sets up a meeting over the phone with Vincent's wife to have him take a look. Her kids are hesitant to let her go alone, thinking Price will be like the villains he's portrayed.

 

  

Meanwhile, Price is meeting with his producer at his home where they've converted his library into a laboratory to shoot torture scenes for his new movie: Who's Afraid of Virginia's Wolfman! Price is expecting his female co-star to show up to rehearse their scenes and well...you can probably guess where it goes from there!

 

 The episode isn't particularly Halloween-y but I wasn't letting October go by without posting something about Vincent Price! I really enjoyed him in this episode because you get to see him do something he doesn't usually do: comedy! There's a fun physical bit where Lucy is trying to escape and has to unlock a bunch of locks on a door and he's behind her re-locking them as she undoes them.

 

This episode (along with the whole series) is streaming for free on Tubi, which is also a great place to find your next horror watch for the month!

 

What's the cat looking at? The full list of Countdown to Halloween blogs!

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