{"id":40118,"date":"2023-10-15T00:49:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T04:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=40118"},"modified":"2023-10-15T00:34:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T04:34:02","slug":"the-halloween-that-almost-wasnt-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/15\/the-halloween-that-almost-wasnt-1979\/","title":{"rendered":"The Halloween that Almost Wasn\u2019t (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s surprising that \u201cThe Halloween that Almost Wasn\u2019t\u201d has managed to become something of a mini-cult classic over the years. It was a TV movie that was almost lost to time, and once reclaimed, has survived thanks to nostalgia. The TV movie was much before my time, so I don\u2019t have any real sentimentality directed toward it. In either case, \u201dThe Halloween That Almost Wasn\u2019t\u201d isn\u2019t the best Halloween special, but it has its heart in the right place, even through the cheesy final scene.<\/p>\n

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Dracula watches news reports on his television with his servant, Igor, about the possibility of Halloween coming to an end since no one takes the holiday seriously anymore. Dracula gathers all the classic monsters at his castle including The Witch, The Werewolf Warren, the zombie Zabaar of Haiti, The Mummy of Egypt, and Frankenstein’s Monster. But things take a turn when the Witch reveals she’s responsible for spreading rumors of Halloween’s End because she feels unloved and disrespected in the horror community. Dracula sets off trying to persuade The Witch to still fly over the moon Halloween night and help rectify the situation.<\/p>\n

The casting is Judd Hirsch as a Dracula is a fun little bit of stunt casting as Hirsch is primarily known for his dramatic roles. While he\u2019s not the best Dracula, he does try to have fun in the role, playing the count completely goofy. Dracula is surprisingly the hero of the piece who is trying to save Halloween. He does so alongside his assistant Igor, and his friends Werewolf, Frankenstein\u2019s Monster, Zabaar the Zombie and The Mummy. The entirety of the short film centers on the group forming to stop the evil Witch from cancelling Halloween for good. As their entire lives thrive on the holiday, Count Dracula races to stop the Witch from taking Halloween away.<\/p>\n

Despite its obvious flaws, \u201cThe Halloween That Almost Wasn\u2019t\u201d is a perfectly fine and silly bit of holiday entertainment. It\u2019s non-violent, inoffensive, and charming in its own way. I can see why there\u2019s so much attachment toward it. The make up is a bit dodgy and the production value is lacking in some areas, but the spirit is at least entertaining, nevertheless. I also like how the cast plays off of one another. If you can work past the goofy final scene where the monsters have a disco dance party, \u201cThe Halloween That Almost Wasn\u2019t\u201d is a neat remnant of a time where TV networks made Halloween in to a fun occasion for the whole family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s surprising that \u201cThe Halloween that Almost Wasn\u2019t\u201d has managed to become something of a mini-cult classic over the years. It was a TV movie that was almost lost to time, and once reclaimed, has survived thanks to nostalgia. The TV movie was much before my time, so I don\u2019t have any real sentimentality directed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17],"tags":[64,219,299,340,349,441,698,1130,1151],"class_list":["post-40118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-tv-tomb","tag-adaptation","tag-comedy","tag-dracula","tag-family","tag-fantasy","tag-halloween","tag-music","tag-tv-movie","tag-vampires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40120,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40118\/revisions\/40120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}