Purple Stuff Podcast Halloween Minisode #4: Escape From Castle Dracula!

Posted on by Jay

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!

To us, Halloween has officially kicked off, thanks to Dino Drac posting his first video of the season. Of course, The Purple Stuff Podcast’s Halloween celebration had already been in full swing with our new minisodes. We bring you a spooky new installment that is sure to be the perfect antidote for those who still think it’s too early to celebrate Halloween! (It’s never too early!)

In this episode, me and Matt drive to Philly to check out an Escape Room that he read about. This attraction wasn’t your run of the mill escape room as you can gather from the picture above. We entered an escape room that was basically Castle Dracula, our favorite haunted attraction of all time. We’ll tell you all about our excursion trying to find the place and what we encountered inside! It was a total blast. There couldn’t be a more perfect way to get into the vibes of the season. I’m getting excited just thinking about it.

As always, thanks for listening and reading! Please subscribe on iTunes and leave us a bunch of stars if you dig the show!

Halloween Countdown 2014, Halloween A-Z

Posted on by sexyarmpit
Velcome to Castle Sexy Armpit! Just changing that W to a V made a world of difference, and it’s those little details that have completely transformed The Sexy Armpit into a virtual house or horrors, a terrifying realm of text in tribute to our favorite time of the entire year, HALLOWEEN!

For the past several years, The Sexy Armpit has taken on Halloween motifs that were parodies of stuff like famous horror film posters, and band themes like The Misfits. We continue the tradition with the parody you see above. This header is inspired by a brochure advertising the greatest haunted attraction of all time, Castle Dracula.

Castle Dracula is legendary among those of us who frequented the Wildwood boardwalk as kids. Although it burned down so long ago, it still lives on via the Internet. It’s been paid tribute many times by Matt from Dinosaur Dracula. He’s also gone on record to state  that “Last year’s Halloween season was one of the best ever,” and I am in full agreement with him. I’m not sure if 2014 will be able to surpass 2013, especially when the actual year number was an eerie one itself. Just from a commentator’s perspective, 2014 is going to have to pull off a big swerve to reach the haunted heights of last year.

So, the Halloween Countdown 2014 is on! On the horizon is our 2014 Halloween special which is categorized as “in production” as we speak.

It’s all a bit overwhelming for me. My brain is absolutely flooded with ideas. What will my costume be, will I have to drive all over creation to find the limited edition crap? It’s all about antici—PATION. My mind is racing with all the cool Halloween stuff, products, food gimmicks, events, attractions, costume parties, etc. We wait for it all year and then it just creeps up on us and BAM it’s officially here and I feel like I can’t possibly be ready. Glad this thing starts September 1st, otherwise it would be over with a snap of a monstrous finger.

There’s a moat around Sexy Armpit Castle, we’ll call it Crystal Lake, and we’re diving right in. The lake of course, is made of Ghoul-Aid, hopefully laced with some psychedelics.

So it’s here, we’re living it right now. It seems like everyone else is ready, while I feel ill prepared. It’s like those dreams that you show up late to class on a test day without studying for it. Well, that’s me right now and I’m in that Amazing Stories episode “Go to the Head of the Class” with Professor Beanes.

Every year I typically kick off The Sexy Armpit’s side of the Halloween countdown with a recap of the best posts of the previous years countdown. Since the blog is in it’s 10th year, I’m going to do it a little differently this time. Although I haven’t been doing the countdown for 10 years, I’ve still accumulated so many posts that I feel are worthy enough to present to you once again, especially since you may be new to the site. These are posts that include personal stories from life events, movies, attractions, trivia, monsters, and a homemade comic book among other things. Do a little digging and maybe you’ll unearth something spine tingling.

To get A through Z, I had to do some finagling to get it to work out. You’ll notice some repeats, for instance, it felt like I had 23 “H” entries and there could’ve been at least half of these starting with “S.” And you’ll also notice THAT I HAVE AN ENTRY FOR Q and Z! Hell yes.

www.SexyArmpit.com

Castle Dracula Was My Jam

Posted on by sexyarmpit
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eQG_J2yQ5s]

Growing up, a lot of my friends would brag about exotic vacations lasting several weeks that they went on every summer. I was never jealous of them because my family went to the Jersey Shore every summer, more specifically, Wildwood. If you remember the Santa Cruz scenes in The Lost Boys, the type of vibe happening on the Wildwood Boardwalk wasn’t too much different, and of course…all the damn vampires!

Although I enjoyed going to Wildwood immensely, I think I took many aspects of it for granted since the majority of my attention span was spent on daydreaming about Castle Dracula. Then, once I was actually on the boardwalk and in close proximity of the sinister fortress, I’d spend the next few minutes walking slowly toward the ornate Castle, spending every moment in awe of the dread it beamed up and down the boardwalk. For me, Castle Dracula was a mecca.

Aside from some funny stories at the local restaurant The Captain’s Table with my sister and my cousins, my main memories are of anticipating, and finally getting to go into Castle Dracula. When my sister was younger and more brave, she would come with me as we both had a blast getting the bejesus scared out of us. Of course there was boardwalk games, prizes, ice cream, and boogie boarding, but none of it was ever high on my priority list.

Once inside that Castle, my mind was in utter disbelief that I was actually about to experience my favorite haunted attraction again, and it was all located right in Jersey. Although I loved Disneyland and Disney World, I didn’t need to, nor did I get the opportunity to go to Disney every year like some of my friends. A lot of them seemed like they didn’t truly appreciate how grandiose their trips seemed to other kids who weren’t as lucky. Now, I’m so not implying that I was “less fortunate,” because that would be ri-f*cking-diculous. I was overjoyed to walk the boardwalk, fantasizing about one of the greatest dark rides the Jersey Shore has ever offered. It felt like it was there for me, and it was…for a long time.

Castle Dracula burned down in 2002.

Check out Matt’s amazing tribute from the X-E days:
And Dark in the Park’s got cool stuff about it as well:
www.SexyArmpit.com

Is The Hollywood Horror Cafe a Gamble for Atlantic City?

Posted on by sexyarmpit
Horror Themed Restaurant New Jersey

The Press of Atlantic City.com, Shock Til You Drop, and Dread Central have all previously reported that a horror themed restaurant and wax museum may be coming to Atlantic City!

I want to be elated about this news, but there’s something that really burns my ass about it. We have had a complete drought of any haunted/horror attractions in The Garden State for decades. For those of us who were lucky enough to experience them, we had the luxury of Castle Dracula in Wildwood, The Haunted Castle in Six Flags Great Adventure, and The Spookhouse in Keansburg – which is still there! But for some reason our theme parks and our boardwalks have ignored horror themed attractions for a long time most likely because it might scare the kids. That is such bullshit. Kids need to get the crap scared out of them once in a while, it’s good for them! Personally, even as a kid, being scared was my favorite feeling. I craved horror movies and I longed to go back to Disneyland just to go into the Haunted Mansion. Over the years you could imagine how my hunger for horror has increased since then.

It seems to me that, aside from bloggers, indie filmmakers, and a select handful of others, that the renewed love for the horror and Gothic genres is due to the fake vampire/werewolf craze that Twilight started. It makes me want to puke. The only way we can get wax museums full of monsters and haunted restaurants in New Jersey is if developers see dollar signs. If Twilight does happen to be one of the driving forces behind this new attraction, then I’m fine with it because I’ll take what I can get. I spent too many hours traveling to Manhattan to go to Jekyll and Hyde’s as a punk kid not to mention too much money on their damn food as well.

Attorney Bela Lugosi Jr. is lending his legal help to the project while both he and Sara Karloff are assisting with procuring licensing agreements through their industry contacts. The Hollywood Horror Cafe is only one of the working names for the restaurant. The other possible names are The Gothic Grille and and Frank-N-Stein Bar and Grille.

Don’t hold your breath on this new horror themed attraction. Developers love to stir up the pot but never actually serve the brew. Luckily you have another option. Not far from Atlantic City you can visit Elaine’s Haunted House and Dinner Theater in Cape May NJ, especially during October!

www.SexyArmpit.com

Trick or YouTube Treat?

Posted on by sexyarmpit

The Sexy Armpit wishes all of you a Happy Halloween, and to celebrate here’s some NJ related videos from YouTube that will scare up the spirits:

First up, YouTube user Carriedark has recreated Wildwood’s Castle Dracula in 3-D.

YouTube user clarkkent1367 posted a news clip reporting when Castle Dracula burned down.

Mike Spade’s legendary Halloween display:

Here’s one that I first saw at our friend The Retroist‘s site, A Halloween Safety video from 1977! The adviser was the Toms River, NJ Chief of Police! Posted by YouTube user vancefink.

www.SexyArmpit.com