What Halloween Means To Me '13 Day 24: Allan Trautman

I’m always looking for more brains to pick about Halloween.  Today’s contributor to the What Halloween Means To Me countdown is always just looking for “More Brains!”  As a puppeteer, costume performer, and voice actor, Allan Trautman has worked with Sid and Marty Croft, been a longtime Muppet performer, and taken part in projects like Men In Black, Dinosaurs, and Unhappily Ever After.  What made him a horror icon, however, is his portrayal of possibly the most recognizable and beloved zombie of all time; Tarman in Return of the Living Dead.  His unique performance gave the character that great ability to both creep us out and make us laugh.  I’d be willing to bet that at least a couple of you are wearing a shirt with Tarman on it right now.  Mr. Trautman has agreed to wrack his brains for some all Hallows memories, so Allan, what does Halloween mean to you?

“I grew up in Brooklyn, and my friends and I would canvas the (very dense) Sheepshead Bay neighborhood on Halloween. We didn't have to go too far to fill up our bags.
I didn't have much imagination for costumes back then. I remember charring a piece of cork and rubbing it on my chin and calling myself a Hobo. I must've had an old jacket of my Dad's, and my Mom would help make a Hobo stick, with a little tied-up bag at the end. And that was pretty much it. No zombies back then, in my neighborhood, at least.
So one year one of my friends and I had split off from the crowd. We were working our way down this one block with walk-up stoops in front. Ring door bell, "Trick-or-treat!" Candy. Move on.
Then we approached one particular house and rang the bell. Nobody answered. I rang again. No answer. I rang a third time, and the door flew open. There stood a very intense-looking, almost classically storybook "old woman," for want of a better expression. Dark dress, small eyes, hair in a bun, vaguely old-world European accent. She fixes me with her gaze, and screams, "What do you want from my life?"
I ran all the way home.
I don't remember doing much Trick-or-Treating after that.”

7 more days ‘til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.  7 more days ‘til Halloween, Silver Shamrock.

The Winner Of The Sexiest Zombie Giveaway Is...

 It looks like Linnea's appeal to the Cellmates worked, because Trash won the "sexiest zombie in the Return of the Living Dead series" vote by a landslide!  Yes, she beat Mindy Clarke as Julie from part 3 by a vote of 14 to 5.  Congratulations Trash.  Personally, if I were voting I would have had to go with Mindy 'cause I'm into redheads and for the kink factor, but that's neither here nor there.  So, as per the rules of the giveaway, all of you who voted for Linnea had your names thrown into the cauldron (actually that's not true, I used random.org), and a name was chosen.  The winner of the More Brains documentary and the Lionsgate Zombie 6-pack is...

Mark Schemanske

One of my Atlanta horror homies got this one.  He's the one with the balloon and the camera.  I'm stoked that he won for two reasons.  Number one, he's a cool guy.  Number two, I don't have to pay shipping!  I can just give it to him next time I see him. Thanks to  everyone who entered.  If you didn't win this time, never fear, I'll be announcing Son of Celluloid's next horrific giveaway later this week.

30 Day Horror Challenge Strikes Back Day 28: Character you most enjoyed seeing get naked.

Throughout the two challenges, I’ve been trying to choose answers that aren’t the most obvious and overused one. With this one, though, I can’t help it if everyone else picked this one too. It’s the most iconic nude scene in horror history for a reason. Many a horror inclined boy became a man watching Trash dance on that tomb, but I was originally going to pick something else just because this one was used so much. Then I noticed that while I was thinking through my favorite horror nude scenes, one name kept coming up. So I decided to pick that scene from Return of the Living Dead anyway and recognize the undeniable queen of fright flick T&A not just for that scene, but for her whole…um…”body” of work. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the one, the only, Linnea Quigley!
I’ll never forget the first time I laid eyes on her. Monstervision was showing Return of the Living Dead. After a commercial break Joe Bob Briggs was interviewing Miss Quigley, talking about her upcoming nude scene and admonishing the TNT censors for “getting’ rid of the boobage.” When the movie started again, it took me a second to realize that the punk named Trash was the same person as the sweet looking blonde I had just seen interviewed. Then she started the whole “Do you ever fantasize about being killed” speech, started taking off her clothes (again), and danced atop a grave lit by road flares to the strains of “Tonight We Make Love ‘Til We Die.” This was basic cable, though, so what I saw was a vaguely human shaped pixilated blob with a head and legs sticking out. I decided then and there that I wanted to see that scene the way it was meant to be seen. It became one of those early “holy grail” movies for me. When I finally got to rent it, I wasn’t disappointed. Linnea’s beauty, the great lighting, the set, and the soundtrack all contributed to the scene’s well deserved mythic status. Sure, I was a little disappointed when I found out that she was wearing a crotch piece, but that did explain the Barbie doll like “smoothness.” It didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the scene, however. As always, sorry for the censored pic, but i am running a semi-family friendly show here.
Then we have 1988’s Night of the Demons, my second favorite nude scene. She plays the best friend of Angela, the goth girl throwing the ill fated Halloween party. After enabling her chum’s stealing of party supplies by distracting the clerks at the store with a little upskirt peek and the following classic exchange… Linnea: Do you guys have sour balls? Clerk: Why sure we do. Linnea: Too bad. I bet you don’t get many blow jobs. …they head to Hull House. By the way, if you’ve never seen Night of the Demons, skip everything between the asterixes so as not to spoil a great scene for you. *** While there, Linnea gets possessed. She rips her top open, which she’s gotten good at doing over the years, and begins to draw on her tatas with lipstick. Then, all of a sudden, she pushes the lipstick through her nipple and into her tit. Poof! Now you see it, now you don’t. Coolest magic trick ever! *** I had never heard anything about the flick when I first saw it, so that scene caught me totally by surprise. It’s quite the effective “oh my god did you just see that” moment. She also appears in the remake with a great cameo that pays tribute to one of her scenes in the original.
She’s had many many other memorable nude scenes. She was stabbed in the neck by a possessed shower head in Witchtrap. Who could forget the topless and body painted “virgin dance of the double chainsaws” in Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers? She was naked Sleeping Beauty in her first nude scene in Fairy Tales. Topless Linnea gets impaled on antlers by Santa in the most memorable scene from Silent Night Deadly Night. She’s been a naked soul bursting out of Freddy’s chest in not one, but two Nightmare on Elm Street movies. That’s not even half of them. This is the most complete list of Linnea’s nude scenes I could find.
Strangers Online (2009)
Kannibal (2001)
Sex Files: Pleasureville (1999)
Death Mask (1998)
Jack-O (1995)
Pumpkinhead II (1994)
Heavy Petting Detective (1993)
Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991)
Freddy's Dead (1991)
Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout (1990)
Virgin High (1990)
Vice Academy 2 (1990)
Murder Weapon (1990)
Deadly Embrace (1989)
Sexbomb (1989)
Assault of the Party Nerds (1989)
Witchtrap (1989)
Night of the Demons (1988)
Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
Dr. Alien (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988)
Vice Academy (1988)
Creepozoids (1987)
Nightmare Sisters (1987)
Beverly Hills Girls (1986)
Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1986)
The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Savage Streets (1984)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Young Warriors (1983)
Get Crazy (1983)
Cheech and Chong: Still Smokin' (1983)
Don't Go Near the Park (1981)
Graduation Day (1981)
Fairy Tales (1979)
Stone Cold Dead (1979)
Summer Camp (1979)
Psycho from Texas (1975)
That’s a hell of a list of credentials. She’s still got it too. Look at that first credit on that list. 2009. That means she did her most recent nude scene at the age of 51. How many actresses do you know of that are still taking it off for the camera in their fifties? Through it all, she managed to be constantly in the buff and often play slutty characters, but never seem like a slut herself. She has an air of class about her, a lot like Brinke Stevens does. These days she is still quite active in movies, but is also a fixture on the horror convention circuit, and is known as one of the most fan accessible of the scream queens. Linnea Quigley, for your outstanding contributions to the horror genre and being a pioneer in the world of on screen nudity, and for embodying everything an old school scream queen ought to be, Son of Celluloid honors you as the first ever recipient of the “Gratuitous Nekkid Scream Queen” Lifetime Achievement Award.