Two Packs of Topps Fright Flicks

When do you consider the Halloween season to begin? For me, I consider it "fall" or Halloween season pretty much when stuff starts appearing in stores. A lot of stuff started popping up in late July this year (looking at you Cracker Barrel and Michaels) however, for the sake of this blog, I'll say that Halloween season starts September 1st. Well, guess what, today just happens to be that day. I figured what better way to kick off Halloween season here on the blog than with two packs of Topps Fright Flicks that I've been holding on to for this very occasion.

For those not familiar, Fright Flicks features stills from 80s horror movies with a  somewhat comedic or cheesy caption. I think it's a pretty unique set, it's not for everyone though as some of the cards are honestly a little gory. However, they are definitely unique. My long-running goal is to put this set together as I think it'll be an interesting addition to my collection.

Pack 1

#41 Darn It, I Forgot the Marshmallows! (Nightmare on Elm Street II)

#26 Sorry - Wrong Answer! (An American Werewolf in London)

#24 Well I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle .. Oh Yeah, I Am. (An American Werewolf in London)

I already had the "Nightmare on Elm Street II" card according to my want list. The other two cards are from the "American Werewolf in London" film, which I can honestly say I've never seen.

#40 No Job is too Big for Your Local Exterminator! (Alien)

#29 Now You Put on the Bunny Outfit! (An American Werewolf in London)

#22 I Tell You, That Nuclear Plant Is Safe! (The Fly)

Yay! Three cards I need here! As you can see, the set not only covers horror but also sci-fi which I guess maybe "The Fly" could be classified as. Not sure, I'm not into those kind of horror movies. I did see "Alien" once and sort of enjoyed it.

#73 I Said I'd Give Blood But This Is Ridiculous! (Nightmare on Elm Street III)

Sticker #2 Long Live The Queen (Alien)

#21 Now Don't Get Cross! (Fright Night)

#7 Baby, You're the Greatest! (Vengeance: The Demon)

And I'll close the first pack with three more cards I need. I'm not sure if I'll keep the stickers yet. I've heard of "Fright Night" and "Nightmare on Elm Street III" but I've never heard of "Vengeance: The Demon" however a quick search on IMDB shows that it's better known as "Pumpkinhead".

Pack 2

#31 Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who's the Grossest One of All! (Nightmare on Elm Street III)

#36 What Do You Mean? I Just Had a Manicure! (Fright Night)

#41 Darn It, I Forgot the Marshmallows! (Nightmare on Elm Street II)

The second pack begins with two cards I need and one card I don't.

#11 Open Wide and Say Aaah! (Aliens)

#10 Darn! Now I'll Have to Learn Shorthand! (Fright Night)

#59 The Label Said Not to Open Before Christmas! (Aliens)

Three more cards I need! After seeing all these "Fright Night" cards, I think I might have to find it to watch.

#81 Hey, You're Right - I Can See Myself! (The Fly)

Sticker #8 Predator

#79 Phooey - Nothing's Good on TV Tonight! (Nightmare on Elm Street III)

#62 Charlene, Something Inside Me is Yearning to be Released! (Aliens)

And three more cards I need close out the pack. I'll freely admit, that card from "The Fly" kind of grosses me out.

I love the backs of these. The old-school movie marquee on the bottom with the card number is so cool. Each card also has a brief ghost story on the back. These were my favorites from each pack. 

Out of two packs, I ended up with two duplicates (the same card strangely) but these definitely made a dent into my set build.

1988 Topps Fright Flicks Cards

I first mentioned these back in the spring when I filed a report on the HorrorHound Convention. These cards were produced by Topps in 1988 and ran the gamut of horror films of the time, from the first three Nightmare on Elm Street movies to other movies like Fright Night, Predator, Day of the Dead, and yes even Ghostbusters. For the longest time, this was the only place you could find cards dedicated to the original Ghostbusters movie, that is until the Ghostbusters cards came out earlier this year from Cryptozoic. Anyway, I grabbed this pack at the aforementioned convention for five dollars, which is about the best price you can find on these. There are nine cards per pack and one sticker, let's see what I've got.

The first card is from the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I haven't seen that movie in quite a long time and I think it's time I need to revisit it. I don't really consider Ghostbusters a "horror film", it's more of a comedy but I can see why it was include as fans of the movie would buy the cards. This Slimer card is really cool though. Another movie I don't consider a horror film is Predator. I classify it as more sci-fi and I've only seen it a handful of times. It's a pretty good movie but the only thing I remember from it is Jesse Ventura stating "I ain't got time to bleed".

Left to right, these cards are from Vengeance: The Demon, Nightmare on Elm Street II, and Poltergeist. I've never seen, let alone heard of Vengeance but that scene they chose looks pretty creepy. I haven't seen Nightmare 2 but it's on my list to check out. I need to do that soon as Halloween is approaching fast. There was a remake of Poltergeist last year that did horrible business and I've never seen the original either, but that clown just looks creepy.

Closing out the pack are cards from three movies I've never seen, Fright Night, Poltergeist as I mentioned above, and Day of the Dead. Since I have no knowledge of these films, I'll speak to the card design a bit. It's very clean and simple, just a still from the film with a somewhat cheesy caption on it. 

The backs are equally as clean. There's a brief story on the back and I really like the design on the bottom with the film title in the marquee. 

There's also a sticker included in the pack, here's the one I pulled. I'm writing this during my break at work so I pulled this image from Trading Card Database. It's not my favorite sticker of the set but if you put all of them together, you form a nice collage of sorts.

Overall, this was a really fun pack to break into and if I can find more packs for a reasonable price, I'll definitely get more as I'm planning on building the set and collecting the four different wrappers. It's nearly Halloween and I've got a few more Halloween related posts before putting Project Halloween in the books for the year.