BERMUDA TRIANGLE (1976): Classic board game tying into the craze for all things triangle-related, spurred on by Charles Berlitz's book (Barry Manilow rode its coattails to number 15 in the charts). The 'cloud' mysteriously* sucked up player's boats, leading to much consternation. *with magnets

This big 15% discount off our books ends at midnight tomorrow!

Greetings pop pickers! Here's a countdown of all the deaths from one of the greatest PIFs of all time: APACHES (1977)

CRACKS (1975): Legendary Sesame Street animation that was, for decades, considered lost media until it popped up on YouTube. Creepy, queasy, and wonderfully weird, it features legendary sax player Mel Martin and Dorothy Moskowitz from experimental rock band The United States of America.

Happy Rapture Day to those who celebrate! Except for viewers in Scotland

Just over five weeks to go until our live Ghost Story Special at @thedukeslancaster.bsky.social. Come and talk about spooky stuff with us this Halloween!

Get a big 15% discount off our books with the case-sensitive code HARVEST15 until midnight on Friday September 26! A trilogy of massive tomes about the dark, weird pop culture of the 70s and 80s... Also available as colour eBooks! Store link: linktr.ee/scarredforlife

EVIL EDNA (1981): The antagonist on BBC animated kid's show Willo The Wisp (Kenneth Williams having a ball on voice-over duties). A nasty witch in the form of a CRT telly, complete with aerials, metal legs, and, presumably, a 625-line face. Many a female teacher was given the nickname 'Evil Edna'.

ANIMAL GHOSTS (1980): Spooky short story anthology centred around, well... animal ghosts. The cover is particularly striking - those animals are freaking out, man!

LONELY WATER (1973): Legendary child-frightener, and one of the most influential and effective PIFs ever made. Donald Pleasence's voice helped lower the number of child deaths by drowning and opened the door to the scary, deadly PIFs of the 70s & 80s. A folk horror film condensed into 90 seconds.

"No monsters - this is Sky-fi" HTV's brilliant folk horror/sci-fi/glam/prog children's drama SKY debuted on 7 April 1975. Here's how TV Times devoted space to introduce viewers to its Bolan-meets-Bowie-inspired hero...

Really quite made up that this chat with Ste Brotherstone from @scarredforlife.bsky.social about World Of The Vorgans, Night Shift, Car Wars, TV Tops, Rebecca's World and Load Runner has gone down so well. It's here if you've not heard it yet! timworthington.org/2025/09/12/l...

Class war from beyond the grave! DEAD OF NIGHT - THE EXORCISM (1972): Two middle-class couples spend Christmas at a country cottage and find themselves under attack by the spirit of a previous owner... The Exorcism is an astonishing, claustrophobic piece of television.

The Chinnery ghost looked healthier

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COME BACK LUCY (1978): Adapted from Pamela Sykes' timeslip/ghost story about a lonely orphan befriended by Alice, a Victorian ghost girl. But is Lucy's new bestie more sinister than she seems...? Anyone unnerved by mirrors, look away now!

Published in exactly a month! I'm so fucking excited!!!

Did not expect that

LETRASET RUB DOWN HORRORS (1979): Ghoulish and cartoonishly macabre images designed to festoon school books and wind up teacher. Blood, brains, dangly eyeballs, and, erm, suicides abound.

BOO! Fancy sharing your spooky stories this Halloween? Join us and @bobfischer.bsky.social for the SCARRED FOR LIFE UNPLANNED GHOST STORY SPECIAL at Dukes Lancaster on Wednesday 29 October! We'll also have a natter about scary old telly programmes and the like... Tickets: bit.ly/3HK5duQ

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: SAGA OF A STAR WORLD (1978): The pilot episode for one of my favourite shows was Disco Sci-fi at its finest. It contained nightmare fuel in the form of the insectoid Ovions, who lured humans to their gambling resort planet and fed them to their larvae. Holy frack!

Twenty-six years since the moon was blown out of orbit on September 13th, 1999. Who knows where the brave men and women of Moonbase Alpha are now...

I just stumbled across this trailer for a glossy perfume-based drama (starring Tron/John Sheridan!) and it had me howling. They're snorting like dirty coke-heads!

Absolutely brilliant episode. One thing that really made me chuckle was the brief mention of buses that go to areas you’ve never heard of or you don’t believe exist. Every city had/has at least one!

I had an absolute whale of a time talking about six obscure pop culture artefacts for Tim's brilliant LOOKS UNFAMILIAR podcast! Everything from Colin Bennet's Night Shift to forgotten sweet cigarette cards. Check it out. No, now. Right now!

THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF (1968): Ladybird books were famously child-friendly, safe, and very, very lovely. Which makes this classic child-frightener, and the weapons-grade nightmare fuel that is the troll, even more startling.

This 15% discount ends at midnight tomorrow!

SOUND EFFECTS VOL. 13 - DEATH & HORROR (1977): A BBC sound effects album which raised the ire of Mary Whitehouse; the controversy catapulted the album into the top 100, selling 100,000 copies a week. Favourite tracks? "Nails hammered into flesh" and "Red hot poker into eye", of course!

A huge thank you to everyone who came to our Folk Horror show at ARC Stockton last night! You were an amazing crowd, and I think it's safe to say IT ALL KICKED OFF (a big round of applause for Alec the tech guy too)

Our Folk Horror show in Stockton starts at 7.30pm tonight! There still some tickets available, so if any North East weirdies fancy an evening of rural horror, you know what to do!

The podcast is coming to Manchester on October 10th! Join Andy Bush, Dave Lawrence, and Producer Dane for a special live episode - and their guest will be the incomparable John Thomson! Tickets: cultplex.co.uk/Cultplex.dll/WhatsOn?f=761022

FABULOUS ANIMALS (BBC, 1975): A young David Attenborough presented this brilliant children's series revolving around one of his personal interests, cryptozoology. Bigfoot, Nessie, Dragons, and all manner of folkloric beasts are covered in David's trademark soothing fashion. A delight.

COMPLETE THE CIRCLE! One day to go till our Folk Horror show at ARC Stockton! Tickets are selling fast, so join me and @bobfischer.bsky.social for a headlong dive into the entire genre! Trigger warning: Bob will be wearing this getup. Tickets: bit.ly/44Jh9EJ

HELP THE ELDERLY STAY SAFE: A poor old fella (read: stuntman) gets distracted by his granddaughter and goes for a burton in the most spectacular fashion! Stick around for the BBC continuity announcer's "That was a public information film" at the end.

Get a big 15% discount off our books with the case-sensitive code PHOTOBOOK15 until midnight on Friday September 12! A combined 2,000 pages about the dark, weird pop culture of the 70s and 80s... Also available as colour eBooks! Store link: linktr.ee/scarredforlife

STROKE THE STONES! Two days to go till our Folk Horror show at Stockton ARC with @bobfischer.bsky.social and me! And tickets are selling fast! There's still time for us to carve a megalith out of polystyrene for a stage prop... Tickets: bit.ly/44Jh9EJ

Space... the final frontier. And it can be dark, cold, and very, very scary. Happy #StarTrekDay!

Saddle up, pardners! It's Christmas Eve, 1899: a kind-hearted robot Sheriff and a grizzled, cynical old mercenary team up to protect the town of Coltsville from a band of thugs. We were honoured to write Helmet Head & El Mestizo for this year's annual, and Henrik Sahlström's art is beautiful!

Happy 38th birthday, KNIGHTMARE, the hardest game show on television! In 1987, Treguard the Dungeon Master welcomed the first team of adventurers to his blue screen labyrinth. Losers didn’t just fail, they 'died': blades, spikes, and bottomless pits abounded. "Ooh, nasty..."

ALL HAIL! There are only around 30 tickets left for next Wednesday's Folk Horror show with me and @bobfischer.bsky.social at @arcstockton.bsky.social. This one's selling like hot cakes at a Wicker Man, so if you're thinking of coming, don't delay!

"We were on the zebra!" DON'T OVERTAKE ON THE ZIG-ZAGS is a lesser-spotted 1970s road safety PIF with a tragic outcome. Where's Green Cross Man when you need him? Oh yeah, I remember now: "I won't be there when you cross the road..."

Less than a week to go till our Folk Horror show in Stockton with me and @bobfischer.bsky.social! All for less than the price of a cursed artefact!

MAZES AND MONSTERS (1982), based on Rona Jaffe's sensationalist novel (itself loosely based on the James Dallas Egbert III disappearance of 1979) gave Tom Hanks his first leading role and cashed in on the D&D Satanic Panic hysteria. It's Reefer Madness for the moms and dads of role-players.

SECRET MESSAGE FROM TIME LORDS! In 1977, Weetabix began one of the greatest cereal giveaways ever in honour of Scarred For Life gateway drug Doctor Who. Beautiful stand-up character cards! Game boards! Bring back this sort of thing!

Seat B13 is the only one left in the main front section for our @scarredforlife.bsky.social Folk Horror show at @arcstockton.bsky.social next Wednesday. Can somebody claim it please? I'm worried that if it stays empty something might manifest there during the show. arconline.co.uk/whats-on/sca...

The @scarredforlife.bsky.social Folk Horror show comes to ARC in Stockton on Wed 10th Sep, and here's me and Ste discussing it on BBC Radio Tees...

Get a 10% discount off our books with the case-sensitive code CALENDAR10 until midnight on Friday September 5! A combined 2,000 pages about the dark, weird pop culture of the 70s and 80s... Also available as colour eBooks! Store link: linktr.ee/scarredforlife

In 1978, 'Batburger' flavoured Bats joined the legendary SMITHS HORROR BAGS range. This ad, starring the great Frank Thornton, ushered in the latest addition to what the tabloids termed 'X certificate snacks'!

Sven Hassell was a ubiquitous presence in the newsagents of my childhood. Say what you will about them, they were huge sellers, partic in the UK, which was responsible for 15 million out of total 50 million global sales. An interesting doco about the man behind them www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HUj...

Caught a tiny glimpse of Gotham City!