Fat Albert’s Halloween Special (1977)

Trailer (watch the whole thing!):

*Spoilers Throughout*

(Due to Hurricane Sandy, we had to miss Day 30 of Schlocktoberfest. Here’s what should have been posted Tuesday. Thank you for your understanding)

What’s It About: An impoverished Inner-city African-American youth must collect enough candy to sell back to the police in order to pay for his gastric bypass surgery.

Fat Albert, Rudy and a total a-hole named Devery are in the general store and see Old Lady Bakewell, who they’re all scared of because she’s old and lives alone by the cemetery, which is just incredibly sad.

The gang dress up in their Halloween costumes so they can trick or treat and “scare old dudes.” Of course, they all rank on each other’s costumes, which I love. Weird Harold gets it worst, as he’s dressed as a “toreador” and Bill tells him he’s the world champ at “throwin’ the bull!” and Weird Harold literally looks like he wants to murder him.

The gang goes to the graveyard and Devery scares the crap out of them when he jumps out in a witch costume. Fat Albert doesn’t think it’s cool to go around shocking people, and he’s wrong.

Thy go to the movies to scare the usher, Searchlight Johnson, just because. As they’re watching a movie about space squids, Devery drops the head of a mop on Searchlight Johnson’s head from the balcony. Instead of just looking up and being totally pissed, Searchlight is actually scared, and the whole rest of the gang also pees their pants because their education is lacking and they think an actual space squid is after them. Searchlight throws them all out, even though only Devery really did anything, because Searchlight Johnson takes tomfoolery from nobody.

After they leave the theater, Devery leads the gang to go scare Mudfoot Brown, who’s accused of the crime of getting old, according to Devery. You may remember Mudfoot from my review of Fat Albert’s Christmas Special. He’s a dirt-poor vagrant who lives in a dilapidated shack in an abandoned lot. You would think that Mudfoot doesn’t have the emotional capacity to be scared anymore. Well the tables get turned on the gang when Mudfoot comes out of his shack with his nightshirt above his head so he looks like a ghost (and I assume completely nude from the waist down). After the boys stop shivering at seeing an old bum half nude, Mudfoot starts stealing all of the candy out of their bags as he explains that Halloween was better when he was a kid since he used to cross dark streets in dark clothes, and the gang chides him because we need a safety message here. He also tells them how he used to eat candy that was unpackaged and would all stick together. The gang declares that this is bad, and Fat Albert says he ain’t eatin’ nothin’ but wrapped-up goodies, which I think is a lie but I’ll let it slide.

They finally make their way to Old Lady Bakewell’s house and Fat Albert dares Devery to try to do something heavy on his own. But Devery’s loudmouth sister Melba comes by and yells that their dad has ordered him home. But Devery says he’ll only go if Melba knocks on Old Lady Bakewell’s door. She agrees right away because she’s one sassy kid full of spunk, and Russell goes with her. They open the door and, shivering, step inside the parlor of horror.

When they don’t come out for 15 minutes, the gang assumes the worst and charge Old Lady Bakewell’s door, busting it down with Albert’s gut and finding Melba and Russell hanging upside down and eviscerated, and Old Lady Bakewell nude, covered in blood and eating their guts. The rest of the gang is too frozen in shock to notice her personal army of space squids until they use their beaks to sever the gang’s heads from their bodies.

Ok, I just made that up. Old Lady Bakewell is actually really nice. Melba and Russell are chilling by a fire drinking sodas, and Old Lady Bakewell welcomes the rest of the gang with a tray of treats. Apparently Old lady Bakewell bakes well.

Devery is a jerk so he stays outside and misses the big feast, which is probably more than these kids eat in a week. Apparently since he didn’t come home right away he’s in big trouble, and his dad shows up in the streets to beat the treats and tricks right out of him. All in all, a happy ending.

Is It Actually Scary: It’s really more of a black comedy than a horror movie.

How Much Gore: Only what’s going on inside of Fat Albert’s stomach.

Dumbest Moment: Hitting up a derelict for candy.

Best Line: Rudy: “I’m gonna get the S.W.A.T. squad!” Weird Harold: “I’ll give you a five-knuckle swat!”

Any Nudity: Come on, this is a Fat Albert cartoon! Of course there’s tons of nudity!

Overall: I love love love Fat Albert. Your enjoyment of this special will depend on just how much you dig him and his gang, but for me I treasure every second of this. Since I covered his Christmas special last year I felt compelled to make this my final Schlocktoberfest II viewing. I’ve had enough gore, monsters, and madmen to last a while, and I figured I should end it in a BIG way. I’ve watched this more times than I can count over the years, and this year I got to watch it with my daughter, which was just amazingly great for me. Happy Halloween! HEY HEY HEY!

Score: 9 Mudfeet (out of 10)