JLP Podcast takes a spin in some haunted vehicles

By Tulayne Blaktop Staff Roads Writer

Choose the haunted vehicle of your choice, climb inside and hold on tight. You’ve got the pink slip. The vehicle’s got you! 

The Jack-o’-Lantern Press Podcast celebrates this Monster Monday with episode 98 right here about the haunted vehicle.

“During the show,” said podcast co-host Michael Picarella in a recent interview with JLP, “my brother Tom and I take a look at a list of scary cars from BloodyDisgusting.com, and you can play along with us as we decide if he and I agree with this list or if the list is seriously missing some key scary vehicles.”

Here’s the BloodyDisgusting.com article.

Join Mike and Tom on the podcast as they board Doombuggies and explore and test drive some of the coolest haunted vehicles to hit the road and beyond.

Oh, and if you’re into Doombuggies, check out this brief history of the ride vehicles right here on Doombuggies.com.

Before Mike gets into his history, Tom brings up a Haunted Mansion coffee mug he’s drinking from, though, in the show, it almost sounds like he’s drinking from an “Alice in Wonderland” Mad Hatter cup. Here’s what he’s really talking about:

As for history, Mike covers vehicles that receive their curses mysteriously…

Then there are those, he says, where extraterrestrial forces provide the terror…

He also shares how some vehicles just make drivers go mad, as seen in this classic Goofy cartoon you watch here on YouTube called “Motor Mania”... 

And let’s not forget about vehicles that are from another dimension…  

Mike goes into a more thorough history of the haunted vehicle as he shares how the one in R.L. Stine’s book “The Haunted Car” came to be. Check out “The Haunted Car” here and also the “Goosebumps Monster Survival Guide” that Mike reads from in this part of the show.

Tom talks about strengths and weaknesses of various haunted vehicles, and he covers the surface on those vehicles where the horror is engineered, which he pulls from the following books by author and roboticist Daniel H. Wilson:

- “How to Survive a Robot Uprising”

- “How to Build a Robot Army”

- “Where’s My Jetpack”

There’s a list of types of haunted vehicles Tom gives during the podcast that could probably use some more exploration. He combined various lists for his list, which causes a bit of confusion in the show and forces an intermission — it’s reason for some intermission music, anyway. Here’s a link to a page that has a lot of that information that Tom shares.

Oh, and for that history of James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder that Tom mentions, check out this article about it.

Mike lists more movies, TV shows and books than he normally does on these Monster Mondays. Here are the movies he mentions (with links to where you can stream them), some suggested by sponsor CJ Brezensky from the “Found This” YouTube channel:

- “Duel” (1971)

- “The Car” (1977)

- “Christine” (1983)

- “The Hearse” (1980)

- “Crash” (1976)

- “The Wraith” (1986)

- “Wheels of Terror” (1990)

- “Rubber” (2010)

- “Killdozer” (1974)

- “Maximum Overdrive” (1986)

- “The Car: Road to Revenge” (2019)

- “Goosebumps” (2015)

Here are the books Mike mentions:

- “18 Wheels of Horror”

- “18 Wheels of Science Fiction”

And here’s some TV content Mike rattles off:

- Goofy in “Motor Mania” (1950)

- “Catching Cold” from “R.L. Stine’s Haunting Hour” (2011)

- “Groovie Goolies” (1970)

- “Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King” (2008)

BONUS CONTENT: Mike forgot to bring up a haunted vehicle from a cartoon worth mentioning. Back in 1968, Hanna-Barbera created the cartoon "Wacky Races," totally worth digging up. Each cartoon was a race between 11 race-car teams, including the Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe.

You can find out more about the Coupe in this article about all 11 vehicles in the show. And you can also purchase some cool Creepy Coupe merch — the car here or a coffee mug here or cool shirt here.

But back to the podcast: Mike also talks about where in Transylveinya listeners are most likely gonna find haunted vehicles. Listen to what he says, then find out how to get to those locales by first purchasing “Transylveinya Traveler” from JackoLanternPress.com or Amazon.

Here's that BloodyDisgusting.com article again for when exploring the most famous cars in horror. Do you agree with the article’s top 13? Do you agree with Mike and Tom’s picks?

To end the show, Mike and Tom share a few cool “haunted vehicle” items you can buy. There’s “The Car” toy car here.

Here’s Vintage Spooky Company’s Spook Bus.

And here’s the Ghostbuster’s Lego kit Tom talks about.

Overall, this is a longer Monster Mondays episode than usual, but, like the haunted vehicles Mike and Tom talk about, it keeps on moving.

Sponsors of this show include CJ Brezensky’s YouTube channel “Found This” right here and, of course, Nightmare365.com.

To add to the conversation, go to the Monster Revolution Facebook group page and tell us what you think. Don’t be shy. The monster revolution is upon us! In fact, that vehicle you’re sitting in should get you there in no time, so step on it.