Recipe: Halloween Chex Mix

Right from the Chex Mix source, here's the HALLOWEEN CHEX MIX recipe!
I don't know what it is about Chex Mix, but for a recipe so easy it really seems like something unmake-able to me.
But looking over the ingredients and total start to finish time 15 minutes... seems very do-able.   

Though I disagree with the website's tag here:

Trick or treat? Surprise little witches and goblins with this fruit, candy and cereal mix—they’ll gobble it up!

I'm a believer that homemade treats should be given out to family and friends at parties but not given out to unknown trick or treaters.  Then the parents don't have to worry if crazy people put weird stuff in their kids treats and throw it away.  That's just my thing.
Here's the link to Chex.com and the Halloween Recipe HERE.

Halloween Decoration: Zombie Silhouette Wall Art

What a fantastic idea for a Halloween decoration.
So simple and yet so awesome.
A "why didn't I think of that" thing.
Papercuts by Joe out of Boston, MA has created a Victorian-era-inspired profile silhouette of a zombie suitable for hanging.  And it's really exquisite, complete with tousled hair, rotten nose and dripping um, something. 

Each undead head measures approximately 5" X 7," is cut from a single sheet of black archival paper and arrives mounted on a piece of 8" X 10" white illustration board.  You need to provide the creepy frame yourself.

Cost?  A "wallet friendly" $20. Get it from MakersMarket.com HERE.  Here's my question, how did Joe get the zombie to stand still long enough to trace him on the paper?  THAT'S talent.

T-Shirt Tuesday: Cult Classics Plan 9, Creeps, Evil Dead from Malgusto Tees

Today's T-Shirt Tuesday is from a little Spanish speaking on-line retailer called MALGUSTO!

Can't read Spanish?  Well the fine folks at Malgusto have provided an English translated link HERE to answer all your FAQs and in pretty well translated smart ass.  As for what Malgusto is, I'll steal from their site:

We are a heartless corporation that, sick of not finding out movie based t-shirts that we liked, decide to produce them by ourselves, jeopardizing our personal fortunes.

Sounds like a plan to me. 
The shirts are actually made in the USA and printed on American Apparel tees, so no sweatshops to worry about sweating on your fine wearables.  

They have a small selection, but specialize in bright cartoon-like caricatures of cult favorite films like Plan 9 From Outer Space, Evil Dead and Night of the Creeps.  Malgusto's imagery really pops on the dark shirts and some (like Plan 9) even have glow-in-the-dark ink!  Shirts will run you 19.95 Euros which is about $25.24 and they DO accept PayPal and Credit Cards through PayPal so you don't have to strain your brain converting.

Halloween Videogames: Costume Quest!

Though there are tons of video games out there for a Halloween Addict and horror lover, there aren't too many that actually use the Halloween holiday as a key part of the plot.  Sure there are games that feature werewolves, and jack o' lanterns... but to embrace Halloween as part of the game and use the devices and traditions of the holiday as play mechanics... well, I can't think of any.
Until now.

Fellow Halloween Addicts, I present to you--- Costume Quest.

Revealed two weeks ago, Costume Quest is an upcoming release from Double Fine Productions.
Who is Double Fine Prods., you ask?
Well they're only an award-winning independent game studio founded by video game industry veteran Tim Schafer.
Who's Tim Schafer, you ask?  (Geez, this is going to take forever.)
Tim Schafer is the designer of the critically acclaimed LucasArts Games:  Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and Day of the Tentacle.
Then he started his own company and made the critically acclaimed Psychonauts and the recent heavy-metal parody hack 'n' slash-- Brütal Legend (with voice acting by Jack Black).  According to Wikipedia (so you KNOW it's true): "He is known in the video game industry for his story-telling and comedy-writing abilities."
Bottom line if you haven't played ANY of these games:  he's a talented guy and he writes funny games.
Enough about Tim, Costume Quest actually is the brainchild of one of Double Fine's lead animators (and former Pixar employee) Tasha Harris who wanted to make a game around Halloween.  Awwww a woman dear to my heart.

SO... backstory out of the way... what's Costume Quest you ask?  (So many questions from you today...)
Costume Quest is an action adventure game that unfolds on Halloween night. 
I'm going to steal the rest of the description from the website:

Go door-to-door collecting candy, points, cards, battle stamps and quest assignments to prepare for combat. Use your wit, bravery and home-made costumes with superpowers to rid the neighborhood of creepy monsters and SAVE HALLOWEEN!

This... sounds... awesome.
Seriously I haven't been this excited about a Halloween-centric piece of entertainment since Mike Dougherty's release of Trick 'r Treat on DVD last year!

As for levels, there seems to be a "peaceful suburban neighborhood," "mysterious village carnival," and "monster-infested shopping mall."  What a perfect mix of levels.  You've got the neighborhood to go door to door trick or treating in... you've got --what sounds like-- a Ray Bradbury-esque Something Wicked This Way Comes carnival... and a George Romero Dawn of the Dead-esque mall filled with monsters.  Perfect.

There isn't much info right now on CostumeQuestGame.com so I dug a little through the wide wide world o' webs to find THIS exclusive preview from Ugo.com.  From what the article reveals, the kids (brother and sister Reynolds and Wren) can take on the powers of their costumes to fight off the evil minions.  So if a character is wearing a cardboard box of a robot costume, they'll become a giant Mech to do battle.  Neat.  

Where can I buy this wonderful game, you ask?  (AGAIN with the questions!)
Answer:  Your couch.
Hear that sound?  That's your brain exploding.
That's right, Costume Quest isn't available in stores, it's available for download on either Xbox Live Arcade or the Playstation Network.  Price?  Dunno.  20 Ducats?  A Tootsie Roll wrapper?  Who cares?!  It's a freakin' Halloween RPG adventure!!!
The fact that the game is downloadable is good news as I assume new characters, levels and costumes will become available for download so the game can constantly evolve and grow.  Maybe even EVERY Halloween?

The only downside I see is that (according to the Ugo.com article) the game isn't available 'til Halloween Day.  That's great and all but I want to be playing this for the weeks leading UP to Halloween (maybe with a special unlockable download on the 31st?).   

UPDATE:  According to THIS article on IFC.com, the game comes out in mid-October with "new content scheduled to be available on Halloween."  SPEC-TAC-ULAR.

STILL can't get your head around this?  Well check out the wonderful trailer HERE or in the embed below which features this little ditty that sounds like it could have been spoken by Disney's Magic Mirror himself:

Every year on Halloween,
Grabbing candy left and right,
Ghosts and Witches can be seen
Trick or treating through the night

This year it’s a different deal—
Someone new has come to town
Now the monsters are all real
And we have to take them down!

There’s a witch who thinks she might
Steal our candy ‘fore the dawn
We’ve got costumes built to fight!
Now the battle’s really on.

It's safe to say that HalloweenAddict.com will be following this release closely and playing and reviewing when it when it debuts in October.   Good job Tasha and Double Fine. Can't wait to play it.

AMC's The Walking Dead: Debuts on Halloween Night!

Ohhhhhhhhhh kids.
Ohhhh kiddies.
What exciting news to share.  Revealed yesterday on pretty much every horror site imaginable, was news that AMC's new series "The Walking Dead" will have its 90 minute 1st episode debut on what date?
OCTOBER 31ST.  HALLOWEEN.
The debut will cap off its 14th year doing FearFest, its horror movie marathon tying into the Halloween season. 
Brilliant.
Don't worry, it'll be on at 10pm, long after the trick or treaters are done beating a path to your door.  You can pop a Jones Halloween soda, or a pour a glass of EVIL Cabernet Sauvignon and plunk down for some fantastic zombie drama.

As you've heard me mention a little over one year ago, HERE , "The Walking Dead" is based on a series of fantastic graphic novels put out by Image comics and penned by Robert Kirkman.  If you haven't read them, please go to the Amazon carousel links below and start ordering and catching up on one of the finest human dramas ever written that just so happens to be based in a universe where zombies walk the earth.
To add further excitement to the TV adaptation, the 90 minute pilot (90 minutes?!  Isn't that really a FEATURE FILM?) is directed by none other than Frank Darabont!  A man who knows human drama in extraordinary circumstances with a pedigree of films such as The Mist, The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. 

Still haven't whetted your appetite for this enough?  Check out the FOUR MINUTE trailer (which originally showed at this year's San Diego Comic Con) below to get an idea of what you're in for.

 

T-Shirt Tuesday: New Threadless Zombie Offerings

On this T-Shirt Tuesday, one of my favorite t-shirt vendors, Threadless, has released a comic-inspired zombie offering called "Every Night I Have The Same Dream, Issue 2, Vol. 1."  It's certainly not subtle with the front splashed all the way to the bottom of the olive green tee with a drooling fly-mouthed zombie and friends reaching for survivors on a building's roof.  The back has same survivors using their weaponry to fell same zombies into ludicrous gibs... and all in comic panels to boot.

The second takes Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and makes it more twisted by envisioning it with zombies.  What's it called?  "Zombies in Wonderland" of course.  Poor Alice is swinging her samurai swords Kill Bill-The Bride-style at zombie versions of the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, etc.  "I'm late, I'm late.  For a very important date.  No time to say Hello, Goodbye when I'm feasting on your brains..."

As always, Threadless tees are limited editions so get 'em while they're gettable.  

Be@rbrick Halloween Figure

I've never really been into Be@rbrick collecting.
Maybe it's the "@" symbol in the middle of the name that makes me feel like there's a hidden swear word in there.  Maybe it's the fact that I dismiss them as too tiny for me to put out as a decorations. 

But if you make that same Be@rbrick a FOOT TALL and my interest is piqued.
Make it glow in the dark and I'm listening.
Make it have the face of a glowing jack o' lantern and SOLD!

Check out the 400%-sized Bearbrick (sorry I refuse to hit "shift-2" again) from Medicom toys.  Now THAT'S a decoration.  I'm not gonna loose this baby under the couch.  Plus, it can charge all day and then when I shut off the lights to go count sheep I get the treat of glowy-magical-goodness (check out the 2nd pic).  

I've only seen this item on Sideshow Collectibles' website HERE and the little graphic says that there are limited quantities left so go forth and buy a giant plastic teddy bear under the auspices of Halloween celebratin'!