Next? Sure there's all kinds of Halloween-themed programming running on TV, but I'm picky. I started my own personal Monsterfest.
I've had Halloween movies running all day in my DVD player.
Here's been my schedule thus far:
The Crow: The film starts off with Eric Draven being killed on Halloween and from there it's a just a great moody film.
Campfire Tales: I had never seen this and it arrived in my Netflix yesterday. Being a sucker for anthology films like Creepshow and Cat's Eye, I hoped for a fun little low-budget thriller. What did I get? Crap. Garbage. A horror movie anthology SO boring I would constantly leave the room without pausing it.
Sleepy Hollow: Again, sort of a mood-setter. I'll usually watch this AFTER the Disney's Sleepy Hollow that I have. This is the perfect movie to put on when I'm carving my pumpkin. Which is something else I did. Check it out...
Halloween: My favorite. I never pass a year without watching some version of this film. Whether it be the TV version, the original, etc. This year I chose to watch the version I taped from AMC with the pop-up factoids. I usually try and time this so that as the sun starts to set in the film (the scene with Laurie and Annie driving around talking) the sun is setting in reality. It blurs the line between artifice and real life just enough to add an extra 'creep factor' to the day.
It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown: I have to watch this at night. Can't watch it during the day, it's just not the same.
Close it out with The Fog
Carved a pumpkin. As I live in a warmer climate I don't have the benefit of cold days and nights to help preserve my pumpkin through the week. Nope... I gotta carve on THE day because in two days it's a mushy moldy mess.
A lame entry for the holiday but I'm writing this with minutes to spare before my favorite day is over.
To me the airing of "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" on television is the hallmark of the Halloween season. Sure I own the classic animated show on DVD, but there's something about catching it live on television... like how hearing your favorite song on the radio always sounds better than listening to it on CD. Wish they'd bring back the spinning "Special" logo before it, though. Regardless: Tonight. It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. ABC. 8pm. Be there.
Let me guess: you've got a stack of cool Halloween cards sitting on your desk but as it's close to Halloween, it's too late to get your friends and family a cool Halloween greeting, right? Wrong. Snail mail in meatspace is for suckers. Surfing the internet on your witch's broom is where it's at these days.
Try sending a Happy Halloween message via BloodyFingerMail.com. It allows you to draw out a freehand message using a disembodied hand with a bloody, chopped off finger and THEN--- e-mail it to whoever you want! You can also check out other messages people have written in the "Last Writes" (Ha!) section. Who thinks this stuff up?! Who cares?! It's here and it's free! Bloody stumps too gruesome for your mom? Ok, how about some Halloween "Sendables" from comedy website JibJab.com? Snazzier than eCards, these videos feature a variety of themes (including Halloween) and all with a snarky sense of humor. There's even a customizable final title card that allows you to personalize the Sendable.
Now you've just gotta put butt to chair and send 'em out. Hurry! Halloween is coming up!
Come Halloween time, I like to make a little Halloween mix CD for myself. Back in the day we called 'em "mix tapes"... but that was a long time ago... before things like "horseless carriages" and "light."
Though I consider myself a bit of a "traditional" Halloween fan (less gore, and more black and orange), I must say that the "traditional" Halloween songs make me ill. "Monster Mash"-- No. "Flying Purple People Eater"-- no thank you. "Dead Man's Party"-- not so much.
So every year, I like to assemble a Halloween Music Mix to put on when I carve jack o'lanterns, paint grave stones and bake pumpkin seeds.
Here's this years' 60 mins. worth of music...
1) Hells Bells: AC/DC A nice slow on-ramp to the mix. Spooky bells, into rock 'n' roll. The song was also featured in my guilty pleasure Maximum Overdrive.
2) Sweet Dreams: Marilyn Manson This was used in the "started off good and went in the crapper by the end"-film House on Haunted Hill. Manson makes the new-wave Annie Lennox song creepy as only he can.
3) Bad Moon Rising: Creedence Clearwater Revival A lot of my chosen mix songs have to do with the horror movies I associate them with. This appeared in An American Werewolf in London, and forever shall be associated with that movie in my brain.
4) Superstition: Stevie Wonder A good song by itself that reminds me of a cool windy autumn night... when no one's on the street and the rustling of leaves covers up any sound. Also appeared in John Carenter's The Thing--- one of the best thrillers ever.
5) Don't Fear the Reaper: Blue Oyster Cult Speaking of songs that remind me of fall... this song has been overused in the past 10 years, with the nail in the coffin being Will Ferrel's "more cowbell" sketch on SNL... but it will forever be remembered as the song playing in Halloween when the girls drive around... before the boogeyman showed up.
6) He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask): Alice Cooper I know I put this video in my previous post about my Halloween mix-DVD, but come on: it's Alice Cooper singing about Jason Voorhees... complete with the "ki-ki-ki-ma-ma-ma" noise. A must have on my mix.
7) Living Dead Girl: Rob Zombie From shock rocker to horror director, Rob Zombie, is the keeper of the horror/music crown these days. Living Dead Girl is a modern classic.
8) Red Right Hand: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Very atmospheric and used in Scream. Done and done. And why is his hand red? What did he do? Is it paint? Is it blood? It's a RED RIGHT HAND!
9) Dream Warriors - Dokken Surprise... another movie inspired pick. This is, of course, from A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: Dream Warriors. I've got to have a Freddy song to balance out the Jason song earlier in the mix. And I did NOT want to use "DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: Nightmare on My Street" or "Do the Freddy." --Shudder--
10) Insect Eyes - Devendra Banhart This song was used in the fantastic teaser trailer for The Hills Have Eyes 2. This song... this song creeps me the hell out. It starts off and you think it's a little silly... but what that guy does with his voice in this song and how the rhythm gets lost from time to time really unsettles you and messes with your head. Don't listen to this while driving alone at night. Trust me.
11) People Are Strange - The Doors Wow, looks like most of my list are horror-movie related. Huh. See what you learn about yourself when you make a mix? This song was featured in The Lost Boys a movie I usually pop in twice a year: once in the summer, once in the fall... and probably the only Joel Schumacher film I return to.
12) Sympathy for the Devil - Guns n Roses Featured at the end of Interview with a Vampire, I really like this cover. No it's not the Stones... but hey, it's a great song, and it came out when Guns was still cool.
13) Pet Sematary - The Ramones The movie was very unsettling. The song? Catchy fun.
I'm only giving you 13 songs. Why? Ummmmm... because 13 is a scary number. Yep... that's it. I haven't actually timed out how long this mix would be. Let's assume it fills a CD.
Ok, your turn commenters: What songs are on your Halloween mix?
I've never been a huge fan of the Saw movies, but I have to respect the only horror franchise that has embraced the holiday with their "If it's Halloween, it must be time for another Saw..." advertising campaign.
Not since the glory days of the 80's slashers, has a series of horror films come out with such regularity and employed the old serial-style of cliffhanger endings and such other devices.
You've heard me preach about how you should NOT be the person who shows up to a Halloween party with no costume. And don't be the person with a t-shirt that says "This is my costume."
BUT... in a pinch... these t-shirts from 80sTees.com are mildly acceptable. And I think they're cool. Or at least they're a jumping off point to accessorize and pull off a kitschy costume that'll get you a nod by an appreciative geek.
6 days 'til Halloween... less if the party is on the weekend. Get on it!
Our first horror movie of October, 30 Days of Night, is released in theaters today.
Based on the graphic novel written by Steve Niles, the book has a fantastic premise: 'What if vampires invaded a little town in Alaska where the sun doesn't rise for 30 consecutive nights?' It's one of the few comics I've read where, when I finished, I thought, "Huh. That'd make a great movie."
From the trailer, they're making it look like The Thing meets Near Dark. Let's hope it's good...
Let's face it, we are a computer nation. We have computers at home, at work and at play. I've worked day jobs that don't even have windows in the room. I've worked freelance gigs that don't even have an office. So what becomes my window? My desktop. What becomes my office? My laptop. So why not decorate those things that we see and use every day in the spirit of Halloween?
Since about October 1st I've changed my desktop wallpaper and icons to Halloween themes. Digital Decorating, I call it. It's fun... and come November 1st I don't have the hassle of putting everything back into big plastic orange bins with black lids.
Open up Google... Click "Images"... type something Halloweeny (snicker... "weenie")-- for instance "jack o' lantern"... hit 'search'... change the image size to 'large' or 'extra large'... start picking an image to use as your wallpaper. This image I'm using as my desktop right now. Got it from a website for a Hudson Valley "Great Jack o' Lantern Blaze" which is something I HAVE to go visit next year. See that? By changing my desktop wallpaper I discovered a cool Halloween thing to do at the same time. I'm all about multitasking.
I even went one step further and snagged some Halloween themed icons for my Mac laptop. There are plenty of websites that offer Freeware icons, but I've cobbled together my favorites from various sets from a great website called IconFactory. They offer icon sets for both Mac and PC and most are Freeware.
They've actually got a whole scary theme to the site right now.
(My hard drive is currently Frankenstein's Monster... but I think I may change it back to a Creature From the Black Lagoon.) It's a great site with icons, wallpapers and there are even instructions on how to replace the icons on your system if you don't know how.
All that and no dusty orange bins to worry about in November.
It's gettin' time to send out those Halloween party invitations so check out BumbleInk.com's cute but hip Halloween invites that you can personalize.
The applicable ones are a Jack o' Lantern, Masquerade Party and a Vampire Party that says "This Party Won't Suck." Ya get it? HA! Because Vampires... have... oh forget it. Check it out, he's got a little bottle with blood in it. Simple. Fun.
What's a horror movie fan to read this month when they're lounging in a pile of leaves, sitting on the subway or curled around a hot cider? Look no further than the new book "How to Survive a Horror Movie" by Seth Grahame-Smith.
The book has Scream-like self awareness, but has its severed tongue firmly planted in cheek. With such chapter titles as "What To Do If You Did Something Last Summer," "How To Stay Awake for a Week," and "What to Do if Your Corn Has Children In It" author Seth Grahame-Smith dissects the devices of the genre with a machete.
Put simply: this book is fun. It's almost as if those ironic conversations with your horror-buff friends were recorded and transcribed. Throw in gruesome illustrations by Nathan Fox (see above for an example), quotes from legendary horror films and a foreword by horror maven Wes Craven himself and this little terror-tome is well-worth the 10 bucks.
Now if THAT weren't enough, they're upping the horror-book-ante by making a companion website complete with one minute video shorts based on chapters from the book. According to author via the site:
Starting October 9th, we'll post two new episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until Halloween -- eighteen in all. On Thursdays, we'll also re-post three of that week's episodes with a commentary track (because if there's one thing that's been missing from micro-budget Internet shorts, it's a commentary track).
The first two videos have been posted: "How To Defeat A Killer Doll" and "Seven Things to Never, Ever Put in a Child's Room." They've got good production value, are well edited and best of all are a quick funny watch keeping with the Halloween season.
Personally, when I carve pumpkins, go on haunted hayrides, pick apples-- what have you, I like to have a bit of Halloween-themed apparel on my person to get in the mood (my personal favorite is my glow in the dark Misfits skeleton shirt).
Well super indie, super cool t-shirt site: Threadless.com just came out with a Halloween-themed shirt and a reprint of a past favorite that fits right in with this month's activities. Check out their new jack o' lantern tee called "When I Was a Pumpkin"...
They're also reprinting a cool skeleton tee called "Impostor" that you should check out too.
As always: Threadless t-shirts have super-limited runs, so grab yours today before they're SOLD OUT.
I am a big fan of the Jones holiday novelty sodas. Though they're not always the best flavors, they have a fun factor like Harry Potter's Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Beans... You could get Grape Jelly... you could get vomit. Let's see if Jones gave us vomit this year...
The 2007 crop of Halloween sodas gives us the jack o'lantern mini-cans of: Candy Corn (a repeat from last year), Lemon Drop Dead, Gruesome Grape (repeat) and Strawberry S'lime. The Lemon Drop Dead is super sour: almost as if a lemon Warheads candy became a soda. It caught me off guard. Candy Corn is worth a sip... but that's about it. Gruesome Grape and Strawberry S'lime both remind me of cheap, store brand grape and strawberry flavored sodas you can get for 25 cents in the front of your grocery. Not exactly bad... just calling it what it is so you know what to expect.
Then there's the more 'adult' bottles of: Monster Mojito (repeat), Dread Licorice, and Black Cat Licorice. Dread Licorice suprisingly doesn't have much of a flavor at all. If you really concentrate, maybe you can imagine it as more Red Vines than Twizzlers. And I'm not a big black licorice guy so I was dreading (no pun intended) the Black Cat Licorice... but again I was surprised by how mild it was. No bite to it at all. Monster Mojito is sorta light. I would prefer a tad more mint flavor to it, if anything.
I mentioned these sodas in the bottles seemed more "adult" than the cans. Mainly because it seems like most of the flavors could be used as mixers at Halloween parties for fun cocktails. Jagermeister and Black Cat Licorice maybe? Real mojito mixed with Monster Mojito? Absolut Raspberry and Dread Licorice?
Personally I miss Spider Cider, and Berried Alive from 2006. I like the neon blue and berry flavor of the one, and I'm always game for a cider flavor in autumn.
Lastly: I discovered that if you're in an area that's light on the trick or treaters, these make great treats with a handful of candy. I gave these out to the lucky 5 treaters I got last year, and it blew their minds. You could see on the kids' faces the shock of "OH MY GOD THIS GUY IS GIVING US CANS OF SODA!!!!!" I highly recommend it.
Come October, the TiVo and TV are abuzz with all kinds of Halloween specials. Well though I do enjoy what circulates out there this time of the year, there's something to be said for programming your own special.
Ideally I'd love to burn my favorite scenes and shows to a "Halloween Mix DVD." If only making a mix DVD were as easy as making a mix CD for somebody. If only. I'm sure there are those of you out there who are able to rip these items and burn them to a DVD. I... am not that guy.
But thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can assemble my own hour long Halloween Special right here on the blog with sources culled from various parts of the internet. So here we go.
First I'd open with the old CBS Special Presentation logo. This spinning logo when seen in mid to late October, usually heralded "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." To this day when I see it, it makes me instantaneously crave chocolate and want to sit on a couch with a bowl of popcorn and a candy apple.
Next up after the "Special" logo I'd put the 80s version of The Twilight Zone Intro. This is one of the creepiest intros to a show I've ever seen. Here's what you get for your 30 seconds: - A real spider (a thick-bodied TARANTULA actually). - A creepy doll. - A sinister Merry-Go-Round Horse. - A dingy room. - A freaking FETUS. - A mask. - A nuclear explosion. - The ghost of Rod Serling. - TWO skulls that morph through title. - The creepy slowed-down-and-almost-sounds-backwards music. - The Twilight Zone theme. - A heartbeat. You show me another TV show intro that has THAT much creepy per second. A good way to get in the Halloween mood.
Heavy Metal (1981) "Bomber Full of Zombies" Segment:
Zombies + World War 2 = Awesome.
Skeleton Dance (1929): A good Halloween special has some downtime... parts that you don't care that much about, but are still festive. I use the model of "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" again as an example. When Snoopy is crawling around in the grass, playing World War I Flying Ace, you know you can focus on carving your Jack o' Lantern and just enjoy the creepy music and sound effects because that part is filler. It's fluff. That's what this Skeleton Dance is. It's got music to it, and it's got skeletons, but if you look away to sketch out that toothless maniacal smile on your pumpkin, it's totally ok.
Alice Cooper: He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) Homicidal maniac from the Friday the 13th series, Jason Voorhees? Yes please. Original Shock Rocker Alice Cooper? Absolutely. Catchy 80s tune featuring both? Done.
Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow
I may get some crap for this, but this is the "good part," without the Bing Crosby song and bookends. This is just Ichabod and the Headless Horseman. (And, frankly I couldn't find the full version on YouTube.)
What would a Halloween Special be without commercials? When else are you going to pee? Here's a vintage Frankenberry and Count Chocula commercial. Seems like you can only find the General Mills Monster Cereals around Halloween anyway. (Side note: Frankenberry has his fingernails painted like strawberries? Really? Really.)
Growing up in upstate New York I could always count on two things in October. 1) Carvel ice cream cakes in Halloween themes...
And 2) WPIX doing their "Shocktober" series. Just didn't feel like fall without it.
The Simpsons Halloween Special V:
They always say close with your best material and therein lies The Simpsons Treehouse of Terror/Horror/Halloween Special-thingy. Although these can be hit or miss each year, it's like pizza: even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.
Here's one of the segments from V which features one of the best parodies of The Shining you'll ever see... something, something...
Creepshow 2: The Raft Segment: And of course I'd close out the special with the longest segment of my Halloween special: "The Raft" from Creepshow 2. Based on a story by Stephen King, this is certainly the showpiece of the film. A nice little creepy story, that takes place in autumn, with a devilish twist on the end. A good way to close the show. I offer you a link to it on YouTube while it lasts. If you'd like to watch the whole thing be sure to watch parts 10 through 14.
Well there it is. One personalized Halloween Special clocking in at 54 minutes and 28 seconds... just enough time to get the pumpkin seeds out of the oven before the spooky movie starts on the hour.
Question for the commenters: What movie would you run after your own Halloween special?
I got up and put on my brand new Threadless T-Shirt called "The Good Guys Don't Glow at Midnight."
