Halloween Countdown (Page 2 of 2)

I hope you take pictures, Minty, just the sound of it sounds sweet (and what you're telling me on facebook).  I need to decorate this place.

Just picked up some Apple Cider.. That's always a must during Halloween season for me.

Yea I paid nearly $7.. but I can't go without some damn cider!

If it's after 8:30, I can join in.

Exorcist, House of a Thousand Corpses, Ghostbusters, Teen Wolf, Grindhouse I will be watching leading up to when I get real serious with Halloween 1, 2, and 3(the OG trilogy).  And Trick R Treat and MONSTER SQUAD.

Last edited by ExplorerPOD (2012-09-25 16:45:48)

I am currently reading Ray Bradbury's novel 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' for the first time.  Like most Bradbury, it is very poetic and nostalgic.  Not too scary, as it is more of a dark fantasy.  I saw the Disney film adaptation years ago and enjoyed it and have been wanting to see it again, however, I thought I'd give the novel a try.  On the same note, I have 2 copies of 'The Halloween Tree' on VHS and actually taught the book to a 3rd grade class about 4 years ago and they loved it.  I always manage to squeeze in a history of Halloween lesson whether I'm teaching in the classroom or library and the kids find it just as fascinating as I always have and still do.

I've grown increasingly interested in the pagan and commercial history of the holiday over the past few years, so I've taken to collecting Halloween non-fiction along with fiction anthologies.  I just completed Lisa Morton's 'A Halloween Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Century', which is definitely not an easy read, as the first half is dedicated to celtic fairy poems and tales.   Things become more enjoyable as it progresses into Victorian and early American articles, excerpts, plays, and tales.

After I finish 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', I plan on reading 'The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween:  Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year' by Jean Markle.

I also recommend 'Halloween:  An American Holiday, an American History' and 'Halloween Nation:  Behind the Scenes of America's Fright Night' both by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne.  For fiction, I'd go with 'October Dreams:  A Celebration of Halloween' edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish.

As for movies, with the excpetion of John Carpenter's Halloween, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, I don't tend to rewatch the same movies every year, as there's so much classic stuff I've yet to see, and Halloween is always a great time to cross classic horror films off my horror movie bucket list.  For example, last year, I finally watched Mario Bava's 'Kill, Baby, Kill', The awesome TV movie 'Gargoyles', and 'Mill of the Stone Women' among others.

I will revisit a film (or entire franchise) if I haven't watched it in a while.  I've been meaning to sit down with The Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, Phantasm, and Blind Dead flims for the past couple of years, but haven't committed to one so far this year, as I'm compiling a list of stuff I need to see.  Right now, Curse/Night of the Demon, The Raven (Karloff, Lugosi), and Mark of the Vampire (Lugosi) are priorites.  I've been going back and forth with Romero's 'Season of the Witch'.

I look more forward to seasonal TV programming like all the haunted attaction docs on the Travel Channel, horror film lists on Chiller, and any paranormal/haunted location reality shows.  Some years you get a lot of good new stuff, some years, not so much.  So far this year, I've got 'Destination Fear' and 'Paranormal Paparazzi' DVRed.  I'm a huge fan of the paranormal investigation shows, so I'm very disappointed that there won't be a Ghost Hunters Live Halloween investigation on SyFy this year.  I know Jason Hawes isn't doing it, but I hope they do something with the rest of the crew and some of the Desitination Truth and/or Fact or Faked crews.

Last edited by Maxwell (2012-09-30 16:42:19)

I do, but I don't tend to watch edited horror movies on TV, unless I'm typing away on something like I'm doing now, and then I'll put something on in the background.   I do pay attention to TCM's classic horror movies, as they will sometimes air them without commericials.  IFC has gotten into putting commercials into their movies, which they didn't always do.  Lame.  They did do an awesome Bava fest a few years back.  Very rarely, Sundance will play something interesting.

BTW, 'Destination Fear' is TERRIBLE.  I tried watching an episode today and was disappointed to find that it is not a true paranormal investigation show, but an awful prank show like 'Scare Tactics', which I also hated.  If you like stuff like 'Scare Tactics', you might enjoy it.