Friday, October 31, 2008

BOO! It's Halloween!

Halloween is finally here! Time for costumes, candy and scary movies!

Dozed off watching TCM (Turner Classic Movies) last night, with their very nice lineup of older films. I watched Torture Garden, with Burgess Meredith. Very nice movie, short stories held together by a sufficiently creepy narrative. After that, the channel aired Twice-Told Tales, starring Vincent Price in three short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Watched the first of the three stories, then nodded off. Luckily, I thought ahead and set the DVR. Will watch the rest of it later.

This A.M., while doing the normal morning stuff, I had AMC (American Movie Classics) on. They aired some old, good flicks, like House of Dracula, House of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula. All creepy flicks. Of course, most of these movies are better to watch at night, but what can you do when the day is so chock-full of horrific entertainment!

After the kids were off to school and the laundry was going, the channel stayed on AMC for another airing of John Carpenter's Halloween. I know I just watched this last Friday, but I never tire of this movie. And there is something particularly unsettling when you watch it on Halloween day. (As a side note, I actually had to go into the basement while watching the movie to look for something. Horror movies and one's imagination can be a tricky combo!)

After Halloween, I tried to switch to something different, as in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, airing on FX. Couldn't stick with it, just bored me. So, I am back on AMC right now, with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. This movie can be very creepy. Definitely one of the best sequels to the original.

After this, who knows. The television airwaves are loaded up with horror-goodness today, so it shouldn't be a problem finding something good to watch. My wife isn't a horror-movie fan, but she never complains and I appreciate that. Thanks, Raven!

The kids are excited about trick-or-treating. My daughter is going as a 60s hippie (she won 2nd prize at the school dance last week, and Best Costume at her friend's party on Saturday) and my youngest son is going as Michael Phelps - medals, swim cap and all. They should have fun and will hopefully get lots of candy and no rocks!

I helped them carve their jack-o'-lanterns on Wednesday and we will be lighting them up again tonight. My son's pumpkin was rotting when I cut the top off, so scooping out the insides was NOT fun, but I couldn't see ditching it for another just to throw them all away in a week. So, lots of scraping, scooping and gagging led to a pretty empty shell that carved amazingly well.

So, looks like a fun night for all. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble staying awake. The older I get, the harder that is. Argh! We have a busy couple of days ahead, and the National Novel Writing Month kicks off tomorrow... ack!

For some fun, this site has a collection horror film posters. Sometimes those are the scariest parts of the movies!

Have a creepy, eerie, scary Halloween everyone!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the follow - look forward to seeing and reading more - like to think that my collage http://mydogateart.blogspot.com/2008/10/story-of-nightmayor.html has echoes of Boris Karloff !

    Have you any idea why Halloween is such a big thing in the USA - it's not in the UK particulalrly ?

    Thanks again

    Steve (My Dog Ate Art)

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  2. Hey Steve - Not sure why Halloween is so much bigger in the U.S., but I am glad it is! Have always loved the holiday!

    Thanks for the comment and glad to know you!

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