Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Ghosts of Halloweens Past?

Ghosts of Halloweens Past?

by | 302 Comments

This post is in: 

Halloween Past: from my card collection.

Halloween: Past, Present, Future 1

That was the 80s.  The message inside said: “This is the scariest card I could find.”  Little did we know how much worse it could get!

In any case, you may have seen some requests in the comments for a culture thread for Halloween.

So here we go – a thread for all things Halloween and Halloween-adjacent.  Anything goes.  TV. Movies. Books. Music. Memories. Real-life Stories. Heart-warming, spooky, or scary.

If any of you have photos of yourself in your Halloween costumes from when you were a kid, send me some photos and I can include some in the comments.  We can either identify you by nym, or not.

 

Reader Interactions

302Comments

  4. 4.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    We are grownups (ostensibly) but we love Hocus Pocus. There’s a fundraiser Hocus Pocus reunion tonight actually, in about 45 minutes. Raising money for something called the New York Restoration Project.

    As a matter of fact I was trying to think of other movies in that ilk this week: Halloween movies aimed at kids but well-written enough to work for adults. I came up with Hotel Translyvania and Nightmare Before Christmas and that was about it. So I’m looking forward to this thread.

  5. 5.

    Charluckles

    My boys have really been enjoying the Bunnicula show on Prime. Although it just doesn’t jibe with my memories of the books I am still enjoying the pleasant thoughts of killing time in my elementary school library. And the show is pretty funny, I have to admit.

  10. 10.

    piratedan

    maybe this is good a spot as any… but ty and fare well to Tom Toles, the political cartoonist of the Washington Post.

    Enjoyed his stuff, made me smile, laugh at loud and ruefully shake my head… its still something of a golden age for presenting politics in a nutshell and Toles was one of the best.

  12. 12.

    JMG

    @piratedan: A great loss to us newspaper readers. His stuff from the Buffalo News before he went to the Post was amazing.
    For the first time in 30 years, there will be no jack o’lantern on my front stoop welcoming treat or treaters nor any Hershey minibars for them. No parents in this neighborhood are gonna let their kids out. I don’t blame them, but it’s all so sad and dreary. Thanksgiving will be worse.

  14. 14.

    HumboldtBlue

    I was in 4th of 5th grade when my oldest sister (an artist) and I went rummaging through the cedar closet where old clothes were stored. We found one of dad’s old suits so I put that on and then put on my brother’s Kissinger mask, stuffed a pillow under my short and went downstairs.

    I have never seen my father laugh so hard when that 4-foot-something version of Kissinger waddled into the living room.

    Randy Rainbow will being a smile as well.

  15. 15.

    Kent

    In 2008 we lived in an upscale suburb of Waco that was Halloween central because it was one of the few suburban areas that had sidewalks.  We would literally get busloads of kids every Halloween because it was so popular and people would go over the top with decorations.  I’d usually buy about 3 Costco-sized bags of candy and still run out.

    We had up Obama08 signs that got stolen so I replace them and lit them up with lights.  Two houses down lived a Black co-worker who taught and coached at my school.  He was also a former NFL linebacker who played for Houston, Tennessee, and Cleveland, and they had 5 sons who all went on to at least play college ball, three of whom I had in class.  One now plays for Baylor.

    He must have had at least 30 Obama signs on his yard, including a really big one on the roof.  It was like the most extreme MAGA Trump house you have ever seen but in reverse.   On Halloween night he sat out there at the end of his driveway with a lawn chair and a giant bucket of candy to hand out.  Wasn’t ANYONE going to mess with his damn signs that Halloween!   And no one did.

    A lot of us loved Obama.  But I don’t think we still truly understand how important he was to the Black community.  He was transformational.

  17. 17.

    Tim Posh-looking in a mask

    @tokyokie: to my shame, I only recently started AMC’s Masters of Horror. I cannot finish his Imprint. Tried twice. Gave up twice. And I finished Audition.

  19. 19.

    BigJimSlade

    That whole big white missile stuff (compared to Russia’s dark-colored missiles) was a huge “Paging Dr. Freud” thing that costs the country millions upon millions.

  20. 20.

    Tim Posh-looking in a mask

    I was 12, I guess, went as a vampire, and with the cheap plastic fang-piece, “Trick or Treat” came out, “rick o reet”.  Oh well, I got candy.

  21. 21.

    Sab

    My late lamented german shepherd loved Halloween. I would take the screen out of the top of the door and hand candy out through the hole. Tassie would bark at the kids, who couldn’t see her.

    One time a kid “attacked” me with his light saber. Tassie jumped up,  stuck her head through the hole in the door and barked at him. He ran away screaming, and she and I had a good laugh.

  23. 23.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @The Fat White Duchess: Oh, excellent choice. Totally forgot that one. But in fact we have seen it and re-watched it fairly recently.

    For me it’s personally meaningful as I have partially Mexican roots but no connection to the culture at all, so it was a glimpse into the part of my family background that I know nothing about.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    Happy All Hallows’ Eve Eve. As the saying goes, I’ve got a little list.

    Traversing a bit outside the box of the usual suspects (both the stands the test of time choices and the hoary) when it comes to film and television, in no particular order,

    Get Out
    Brightburn
    A Quiet Place
    Beetlejuice
    What We Do in the Shadows
    Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
    The Old Dark House    *
    Hereditary
    Under Wraps     (a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Muxa020TE”>animated version)
    The Returned     (French original version)
    Being Human     (U.K. original version)
    Eating Raoul
    The Fades
    In the Flesh
    Crazyhead
    The Kingdom     (Danish original version)
    The Trouble with Harry
    .
    Anime:
    The Promised Neverland
    Devilman Crybaby
    Shiki
    Monster
    .

    *Both the stylized 1932 classic and the affectedly daffy remake from 1963.

    Literature which left a blunt instrument shaped impression:

    The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
    An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge    , Ambrose Bierce
    Rappaccini’s Daughter    , Nathaniel Hawthorne
    The Willows    , Algernon Blackwood
    The Screwfly Solution    , James Tiptree Jr.
    The Lottery    , Shirley Jackson
    I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream    , Harlan Ellison
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket    , Edgar Allan Poe
    The Day of the Triffids    , John Wyndham
    Solaris    , Stanislaw Lem
    Rendezvous with Rama    , Arthur C. Clarke
    .

  31. 31.

    Ken

    @debbie: Oh yes.  On TCM tomorrow, and repeating on Friday the 13th.  The book is excellent too, as is Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

    Tod Browning’s Freaks is also on TCM tomorrow.

  32. 32.

    Quinerly

    @The Fat White Duchess: love that movie! Saw it in Santa Fe on a visit 3-4 years ago. The friend who talked me into seeing it (I generally don’t do movie theaters) has seen it at least 15 times now. ?

  35. 35.

    tokyokie

    @Tim Posh-looking in a mask: Thanks for the tip! I just ordered Masters of Horror, Season 1, Volume 1 because it contains Imprint. And if you want something completely unsettling, try Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil. I lent my copy to a friend, who in turn lent it to his daughter, who, a few hours later, demanded he come and pick up the damn thing because she didn’t even want to be in the same house as that movie.

  36. 36.

    Quinerly

    Haven’t seen it in 35-40 years but on Halloween in college “Dressed to Kill” scared the crap out of me.

  37. 37.

    Benw

    I voted!!

    I must have checked my ballot about 5 times that I’d got it right before I cast it.

    Felt good

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    I was never sure why Yatsuno changed to Yutsano. I remember its happening, but not the reason. Some dastardly WordPress fuckitude, I suppose.

  39. 39.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @debbie: I failed to click your link…and glad I’m not the only one out of whom The Haunting has scared the crap. Every single time.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I don’t remember many of my childhood Hallowe’en costumes, and in any case I’ve never been a fan of horror, gore, and scary images. But one year my sister and I went as Queen Elizabeth I (me) and Mary, Queen of Scots (Joyce). Odd casting, as Joyce was a natural redhead and wouldn’t have required a wig.

    A few years later, I went as Liberace with a keyboard-candelabrum headdress and some kind of gold lamé sequinned jacket, with my hair beautifully waved and silvered.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Is it possible that Joe and Kamala are even more decent than Obama and Joe?

    I don’t know.  I’m almost certain they are more decent than I am.

  51. 51.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JMG: I don’t know what to expect, Trick-or-Treaters-wise. But we bought candy and a pumpkin and we’ll put them out at the end of the walk on the sidewalk for non-contact Trick or Treating.

  52. 52.

    debbie

    @japa21:

    There was only one special effect. I’m still suspicious of ?s.

     

    @Ken:
    I’ve rewatched it three or four times since first seeing it when I was a kid. Still frightens me as much as ever. The novel’s pretty creepy too.

  54. 54.

    zhena gogolia

    @RandyG:

    That’s a masterpiece. But he’s an actual creep.

    Tonight on TCM is a horror movie starring David Niven and Deborah Kerr. I have no idea if it’s any good, but I have to at least try it.

  58. 58.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I have no idea where to stream it, but a few months ago I was seeing a YouTube ad that was a trailer for a Dennis Quaid movie called The Intruder. He’s the creepy owner of a house who sells it to a young couple but keeps hanging around because he’s obsessed with the wife. Would you call that horror? Suspense?

  60. 60.

    HumboldtBlue

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    in any case I’ve never been a fan of horror, gore, and scary images.

    I’m with you, I had no problem dressing up — hell we were in community theater, school theater, band and chorus — so it was part of the routine but the scary shit ain’t for me.

    For me Halloween was the informal kickoff to the best part of the cold months in our house the run into Thanksgiving and Xmas.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    Was taken along to a drive-in when a kidlet, showing 13 Ghosts. The gimmick was that one could only see the apparitions when wearing 3-D glasses.

    Scared the bejeebers out of me at the time, would with trepidation put on the glasses for one second and then snatch them off. Watched now it is a laughably, ludicrously amateurish production, about as scary as a bowl of Cream of Wheat.

  63. 63.

    Josie

    I raised three boys who loved Halloween as much as they did Christmas.  Every year while growing up they and their friends turned our big front yard and front porch into a haunted house experience, complete with scary music, graves, ghoulies, and ghosties.  Their scary setup was famous in our little community, and kids came from all over town to be thoroughly frightened and then rewarded with candy.   I miss those times and fear that kids won’t be able to express themselves like that again for quite a long time.

  65. 65.

    Jager

    When I was in the 8th grade Halloween fell on a Saturday night. I was the oldest of 4 kids, My mom and dad went over to a friend’s house around 9, I was left to deal with my siblings 9, 6, and 4. We ran out of candy about 9:30 and there were still kids showing up. My 9-year-old sister said, “We have to give them something!” We ran out of chocolate chip cookies in short order, then half a bag of Oreos disappeared. I came up with a solution, I put a spoonful of left-over hamburger hotdish on sheets of tin foil, and my bright and efficient sister wrapped them like shiny Bon-Bons! We still laugh about it today.

  69. 69.

    Nora

    My senior year in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I went as a green crayon, both to the parade (informal) down State Street and to a private party at a friend’s.  That year was when Toxic Shock was first diagnosed, so there were a lot of college students going as Toxic Shock (one person would dress as a tampon, the other as the Grim Reaper).  The little kids who went to the parade were pretty nonplussed by that, but they all recognized what a crayon was.

    The best part was at the end of the party, when I finally took off the long cardboard tube that was my wrapper, so I could sit down (I’d had to stand all night because the tube did not bend — after all, crayons don’t bend), and one of my male friends found it incredibly sexy, in a really weird way, to see a crayon turn into a young woman.  His girlfriend wondered aloud what HE’D been doing in coloring time in kindergarten.

  74. 74.

    Yutsano

    @SiubhanDuinne:  I’m not getting the dinner I want because he’s not feeling good. So we’ll do “something” tomorrow. Mumble grumble. I’m gonna get me something else good and there is gonna be Chinese food dammit!

    EDIT: I’m also really hoping hard that I get a nice late birthday present on the 3rd!

  75. 75.

    Uncle Omar

    Farm kid Halloween prank…sneaking out to the more rustic areas and tipping over outhouses–it generally required multiple farm boys and a running start.  Rustic response the following year…moving the outhouse about five feet–this resulted in farm boys needing extensive bathing.  I was not amongst the farm boy group, but I heard their stories the first year and noticed their conspicuous odor the next year on November 1 at school.

  76. 76.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax:

    William Castle’s The Tingler was to me the scariest, scariest thing possible.

    I was terrified by Psycho without actually seeing it — just the fact that the girl next door had to stop taking showers after seeing it did the trick.

  88. 88.

    HumboldtBlue

    @WaterGirl:

    That wasn’t my gist,

    The decency seems to shine a bit brighter this time around simply due to the darkness brought on by Trump.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    I am not a Baudette AFAIK. How does one join?  How much are the dues? May I see a mission statement? And what does my sarcastic comment about math have to do with Baudettehood (Baudetteism? Baudetteitude?)

  90. 90.

    Chetan Murthy

    I really appreciate how all of you can discuss (and share) these funny and otherwise mundane (in the best sense of that word) reminiscences, at this time.  Reading your comments takes a little of the edge off of what is otherwise a “scared cat with really sharp claws” time, right about now.

  91. 91.

    The Pale Scot

    The scariest, most horrific movie ever is Threads, a 1984 BBC Film that was shown once and stuck in a closet until 2003. Depicting WW3 through the eyes of two families and segueing to overwhelmed government officials. The War Game (1966) wasn’t broadcast until 1985 because it was too disturbing, with it’s depiction  of RAND game theorists explaining that it was possible to conduit a tactical nuclear war without escalation. But I think Threads is just overwhelming in it’s bleakness

    Daily motion has a copy with subtitles, the full good quality version is gone from tube, with Boris and Trump around, go figure

  92. 92.

    different-church-lady

    I’m still all spooked by the recent awareness that there is a place called “Wet Mountain”.

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: My lack of ambition is getting so bad that I feel proud of myself just for getting my flu shot today.  Something that I can check off my list.

    I’m not suggesting that it’s lack of ambition in your case, a more likely cause is that we all feel like we’re in a very uncomfortable holding pattern!

  94. 94.

    zhena gogolia

    @geg6:

    Oh, that is great! Love Pete’s appearance.

    Was that present-day Susan Sarandon in there? I only recognize about half the people.

    Jack Black always commits to the bit, doesn’t he?

  95. 95.

    Jager

    @Uncle Omar: My dad was a farm boy, he pushed over a few outhouses. One year they pushed one over and we pulled into the pit. The farmer had put a loop of baling wire behind the privy and it caught dad and Kenny just behind the knees and dragged them into the hole.

  97. 97.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax:

    I think a lot of people did.

    Nobody can beat Alfred for creeps. Psycho, The Birds, Frenzy. Try to get scarier than that, you won’t be able to.

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Just for the record – After the doner kebab discussion a few nights ago, I really wanted some.  Unfortunately, they are unavailable for delivery here, so I ordered gyros.

  105. 105.

    different-church-lady

    @zhena gogolia: OK, funny you should mention that. A friend and I watched “Diabolique” last night, which apprently had a big influence on Hitch wanting to do Psycho. And I was explaining to my non-Hitchcock obsessed friend that Psycho is his most famous film, but it’s actually far from his best. I’ve never understood the reverence for it.

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    @Nora: Great story!

    In college, I dressed up as a garbage can.  One of the more unusual conversations in my life was at Target and started with my asking the store clerk what size garbage can he thought would fit me, and end with my saying that I would like to buy this one but only if they could cut the bottom out of it for me.  Which they did!

    I, too, was unable to bend or sit down.  And it was tricky for me to walk through doorways at the party I attended.  I could get through if it was just me, but if there were two of us going in different directions… well, that just didn’t work.

  110. 110.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    You could almost double for my kid brother. He went either as Superman or Santa Claus nearly every year.

    I did remember another costume from fourth or fifth grade — it won some kind of prize at school. My best friend and I went as the ancient Commedia and Tragedia, wearing togas and huge masks in the classic visages. I couldn’t begin to tell you now which one was me and which was my friend Pam, but apparently it was a hit as a concept. 

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: No exaggeration, Mom switched to a baths only regimen for six months after seeing Psycho.

    And thankfully for you, she never saw Diabolique!

    She would’ve had to take you to the dry cleaners!

  115. 115.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I was listening to some radio guy and,honestly, I try not to think that far because the election is freaking me out but he talked about how the GOP will be talking about the number of people dead from COVID if Biden wins. It’s not like I want to keep a running score on who killed more people but goddamnit Biden better not get blamed for Donnie’s deaths. The total number of dead better not just get lumped into one big fat number to be hung on Joe Biden’s neck. The Dems better be out there on the Sunday shows every week giving responsibility to the right people for the death count.

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    Closed captioning must be haunted. Seen just now:

    Dialogue: I think I ought to go to the funeral.
    CC: Daddy’s big tummy the garlic garlic you know they are fair.

    (Swear on my Instant Pot I don’t make these up.)

  120. 120.

    Jager

    @SiubhanDuinne: The first step in becoming a Baudette is to appear in person at the Baud National Headquarters in Baudette, MN for fingerprinting, photographs, and background check, if you pass the interview, you’ll be issued your membership card and instructions and you’ll be free to travel home. Further instructions will follow via encrypted email and phone calls.

  123. 123.

    CaseyL

    The movies that scared me the most when I was a wee child were B or or even C movies shown on TV.  My parents’ marriage was in bad shape, and I spent a lot of time staying at my grandparents’ and great-aunts’ houses.  One aunt liked to watch the old cheesy scifi movies, so some of my earliest memories are of lying on her sofa watching them with her.

    I remember one had a killer robot, and one (**very** dimly remembered) involved skyscraper-sized machines, or maybe skyscrapers themselves, that moved and crushed entire cities, and someone who controlled them/was controlled by them who died and electricity came out of his mouth. I think someone here suggested it might be “Colossus,” but when I looked it up, the plot summary didn’t sound right.  It’s also possible my childhood memory is combining two movies.

    There was another one I remember pretty well, because it apparently scared enough other people to be well-known today: “Invaders From Mars.”  Watching the assimilation device slowly descending to his mom’s neck did it for me.

    As an adult, I have to throw in with the fans of “The Haunting.”  Horror that accentuates gore doesn’t frighten me in the primal way that more subtle manipulations do.

    “What Lies Beneath” also scared me, particularly one scene [**SPOILER ALERT**] where Michelle Pfeiffer’s face briefly becomes that of the dead woman possessing her.

    Generally, though, I stay away from horror.  Too many tropes.  I do NOT spend Halloween, or any other night, binge-watching horror movies!

  128. 128.

    SiubhanDuinne

    PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT – REMINDER:

    Don’t forget, our friend IMANI GANDY (ABL) will be in a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg tonight on The Daily Show. Comedy Central, 10:00 pm EDST. Not sure if this is something that can be front-paged and linked, but it would be nice to watch and support her in real time.

  129. 129.

    Yarrow

    I used to know a guy who lived a few houses down from the Candy Man, the guy who laced Pixy Stix with cyanide and killed his son. He said Halloween was pretty awful after that.

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne:  There are no dues, and the club welcomes all who are interested. There can, at times, be some competition among members.

    It might have appeared that you were offering yourself to Baud, if you were one of the Baudettes, of course.

  132. 132.

    different-church-lady

    @mrmoshpotato: It rains on not-mountains too. I’d be just as spooked to hear about “Wet Valley Animal Shelter”. Maybe because I don’t want to hear about wet animals.

    (DCL, +3 roughly, depending on how you count them…)

  133. 133.

    WaterGirl

    @Jager: My dad’s favorite Halloween story was telling us how the boys would take limburger cheese and put it on the engine block of cars, and then the next time someone drove the car, it would reek to high heaven when the engine got warm.

    This was apparently done only to cars of grown-ups that you didn’t care for.

  134. 134.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @The Pale Scot:

    When the Wind Blows, is even scarier and more disturbing than Threads imo:

    When the Wind Blows is a 1986 British animated disaster film directed by Jimmy Murakami based on Raymond Briggs’ comic book of the same name. The film stars the voices of John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft as the two main characters and was scored by Roger Waters. The film accounts a rural English couple’s attempt to survive a nearby nuclear attack and maintain a sense of normality in the subsequent fallout.

    […]

    Hearing a warning on the radio of an imminent ICBM strike, Jim rushes himself and Hilda into their shelter, just escaping injury as distant shock waves batter their home. They remain in the shelter for a couple of nights, and when they emerge, they find all their utilities, services and communications have been destroyed by the nuclear blast. Over the following days, they gradually grow sick from exposure to the radioactive fallout, resulting in radiation poisoning. Ron [their son] and his wife Beryl are not heard from again, though their deaths are heavily implied.

    In spite of all this, Jim and Hilda stoically attempt to carry on, preparing tea and dinners on a camping stove, noting numerous errands they will have to run once the crisis passes, and trying to renew their evaporated water stock with (contaminated) rainwater. Jim keeps faith that a rescue operation will be launched to help civilians. Apparently oblivious to the dead animals, destroyed buildings and scorched, dead vegetation outside their cottage (aside from their own garden), they initially remain optimistic. However, as they take in the debris of their home, prolonged isolation, lack of food and water, growing radiation sickness, and confusion about the events that have taken place, the couple begins to fall into a state of despair.

    After a few days, the Bloggs are practically bedridden, and Hilda is despondent when her hair begins to fall out, after vomiting, developing painful sores and lesions and experiencing bleeding gums. Either in denial, unaware of the extent of the nuclear holocaust, unable to comprehend it, or trying to comfort Hilda, Jim is still confident that emergency services will eventually arrive, but they never do. The film ends with the dying Jim and Hilda getting into paper sacks, crawling back into the shelter, and praying. Jim begins with the Lord’s Prayer, but, forgetting the lines, switches to “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, whose militaristic and ironic undertones distress the dying Hilda, who weakly asks him not to continue. Finally, Jim’s voice mumbles away into silence as he finishes the line, “…rode the Six Hundred…”

    Outside the shelter, the smoke and ash-filled sky begins to clear, revealing the sun rising through the gloom. At the very end of the credits, a Morse code signal taps out “MAD”, which stands for mutual assured destruction.

  135. 135.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JR:

    Decades ago, on Halloween, I did a feature for All Things Considered which explored the use of the Dies Irae chant in classical and Romantic music. Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre featured prominently.

  136. 136.

    Nora

    @WaterGirl:  That garbage can idea is brilliant, and I can’t believe the folks at Target cut out the bottom for you! Did you have trash in the can with you or was the can enough by itself?

  138. 138.

    LuciaMia

    SO pissed off. One of the best and campiest of the Hammer horror films is on TCM tonight at 11. And for some reason its blanked out in my area!

    ******

    Its nice to see cChristopher Lee play the good guy for once. And Mocata, the villain, is played by Charles Gray, who was also the narrator in The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

  139. 139.

    Ken

    @geg6: Nice. But YouTube’s automatic captioning gets very very confused.  Either that, or I’ve been mishearing it as badly as the fellow who thought CCR sang “There’s a bathroom on the right”.

  142. 142.

    zhena gogolia

    @LuciaMia:

    I tried to watch that one once but didn’t get very far. It was campy, though.

    Give me Horror of Dracula every time. What a masterpiece.

  143. 143.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Somewhat obscure films not yet mentioned, Don’t Look Now directed by Nicholas Roeg with excellent performances by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. And Images directed by Robert Altman starring Susannah York.

  148. 148.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    I never saw the film of Wait Until Dark, but when I lived in NYC I saw the original Broadway play with Lee Remick and Robert Duvall. Scared the shit out of me, which is why I’ve never seen the movie version (though I adore Audrey Hepburn — it may be the only one of her films that’s not part of my viewing history).

  150. 150.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: It’s not a horror movie in the Halloween sense but in the utter horror of war.

    For many years, when asked for my favorite horror movie I would say Schindler’s List.

    Similarly, in The Mist I find the people inside the store much more terrifying than the Lovecraftian horrors outside.

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    @Nora: Oh, no, I definitely had trash in the trash can.  I recall a used teabag hanging off an earring.

    The trash can itself was held up with belts (as straps) and I had other “clean” trash tucked here and there at the top of the trash can.

    That was the year that a friend of mine went as “Frosted Mini-Pads”.  Must have been the year that “mini-pads” came out, and frosted mini-wheats was also popular at the time.  It may sound weird but it was really well done.

    edit: I know!  As I was typing that out I thought there’s no way that anyone at Target would cut the bottom out for me in today’s world.  But when you’re young and crazy, all sorts of things happen.

  152. 152.

    Ken

    @Jager: Further [Baudette] instructions will follow via encrypted email and phone calls.

    The male Baud operatives receive their orders in other ways.

    @SiubhanDuinne: I always thought one could offer oneself to Baud without benefit of membership in a secret society.

    *snort*  Don’t we all wish.

  154. 154.

    Dan B

    @Jager: Great story!  My kitteh is staring at me for most unbecoming howling with tears and gasping.

    Q: If it’s four is that a conspiracy?

  155. 155.

    thruppence

    Skeleton Key is a great New Orleans Voodoo scary movie, no gore, just creeps. Trick’r’Treat is a scary fun anthology flick.

  156. 156.

    Sab

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thanks. Spouse just set it to record.

    Spouse doesn’t much like Trevor Noah. I do. But he controls the remote since I barely had a TV when we got married. I had to buy a new color TV and get cable as a condition of him moving in. So lost almost all TV leverage.

  159. 159.

    LuciaMia

    Bart Simpson’s pronouncement on Poe’s poem, ‘The Raven‘, “That wasnt scary at all!”

    But Poe’s short story, ‘The Premature Burial‘ still holds up well. Try reading it last thing at night.

  165. 165.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    There are no dues, and the club welcomes all who are interested.

    Okay! Where do I sign up? (Please tell me there’s no age ceiling.)

    I’m just a Baudette,
    Just a little Baudette.
    I’m not a coquette
    Nor a chicken croquette.
    And unlike the Mountain,
    I’m not a bit wet.
    Don’t worry, don’t fret,
    Baudette.

  167. 167.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax:

    The movie on TCM right now is pretty trashy!

    The new TCM site sucks. You can’t see a full cast list. And I liked the capsule reviews they used to have by some guy whose name I can’t remember right now.

  171. 171.

    debbie

    @CaseyL:

    There was another one I remember pretty well, because it apparently scared enough other people to be well-known today: “Invaders From Mars.” Watching the assimilation device slowly descending to his mom’s neck did it for me.

    I was mighty leery of walking on sand after seeing that movie!

  173. 173.

    MagdaInBlack

    Not scary, but ” The Abominable Dr. Phibes” is one of my favorites. Vincent Price =-)

  175. 175.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie:

    My biggest fear as a child growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, was being sucked in by quicksand.

    Does quicksand even exist, or is it only a phenomenon in B movies?

    The Great Grimpen Mire . . . .

  176. 176.

    WaterGirl

    @Jager: Kid brains are different, I think.

    We three sisters (each of us 2.5 years apart) and our cousins (the ages of my older sisters) were somehow eating cheerios one Sunday night when my parents weren’t home, when we shouldn’t have been eating cheerios.

    (Side note, my parents owned a local neighborhood tavern, and we lived in the apartments upstairs, so often we were “alone” but with our parents downstairs working in the tavern.)

    Somehow we accidentally got a cheerio in the (glass) gallon of milk, which would have given us away.  So we kept eating more cheerios so we could pour the milk in the bowls so the cheerio would come out, and no one would be the wiser.

    But of course as we poured, the cheerio never came out, and we went through a whole gallon of milk and the better part of a box of cheerios.

    We were all pretty smart, but apparently we were only book smart and weren’t street smart enough to pour the milk into another container and then pour it back into the gallon of milk in the glass.  Or pour the milk into bowls without adding and eating more cheerios!

  179. 179.

    Tim Posh-looking in a mask

    @mrmoshpotato: made it, and proudly. Much like the McGuffin in question, I can never unsee this film. Crap, I’m seeing it right now. Thanks, pal.

  182. 182.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken: For many years, when asked for my favorite horror movie I would say Schindler’s List.

    You have a jet black sense of humor.

    Similarly, in The Mist I find the people inside the store much more terrifying than the Lovecraftian horrors outside.

    Agreed.

  184. 184.

    The Pale Scot

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I’ve seen that, it’s very good. What strikes me about Threads is that the survivors have no hope. Even years later the daughter of the main female character, who was in vitro during the attack, gives birth at a squalid facility and just starts screaming when she sees her baby. That has always stuck with me

  187. 187.

    Sab

    So our across the street neighbor’s huge halloween party appears to have fizzled. Weather. About four cars showed up and went inside. About four others showed up and tried to party in the outside tent. It’s 39 degrees fahrenheit here. Close to freezing. Nobody wanted to party inside or outside so they all went home.

    I did not do the plague doctor yard critter. Had all the materials assembled. Husband very uncomfortable.

    Okay to give middle finger to trumpista across the street. Not okay to give middle finger to Covid. The virus doesn’t care, but why risk it.

  189. 189.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: Birx is most certainly is a hack.  Plus, she had a responsibility to speak up publicly.  I am so sick of people who disagreed with the orange thing and maybe wrote him a double-secret note saying they wish he wouldn’t do that.  Or even worse, whispered it in someone else’s ear, and never said a work to the dumpster first.  Total fucking cowards, all.

  193. 193.

    CaseyL

    @NoraLenderbee: That’s the one with Zsa Zsa Gabor, isn’t it? (*Looks it up*) Yes, it is!

    It looks like the cheesiest of cheese, but the masks and disfigurement would absolutely terrify a small child.

  194. 194.

    Ken

    @Martin: [Birx] was said to have walked out of a meeting of the White House coronavirus task force this summer, and decided never to return again.

    No one noticed, because they stopped having meetings about the same time.

  200. 200.

    The Pale Scot

    @raven:

    In high school I was at a halloween party, we all dropped acid (most of us). My friend who was really skinny could still fit into a Papier-mâché duck costume his mom had made for him. Complete with a full cover duck head, bright orange leggings, orange flippers. He finally had to take it off because we couldn’t stop laughing. Even after he took it off, we were laughing

  201. 201.

    WaterGirl

    @Sab: Very glad the party fizzled.  Not sure if you are saying you had the materials at hand, but didn’t put them together.  Or that you put them together, but not where the neighbor could see the.

    If the latter, you should send a photo of your handiwork so i can add it to the thread.  I’m sure we would all like to see it.

  205. 205.

    Richard Guhl

    Having grown up as a child in the 50s with crappy, ill-fitting Woolworths costumes, it was liberating as a teen to go trick-or-treating for UNICEF with half-pint milk cartons provided by my church. The Sunday afterward we’d bring our cartons full of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, eager to learn the total we collected.

  209. 209.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    Thank you! I am honoured, and feel as though I should be swearing a sacred oath or mastering a secret handshake or something.

  213. 213.

    laura

    Tonight would have been our Dia de los Muertos party. We could not possibly have held this annual gathering. We did reach out to our DJ, because without him, the house party wouldn’t be worth it. If the fates are willing, we’ll gather again next year. To gather together and remember those we’ve lost is a blessing. Its bitter and it’s sweet. Next year the balance will swing to the bitter because we didn’t have to lose so many.

  216. 216.

    MagdaInBlack

    For Halloween, a friend and I used to dress up in full glam witch costumes: full length dresses, fancy hats, makeup, nails… and go to dinner. It was fun to watch the kids tugging at mom or dads arm and pointing, while mom and dad tried to pretend there weren’t 2 witches smiling and winking at their kids =-)  The waitstaff loved us

    Eta: she ran off to Florida and I’ve yet to find another friend who likes to play like that.

  219. 219.

    Mike in NC

    Hard to pick a favorite Vincent Price flick, but “Conqueror Worm” (AKA “Witchfinder General”) is campy fun.

  223. 223.

    There go two miscreants

    @Geoduck: Thanks for the memory of Basic Instructions! I used to read that regularly but hadn’t thought of it in quite some time.

  227. 227.

    raven

    @laura: We are putting up a shrine for that. I was worried it might not be right to mix folks we have lost with our pup but I’ve been told it’s ok.

  228. 228.

    TS (the original)

    @WaterGirl:

    I’m also sick of the pundits who cover up for their sources to keep their access. I will be so pleased when Biden stops this nonsense and returns to standard press conferences and an administration that does no leak. Loving that the NYT will lose their secret access.

  229. 229.

    Sab

    @WaterGirl: OMFG. My husband is actually named Tim, and he was in Coast Guard in 1960s and always trimmed short as possible. I have seen pictures of older Raven post service all shaggy, but this guy was my husband. Yikes. Showed my husband. He was puzzled but agreed. ” Yep. Pretty much looked like me at that age.”

  230. 230.

    Dan B

    One year we got a new washing machine.  I covered it with a sheet as the ghost of a washing machine.  In exurban Ohio the porches were small and there were storm / screen doors that opened out.  I spent much of the evening in the shrubberies since there wasn’t room for my costume and the screen door.

    The other fun memory was when my cousin was studying voice at Oberlin.  She showed up at my parents’ house with the operatic makeup.  My ghoulish parents and cousin watched several kids screaming down our driveway.  Too much for whitebread O-hi-o.

  231. 231.

    NotMax

    @Dan B

    Heh. Sounds like the review (NYT, if memory serves) of the first film she appeared in which described Carmen Miranda as “the scariest thing ever to appear on the screen.”

  233. 233.

    Inventor

    In 24 years in my house I’ve had exactly one trick-or-treater. Because of that one, I always buy candy. I can’t bear the thought of not having a treat for some little kid.

    One year, in frustration, I took the bowl of candy with me out to the side walk and stood on my stone wall to see if any costumed kids were around. At the end of the block were a couple of kids. I started shouting “Hey kids! Come get some candy!”. They looked at each other, appeared to exchange a few words, and walked the other way.

    I thought to myself “that makes sense” and never did it again.

  234. 234.

    Sab

    @Dan B: i own a house in Wadsworth that my husband ‘s best friend from high school rents from us. When he leaves should I burn it. That wholesome little town creeps me out.

  235. 235.

    Ken

    @Inventor: When you put it that way…

    “Kids, never take candy from strangers… except once a year when they’re wearing a costume and you can’t identify them.”

  236. 236.

    WaterGirl

    Sent to me by email just now by LuciaMia.  I will let the jackal ID herself, if desired.  Great drawing!

    Drawing of a witch costume one Halloween. I had a choice as accessory , a broom or my mom’s cast iron dutch oven I thought the pot was more unique. But discovered after a couple of hours how heavy it could get!

    Ghosts of Halloweens Past? 3

  237. 237.

    There go two miscreants

    @CaseyL: Yes! Invaders from Mars — that one hit TV when I was 4 or 5 and scared me so much I couldn’t sleep. It’s the only movie from my childhood that affected me that way. I remember how pissed my parents were at the fuss I was making.

  242. 242.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:
    Not sure I’ve ever actually been in Winfield. I think back in the day my mom might have organised some book fairs in DuPage, which might have had Winfield as one of the venues, but I really don’t remember. Did you live there?

  250. 250.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    @WaterGirl:

    @Sab:

    Either I messed up the time, or the time I saw earlier was wrong. Either way, the program apparently starts at 11:00 EDT, not 10:00. Sorry about that, and not sure I can stay awake for another hour, so I hope it’ll be on YouTube tomorrow

  251. 251.

    WaterGirl

    Sent to me by email just now.  I will let the jackal ID herself, if desired. What a creative set of costumes. This definitely beats out my garbage can costume.

    This may be hard to see. It is from the Oberlin newspaper’s coverage of the local Halloween parade. I’m the youngest (letter), middle sister is the package, and big sister is the mailbox in the back. 1968ish.

    Ghosts of Halloweens Past? 4

  262. 262.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dan B: She showed up at my parents’ house with the operatic makeup. My ghoulish parents and cousin watched several kids screaming down our driveway.

    ??

  269. 269.

    Ken

    @MagdaInBlack: House of Wax is a remake of 1933’s The Mystery of the Wax Museum. I’m watching it now (DVR, it was on TCM earlier) and noticing how much pre-Code stuff is in it. Drug use, suicide, nudity (sculptures, but still), women having affairs. I’d love to visit the alternate universe where the Code was never imposed.

  280. 280.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: It’s based on I Am Legend.

    I’m hoping to someday see a movie version that keeps Matheson’s original ending. Apparently they filmed something close to that for the Will Smith version, but test audiences wanted a happier ending (blech).

  281. 281.

    frosty

    @zhena gogolia: @geg6: 
    Dad thread, but thank you both for those! I heard Weird Al from the beginning on KPPC when I lived in SoCal. The “making of” video for Tacky that was on the Post website was great too.

    Check out his appearance on Jay Leno’s Garage … in a Belvedere driving through Lynwood!

  282. 282.

    J R in WV

    @debbie: 

    October 30, 2020 at 8:39 pm
    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Could be. Also seeing someone light a cigarette near a gas pump.

    And many years ago I ran out of gas with a load of hay on an old pickup. I got a ride to the nearest filling station, bought a gas can, bought the can full of gas. Asked a woman getting gas if she could give me a ride back down to my truck, and she said sure.

    So I got into her car with my can of gas, and before she even put the car into gear, she pulled out a cig and her lighter. And i said, “Perhaps you shouldn’t smoke with this can of explosive gas in the front seat?” and she stopped and put her lighter away.

    Obviously I didn’t get blown up…

  283. 283.

    NoraLenderbee

    @CaseyL: Yes, that one. Zsa Zsa was hiding under my bed every night for years. I’m sure it was a terrible movie. But I’m still not going to watch it again.

  286. 286.

    MagdaInBlack

    @mrmoshpotato: I’m not sure your age, so I dont know if you remember Friday night “Creature Features.”  I also don’t know if it was just a Chicago thing, but they showed all those old cool horror movies, back when I was grade school age.

  289. 289.

    J R in WV

    @zhena gogolia:

    My biggest fear as a child growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, was being sucked in by quicksand.

    Does quicksand even exist, or is it only a phenomenon in B movies?

    The Great Grimpen Mire . . . .

    When we took a tour of Canyon de Chelle — a national park of the Navajo Nation — our driver used the big truck we were touring in to pull a small sedan from the creek that drained the Canyon.

    There was an aged grandma in the back seat, the young Navajo man who drove the car had gotten well and truly stuck into quicksand. We were told about the quicksand before we left, it was one reason non-Navajo people weren’t allowed into the Canyon without a guide!

    I’m sure grandma knew about the quicksand, even if her grandson did not.

  292. 292.

    J R in WV

    My dad worked nights, frequently would stay a while after the press run to work on the next day’s newspaper. But some nights when he came home I would wake up and creep into the other end of the house, and hide behind the easy chair to watch the TV they had on while mom and dad chatted. me

    One night there was a Sci Fi movie with flying saucers that looked like clams in flight. When the clams opened up, they would shoot a death ray that turned the ground below into bubbling lava.

    Then I make some kind of noise, and the folks realized I was watching the movie with them, and they took me back to bed. IIRC dad sat with me until I was sound asleep.

    Anyone remember that cheesy movie? I saw it in the ’50s, and it was probably old by then…

  293. 293.

    Another Scott

    There were a few Halloweens when I was a young kid in the mid-late ’60s in suburban Atlanta that were a little challenging. My mom often didn’t have any money after she got divorced, so buying costumes was not really an option then. One year for trick-or-treating I wore my favorite tiger-striped pajamas (I was a fierce tiger!!). Another year I wore one of her wigs, a skirt, and dressed up as a woman in heels. I don’t recall getting hassled about it at the time, but I wonder how many people took a double-take… Both of them were my idea and she let me go with it.

    No pictures remain, if there ever were any at the time. :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  300. 300.

    Jim Appleton

    Repeating from below:

    Halloween 1993.

    Chance encounter with Milton Berle, in drag, accompanied by a striking young woman dressed in a man’s tuxedo.

    Uncle Miltie locked his gaze on me, grabbed my arm and asked, “Would you fuck me? I wouldn’t fuck me!”

  301. 301.

    J R in WV

    @NotMax

    I looked up The Lost Missile and while the melting Earth sounds similar, in the movie I saw, there were multiple Alien spaceships shooting down with death rays producing great quantities of molten lava. Very much Invasion plot IIRC.

    Thanks for the suggestion, tho! And given my age and vague memories of that night, I don’t think there’s any way I’ll ever know for sure.

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