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10/31/2009: HALLOWEEN IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.

It’s Halloween! I challenge you to make the most of it! Go trick-or-treating! Go trunk-or-treating! Bob for apples! Watch the Elm Street series in its entirety! Sacrifice owls!

The weather here is perfect: Gloomy, grey and inoffensively chilly. I haven’t checked the forecast, but judging by the wind and clouds, it wouldn’t surprise me to be completely underwater by 9 PM. My kingdom for a thunder clap.

Tonight, we’re heading to a friend’s house to drink and eat our way through a pile of scary DVDs that would stack taller than Andre, all while carving pumpkins with designs that are certain to be obscene. It’s the last hurrah for horror, and it’s hard to imagine that by this time tomorrow, I’ll be waist deep in red-and-green Sunday circulars, fifty times more excited that I am now. There are four quarters in the year, and people, we’re living in the only one that matters.

So ends the Halloween Countdown — thanks again for continuing to make the site worth keeping alive, and I hope your howliday is a good one! Course, if you’re stuck home with nothing to do, you could always relive this year’s creepy content, conveniently linked below!

The “Ghost Finders” Haunted Camera!
Evil Clowns, Evil Lip Balm and more Spooky Die-O-Ramas!
Halloween Mood DVDs: The Mega Review!
Cape is the new rock.
Frightening Filler.
And exposed viscera.
Milton Bradley’s SPIDER WARS, from 1988!
The NY Aquarium’s HAUNTED SEA-FARI!
Haunted Snack Mansion! Color-Changing Cars! AND MORE!
X-E’s Shoebox Die-O-Rama Contest: THE RESULTS!!!
Madballs Jumpers & Halloween Popcorn!
Halloween Window Silhouettes, Bubble Tape, and Spider Lights.
Kind and Gentle Freddy Krueger toys.
The Halloween Cocktail!
The Trix O’Lantern!
Along came a giant fake spider.
Halloween Velvet Treats!
Blood Bag: The Candy!
The Snoopy-O’-Lantern?
LIFE-SIZED MOTION ACTIVATED AUDIO-ANIMATRONIC JASON VOORHEES OMG OMG
Cap’n Crunch’s Halloween Crunch Cereal!
Chucky: Pro-Wrestling Superstar.
Halloween Slinky! Halloween Hot Wheels! Halloween Fruit Things!
X-E’s Shoebox Die-O-Rama Art Contest!
Deadly Dollar Store Stuff.
Dots Halloween Mix!
Monsters: A Pop-Up Book.
Halloween Chips Ahoy!

We’ve got a few hours to kill, because our little party is sure to last until tomorrow afternoon, and if we show up too early, we’ll be unconscious by midnight. I’ve been waiting for trick-or-treaters, but none have arrived. Not a single one. I’m aghast that we’ve scared society into ditching one of its greatest traditions, but on the other hand…more Twizzlers for me.

Normally, we just combine assorted candies into Ziploc bags to give to trick-or-treaters, but Target was selling these awesome boxes of full-sized Twizzlers varieties for ten bucks. Couldn’t resist. I’m so anxious to hear a knock on our door, because giving retail-sized candies to trick-or-treaters is sure to make me the hero of the neighborhood. Alas, nobody has come. Maybe it was a bad idea to decorate the front lawn in a dead ferret motif.

In the comments, discuss your Halloween adventures! Don’t know what kind of computer access I’m going to have by tonight, but if there’s any, I’ll pop by with drunken tales of poker games won and face paint tubes exploded.

Oh, and as promised, below are the final entries in the Spooky Die-O-Rama contest! I’m sure I missed a few, since I never get through one of these art contests without pissing off several people. Thanks again to everyone who entered — these entries were truly the soul of this year’s Countdown!


(Click here to see a larger photo!)

“Attack of the Corn”
Created By: Stephanie B.

Stephanie is just one of the many entrants who was robbed of a spot in the winner’s circle, but at least she’s done her part to make the last batch of Die-O-Ramas feel mighty and proud.

There’s a lot to love with this one — from the wholly custom scarecrow with the paper facial features, to the evil corn dudes who seem to have been crafted out of those amazing corn-themed corn on the cob holders. Any justification for using the word “corn” that many times in a single sentence equals brilliance. Steph, you’re my favorite Steph out of all the Stephs I’ve ever known.



“Count Dogula”
Created By: Tommy

Oooh! This one is pure glee. It’s hard to find dioramas featuring vampires in blood-soaked chambers that manage to seem so harmless and cheerful, but I suppose that’s the benefit of making a vampire out of a hot dog. Tommy even provided a photo of Count Dogula burnt to a crisp, and though he didn’t provide an explanation, I’m guessing that it represents a vampire who was exposed to sunlight.

Also, is this really the only Die-O-Rama that made use of those five-point casino arcade spider rings? To everyone besides Tommy: For shame.



“Die-O-Hazard”
Created By: Nick

Nick’s diorama is pretty wonderful, mixing LEGO figurines and fallen branches to recreate a scene from Resident Evil. I just wish he included some larger photos, because who wouldn’t love a closer look at Cujo mangling Man Eating Chicken in the lower left?



“Haunted Evening”
Created By: Nakairra D.

Nakairra went through a lot of trouble to send me this entry. The pictures kept bouncing and the links kept dying, and by the time I actually got to see it, Christmas had already come and gone. Really dig the haunted mansion in the background, and the pipe cleaner trees are just the thing October 31st needed to double its birthright specialness.



“A (Star)Scream of a Good Time”
Created By: Alienux

Alienux provided no description of his diorama, save for its title. I’ll have to piece this one together myself. Seems as if Starscream is spending his Halloween torturing a skeleton, while a living-but-sadly-stationary Demon Apple voices his displeasure in the background. I don’t know why the Demon Apple is wearing an enormous severed finger, but then, Halloween is all about mystery.

PS, I can’t tell if that’s the original Starscream figure or one of the many re-issues. I’m guessing “re-issue,” because there is not a single original Starscream figure left in the universe that still has its forearm missiles.



“The Terryfying Tale of the Tricks and the Treats”
Created By: OrbitalVelocity

Perhaps it’s best that Orbital handles the explanation. “Our little protagonist just wants Mr. McEvil to give her some of his shitty candy, but he’s gone to great lengths to make sure that doesn’t happen. He’s blocked off the path to his haunted mansion with a spooky toothpick fence and a giant man-eating spider! Oh nooo…”

Does the crayon castle in the background remind anyone else of Bowser’s fortress from Super Mario World? I’ve gonna have that ominous techno beat playing in my head until Thanksgiving now. Thanks, OrbitalVelocity.



“Sneakerama”
Created By: Kristin M.

HEY, that’s not a diorama. Kristin knew that skirting the rules was grounds for disqualification, and said as much in her e-mail. But look closer, and you’ll likely forgive her. Here, the shoebox diorama is less a diorama and more of an actual shoebox, playing home to a pair of sneakers with iconic horror-related images painted on the sides. I’d totally wear these, but truth be told, I have hooves.

Have a good one, monsters!


Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

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Discussion Thread: 213 comments

Well, Happy After Halloween kids,

Had a fairly good time last night. I thought I was going to crap out and not have any real costume to speak of because I just couldn’t decide what to do, but on my way to pick up a friend, I swung by Walgreens and spotted a Michael Jackson zombie mask. Not something I ever thought I’d do for Halloween, but I bought it on a whim (all their Halloween stuff was 1/2 off and I also ended up with 2 sets of F13 and Nightmare on Elm St. shot glasses).

Picked my friend up and we ended up going to a cool house party where we hung out with another friend who went as Coraline. The house was enormous. I’ve been there for parties before and the guy that owns it is pretty well off and the whole thing is decked out in old horror memorabilia. He even had someone outside doing twirling fire sticks and things. Afterwards, we went to a club to meet up with some other friends but couldn’t find them because the place was so packed. So my friend’s ride picked her up and I headed out by myself to my local dive. Throughout the night, my cheap MJ mask, which was bought solely just to have something, got a much better reception than I thought it would. People were freaking out and taking their pictures with me and genuinely really scared of it or thought it was hilarious. There really is something about walking around in disguise that’s very liberating. You kind of see things differently through those rubber eye holes.

Throughout the whole night I saw the following:
-2 guys dressed as the kid from Where the Wild Things Are
-2 original Silk Spectres
-1 new Silk Spectre
-Various other members of The Watchmen
-1 X-23 (for you X-men comic book folks)
-A Kurt Cobain/Courtney Love couple
-1 Greenman (from It’s Always Sunny in Philedelphia)
-1 Billy Mays
-Various John and Kate Gosselins

But my favorite one of the night, hands down, was Miss Argentina from the waiting room in Beetlejuice.

“If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have had my little…accident.”

Ghosted by DJ D @ 11/01/2009 1:43 PM EST

x-23? That’s awesome, no pics I’m guessing?

Ghosted by SevenYearsThisSunday @ 11/01/2009 1:46 PM EST

Man, Halloween sucked.

I wanted to stay home and watch horror movies with my family, but I had to work. Besides, no candy.

Driving through town, no Halloween decorations. Bummer.

So I was going to make the best of it and go to work in a Grim Reaper/zombie motif, but WE CAN’T WEAR MASKS for safety reasons. So no costume for me, as all the facepaint and maskless costumes are sold out.

Not only that, no one was wearing any costumes (FACEPAINT FOR YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL TEAM IS NOT A COSTUME, PEOPLE!) and the store I work at was busy removing the Halloween items and replacing them with Christmas stuff. No kids in costumes came into the store, NO ONE EVEN SAID HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

There was no Halloween themed music on the radio (I even prayed for the goddamn Monster Mash to no avail) so I had to make due by listening to Thriller on my MP3 player 5 times in a row when I realized that Halloween is just dead. :(

To make things worse, one of my (now ex) friends came up to chat and I asked him what he did for Halloween, to which he replied “I got laid, which is something that might happen to you if you weren’t so obsessed with a little kid’s holiday”.

I couldn’t hit him and still keep my job, so I just broke off friendship with him.

Can we just terminate all human life now? If we don’t hold holidays sacred anymore, then we don’t hold ANYTHING sacred anymore, and thus are no better than non-sentient beings like animals.

tl;dr: Halloween was a total depression trip, I hate people.

Ghosted by Cadpig @ 11/01/2009 2:37 PM EST

@King JLA, I sure hope not, but the numbers do seem down
from last year…which is sort of strange when you think about it. I mean sure the economy isn’t doing as well, but it’s not like you have to make a big out lay to go TrTing! I mean I remember my last year TrTing, I went out last minute and didn’t have a costume; a little flour, a little ketchup, and some slicked back hair and boom! I’m a vampire. It’s not hard people and there are plenty of people who still WANT to give away FREE candy, don’t disappoint these kind and generous souls.

As far as our night went only ten trick our treaters and more than half of those were people I saw driving around in the neighbor hood down the street and directed over to our street(to be fair we’re a dead end street off of a fairly busy road, still there are plenty of kids on this street and you’d think they’d warm up with a few houses here before moving on to bigger fish)

As far as me and my little one,after two hours the haul was decent if not spectacular…lot of m&ms for some reason, better than last year’s glut of tootsie rolls I suppose.

Ghosted by SevenYearsThisSunday @ 11/01/2009 2:45 PM EST

Emosawa= I’d love to see that one.

Cadpig= Where do you live, in a town full of those Witnesses?

Well, my Halloween was a little exciting. Some guys set off firecrackers, and others, including my neighbors, played Tejano music loud enough to he heard 2 blocks away. I could even hear the people leving by the creek partying.

Well, tomorrow is Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of The Dead. When we honor relatives and friends who have passed on to the Next World. I’m planning on honoring my relatives. And all the Xenomorphs who were killed in the Aliens movies.

Ghosted by Lonestar76 @ 11/01/2009 4:01 PM EST

Matt your Halloween jukebox was a huge hit for all the kids (and their parents) last night. I managed to set it up with some big speakers outside – thanks for the new tradition!

Ghosted by Ford @ 11/01/2009 4:15 PM EST

SevenYearsThisSunday: No, I really should have talked to her and taken pictures. It didn’t hurt that she was pretty foxy too. A hot girl doing a nerdy comic book Halloween costume? What was I thinking hiding behind my Michael Jackson mask all night?

As for trick-or-treaters, I had one. I must have spent 20 minutes dividing up all my candy into neat little baggies so that I could portion it out evenly, and then one person showed up. And she only came over because she’s the niece of the people that live across the street from me, and I’m kind of friendly with them. At least she was in costume. Last year I had a group of about 7 or 8 little rugrats that came screaming at my door without costumes, holding plastic bags. They grabbed handfuls of my candy, then stole one of the hands off one of my skeletons outside. Bastards. At least this year there was no petty theft involved. And what’s up with 18 year olds going around trick-or-treating? I pulled up to pick up my friend from her place last night and there was a group of guys on her porch and not a one of them could have been younger than 16 or 17. No costumes. Just a bunch of shady teenage guys walking around knocking on doors.

What the hell is this world coming to? I don’t want to get all “back in my day…”, but well, back in my day things were different. You got excited about trick-or-treating. You carefully selected your costume. Hell, you wore a costume, and went through the motions. You hit every house you could and screamed trick-or-treat at every doorstep like your life depended on it. And when you hit a certain age you called it off.

And they didn’t start putting Christmas stuff out in October, dammit!

Ghosted by DJ D @ 11/01/2009 4:36 PM EST

Thanks for another great Halloween season here on X-E, Matt. The shoebox die-o-ramas were all awesome. I am kind of sad to see Halloween go already, but I am sure this site will have me itching to put up candy canes, Rudolphs and snowmen soon enough.

No trick-or-treaters in our neck of the woods. But the wife and I had a wonderful night in just watching the assortment of horror movies that were on virtually every station yesterday. Had a mini-marathon of “Halloween” sequels between AMC and F/X… and then had a lengthy discussion trying to have them make sense in the continuity with “H20″. Aw, good times.

Ghosted by Jon @ 11/01/2009 4:53 PM EST

my husband and i were out this afternoon around osu campus and saw several sluts and dudes doing the walk of shame home.

Ghosted by DasTeufulNagatier @ 11/01/2009 5:11 PM EST

Despite the (expected) lack of trick-or-treaters at home, Halloween went quite well here. Didn’t quite get in all the movies I was planning on, but other fun was had in it’s stead. Drove around town to see how badly all this “trunk-or-treat” and “Fall Family Festival that we refuse to call by it’s real name” business impacted the traditional turnout, and I was pleasantly surprised by the absolute hordes of trick-or-treaters roaming the sidewalks. A few less houses decorated than in years past, but considering the economic state of things, I was pleasantly surprised by how much there actually was.

Despite getting a late start and only finishing it around an hour before November crept up on us, I’m thrilled with how my pumpkin turned out! Tedious, and with a few close calls, but totally worth the effort. My sister was off from work, and her pumpkin turned out great, as well; I especially love the little spider!

Ghosted by Jugendsehnsucht @ 11/01/2009 5:22 PM EST

My Halloween was fun but it wasn’t quite a “howling” good time. If anything, I took advantage of the fact that (outside of comic book conventions) Halloween is the only day of the year I can wear my Ghostbusters costume out in public and not receive strange stares from almost every person I come across.

On a more personal note, I need to thank you Matt for keeping up with these countdowns. Reading them have been a real tradition for me for the last 4-5 years now. But as sad as I am that this has ended and know I can look forward (pretty soon, I’m hoping) to my other annual tradition: reading the Christmas countdown/advent calender! Keep it up, Matt!

Ghosted by Rentongb @ 11/01/2009 5:38 PM EST

Been blasting the x-mas jukebox all day at work. With Halloween over ’tis the season.

Ghosted by Shawn @ 11/01/2009 6:39 PM EST

Been blasting the x-mas jukebox all day at work. With Halloween over ’tis the season.

Ghosted by Shawn @ 11/01/2009 6:40 PM EST

It’s 3:30 and the sun is going down. :|

I think the only thing that will keep my spirits up is to start my annual reread of the advent calander. It will take me at least a few weeks to be back up to speed. Just need a cup of tea, put on a little Vince Guaraldi and fire up the pine tree candle.

Where would I be without X-E? Probably a little more productive.

Ghosted by Bill @ 11/01/2009 7:38 PM EST

Jon: Yeah, I’ve always kind of wondered about that too. I caught those same marathons you were talking about last night as I was cooking dinner and preparing my candy for all the trick-or-treaters I didn’t get. The people who continued the series a little later on did conveniently leave a few things out and put a few things in. Such as, in Part 6, Mrs. Blackenship goes into that story about how she was babysitting Michael Meyers the night he killed his sister, but that’s the first you’ve ever heard of it. If you go back and watch the first one again, there’s no babysitter to be seen. Also, I’ve always wondered whatever became of his parents. His whole M.O. is that he’s trying to kill off his whole family, but aside from the opening scene of the first movie, you never see or hear anything about his parents again. I would think they would be the two obvious targets.

Jugendsehnsucht: Nice job on the punkins there. I especially like the detail on your sister’s, with the porch steps and the bat and everything. I’ll have some pics posted soon of the 3 that I carved this year.

Bill: I’m with ya. I need to do some catching up myself. Shamefully, I never even read last year’s calendar, and after all this time I’ve nearly forgotten everything that’s happened before that. I wonder if there will be more conspiracy shenanigans this year, and if so, how deep will the rabbit hole go?

Ghosted by DJ D @ 11/01/2009 7:41 PM EST

Cadpig:Your former friend sounds like a really obnoxious jerk. I can see why you stopped being friends with him. And why you wanted to hit him. I also agree that it sucks to see Halloween become less important as time goes on. Although I didn’t see alot of trick or treaters walking the streets of my neighborhood, I DID see A LOT of em at our local trunk or treat event. They may not of have been collecting free candy the traditional way, but they were still out in costume having fun, and celebrating the holiday.

Ghosted by ULTRAMAN @ 11/01/2009 7:56 PM EST

It’s official. My Halloween was pretty bad.
The redeeming moment was seeing five little zombies in the hour we had our light on.
You go, zombies!

Ghosted by Emily @ 11/01/2009 8:44 PM EST

Welcome to the club, cadpig~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6leDaoHTxTc

Ghosted by Neg @ 11/01/2009 9:28 PM EST

Matt I just wanted to say thanks for the great Halloween Countdown. I can’t wait for December to get here!

Ghosted by Capt. Will @ 11/01/2009 9:30 PM EST

For my halloween, i watched two Pumpkinhead movies in a row:Ashes to Ashes and Blood Feud.It many not seem like much on a glance but, if you’ve watched them, you know how awesome that is.

Ghosted by BloodMist @ 11/01/2009 10:42 PM EST

Cadpig, that fucking sucks, sorry.

My Halloween was pretty good- first year in a long time I’d actually really done something. Went to a couple parties, last minute costume of Mad Scientist. Ended up running into a bunch of friends with a running Alice In Wonderland motif. A buddy of mine did a makeshift Two-Face costume that kicked ass.

Since when is it a kids holiday? Hell, I knew a couple people in their 20s who went trick or treating. And at the nightclub nearly everybody was in costume, with an age range of like 18 to 50.

Most interesting costumes? A group of Zombie Nazis with their pal John Lennon-the “black sheep of the group”

Ghosted by Tutsuro @ 11/02/2009 12:27 AM EST

I just spent all day watching the two “V” miniseries on Syfy. Not bad at all.

Ghosted by King JLA @ 11/02/2009 12:58 AM EST

I had an interesting Halloween.

I work at a mall, and this is the first Halloween where I’ve both worked and worked at a mall, and apparently they have mall trick-or-treating. It seems fairly obvious I guess. Like how could I have missed that? But I honestly never thought about it before…going door to door, or in this case, store to store, asking for candy. And I’m not sure what I really expected, but HOLY CRAP! Every kid in town showed up, or so it seemed. From 3.00-7.30, I did nothing but hand out candy. I guess it helps that I work in a chocolate shop, but still, I wasn’t expecting a line as long as next Christmas. Of course we ran out of free candy. And after that, we started giving out shit that WASN’T for free. And then I eventually called it quits. I mean, by this point kids were making their second rounds, and if parents are desperate enough they can BUY their kid candy. Why do you go trick-or-treating at a mall anyway? Half the fun is ringing the door bell. I mean, c’mon!

Anyway, I did see some interesting costumes. One kid had a homemade alligater head as a mask, with two chomping jaws cut from cardboard extending from his head. That was pretty cool, I thought. Another kid was a scuba diver, with a rather innovative costume. Then there was a surfer girl, in a wet suit with a surf board also cut from cardboard. Aside from that was the expect array of superheros and transformers. I thought this one kid was dressed up as Venom, but he scolded me saying he was the symbiote Spider-Man from the movie. “Okay,” I said, dissapointed simply because if had been Venom, it would’ve been like a 10,000,000 times awesomer! I also saw a kid dressed as Captain America. That surprised me simply because he’s about the only super hero left without a major movie from the last 5 years to back him up. I was happy this little kid thought of ole Captain A’ and doubly surprised that he found a store bought costume.

After work, I lit my jack-o-lantern, hung out with my bro, and indulged in some festivities that included episodes of Tales From the Crypt and old school video games like Ghouls and Ghosts and Darkstalkers. Rather low key, but enjoyable nonetheless. I always feel like I need to make Halloween night some sort of unforgetable adventure that will be retained in my memory forever, but it always tends to fall short. I’m not complaining, but it’s just strange when you put all this time and effort into this holiday that lasts for only a day. Then again, the fact that I’ve been essentially celebrating since the 1st of September really puts my conscience at ease, but if nothing else, finally seeing my Die-O-Rama on X-E really made it a night to remember. Thanks for that Matt! Now I can die content.

Ghosted by namideo @ 11/02/2009 2:56 AM EST

http://www.focusstone.com/gallery for our party pictures in the UK. Fourth page of the ‘Helloween2009′ folder contains a little movie of the ‘get completely wrapped up in clingfilm wear identical masks and race down the street’ game. The screaming you hear is my 6 year old son who fell over.

Ghosted by UK Matt @ 11/02/2009 3:25 AM EST

Sorry I am so late to the party.
I actually was on here a lot but never got around to posting.
Anyways, the girls got a good haul this year.
Allie went as Belle from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and E. Claire went as (this was NOT my idea but I think it shows my influence) Catra from SHE-RA.
Nuff said.

Happy Belated-ween!.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44191401@N05/show/with/4062906952/

Ghosted by The Manimal @ 11/02/2009 6:12 AM EST

Oh yeah. And the new baby is not a girl, it’s a boy.

Ghosted by The Manimal @ 11/02/2009 6:21 AM EST

Only 15 more days until ‘Life Day,’ don’t forget to hug a wookie today.

Ghosted by Shawn @ 11/02/2009 8:12 AM EST

I didn’t have nearly the number of trick or treaters I was expecting, so every kid got handfuls of candy, and I still have bags and bags left over.

The coolest costumes I saw were one kid who was a “zombie doctor.” He was wearing surgical scrubs, but they were ripped open in the front with exposed guts and viscera. Very cool. The other was a little 3 year-old neighbor kid who was some sort of shaolin monk thing, with his hair tied up in a knot on top of his head, with a fu manchu mustache painted on. It was just awesome seeing a toddler with a fu manchu mustache.

Ghosted by tanta07 @ 11/02/2009 10:03 AM EST

Matt-In my die-o-rama there is a spider ring prop.Sould be right in front of Jack-o-McNugget.Anywhoo…A couple of my friends who came to Halloween Shindig,came dressed up.A Wolfman,and I don’t know what Gary was supposed to be(I told him he was a rejected member of Slipknot).Then everyone was getting hammered and a few others started painting/getting their faces painted.All in all,great time and a memorable Halloween(Thanx again Matt). :)

Ghosted by Jason @ 11/02/2009 10:06 AM EST

Oh,and I got around 10 trick-or-treaters.

Ghosted by Jason @ 11/02/2009 10:08 AM EST

Weather was great for Halloween. It was 65 but the leaves were still yellow and flying around, so I got the ambience without cold weather to ruin it.

Only got one trick or treater around 5:40. Then I took my daughter to a few houses. No one else came, and we had to go since my wife had a concert to put on. As I was leaving, I saw more groups around, so I guess we missed them. Now I have 6 bags of candy sitting there tempting me.

Ghosted by Dann @ 11/02/2009 10:46 AM EST

Happy Birthday DJD!

Ghosted by Bill @ 11/02/2009 3:09 PM EST

It’s DJ D’s birthday? Happy birthday, dude.

My Halloween was uneventful. I watched the first three Batman movies on ABC Family (They consider them Halloween movies…WTF?) I’m still at my parents’ house recovering from my fall a while back. They haven’t had any trick or treaters in the 8 years they’ve lived here, but had one guy bring his kids by. No costumes. @@

Yesterday was the wife’s birthday. We went to an Irish pub in the ATL for lunch, then saw Zombieland. I loved it.

Ghosted by Teddy Ray @ 11/02/2009 4:46 PM EST

I just can’t believe how Halloween Festivals and Pumpkin Patch Parties are taking away from trick-or-treating. I guess it is safer, but I had absolutely no trick-or-treaters, and I didn’t see any at all around town. (sigh)Sign of the times.

At least I got to see the Shining on AMC. That was awesome. V was good, but once I was done with the miniseries, I just couldn’t finish the “final battle” series. Too much of a good thing.

Also, this October, I have been reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Not really a horror book, but it has contributed to the Halloweeny feel.

Ghosted by Jimmy @ 11/02/2009 5:10 PM EST

Really late to this party, but Happy Halloween, bring on the Yuletide Cheer!

Ghosted by Fox @ 11/02/2009 5:24 PM EST

Loved reading about everyone’s holiday. I spent the weekend with my best friend and his fiancee. On Friday we went to a very cool haunted attraction that had a haunted trail through the woods, a haunted outdoor maze and a haunted hayride. Plus they had a live band that played classic rock tunes, and people telling ghost stories around campfires, and an Executioner’s Show and all kinds of awesome shit. Cost us $30 each to do everything but it was totally worth it. I want to go again next year. The weather was perfect, too…cold but not too cold, windy, and the moon was out with just the right amount of clouds. Definitely the best part of my holiday.

Saturday we watched a scary football game (our team lost), Ghostbusters, Drive Thru and The Dark and carved pumpkins. I will never use a pattern again but at least mine turned out halfway decently. Sunday he had a get-together for her birthday which was last week. All in all, not bad. I really wanted to go somewhere to dress up, though. Maybe next year I’ll head to one of our local rock station’s shindigs and feel old with all the drunk college kids.

Manimal, grats on finally getting some more testosterone in your house! :) Your daughters are too cute. You are a very very lucky guy.

Happy Birthday DJ D! Hope it’s a great one.

And last but definitely not least: Matt, thank you so much for the countdown this year. You kept me in the spirit once again. We all really do appreciate what you do for us, no matter how “little” you think it is, so thanks thanks thanks. We love you, man. Looking forward to the rest of the holiday season with X-E by my side. Or on my monitor. Whatever.

Ghosted by Nicole @ 11/02/2009 5:40 PM EST

DJ D: AMEN to everything you said. Teenagers who go trick or treating with no costumes or with one of those stupid “This is my costume” shirts piss me right the fuck off. I’d be tempted to tell them “No costume, no candy” and slam the door, but then the little assholes would likely destroy your car’s paint job with eggs or take a baseball bat to your mailbox.

A friend and I were discussing the other day that we are raising a generation of “inside kids” – which is to say, all they do is stay in and watch TV/play video games (note: I do not think TV and video games are bad, but everything in moderation, folks). Also, people are so damn paranoid about violence/strangers that they don’t want to take kids trick or treating and instead take them to lame-ass trunk or treat deals, or perhaps church parties where absolutely nothing is appropriately Halloween-y. I’ve got news for you: violent things can happen anywhere, it’s not relegated to Halloween, no matter how much you believe it’s “the devil’s holiday” or some such nonsense.

I have no plans to have children… but if I ever change my mind, we will do Halloween, and goddammit, we will do it RIGHT.

/steps off soapbox

Ghosted by Cheetara @ 11/02/2009 6:14 PM EST

On the whole Halloween continuity thing, a rundown for you if I may:

In the novel version of Halloween, Michael does indeed have a babysitter. He is being watched at HER house though and then slips away to kill Judith. So if we could apply that to the film as well. I would consider it valid since it is widely believed that John Carpenter wrote the book version of Halloween under the alias of Curtis Richards.

So in part 1, he gets shot and then vanishes after a night of stalking Laurie and her friends. In part 2, we do a retcon and learn that Laurie was his sister and after he killed Judith, she was placed in foster care to protect her. I’ve always explained away his eyes being shot out by believing that Laurie simply shot above his eyes or around his eyes, but not actually his eyes themselves. That would be a hell of a shot. Michael and Dr. Loomis seemingly die from the explosion in the hospital. And depending on if you watch the TV version, Jimmy may or may not live and hook up with Laurie.

Part III is in name only and has nothing to do with Michael. In part 4, “The Return”, Michael has apparently been comatose for 10 years and Loomis survives. Michael finds out he has a niece, Jamie, and it appears Laurie died in a car crash. He gets shot to hell and falls down a mine shaft/quarry and then passes his evil link on to Jamie, making her stab her foster mother.

In part 5, “The Revenge,” the series begins to take a horrible turn. Michael falls down the river in a really bad padding suit and is taken in by a hermit. Apparently, he is comatose everyday of the year except for Halloween when he suddenly springs to life. Rachel is killed off and fans are pissed everywhere because now we must endure the incredibly annoying Tina for the rest of the movie. Also, Michael is now one amazing stunt car driver. His mask has also seen better days and his house is now a huge Gothic mansion. Jamie has a psychic link and apparently can’t talk because of the trauma so she spends the movie miming.

There is also a stuttering boy and a big cookie woman. The showdown is Loomis throwing a big net over Michael who is then carted off to jail. They leave his mask on as his sits in his jail cell. Some “Man in Black” who isn’t Johnny Cash comes in with guns a blazing to free him. Yeah, the makers of the film didn’t know who the hell he is either.

In part 6, “The Curse”, the series stops trying to make sense altogether. Jamie has been kidnapped by a Druid cult and it is implied that Michael impregnated her. Which makes no sense because Michael is supposed to be killing off his family. Why is he procreating? However, bear in mind there is a theatrical cut and a Producer’s cut. Essentially, there are 2 versions of this movie and while neither makes much sense, the P-Cut is a vast improvement.

Anyways, Jamie is chased to a barn and impaled on a thresher, thus killing off a fan favorite character. Michael goes on a rampage to track down his son/nephew and literally makes a man’s head explode. Michael has also been apparently eating many doughnuts, because dude is about 300 pounds in this film. Loomis is so done with the series at this point and mainly yells his doom warnings. Turns out the doctor he works with is head of the Thorn cult. There is apparently a constellation in the sky that makes Michael kill on Halloween.

In the end, Mikey gets his head bashed in with a pipe which makes him bleed green ooze. Oh, and Loomis suddenly has the Thorn tattoo on him! (well, in the P-cut anyways) And Michel is now the man in black (again, P-cut) I told you this movie made no fucking sense.

H20 is not about water, but rather an attempt to start the slate clean. Parts 4-6 are totally ignored and we as fans are to go along and pretend they never happened. Michael manages to drive from Illinois to California in a day while slaughtering innocents along the way. Laurie Strode is alive but is now Kerri Tate and crazy overprotective of her son. (Remember she never had Jamie) She accidentally blows away LL Cool J, but he manages to survive with just a graze to the head. The series is meant to end once and for all as Laurie chops Michael’s head off.

Wait! You thought Revenge was bad! What about Resurrection? Guess what, we retcon again! Michael switched clothes with the paramedic, and Laurie accidentally cut HIS head off. Oops! He tracks her down in a mental asylum and finishes her off. Then he returns to his house (which again has magically transformed) which has turned into a reality web tv show. Yeah, I am not making that up. Busta Rhymes karate chops Michael and utters “Trick Or Treat Motherfucker” and thus the final coffin in the franchise was laid.

I won’t even talk about the Zombie films.

Ghosted by Ash Loves Halloween (the movie and holiday!) @ 11/02/2009 6:16 PM EST

Jugendsehnsucht: Holy crap, your jack ‘o lantern is awesome! And your sister’s is pretty sweet too.

Ghosted by Cheetara @ 11/02/2009 6:18 PM EST

Ash – Thanks for the Halloween rundown! What a great read! You know, it was awhile since I saw H20 and I SWORE that LL Cool J’s wacky secruity guard character survived… but we don’t see that in the version F/X ran! So, I thought I must have imagined it. Now I am not sure. Can someone set me straight on this?

The F/X version also badly the edited the scene where the girl gets her foot caught in the dumbwaiter… so, we don’t even see Mike kill her at all.

Ghosted by Jon @ 11/02/2009 6:39 PM EST

A friend and I were discussing the other day that we are raising a generation of “inside kids” – which is to say, all they do is stay in and watch TV/play video games (note: I do not think TV and video games are bad, but everything in moderation, folks). Also, people are so damn paranoid about violence/strangers that they don’t want to take kids trick or treating and instead take them to lame-ass trunk or treat deals, or perhaps church parties where absolutely nothing is appropriately Halloween-y. I’ve got news for you: violent things can happen anywhere, it’s not relegated to Halloween, no matter how much you believe it’s “the devil’s holiday” or some such nonsense.

Thank you! This is pretty much exactly how I feel. I have no problem with church functions or anything, but I’m sick to death of people being so fucking paranoid all the time. I never believed all that nonsense about drugged or poisoned candy (in fact Snopes says that’s totally false), and if people don’t want their kids roaming the streets alone when they trick-or-treat then maybe they should GO WITH THEM. As I said before, when I have kids, I fully intend to wear my own costume and go door-to-door with them.

I also plan on telling my kids to take their little asses outside to play for at least a little while every day. Video games and other inside activities are fine but I think they need to spend time outside, too.

Ghosted by Annette @ 11/02/2009 7:12 PM EST

Thank you Matt for the Halloween countdown. I know what its like to get older and more….. respectable. Thanks for having the dedication and toy pumpkins in your blood to keep The Halloween countdown going.

How is the moon crab doing?

Ghosted by algae @ 11/02/2009 8:28 PM EST

OK, I don’t normally do this, but here goes:

Matt, hook a brother up with a new thread. No new post, just new thread. I have the ULTIMATE survey question for this time of the year, and I don’t want to waste it in the basement of the thread.

It’s awesome, I think anyway. Ultraman will back me up.

Ghosted by Terror Claws @ 11/02/2009 8:48 PM EST

I have to say I was disappointed the last few years taking my kids trick-or-treating, but this year was surprisingly different. We chose a bunch of giant neighborhoods that are all tied together by a few roads and it looked like they were out to beat each other for Halloween supremacy. They had decorations in the trees, mood music and one house had a six foot-plus tall man dressed as Jason who jumped out of the bushes (and took a picture with my five year old who was beaming from ear to ear) There was even a house that projected “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on their garage door. There were TONS of beggars and most of them were over what most would consider the acceptable age. The only downside was the giant man-eating mosquitoes, but none of us even wound up with a bite the day after. I’m happy to say that the Halloween spirit is still very much alive, at least in south Florida…

Ghosted by Eric M @ 11/02/2009 9:15 PM EST

Yeah, I’ve watched HALLOWEEN 6 twice and still have no idea what is going on (except a really bad movie).

I honestly remember nothing.

Ghosted by The Manimal @ 11/02/2009 9:55 PM EST

@Eric M, That sounds great, I wish my little one and myself had something like that going on here..sadly there just wasn’t much like that going on…maybe you just have to find the right neighborhood?

Ghosted by SevenYearsThisSunday @ 11/02/2009 10:08 PM EST

Argh! I think I’m going through Halloween withdrawals. I had an awesome time at Fright Fest yesterday in Jersey, I bought the last two 24oz Oktoberfest Sam Adams today, saw Drag Me To Hell earlier, and walking through my neighborhood today with the full moon out was kinda spooky. Also, I must have heard “Dead Man’s Party” a million times last month and I still can’t get it out of my head. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas the most, but it still feels weird looking forward to them.

I need to watch some Thanksgiving specials.

Ghosted by Berdo @ 11/02/2009 10:15 PM EST

A- the dioramas were my favorite part of this Halloween
B- Merry Christmas!!!…I cannot hold it back any longer!

Ghosted by kb @ 11/02/2009 10:50 PM EST

Jon,

Yes, LL does survive. I don’t know how because Laurie’s boyfriend shot the shit out of him. But all that happened was his head was grazed. Sadly, Busta Rhymes does NOT get killed off in Resurrection.

Ghosted by Ash Loves Halloween (the movie and holiday!) @ 11/02/2009 11:24 PM EST

And remember, LL’s head is like a shark, so I guess that explains how he survives.

Ghosted by Ash Loves Halloween (the movie and holiday!) @ 11/02/2009 11:32 PM EST

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