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!

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!)

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!