"Halloween's Coming, Halloween's Coming, Ghosts and Goblins are after you.
Big Black Cats and Witches Pointy Hats,
Ooooo, Ooo, Ooo, Ooo, Ooo
BOO!"
Big Black Cats and Witches Pointy Hats,
Ooooo, Ooo, Ooo, Ooo, Ooo
BOO!"
The lyrics sound silly and sophomoric, but to this day I remember singing that song 30 some odd years ago at a school Halloween jamboree. I stood there with my senior kindergarten class in a small gymnasium surrounded by our parents and peers, a lot of us dressed in those cheesy, plastic, fire hazard-esque Ben Cooper Halloween costumes. I had Cooper's Batman costume which loosely tied in the back with easy to tear plastic straps, had baggy plastic pants and a cardboard-like 3 dimensional mask that had a big yellow "BATMAN" emblazoned across the forehead just in case I might have been mistaken for Spider-Man by someone of lesser pop-culture knowledge than I. I loved that frackin' costume! I wore it for 5 Halloweens in a row! (once I turned 30, mom told me to take it of and put it away........just kiddin')
I also loved singing that sophomoric song. When we hit that last BOO we put a heck of a lot of energy into it, hoping the scare the frell out of the audience. We were kindergartners. What the hell did we know. But, even at that young age I loved the spookiness of the song. It conjured up visions of dark, cloudy nights in a graveyard with the leaves twirling up off the ground as the wind blows between the graves. Even as a small Ben Cooper costume clad child, I kind of dug things that were spooky and creepy.
But the really big thing about Halloween at that time was scoring boatloads of candy during Trick or Treat. Me and my young co-horts, Ricky and Donny, would always try and plan out our route beforehand to hit the houses in years past that gave out the best loot. sadly our Mom's who would supervise us would of course slow us down. "No running, boys!"
As time passed and I grew older, my imagination started to get the best of me, as I wanted to get more out of the holiday than just candy. I started to do my own Halloween decorations for other Trick or Treaters that came to my house. I would get big drawing paper and cardboard and draw out several huge monster faces with big long fangs and always huge drips of blood drooling out of their mouths and down their chins. I would tape these pictures up all over the inside of our front foyer and front door. They's actually get some notice from people.
Weeks prior to Halloween we would play this Ghosts In The Grave Yard type of game and run around our back yards at night. We called it Spooky Time! We'd set up mysteries and treasure hunts for each other and pretend we were ghost and monster hunters.
I had also graduated from the Ben Cooper Batman outfit. That just didn't cut the mustard any more. I now had to be something scary. So my Mom made me a black cape and I'd go into her eyeshadow make up and pain my entire face with it. usually a pale blue to give off that undead vibe. Then I get some red grease pain and draw out a couple of drips of blood coming out of my mouth. Wallah! Instant vampire!
Myself, Ricky and Donny didn't need parental guidance to go Trick or Treating any longer so we went hog wild! We tore through the neighborhood looking for the houses that gave out the best in sugary goodness. And damned if we didn't run into that one house that had the old guy out front telling everybody he didn't have time to get candy and would dump a bunch of pennies into your bag. CHEAP FRACKIN' BASTARD! A pox unto him and his house!
As more years past and we were to old for Trick or Treat, I found a new passion in yard haunting. My Halloween decor had graduated from cardboard cut outs of monsters that I had made to Styrofoam gravestones and dummies with corpse and zombie masks on them bursting out of the ground by the graves.
I also started to get into horror movies of the time. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as a bevy of B-Horror slasher flix were being released on VHS for rental at the time. Every weekend in October I'd rent 3 of them and watch them on Saturday afternoons. A tradition I still try and keep to this day.
As the teenage years continued may Halloween gallivanting was limited to the annual high school drama club's costume party. Every year I came as a Heavy Metal rocker. Though, I loved the season of fall, I wasn't as invested into the holiday as I was as a child. The high school years were filled with other things to occupy my time.
Into my young adult years, my big Halloween event was dragging a few friends to one of the local haunted attractions. My love for Halloween was starting to grow back, but the group of friends that were around at the time weren't as enthusiastic about Halloween as I was.
A lot of my young adult friends and high school buddies moved on and off to other states, but in recent years I've been gifted in the fact that I've met a great bunch of people who love Halloween almost as much as I do!
The recent years have been loaded with Halloween escapades. Costume parties, haunted houses, pumpkin carving, horror movies! Good food and losts of wonderful seasonal brewskies The whole ball of haunted wax (wax from the ear of a decayed corpse, no less. Bruahahahahaha!)
This season isn't quite over for me yet. Later today there be some trick or treating for the kids while we adults eat some good food and hang out. Then tomorrow there's a Halloween costume party that, I'm told, will have an Adams Family vibe to it.
So here's hoping that you all got a chance to do something Halloween-esqe with Friends, family or loved ones this year! Happy Halloween!
Ok, on to some quickie Horror movie reviews. The last bunch of the season.
Nightmare Man - Another craptastic C-grade horror flick that uses rape as a shock tool. I don't mind the boobage, but do they have to go in that direction? I kind of had the same feelings on this as I did for Lake Dead (reviewed in the last post). This one starts out as a thriller, then moves on to be a slasher flick then finally a supernatural spin is put on it. The film doesn't know what it wants to be. The only cool stuff on this disc is the fun behind the scenes footage in the extras. Other than that, yo can pass on this one.
Crazy Eights - They actually got some quasi popular known actors in this one (Tracy Lords, anybody?). In a nutshell, its a ghost story that involves former child patients of a research facility / mental hospital. The story line was decent enough and there was some slight creepiness involved, but not a keeper. Again it's a "nobody gets out alive" type ending and the story kind of drags on a bit before anything really starts happening.
Tooth and Nail - Not exactly a horror movie, but more of a post apocalyptic thriller. Survivors of the slow destruction of the earth are holed up in a hospital. The usual tasks of trying to survive are hampered when a bunch of cannibalistic raiders start taking the small group one by one. Michael Madsen is the cannibal leader. He's always fun to watch if he's either ear tearing or ear chewing. Not a great flick, but definitely far better than some of the stuff I've watched this season. Worth checking out.
And speaking of post apocalyptic settings, Fallout 3 is proving to be quite addictive and challenging. There's a sub game involved that deals with picking locks using a screw driver and bobby pin. I have no clue as to how to master this feat. It is hardly explained in the directions. Apparently it's an important skill to have so I better load it full of experience points as I level up. So fare I've gotten my ass handed to me by raiders a couple of times. I even brought the difficulty level down a notch and it's still quite daring. A very good game so far!
Well, folks. That will be it for Halloween here on my Blog of Geekdom. After this weekend the dead leave back to dark places unknown.
Again, Happy Halloween!
Zangz.
I also loved singing that sophomoric song. When we hit that last BOO we put a heck of a lot of energy into it, hoping the scare the frell out of the audience. We were kindergartners. What the hell did we know. But, even at that young age I loved the spookiness of the song. It conjured up visions of dark, cloudy nights in a graveyard with the leaves twirling up off the ground as the wind blows between the graves. Even as a small Ben Cooper costume clad child, I kind of dug things that were spooky and creepy.
But the really big thing about Halloween at that time was scoring boatloads of candy during Trick or Treat. Me and my young co-horts, Ricky and Donny, would always try and plan out our route beforehand to hit the houses in years past that gave out the best loot. sadly our Mom's who would supervise us would of course slow us down. "No running, boys!"
As time passed and I grew older, my imagination started to get the best of me, as I wanted to get more out of the holiday than just candy. I started to do my own Halloween decorations for other Trick or Treaters that came to my house. I would get big drawing paper and cardboard and draw out several huge monster faces with big long fangs and always huge drips of blood drooling out of their mouths and down their chins. I would tape these pictures up all over the inside of our front foyer and front door. They's actually get some notice from people.
Weeks prior to Halloween we would play this Ghosts In The Grave Yard type of game and run around our back yards at night. We called it Spooky Time! We'd set up mysteries and treasure hunts for each other and pretend we were ghost and monster hunters.
I had also graduated from the Ben Cooper Batman outfit. That just didn't cut the mustard any more. I now had to be something scary. So my Mom made me a black cape and I'd go into her eyeshadow make up and pain my entire face with it. usually a pale blue to give off that undead vibe. Then I get some red grease pain and draw out a couple of drips of blood coming out of my mouth. Wallah! Instant vampire!
Myself, Ricky and Donny didn't need parental guidance to go Trick or Treating any longer so we went hog wild! We tore through the neighborhood looking for the houses that gave out the best in sugary goodness. And damned if we didn't run into that one house that had the old guy out front telling everybody he didn't have time to get candy and would dump a bunch of pennies into your bag. CHEAP FRACKIN' BASTARD! A pox unto him and his house!
As more years past and we were to old for Trick or Treat, I found a new passion in yard haunting. My Halloween decor had graduated from cardboard cut outs of monsters that I had made to Styrofoam gravestones and dummies with corpse and zombie masks on them bursting out of the ground by the graves.
I also started to get into horror movies of the time. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as a bevy of B-Horror slasher flix were being released on VHS for rental at the time. Every weekend in October I'd rent 3 of them and watch them on Saturday afternoons. A tradition I still try and keep to this day.
As the teenage years continued may Halloween gallivanting was limited to the annual high school drama club's costume party. Every year I came as a Heavy Metal rocker. Though, I loved the season of fall, I wasn't as invested into the holiday as I was as a child. The high school years were filled with other things to occupy my time.
Into my young adult years, my big Halloween event was dragging a few friends to one of the local haunted attractions. My love for Halloween was starting to grow back, but the group of friends that were around at the time weren't as enthusiastic about Halloween as I was.
A lot of my young adult friends and high school buddies moved on and off to other states, but in recent years I've been gifted in the fact that I've met a great bunch of people who love Halloween almost as much as I do!
The recent years have been loaded with Halloween escapades. Costume parties, haunted houses, pumpkin carving, horror movies! Good food and losts of wonderful seasonal brewskies The whole ball of haunted wax (wax from the ear of a decayed corpse, no less. Bruahahahahaha!)
This season isn't quite over for me yet. Later today there be some trick or treating for the kids while we adults eat some good food and hang out. Then tomorrow there's a Halloween costume party that, I'm told, will have an Adams Family vibe to it.
So here's hoping that you all got a chance to do something Halloween-esqe with Friends, family or loved ones this year! Happy Halloween!
Ok, on to some quickie Horror movie reviews. The last bunch of the season.
Nightmare Man - Another craptastic C-grade horror flick that uses rape as a shock tool. I don't mind the boobage, but do they have to go in that direction? I kind of had the same feelings on this as I did for Lake Dead (reviewed in the last post). This one starts out as a thriller, then moves on to be a slasher flick then finally a supernatural spin is put on it. The film doesn't know what it wants to be. The only cool stuff on this disc is the fun behind the scenes footage in the extras. Other than that, yo can pass on this one.
Crazy Eights - They actually got some quasi popular known actors in this one (Tracy Lords, anybody?). In a nutshell, its a ghost story that involves former child patients of a research facility / mental hospital. The story line was decent enough and there was some slight creepiness involved, but not a keeper. Again it's a "nobody gets out alive" type ending and the story kind of drags on a bit before anything really starts happening.
Tooth and Nail - Not exactly a horror movie, but more of a post apocalyptic thriller. Survivors of the slow destruction of the earth are holed up in a hospital. The usual tasks of trying to survive are hampered when a bunch of cannibalistic raiders start taking the small group one by one. Michael Madsen is the cannibal leader. He's always fun to watch if he's either ear tearing or ear chewing. Not a great flick, but definitely far better than some of the stuff I've watched this season. Worth checking out.
And speaking of post apocalyptic settings, Fallout 3 is proving to be quite addictive and challenging. There's a sub game involved that deals with picking locks using a screw driver and bobby pin. I have no clue as to how to master this feat. It is hardly explained in the directions. Apparently it's an important skill to have so I better load it full of experience points as I level up. So fare I've gotten my ass handed to me by raiders a couple of times. I even brought the difficulty level down a notch and it's still quite daring. A very good game so far!
Well, folks. That will be it for Halloween here on my Blog of Geekdom. After this weekend the dead leave back to dark places unknown.
Again, Happy Halloween!
Zangz.
