How the Brits see the America zombie craze

Halloween is over.. Of course for those who read this website, you’ll know that the spirit of Halloween lasts all year regardless of the calendar.. 

In the light, I was perusing some British fishwrappers and discovered some interesting commentary from Donald Macinnes in the UK INDEPENDENT and some not so kind words about America’s craze with zombies–and how dislike of the British culture being so accepting of it..

From the article,

I first noticed the bloated US obsession with the 31st day of October many years ago, during one of my annual trips to visit my sister in Florida. I tended to travel there in late autumn, mainly because the climate is at its most tolerable then, with the late summer hurricanes having abated and the mosquitos taking a breather from all the raging sucking.

Every year, I got more and more amazed at the scale of the American approach to Halloween. Unlike in this country, where it took a distant back seat to fireworks fight, the Guy Fawkes-free calendar in the US meant Halloween was the be-all-and-end-all – certainly until the next holiday, Thanksgiving, trundled into view in late November.

It’s gets meaner. Really. Written as only a Brit could write,

And things didn’t end with ringing someone’s doorbell. Now kids get a handful of responsibly sourced tofu treats just for turning up, but we had to do something to earn our fun-size Mars bar – maybe sing a song or tell a joke. I would tend to have one joke ready that I would trot out at every door.

And while this incarnation of Halloween may not have swollen the coffers of Tesco or Aldi quite as much, at least we had our dignity. I’m joking, of course.

A big giant ouch.

Of course cruel or not cruel, it does not matter.

As a matter of fact, right now as I write this brief post, my personal Facebook feed is filled with my friends’ photos of their barhopping.. adorned with the most ghoulish of attire, sexualized in nature, they are gratifying themselves at a watering hole of their choice and carelessly drinking the night away. Their makeup is running but that’s the point: It’s the makeup of blood, zombies, and gore. 

Yes, America is filled with the nightmares of Elm Streets around the world. But most of those pastimes of Halloween are borrowed. Let’s not forget where bobbing for apples comes from..where Samhain comes from..where all of the customs and traditions come from. Not America. We’re the melting pot. We get them from everywhere else. 

Including you Britland.

So don’t let your tea run cold. And we can have our zombies.

After all England.. you have your problems, too.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7-uC0LDllM?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=375]

IT’S ALMOST TIME KIDS..

GET YOUR MASKS.

IT’S ALMOST TIME.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Is that candy or Ecstasy? Halloween warnings spook parents

It’s the scare of our time!

It will not be razor blades in apples–kids don’t eat them anymore.. not it’s ecstasy in the candy..

From CBS NEWS:

Parents across the country may have been spooked by warnings spread through social media in recent days, raising fears that Ecstasy tablets could be mistaken for brightly colored Halloween candy – potentially putting children at risk.

Police in Jackson, Mississippi, posted about it on their Facebook page, and the warning went viral.

“If your kids get these for Halloween candy, they ARE NOT CANDY,” the post said. “They are the new shapes of Ecstasy and can kill kids through overdoses!!!”

But don’t panic.

This is yet another baseless fear for Halloween–one spread by rumor and now helped by social networking.

It twas always thus and always thus shall be.

I can see the scares of the future: There may be nanotechnology in your Butterfinger.

Is that candy or Ecstasy? Halloween warnings spook parents

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bia9Yppa0B4?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]

This is a good video.. 100 years of Halloween costumes that women have worn.

Yes, the 1980s were scary because of the style.

But in my opinion, the 1925 edition of Halloween may be the creepiest and more frightening of all.. it was intended to be fun. But as time beats on, the look has become sinister and mentally disturbing..

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

TACKY HALLOWEEN DECOR CREATES GLOBAL STIR

TACKY HALLOWEEN DECOR CREATES GLOBAL STIR

Some people have inflatable monsters that annoy neighbors for seasonal decor.. others showcase brutal scenes of torture and death and get worldwide news attention. Such is the case at two venues in the United States, one in Ohio and one in New Jersey. Both have attracted worldwide media, a UK DAILY MAIL pictorial, and days worth of attention on the Drudge Report. The front yard of a house in…

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Today was Sunday squash slicing day..
It turned out well.
A pumpkin to represent each member of the family except the dog. We forgot that one..
But the human are all accounted for in squash form.

Tis the season

Have you ever wondered what the most popular horror movies were in your state and zip code? 

Now you can find out.. with the help of the Halloween Express website, a complete summation and scientific (I assume) study has been listed to show what’s what around you, and if you’re in the mainstream of horror movie watchers .. 

The big surprise for me: ALIENS is the most popular horror movie in the entire nation except for the states of Rhode Island and Delaware. Those states like PSYCHO. 

DIMENSION IS READY FOR THE NEXT 'HALLOWEEN'.. BUT I DON'T THINK FANS ARE

Horror sites and movie message boards have been a buzz today after BLOODY DISGUSTING linked a SCHMOEKNOW report indicating that Dimension Films is ready for a new Halloween movie.. with a new Akkad..

It will be entitled HALLOWEEN: THE NEXT CHAPTER. Apparently it will be set for a fall 2015 release—imagine the first one came out in the late 1970s and we are STILL talking about the Michael Myers franchise *(amazing)*..

According to the report, too, Rob Zombie will not reprise his role as the official ruiner of something great.. No gorefest? not sure.. no storyline? maybe not.. But.. it’s going to be a ‘fresh’ take on the Zombie films. Whatever that may mean.

A new chapter, I guess..

The first thing I thought about the new film.. Didn’t we already have a slasher ‘chapter’ before? We did.. it was called FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER. Which was not the final chapter at all.. this new HALLOWEEN is the new Chapter.. And the second thing I thought: I don’t want a new chapter. I don’t want another Dr. Loomis, or another tale of Michael Myers.. or any other references to him in new films. I want him confined to Halloween 1 and 2.. I wanted him to have blown up in a Haddonfield hospital, never to return again.. I wanted Mr. Sandman to be the last thing I thought about when I recalled the Halloween movies. 

Instead we have ended up with years of crap.. just plain garbage.. trashed heaped on us like weighted down rubbish .. Halloween 4? It was …alright. 5? Oh too much… 6? Ungodly.. 6 the director’s cut? Even worse.. H20? Josh Hartnett couldn’t even save it.. 8? Oh God live streaming from the Myers house? Rob Zombie..? Please stop this madness.. A new chapter? CLOSE THE BOOK.

This all needs to end..

Dr. Loomis shot him six times. And then set him on fire.. And John Carpenter wanted it that way.

Take the mask off.
Shatner called. He wants his face back.

Horror movies called.. they want the Akkads to stop making Halloween.. And now someone just needs to pass that along to DIMENSION—the company living in another dimension where reality doesn’t seem to exist when it comes to horror movie series that have just gone on toooo long..

Sorry Mike. We’ve had enough!

IT’S HALLOWEEN.

The day everyone is entitled to one good scare..

The best book covers ever—-and some of the best books ever, too. I remember being frightened of these imaginative stories as a child—some have stuck with me ever since. 

There was a yearly ‘book fair’ that would show up in my grade school. I went to a Catholic school, so nice child-friendly books were proudly on display. But if you looked hard enough, you can find these books there.. I bought it sneakily, as though I was doing something bad, and tucked it away in my bookbag until I got home. I’d read it at night, and covered myself with blankets when I heard the house squeak….

They were scary stories to tell in the dark…

And if I’m not mistaken, they still exist somewhere in my house. I just have to find them…

When I do my son will inherit the treasure..

A haunted history of Halloween.. 

THE WEEK OF THE WITCH

The season of the witch is here.. for some, this is the time of year where the thin line between reality and ‘over there’ vanishes for a while.. Ancient tradition would cause us to wear those costumes, carve those Jack O’Lanterns..

Pagan rituals that persist today.

It’s also a time where, in my opinion, I feel it becomes a virtual ‘full moon’ for the week.. The strange, the creepy, the macabre. It begins today..

Everyone acts slutty on Halloween, and uses costumes as a cover to ‘go wild’ and hook up with strangers

Oh.. This from the NEW YORK POST.

Glad I’m home.

Did you waste $50 bucks on a Miley Cyrus costume back in September? 

TWERK IT.

The Internet has changed everything. That we know. It comes in like a wrecking ball.

Today USA TODAY explains in an interesting report just how the net has now changed Halloween..

Remember back in September when Miley Cyrus costumes were flying off the shelf? Well that was so then.. This is now. And the ‘now’ is defined by the internet meme of the day, the topic and trend of the moment—and those trends can change by the moment.

And in that sense, basing your costume off of a trend can show how ‘dated’ you are—the ‘dating’ of years back would take months. These days it takes minutes..

USA TODAY opens its article with the trying tale of a woman from Arizona . She bought her Miley Cyrus costume but will not be wearing it to the Halloween party… I wonder how many other people are in the same boat as her? A foam finger collecting dust already.. a skimpy outfit hanging up… waiting to be worn but probably never will be…

USA TODAY goes on to report this, 

In 1984, the cool kids went as Freddy Krueger; in 1994, they went as one of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; and in 2006, they were Barack Obama, according to a 30-year look back at best-sellers from Spirit Halloween, the largest seasonal Halloween retailer in the country, with 725 locations across the United States and Canada

The first thing this quote tells me is how uncool I have always been.. I keep un-dusting my Freddy outfit on a regular basis.. It’s so old that the mask is ripped up the back of the head and I am not forced to wear it with a hoodie—actually making it a little more frightening in my opinion.

But enough about me, back to YOU. 

The history of costumes is a stroll down amnesia lane in pop culture. 

There aren’t many homemade ghosts anymore.. replacing them? The sexy and skimpy outfits of nurses who seem to want sex more than candy.

In our current times of virtual trick or treating, kids come and go. IN my personal opinion, I rarely even know what they are anymore.. they don’t seem to know either..

Of course, 20-somethings will wear their makeup and outfits with little material, go to that bar and achieve success: Drunken sex with a ‘sexy’ Superman costume laying on the floor. The dignity they lost in the process was priceless, but what do they care? They’re not 30 yet..

Halloween has changed .. It still changes. Abruptly. 

An "Old Jail" review

I feel I have done a great disservice to readers.. I had a wonderful experience this weekend at a ‘haunted’ attraction and failed to do any in depth posting about it.. My apologies..

I am relatively close to the beautiful town  of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. If you are too, or willing to take a drive to get there, it’s worth the travels over the next few weeks until the end of the Halloween season.

The town itself is filled with culture, classy restaurants, cool stores, and one of the most interesting court houses you’ll ever be in: The Old Jail.

If you have a lack of knowledge of the coal region of Pennsylvania, know only this: Coal barons were in charge at one time. There were company stores.. there was slave labor.. child labor .. any kind of labor. Deaths in coal minds occurred regularly. Even  the town of Ashland, PA, in Schuylkill County, had a hospital established that, at that time, served only the miners who succumbed to often life threatening injuries in their daily work. I have miners who were in my family.. A great grandfather that I sadly never met had a career in mining before his untimely death prior to my birth in 1980..

And also know this: Molly MaGuires became the first true labor union that organized and often fought their way to social justice. It’s worth your research or simple Google searches if you wanted to read anything further about the Mollys and their brand of unionization..

The ‘old jail’, then the Carbon County Prison, Molly Maguires who were convicted of murder (that they perhaps never committed) and met their fate: Public hangings.

The Old Jail Museum website explains the story of why their prison this way with emphasis added by me in bold:

"The building is best known as the site of the hanging of seven Irish coal miners known as Molly Maguires in the 1800s. On June 21, 1877, today known as the Day of the Rope, Alexander Campbell, Edward Kelly, Michael Doyle and John Donohue were hanged at the same time on gallows erected inside the Old Jail Museum cell block. On March 28, 1878, Thomas P. Fisher was hanged here, and on January 14, 1879, James McDonnell and Charles Sharp were hanged on the same gallows. Historians today feel the Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation (a coal/railroad company) initiated an investigation through a private detective agency (Pinkerton Detectives), a private police force (the Coal & Iron Police) arrested the alleged offenders, and private attorneys (employees of the coal companies) prosecuted these men. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided only the courtroom and the gallows. “

The site goes on to explain this, bringing in that strange paranormal element:

"Before their hanging, the men proclaimed their innocence and today historians believe many of the condemned men were falsely accused of murder. Before his hanging one of the man, thought to be Alexander Campbell, put his hand on the dirty floor of his cell and then placed it firmly on the wall proclaiming, " This handprint will remain as proof of my innocence." That handprint is visible today for everyone to view even though past wardens tried to eradicate it by washing it, painting it, and even taking down part of the wall and replastering it.”

Not mentioned in the description: Children of the rich, powerful, and important in then Mauch Chunk, were playing on the gallows the night before the hangings. The privileged few were reportedly mocking the men who would die the next day at the hands of injustice and wealthy coal barons being in charge of law..

I did see the hand print in cell block 17 when I was there.. You are not permitted to photograph the hand or touch it. No photos because, money talked and the current owners copyrighted the print.. Smart move, I suppose.  So while you may not be able to have a photo proving you saw the hand, you can buy some sweat pants to prove it!

The overall atmosphere wasn’t filled with actors jumping from behind curtains, or groans in the dark with speakers.. No, this ambiance of the Old Jail Museum is just plain, maybe low key to some, and filled with dark history for others. The real paranormal story is the hand print—and a couple other little tales, probably tall, of whispers and pats on the back.. One of the tour guides told me after the show that he is aware of a female tour guide that, during one particular evening, had her hair not only touched but moved up into the air while she was conducting her presentation..   The website has a few photos of ‘ghosts’.. I personally did not see any this weekend when I was there, though I really didn’t want to. There is a certain amount of ‘ghost hunting’ that I find a little disingenuous. If there are truly spirits, I don’t think we should talk to them.. I am sure they’ll talk to us if they need something.  Sometimes it’s better to let things be….without the EVPs …(A few folks did have recorders on my experience)..

The aspect of the Old Jail Museum that amazed me more was the history of it all: This old jail, filled with concrete windowless solitary confinement cells and a history of wrongful public hangings, was still used until 1995 after an inmate sued the county for'wretched housing' at the prison.. imagine! A cell in which prisoners were being injured on a regular basis just under 20 years ago.. My friend remarked to me, ‘imagine a guy being picked up for drunk driving, being put into a cell with a freaky hand print that never goes away?’ …too true.

Some researchers have tried their best to debunk the hand..  The very idea of the hand has been  the talk of the town for decades.. Some still think it’s a fraud.. others think it’s a sign of innocence.. 

Other legends of the area are as profound.. For example, Molly Maguires were being called out during church services at Saint Ignatius in Centralia Pennsylvania (maybe you’ve heard of this town, the ‘hottest place on earth’?) .. a priest was reportedly taken to the back of the cemetery where he was beaten by activist Mollys.. The priest then,  legend would say,  condemned the town to misery. A mine fire later consumed it and now only a few people remain under imminent domain.. 

Tales like that are fun.. curses, hexes, and stories of mystery and intrigue.

And while the Old Jail Museum may not scare you as other attractions, it will allow you to get a glimpse into the past, examine your present, and wonder about your future. Did Alexander Campbell leave his mark for generations to come? …and the deeper question… did the Molly Maguires win the battle against unfair corporations, or are they still in charge?

The photo you’re looking at is an example of Victorian post-mortem photography.

Our modern world may call this creepy and weird. But think of the times it happened in.. kids weren’t living very long due to disease and other issues. A big family of 10 could be taken down to much less due to some type of medical ailment. The photos, though taken so long ago, still reverberate with some bit of ‘strange’ quality.. but I find it to be just an example of how we, the living, deal with death. Maybe this does not happen now, but for it’s time, it was a touching tradition that was meant to honor the people taken too soon from life. Perhaps these photos are not for the squeamish..

What are the trending costumes so far? You guessed it.. Miley Cyrus is looming large over Halloween 13..
Cyrus costumes flying off the shelf..

Thanks Miley. Now you ruined Halloween. 

Who killed October horror movies? Who cares?

A very interesting story is appearing in USA TODAY, today.. Who killed the Halloween horror movies is the title, and the article goes in depth on how October has become an unusually quiet month for horror flicks—only the remake of CARRIE is really set to scare this month. … and USA TODAY concludes this, which I agree with: Horror has become such a successful genre that you would not be able to fit all the hits into one month. The summer has been another time where horror has seen a build influx of cash.. 

As someone who is dating myself in my less than youthful invigoration, I think things began to change around the the turn of the century from 1999 to 2001.. We saw hits happen in the summer, like THE SIXTH SENSE, the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and JEEPERS CREEPERS. It was clear to studios then, as it is now, that you don’t need leaves changing and cooler nights to entice movie goers to be scared. And in the summer, you have another good thing: Kids aren’t in school and are more inclined to do late movies. 

Either way, I don’t get angry or sad that October features few horror movies—most of them are less than watchable anyway to me..

My horror movie marathon for the season typically happens the night before or the night of Halloween, and is filled with only the first John Carpenter HALLOWEEN version..

And sometimes for fun, I’ll throw in Halloween III for some laughs.. I don’t know why no one has remake H3, a modern version of the SILVER SHAMROCK themed film could actually make it better..

Finally, Hurricane Sandy victims get their Halloween *(in summer*)

You’ve heard of Christmas in July? And now you’ll hear about Halloween in August.. Kids get their Halloween nine months after Superstorm Sandy forced it to be canceled.. This is actually a pretty nice story to tell.. It’s good to see kids happy, especially after the misery that prevailed after Sandy ravaged the entire region..

Speaking of Halloween, this is probably what I want to go as this year. 

Just saying..

Hallow's eve already?!

I was shocked when I entered my local convenient market a few days ago and saw pumpkin and other assorted Halloween candy already on prominent display.. I was puzzled, befuddled, but at the same time very static to know that the summer he will soon end and turn into the beautiful autumn weather to come..

But just as quick I remembered, “my god this is summertime”! This is not the time to display a time no decorations or seasonal candy, it is the time to celebrate liberty and beauty, heat and those glorious summer nights of teenage lure.. It would seem that the marketing doesn’t necessarily reflect the glory days of the summer season, after all it appears that those powers that be would rather rush the season through and make you forget that the dog days of August are still to come..

And then came my trip to the mall.

One of my favorite places starting around September this to walk into the Spirit Halloween store. I have always loved this place, it is like shopping for Christmas months before the Christmas holiday season begins.. Ghosts and goblins and terrorizing creatures crawling on the floor, costumes which seem to grow a little more sexual every year, and those rubber knives with blood spattering inside with the push of a button. It is truly a wonderful place to shop!

But yet again to my surprise, be Wildermuth, and secret deep down joy, I saw a sign at the mall that the Spirit Halloween store is now hiring. I guess it is not too early when you need to find seasonal help.. And even though I enjoy those dog days of August I have yet to happen, I also enjoy the anticipation of waiting for my favorite season of all: autumn..

The anticipation will begin in earnest this year, aided by the inclusion of some early pants and signs of the season courtesy of those brilliant marketing executives high aloft and aloof in a city somewhere out there..

Coming this September: Christmas decorations and 2014 New Year’s hats! stay tuned for that