Chilling Challenge! (#7)
I’ve seen a lot of chatter about the upcoming holidays, and how a lot of us won’t get to spend them the way we normally would. Stupid pandemic.
It got me thinking about Halloween. Say you decide it’s best to stay home, whether for safety reasons, or just because. At the same time, you don’t want to waste it, especially since Halloween falls on a blessed SATURDAY this year.
For this week’s Chilling Challenge, map out the perfect Halloween-at-home.
What would you do? What would you watch? What would you eat? How would you celebrate Halloween if you had a whole ass day to do it, but had to do it at home?
To tell you the truth, it wouldn’t be a major hardship for me. Doing something on October 31st has been a rarity all through adulthood. We do have tentative (outdoor) plans this year, though I’ve been spooked enough by the recent spikes to reconsider them.
I think I’d run background movies throughout the day — meaning stuff I’ve seen a zillion times and don’t necessarily need to pay attention to. Movies like Halloween 4 and Dream Warriors. Then in “prime time” — assuming I’m not wasting valuable hours online — I’d pick a movie I actually haven’t seen. Maybe something like Doctor Sleep.
It’s easy to say that I’d just eat candy all day, but I think I’ve taste-tested enough of it this month. If I’m having an “oh fuck it, it’s Halloween” sort of day, I’m definitely ordering pizza. (Now that I’ve written that, I really, really hope I have an “oh fuck it” day on Halloween.)
I’d make sure our spookily-scented candles were lit in every room, and open as many windows as I could stand. “Halloween air” hits different, and even if it’s the exact same temperature on November 1st, it won’t have the same flavor.
By 11, I assume I’d be crocked on vodka and ready to toss on Halloween-themed episodes of various sitcoms.
Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but it’s what would make me happy.
Your turn! Map out how you’d do Halloween-at-home this year, in the comments!
(Missed last week’s Chilling Challenge? It’s over here.)
Frightening Free-For-All Thread! (#6)
It’s October! The world is completely imploding and everything is super fucked up, but it’s October!
We all knew this was gonna be a strange Halloween season, but… wow. Real world stuff is dominating our attention these days, but I hope you’re still able to swipe a few moments to revel in spooky trivialities here and there!
Maybe this week’s run of After Dark posts will help? Once you’re done here, scroll down and check out the new Sinister Survey, Chilling Challenge and Macabre Movies of the Week.
This is your Frightening Free-For-All Thread. Talk about whatever you want (well, except the real world), all week long!
Sinister Survey! (#6)
For this week’s Sinister Survey, I’m curious if y’all have anything on your MUST-DO lists for October.
One reason I’ve become such a proponent of celebrating the Halloween season early is because IT FLIES BY. Really, it does, and that thing you’ve heard about time moving faster as you get older? It’s totally true.
In many ways, this’ll be the quickest October of our lives. With that in mind, what are some of the things you simply MUST do before Halloween is over?
I’ll start with a few of mine:
1) There are a few chain restaurants (or just food-related businesses) that have limited edition Halloween goodies available. I don’t want to name ‘em because it’d be spoiling future articles, but yeah, all of those are on my list.
2) Go to a drive-in. We have a few that are arguably close enough, but it’s still a trek. All of them are running impossibly cool movies tied to the season. I have sooo many options, and I’ll be really mad at myself if I let this whole season slip by without indulging at least once.
3) Do two videos before Halloween. Obviously this has not been a “video season” for me, but I know I gotta do at least one more. I’d like to aim for two. Fortunately, I have something I specifically bought for a video (at great expense), so I expect I will succeed. It would be an enormous waste not to!
4) Carve a pumpkin and roast the seeds. Yeah, it’s obvious, but I could see this being one of those things I randomly forget to do. Fortunately, I bought a pumpkin weeks ago, and it’s a great one. Shaped just like the one from the intro to Halloween, actually.
Your turn! Big or small, name some of the things you’ve just GOTTA DO before November 1st!
(To view last week’s Sinister Survey, click here.)
Macabre Movies of the Week! (#6)
If you’ll permit me to swipe text from Wikipedia, ABC Weekend Specials was a “weekly 30-minute American television anthology series for children that aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1977 to 1997, which featured a wide variety of stories that were both live-action and animated.”
I noticed that several episodes had a spooky slant, so for this edition of Macabre Movies of the Week, all three videos were originally eps of that show!
First up is Bunnicula, the Vampire Rabbit. While this originally aired in 1982, it looks like this particular broadcast — which includes the original commercials — aired in October of ‘83.
And then we have The Red Room Riddle, a ghost story about kids trapped in a haunted mansion. This broadcast is from 1984, and it’s another one with all of the original ads still intact.
Last but not least, Monster in My Pocket: The Big Scream, which aired very close to Halloween back in 1992. It’s kind of an origin story. If you grew up collecting the figures, this is a real treat!
Enjoy! If you’d like to check out the previous Macabre Movies of the Week, they’re over here.
