Happy BOOSday!

I mean like ghosts, but if you need a midday drink I don't blame you!

Hi Gang!

I hope you’re having a spooky Tuesday - fun spooky, not engulfed by flames or taken down by COVID spooky. If you’re having trouble getting into the Halloween spirit because there’s too much real horror in the world, I’ve got just the balm for you!

Last week I launched, It’s Always Halloween. A new bite-sized podcast that delves deep into the dark history of my favorite horror-filled holiday. It’s family-friendly and educational, so feel free to share it with your young friends as well. No swears and only one Austin Powers reference. New episodes come out every Tuesday and Friday!

I’ve really enjoyed getting back into research, although, my curious nature is absolutely a burden when I’m up against a deadline and can’t stop clicking on Ancient History Encyclopedia links. “I came here for the Celts and now I’m looking at *squints at title* Achilles and the Ant-Men of Antiquity!”

It’s Always Halloween also has a fun hotline inspired by the creepy 900 numbers of my youth. Don’t worry, you don’t have to pay $2/min if you call.

Give me a jingle and share a spooky story, or ask for some Halloween advice. I’ll be including voicemails on future episodes. I’m dying to hear from you!

Okay, please allow me a quick and graceless moment of gushing! A stranger on the internet found the podcast and made this meme! I’ve never been memed before, but I gotta say it feels great. If you want to brighten the day of an acquaintance or maker who is extremely online make them a personal meme. This brought me several minutes (if not hours) of joy and in these times, boy that’s saying something.

Treats with Tricks

The easiest way for me to get into a Hallomood BESIDES listening to hours of crackling fireplaces on youtube is buying and nibbling at novelty Halloween candy. I say nibbling at because my dumb adult tongue hates drugstore chocolate now. So I enjoy the packaging design and a bite or two before I hurl the rest at Isaac’s sweet tooth.

Here are a few grotesque things I’ve been chomping on:

The Cadbury Screme Egg, seen here appropriately enough with a piece of Scream art by artist Paige Guggemos, looks perfectly disgusting with a taste to match. But that packaging! I mean the wordplay alone was worth the cost of this monstrosity.

Next up, something much better in taste, but slightly disappointing in execution.

The Reese’s Frankencup is regular-sized, with a light green “creme” bottom that maybe tastes slightly different? If you close your eyes and declare AH A NEW TASTE! as you eat them, you can definitely convince yourself they’re totally not at all like the regular run of the mill cups. These are cute, but feel like a GIANT missed opportunity. If you’re gonna evoke Frankenstein, shouldn’t these cups be extra big? Made to look patchwork? Or maybe even brought to life with a brain from a human corpse?! I’m not trying to be unreasonable here, but a green hue on HALF a cup feels lazy!!

I’ve saved the best of the early treats for last. These aren’t new this year, but I had forgotten how captivating these were until I actually held them in my hands again.

Maple Creme Oreos and Spooky Halloween Design Oreos are the prize treats of the season so far. The Maple Cremes are so wildly sweet, that half a cookie will truly tide you over. They may cause 4-5 cavities, but these pack quite an autumnal wallop! The Spooky Design Oreos are pretty straightforward. They technically taste the same, but with the orange dyed creme and the 5 high-quality Halloween stamp designs, I think they actually taste better than regular Oreos.

Also seen in this picture, Halloween snakes purchased so long ago, I cannot tell you in which store NOR which state they were even acquired. I can, however, point you in the direction of Trick or Treat Studios which made one of the best Halloween purchases I indulged in last season. Pictured here is 1 of 6 pieces of Halloween (1978) wall decor similar to the classic paper wall decor from the early '60s. It melds my passion for the John Carpenter classic with my passion for the decorations my elementary school teachers use to adorn our classrooms with in the ‘90s.

Monster Movies

Over the last week at Vidéothéque we watched a few Universal Monster movies: Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Wolfman (1941), and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Adult customers coming in seemed mostly stoked about Creature and Bride, but kids of varying ages seemed taken by all of them. Depending on what level of stimulation the kiddos in your lives need, these creature features might be a fun, low-impact way to get them into horror. They’re definitely spooky and atmospheric, but totally bloodless. The violence is never shown, only implied, and I find the make-up is still astonishing and quite creepy.

Side note! If you want to learn more about the men behind the masks, I highly recommend this season of You Must Remember This about Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

We also revisited some terrifying classics from our youth at the store recently. After watching Return to Oz (1985) and The Princess Bride (1987) back to back, I recalled how scared I was of electroshock therapy as a child. I don’t watch every kids movie released these days, but I’m pretty sure none of the Frozens had Olaf getting his brains blitzed out. The ’80s really were SOMETHING. What supposedly kid-friendly movie instilled a life long fear in you at a young age?

You Need to See This!

If you’re looking for more horror or horror adjacent recommendations for the season, You Need to See This! has kicked off the Halloween season with two episodes that couldn’t be more different.

First, Jay Ryan from Sludge Central and The Purple Stuff Podcast joins me to gush about another how-wild-is-it-that-this-is-PG-movie, The Burbs (1989)! You can listen to that episode here.

If you want to move away from horror-comedy into scarier territory check out the newest episode I did about my favorite gothic ghost story, The Others (2001). This is a movie that will make you fall in love with rustling velvet and big brass keys even as you are looking over your shoulder trying to figure out if you really just saw something move out of the corner of your eye.

Fans of Nicole Kidman (hi) will not be disappointed, she basically carries the movie with those incredible cheekbones.

I’m extra stoked about next week’s episode. We’re going to have the badass women from the film collective Monsterous Femme Films (MFF) on to discuss Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2.

What a poster! I’m ready to give Mary Lou my soul right now! I met Hannah, Emma, and Karlee of MFF at Oregon Scream Week last summer. My horror-comedy, Messed-Up, played alongside their Neo-Giallo, Fanatico. Theirs was my favorite short of my year-long film festival experience and you can watch it now on Alter.

Let me know if you’ve seen or loved any of these films. I’m always interested in my friends’ film opinions. Is there something I NEED to see this Halloween season? Let me know! I have 30k titles at my fingertips and sometimes it’s hard to know where to start!

I hope I’ve given you some delightful spooks to watch, eat, and listen to. Drat, we didn’t even get to books!

Well here are some visual recommendations for now! Oh, and did I mention Isaac and I got a new kitten?! Meet Bologna, he runs the book club. More, more, more to come!

For now, hug who you can, and that includes yourself. You’ve been through a lot and I’m proud of you for sticking with us. It’s not easy right now, I know. However, sometimes the right book/movie/novelty chocolate can remind us of the wonders life holds. So keep your eyes peeled, something very good is out there for you.

Lots of Love, Lucé