Halloween: Season of the Witch

I suppose that I should apologize for borrowing from the film, Halloween III: Season of the Witch for using part of their title for my heading; however, since that film is so universally [Censored by WW editorial staff], they may actually wish to offer us some residuals for bringing it up in the first place. In any event, I mean only to speak of the season that we are currently in, which is, of course, Halloween.

Now, being a church-going, Bible-thumping, Bible-believing kind of guy, I could easily write a very long post about several reasons why we should not want anything to do with such a date and the supposed thinning of the veil. Thankfully, this is not the forum for such posts, and personally I let this particular “holiday” pass by like water off the proverbial duck’s back. We have never really decorated our house or yard, but that wasn't because we had taken some concrete, unyielding stance or another. We just never have. My sons did go trick or treating. How else was my wife going to get her chocolate fix? Okay, I wanted some candy, too. I kind of like the whole ghosts and goblins craziness...as long as there are no "real" apparitions to be seen in my house in the middle of the night. Some of you may know just how early I have to get up in the morning for my day-job; if there were some "things in the dead of night", I would definitely "bump" into them.

How about some of you folks? Are there any traditions that you enjoy, regarding this particular season? Do you decorate your yard or the inside of the house? Do you have small children or grandchildren that you dress up and escort about town, hunting for treats? The following photo is of Disney's Haunted Mansion after it has been transformed into The Nightmare Before Christmas. They do this for the holidays and not necessarily every year. Speaking of someone who has visited Disneyland in Anaheim, California quite often, it is spectacular to behold.

[caption id="attachment_3756" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Disney's Haunted Mansion"][/caption]There is one thing that I would like to do, but continue to fail at and that is hunting for horror films to watch. When I was a teenager, back when Nosferatu was a new film, I used to enjoy watching scary things (I was kidding about Nosferatu; I hope you caught that). I grew up with Friday the 13^th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, John Carpenter films, and several other movies commonly regarded as Slasher Films. However, now that I think about it, I question whether we actually enjoyed those films, or simply partook of them because they were a bit of a taboo. Perhaps it was simply the thrill of watching something that our parents were barely allowing us to view, or that we were not allowed to do, but were doing so behind their backs anyway. Maybe it was a bit like that first drink, or the day we passed our driving test and could finally drive alone or our first [Once again,Censored by WW editorial staff] .

My problem now is I don’t think I have the stomach for senseless violence. I’m not terribly interested in something so formula-driven: several teenagers get together for drinking, doing drugs and having sex (yeah, I let that one go-the Censored joke had run its course) only to be hunted down, one by one, until the last one defeats the villain and survives; at least until the sequel. I’m not interested in torture porn, either. These days I prefer to be pulled along by The Sixth Sense or White Noise or The Silence of the Lambs or something that is more mentally frightening than physically disgusting.

How about you folks? Do you enjoy scary movies during this season of the year? If so, what are your favorites? Perhaps you may even help me by pointing out some films that I should really give a chance to. I’m always ready for a good ghost story, for example. Recently I have thought about watching certain films, The Messengers or The Skeleton Key come to mind, but I just never really took the plunge. Part of the reason has to do with having no one to view these films with; my wife can’t watch anything the least bit scary and my oldest son is barely at that age now. I let him watch Silence about a year ago and he sat there quiet as that lamb that finally stopped screaming when it was over, mind fully blown. When I have watched these films, I have had to do it on a laptop in the privacy of the back bedroom, so nobody else would see what they most definitely did not wish to see.

In any event, I am open, so what have you got? I would love to hear from any and all of you on this subject.

No matter how you view Halloween, may it be a safe one.

And if you must say Candyman or Beetlejuice, please refrain from saying it no more than twice…

…and never in my presence. I like all of my ghosts on the printed page.
[caption id="attachment_3757" align="aligncenter" width="198" caption="Watch out for hitchhiking ghosts."][/caption]

Scary Fictional Creature

[caption id="attachment_3646" align="alignleft" width="247" caption=""It doesn't know we're here...""][/caption]

This was a most difficult topic to decide upon which character to write about. My first thought was to write about the fabled Sasquatch. Unfortunately, there was a sighting, so that canceled that notion. Then, because I was listening to “Synchronicity 2” by The Police, I decided to write about Nessie. You know the lyric, “…something crawls from the slime at the bottom of a dark Scottish Lake”. Sadly, a Twitter news alert came through that there was yet another sighting there, too. Delete, delete, delete.

[caption id="attachment_3648" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Nessie"][/caption]

Stymied yet again, I simply stared at the monitor while I awaited the muse. Eventually, she brought me something terrible, but incredibly useful. Glancing out the front window, I happened to notice perhaps the ugliest dog that I have ever seen, which sparked a memory. Here in the Americas we have this urban legend about wild reptilian dogs that attacks goats and other farm animals. They are called El Chupacabra. Just when I started getting all excited, juices flowing, fingers flying over the keyboard as if not really touching them, beautiful elegant prose singing across the monitor…the muse tapped me on the shoulder. She was pointing at the television and shaking her head from side to side, wearing a most disappointed frown. There, on a cable tabloid news show, a farmer in Texas was claiming that he had recently killed two of the creatures on his farm. It was then that I quoted the great John Hammond from Jurassic Park when he uttered arguably the most eloquent line ever heard on the screen, “Damn!”

(editor's note: the writer had planned to post a photo of the Chupacabras, but since every one was so freakin' ugly, he decided against it. You're welcome, by the way)

[caption id="attachment_3650" align="alignleft" width="229" caption="I miss the West Wing"][/caption]

I knew in the back of my mind, were I to fail to decide on something to write about, that I had a couple of go-to characters that I could use: honest politicians being one of them. However, I felt that there were some others; I simply needed to keep my nose to the grindstone until I figured out what they were. Eventually it came to me: the flying monkeys in the classic film, The Wizard of Oz. Those things scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. Even now (Anyone else hear Manilow singing just now? "Even now"?), should I start to reach for the DVD in order to put it inside the shopping cart, it is the first thought that comes to me. I don’t remember exactly just what is was about them, but I have yet to forget them, even after all of these years.

Have you had enough of my futile attempts at humor?

Alright then, perhaps a moment of seriousness is in order. There are but two fictional characters that stay with me. Linda Blair’s demon-possessed Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist and the creature from the film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Unnamable.

Being the church-going fellow that I am, nothing gets any worse for me than the works of the devil. I have mentioned many times across the blogs this year, and should be firmly on record, as having scared myself with The Exorcist on every occasion. Other than reruns on television with edited versions of the film, I had never really seen it until about ten years ago when I bought my first DVD player and began snatching up special editions of DVDs as fast as humanly possible, and much to my wife’s chagrin. I have seen this film another two or three times since then and it never fails to ruin my sleep for a couple of days. One might ask why I continue to put myself in such positions. You can ask, but I don’t have a good answer for that. Dropped on my head as an infant?

While I'm at it, I have a chilling anecdote which I have shared before on the blog of Wicked Writer friend, Carole Gill. The first time that I watched the film, I did so over a couple of days. I had an hour or so between the time that I got off work and the time when my mother would bring my young children home from school. I was across the living room from the television, sitting on a couch. Beside me there on the right was a large table and upon it sat a large potted plant. On the second day when little Regan's transformation was complete, the DVD froze and that nasty demon-possessed girl stared at me. During this moment while I was waiting to see whether the film would resume or not, one of the plant's leaves slid down the wall, making the most audible of rubbing sounds. I turned toward the sound with a jump that I'll not soon forget and yelled at the plant, "Don't do that!" Here's what I was staring at:

[caption id="attachment_3651" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=""Your momma knits socks that smell!""][/caption]

The other film that I mentioned is one of those that I came across by accident in a video store. (What’s that, you ask? A video store? A topic for another week, perhaps.) Anyway, I had read some Lovecraft during that time and thought that I would give it a go. There is nothing creepier than laying awake at night, waiting for sleep to come upon you and suddenly imagining a terrible apparition or monster coming at you while you are unable to get away. That is precisely what I recall about this film. The characters investigate this house that had a terrible legend and they could not get away. See for yourself just how horrible it was:

[caption id="attachment_3653" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I've got a name for it!"][/caption]

Well, that's my list. What might be on your list? We have seen many films this week, some gruesome and some laughable due to the passage of time. Sometimes the scare is real and fresh. Sometimes the scare feels all-too real but is decades old. Tell us what scares you this or any other Halloween.

Contest: My friends, now that I've got you all creeped out, I'm hosting our latest contest. Once again I'm offering an e-book copy of my first novel, Dance on Fire. I guarantee that it is much scarier than flying monkees, but not nearly as frightening as a demon-possessed Regan MacNeil. I hope you'll ask for it and give it a chance.

TEN FOUR… (and a competition, again)

No, this is not an Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International announcement in the affirmative. It is an oblique reference to our schedule and this week’s topic – scary movies. (Well, I did to a light double-check as, being a Brit, I wondered whether I could get away with suggesting I got the wrong date… Four Ten would have got me off the subject entirely!)

But first, this time... The Competition… which I find I am hosting again. Now, is this a new competition? Or is this week two of the competition in my last post? Questions, questions!

However, after my last post, I also wondered …dare I venture forth? Not one entry to win a copy of my book…  :(

Come on, guys, it’s not that bad! Honest. And just to show there are no hard feelings, the competition will remain open… and I will give away two copies, one each to the two best answers. So, come on, and give it a go!  Follow the link!The comp is at the bottom of my last post.

What next? Ah... The schedule! That’s what!"

Favourite scary movies? I wish it had been Four Ten! Or at least Four One – April 1^st would have suited me better.

 

[caption id="attachment_3588" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Abandon hope..."][/caption]

 

I do recall, as a child, watching black and white talkies from the Hammer House of Horrors and other studios. I think I even recall mentioning the Pit and the Pendulum in an earlier post (but having been born with a mild case of something like Alzheimer’s, my memory has always been hazy).

Other titles seemed to revolve around the actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee – which just goes to show, I must have watched a few such films in my youth. I cannot remember many actors’ names at all! But, try as I might, I cannot say I have remained a fan of the genre or, indeed, continued to watch any scary movies of any age. (The one exception being, I suppose, Sean of the Dead – and only because someone told me it was funny!)

What gets me is that I find – letting my imagination run away with me – that there is enough in real life that is a good base for “scary”…  “suspense”… “thrills”… or whatever.

 

[caption id="attachment_3589" align="alignleft" width="112" caption="Interesting... tee hee!"][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="attachment_3590" align="alignright" width="150" caption="More interesting... I have an idea!"][/caption]

 

I do, though, have a confession. The conflation between real life and scary movies happened early for me… at the age of (ahem, clears throat… and mumbles incomprehensible sound). After the Pit and the Pendulum, I had a brilliant idea. I tied my younger brother to a soapbox cart in the cellar of our house (when no one else was there). He lay prone, motionless (relatively speaking) under the wooden beams of the floor above. I then proceeded to construct a pendulum from an axe and rope… (and before you call in social services, I was well trained in knots – being a Sea Scout).

I set the axe swinging and…"

Well, my brother is still around – I hasten to add. And he doesn’t seem too afflicted by the experience! Furthermore, following his Close Protection training with the Military Police and more recent Canadian Special Forces Training, I am unlikely ever to attempt such a stunt again!

I suppose, since recreating such a famous scary movie scene in the bowels of my mother’s house, cinematography has never really offered the same sense of reality. But that is my excuse. Now I just find it more challenging to create suspense on a less-is-more basis.

And I guess my brother might be thinking...

…it’s a good job we didn’t have computer games to play with in those days.”

So, who else out here in reader/writer land thinks that there is enough “scary” to be found in "reality"?