The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Counting down to Halloween with Boogeymen, Slashers, and more...
No matter what, as soon as the temperature dips to the mid-60s in September, it’s time for the spooky season! I’m getting my Pumpkin Spice Lattes, counting down to Halloween, and starting to plan my 31 Nights of Horror movie list. I’m also just a ghoul sitting here on the internet, watching folks head into Home Depot to purchase a 12 ft. skeleton that I can’t purchase because I live in an apartment in NYC!
Anyways Wes, my fiancé, and I are also looking forward to the end of October for a very special reason. While we had to pivot to a virtual celebration, we’re finally getting married! It’s not exactly what we planned, but that’s basically this year’s motto.
For this issue of Ghoul Gal, I’m going to be talking about some of my favorite movies set at Halloween to watch this October, the best Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM), as well as highlighting a new maker for my Creator Spotlight.
Viewer Beware…It’s a Halloween Movie Ranking!
No, not a Halloween franchise ranking. I’ll be ranking my top 5 movies set on/around Halloween to watch this October. Criteria for these include: rewatchability, scares, how fun the movie is, and of course, if it’s set on or around Halloween. Costumes are a bonus but not necessarily needed, though my fiancé would definitely disagree with me.
(photo credit: Trick ‘r Treat, Dir. Michael Dougherty)
5) Ginger Snaps (2000)
Ginger Snaps is one hell of a movie. I watched it for the first time during a 31 Nights of Horror viewing and I absolutely loved it. It’s so 2000s, angsty, and a great body horror movie. Plus it has a young Katherine Isabelle as the titular role. I absolutely love how this is a werewolf movie, yes, but it’s also an allegory for Ginger’s coming of age and burgeoning sexuality.
4) Scream (1996)
How could I make this list and not include Scream? While it doesn’t take place on Halloween night, it’s a perfect fall movie. The cast is stacked and its easy to see why it took off and became the mega-hit franchise. How many countless Ghostface costumes were made because of this movie? I remember there always being at least 5 different Ghostfaces at Halloween dances when I was a kid. And yes, the sequels aren’t as good as the first Scream, but you can bet your ass that I’ll be watching Scream 5 whenever it drops.
3) Hocus Pocus (1993)
I just rewatched Hocus Pocus and this movie is fall and Halloween incarnate. Every actor looks like they’re having a grand-old time, especially Bette Midler. The Salem setting only adds to the fun and atmosphere. And there are costumes galore! The “I Put a Spell on You” scene is always incredible and this movie just holds up thanks to its practical special effects.
2) Halloween (1978 & 2018)
I know this movie is like #1 for everyone because duh. But I’ll explain why my #1 is my #1. I do absolutely love the suburbia setting of both Halloweens. The POV shots from Michael Myers in the 1978 classic as he stalks Laurie Strode and her friends are incredible. Michael as The Shape is relentless and terrifying. It’s always what I watch day-of for Halloween. I also included its 2018 sequel because I consider it one of the best sequels made. Having Jamie Lee Curtis return as a traumatized and flawed mother/grandmother Laurie who has been preparing for decades for Michael’s return is astounding. Halloween 2018’s one-take shot of Michael going from house-to-house indiscriminately killing people is also one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. A double-feature of these two makes for one hell of a Halloween night in.
1)Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
Michael Dougherty’s 2007 movie was instantly a classic for me. I rewatch it every year. Its non-linear storytelling and the anthology format really adds to the story. There’s so many costumes and the small-town Ohio setting is *chef kiss*. The werewolf scene is probably my favorite parts about the movie. But I also have to give a shoutout to Quinn Lord’s creepy role of Sam, who is the physical embodiment of Samhain and has come to the fiction Warren Valley town to make sure that the rules of Halloween are being observed. The movie ultimately succeeds at playing with these Halloween rules and also turning some of the tropes on their heads. This movie, like Sam, is Halloween incarnate. It’s a love letter to both the genre and the holiday.
CW/TW: ableist slurs/ableism
One Good Scare — Don’t Look Under the Bed (1999)
Don’t Look Under the Bed is by far the scariest and best DCOM ever made. In fact, as Rotten Tomatoes reported, the movie “actually scared kids — and their parents — so much so that some parents asked Disney to stop airing it and the network obliged.” As a kid, I was able to catch this one airing on Disney along with Under Wraps, Mom’s Got a Date with a Vampire, and others. I’m definitely a “I do not fuck with porcelain dolls” person and this movie definitely has that, a scary as hell Boogeyman antagonist, and more.
Don’t Look Under the Place takes place in Middleburg, a suburban town in “the middle of the country” where 14-year-old Frances Bacon McCausland is about to start high school. We learn that she’s been able to skip a grade and that she has a younger brother, Darwin, and an older brother, Bert. Frances is type A, intelligent, and very logical. So when weird things start happening around town and she meets Larry Houdini, an older boy who only she can see, it turns her world upside down. Larry tells Frances that she’s being framed by the Boogeyman for egging a teacher’s car, spraying painting “B” on all of the lockers at school, and even for the gelatin-filled pool prank. Of course, Frances doesn’t quite believe this at first but soon changes her mind as the Boogeyman’s antics affect her relationship with friends and family. With Larry’s help, Frances begins to track down the Boogeyman to figure out why he’s targeting her and to defeat him.
Did this movie make me slightly afraid of what might lurk under my own bed? Yes! And when I tell y’all that this Boogeyman is horrifying, he really is. It’s an incredible and effective character design. Just look at him! And this was a DCOM! Definitely shows you why parents called it to get it taken off the air.
Besides the awesome Boogeyman, like all DCOMs, it’s just packed with a lot of good humor and fun. Its scares were well done and it’s a perfect October rewatch. If you’ve got Disney+, be sure to check it out, or rent it from another streamer. If I’m not convincing you enough, be sure to check out this very throwback promo trailer.
Slasher Walked So Among Us Could Run
I know, I know. This isn’t entirely true. It’s definitely not the first or the last social deduction game with a theme. There’s been countless others: Mafia, Town of Salem, and even the card game One Night: Ultimate Werewolf. Just this year, Among Us received so much acclaim and popularity that its developer has stopped developing a sequel to focus on the first one.
Back in my day, Nickelodeon had a spin-off on Noggin called The N. It was the teen-programming block that played Degrassi: The Next Generation and other shows like it. It also had an incredible website filled with dating simulators, role-playing games, and quizzes. And it also had Slasher!
Slasher’s theme was that of a Camp Crystal Lake-esque location called “Camp De-Cap-A-Lot.” You either played as a camper, one of several special ability-having players, or as the slasher. Each game lasted several “nights” where players tried to outsmart the designated slashers and vote them out. It also had its own chat feature where folks could try to convince people to vote out whoever they thought the slasher was.
At the height of the game’s popularity, the servers were so overloaded that it would give you an error message saying that there might be too many games running already. For those who were able to get a game session going, it was crapload of fun. I would stay up late into the night playing sessions or at least trying to.
Like all good things, the game was eventually taken off of The N when it rebranded and was merged into the now TeenNick site. While Mafia-like games are always a ton of fun, Slasher’s theme truly set it apart from the rest.
Creator Spotlight — Lively Ghosts
Lively Ghosts is probably one of my favorite creators out there that I found thanks to Instagram. One of my favorite things about the small shops on there is that they are always boosting up and supporting each other with cross-promotion. Which has been a huge help since I’ve started collecting enamel pins slowly over the last couple of years. I’ve found countless amazing shops, but one of my current favorites is Lively Ghosts.
Lively Ghosts was created by Lindsay Kaye and features enamel pins, art prints, and the incredibly popular Coffin Pin Boards. Each new collection drop features a theme and an assortment of new enamel pins or Coffin Boards. When I say that the pin boards are popular, they’re sell out in a few minutes popular. Lindsay makes over 100 for her shop updates and in minutes, every size and themed board sells out. I’ve managed to score two recently: a Haunted Mansion tombstone one and a Salem Witch Trials one. I also own her gorgeous Allerdale Hall from Crimson Peak art print which is part of her Houses of Horror series.
(photo credit: Lively Ghosts. Left: the ‘Salem’ Coffin Pin Board. Right: The ‘Salem’s Shadow’ Enamel Pin)
They’re incredibly well-built and perfect for displaying your pin collections whether directly on your wall with help from Command strips or on your shelves.
With October and the holidays coming up, Lively Ghosts is one amazing shop that you should check out if you want to shop small and have high-quality gifts.
As I mentioned in the beginning, I’m gearing up for my 31 Nights of Horror where I watch one horror movie a night to celebrate October and Halloween. I try to curate a mix of classics like the Halloween movies and some new ones that I haven’t seen yet. I’m adding The Lodge and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night as must-watch to my list this year, among others. I watch horror all year-long but getting to do this list is a lot of fun, even if sometimes I don’t make it all the way through, haha
I’m also looking forward to reading both Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and the Vampires Never Get Old anthology since my copies finally arrived.
This is truly the best time of the year!
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Thank you.