// Category Archive for: Halloween

Getting With The Program: Q & A With The Spook Lights

By Less Lee Moore

From Legends of America:

According to the legend, the spook light was first seen by Indians along the infamous Trail of Tears in 1836; however, the first “official” report occurred in 1881 in a publication called the Ozark Spook Light.
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The Dawn Of The Living Dead: I Walked With A Zombie

By Chelsea Spear

The year was 1942, and the producer/director team of Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur were riding high. Cat People, the first feature released through Lewton’s B-horror division at RKO, had saved the studio from bankruptcy and was on its way to becoming a cornerstone of contemporary horror. Before they’d finished counting the receipts, RKO studio heads gave the pair their next assignment.
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Legendary Halloween Costumes: Tom Baker, Doctor Who (1973–1980)

By Emily Carney

When I was a kid growing up in the 1980s, American public broadcasting stations (PBS) played episodes of the English cult TV series Doctor Who. Personally, as a young child I couldn’t really get into the show; I thought the episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus were much funnier, and the guys on that show seemed less freakishly scary than the star of DW, Tom Baker. (Of course, I ask myself now why my parents let me watch Monty Python at age 4. That show could get a bit adult-oriented to say the very least). As a child I found Baker less engaging than other TV characters, and more frightening and unusual than anything. Peter Davison (the next Doctor after Tom Baker) was far more “cuddly” and seemed more tailored to smaller children with his wan, handsome smile and cricket clothes.
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Don’t Hate the Cannibal, Hate the Game: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

By Jesse Roth

Looking back on my movie-viewing history, I can think of few films that have really bothered me. Most of the time, unless an animal dies or there is excessive torture, I won’t even flinch. Murder and cruelty can pass before my eyes and be acknowledged the same way as a car chase or moment of truly exceptional dialogue between two characters: interesting, but certainly nothing that impacts me on a deep, emotional level.
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The Abyss Gazes Into Thee: Batman, The Dark Knight, and Modern Gothic

By Less Lee Moore

“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”
Frederick Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future

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Farley Wacken’s Gonna Get Ya! The Chester Haunted School

With Cindy Chinn of the Center of Creativity
Intro by Less Lee Moore

The Chester Haunted School in Chester, NE is not your run-of-the-mill haunted house. Like radio shows from the 1950s, it utilizes narration to scare its listeners, but also adds a modern touch: an ingenious light show which depicts the action. Instead of monsters jumping out at you, however, your imagination is allowed to run wild with what you think you see: Farley Wacken, the evil headmaster, roaming the halls with his deadly yardstick.
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Ten Instruments Of Evil: Popshifter‘s Horror Movie Picks (And Five To Avoid)

With Less Lee Moore and Megashaun

Here are our ten horror movie picks for this issue of Popshifter. We’ve tried to keep the Popcast as spoiler-free as possible so as not to ruin your enjoyment of any of these great movies. And in order to avoid playing favorites, we’ve listed them in alphabetical order.

We’ve also got the scoop on five movies that we wish we hadn’t watched, even in part.

And don’t forget to check out “Five More Instruments Of Evil,” too.
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Cherchez La Femme: My Affair with The Black Dahlia

By Less Lee Moore

The Black Dahlia was the first James Ellroy novel I read and I loved it. I had become a fan of the hardboiled detective fiction genre after being introduced to the pulp novels of Jim Thompson in a Film Noir class. Then, seeking more books in that vein, I soon devoured all the books of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. Since Thompson, Chandler, and Cain were all deceased, I was thrilled that Ellroy was still alive and kicking.

But it was more than that.

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Now Let Us Praise Famous Monsters

Count Dracula, 1977

In reviewing a series of horror and ghost story anthologies, literary critic Edmund Wilson wrote that the “sudden revival of the appetite” for such tales arose in part from:

“. . . the instinct to inoculate ourselves against panic at the real horrors loose on the earth. . . by injections of imaginary horrors, which soothe us with the momentary illusion that the forces of madness and murder may be tamed and compelled to provide us with mere dramatic entertainment.”
—From Classics and Commercials, 1950

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The Junk Food Junkie’s Guide to The Best and Worst Halloween Candy

By Maureen

“Trick or Treat,” my ass.

Everyone knows Halloween is all about the “treat” part, the free candy. It’s the one day a year where people of all ages can stuff their faces full of all kinds of junk food goodness under the single condition of dressing up and repeating this iconic phrase. Every neighborhood has their hot spots and their spots to avoid. There’s always a dentist somewhere giving out mini-toothbrushes, which makes kids groan. Every person has his or her own personal candy preferences, but like all holidays that involve overindulging in food, Halloween has some staples that are irrefutable.

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