A list for Halloween!

To celebrate my favorite holiday “HALLOWEEN” I thought I would make a quick list of my favorite scary movies.

The following movies are my go-to scares. And now that I look at my list I notice that the majority of my favorites are from the 1980’s; my absolute favorite decade for movies, television shows and music.

These aren’t in any particular order but here goes . . . my all-time favorite scary movies.

1981 - American Werewolf in London
~ Favorite quote: “Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors.”

1992 – Candyman
~ Favorite quote: “Be my victim.”

1984 - Children of the Corn
~ Those kids scared the shit out of me!
~ Favorite quote: “OUTLANDER”

1987 - Dawn of the Dead
~ Favorite character: Hare Krishna Zombie
~ Favorite quote: “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”

1985 - Day of the Dead
~ Favorite character: Bub

1981 - Evil Dead
~ Favorite quote: “We’re going to get you. We’re going to get you. Not another peep. Time to go to sleep.”

1980 - Friday the 13th
~ Favorite character: Crazy Ralph
~ Favorite quote: “I’m a messenger of God. You’re doomed if you stay here!”

1978 – Halloween
~ Favorite actor: Donald Pleasence aka Doctor Sam Loomis
~ Favorite quote: "Hey, Jerk! Speed kills!"
~ Doctor Loomis made you believe and fear Michael Myers.

1987 – Hellraiser
~ Favorite character: Pinhead
~ Favorite quote: “We have such sights to show you!”

1968 - Night of the Living Dead
~ Favorite scene: Cemetery scene in the beginning.
~Favorite quote: "They're coming to get you, Barbara!"

1984 - Nightmare on Elm Street
~ Favorite characters: Freddy Krueger, Nancy Thompson and Lt. Donald Thompson
~ Favorite quote: “I’m your boyfriend now, Nancy!”

1982 – Poltergeist
~ My Mom didn’t like this movie because the little girl and I were the same age and it freaked her out!
~ Favorite character: Reverend Henry Kane (Poltergeist II). It still gives me chills when he is singing and talking to Carol Anne. "Are you lost, Sweetheart? Are you 'fraid, Honey?"

1988 – Pumpkinhead
~ Favorite actor: Lance Henriksen
~ Favorite quote: “It’s what you wanted, Ed Harley!” (This entire scene is one of my favorites.)

1989 - Puppet Master
~ I was totally obsessed with all of the puppets!

1974 - Texas Chainsaw Massacre
~ There is nothing that frightens me more than a huge creepy guy that screams, hollers and runs around like a little child. Oh, yeah, and wielding a chainsaw.

My husband and I attend a lot of horror conventions and have had the pleasure of meeting many actors and actresses from the above movies. What an amazing way for us to relive our childhood together.  I hope you enjoyed my movie list.

Happy Halloween to you all! Be safe out there!

Ghostly lights or just gas?

In Latin, ignis fatuus means "foolish fire."

Ignis fatuus

Ignis fatuus (also known as Friar's Lantern) is a phosphorescent light that hovers over swampy ground at night.  It's said to be caused by spontaneous combustion of gases that are emitted by rotting organic matter.

Other names for this are will-o'-the-wisp, jack-o'-lantern and friar lantern.

Will-o'-the-wisp

A will-o'-the-wisp is an incandescent flame often seen hovering over marshy ground at night.  These lights are often times explained away as ignited marsh gas.  There are a lot of different cultures out there that have accounts to contradict these theories.

Some cultures believe that these flames are marking locations of treasure.  While other cultures believe the phenomenon is intricately linked with a mischievous spirit carrying a lantern or a torch leading weary travelers astray into a marsh.

Jack-o'-lantern

A jack-o'-lantern is a carved pumpkin most commonly associated with Halloween.   The top of the pumpkin is cut to form a lid.  While the inside flesh of the pumpkin is scooped out.  After this a spooky or silly image is carved into it to expose the hollowed out pumpkin.  Once you have the pumpkin hollowed out and carved, you place a candle or flickering-type light source inside the pumpkin to illuminate the carved image.

In English Folklore, the jack-o'-lantern is said to be associated with the term foolish light also known as will-o'-the-wisp. There are, however, endless folklore that surround the origin of the jack-o'-lantern.  They tell a story of a man named Jack and the Devil himself.  (A story for another blog . . .)

Another type of "ghost light" that is often talked about is a corpse candle.

Corpse Candle

A corpse candle is said to be a ball of light most often seen in cemeteries or churchyards and are thought to be an omen of death.  They are usually red, white or blue in color.

These balls of light are said to appear the night before a death.  The lights mark the route of the future funeral, from the victim’s house to the graveyard where it would then disappear into the ground at the burial site.

Corpse candles were not feared during Medieval times, they were welcomed.  It gave the dying person a chance to get their affairs in order, so to speak.  It gave them the chance to make peace with God.  If a dying person was to ignore the corpse candle, it was said they would have a bad death and their souls would end up in Purgatory for eternity.

So the next time you are out for a nighttime walk and/or drive and you see a mysterious light hovering somewhere, will you be curious enough to venture in its direction?!

Trick or Treat!

"Trick or treat . . . smell my feet . . . give me something good to eat . . . if you don't . . . I don't care  . . . I'll pull down your underwear."

Halloween is my all-time favorite Holiday.  I love everything about it; the candy, dressing up, decorations and decorating, carving pumpkins AND scary movies. 

Did you know that Halloween is fairly new to America?   It actually became popular in America in the early 1900s.  Originally called Samhain (which means summer’s end in Gaelic) it is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31st - November 1st.  This date was associated with the Catholic All Saints' Day from as early as the 8th Century.  And the secular customs that are now connected with Halloween have been influenced by both the Gaelic and the Catholic liturgical festival. 

It’s said, that during Samhain, the veil between our world and the spirit world is at its thinnest.  And the ghosts of the deceased can mingle with the living. 

Today’s Halloween traditions evolved from the ancient symbols of Samhain.  One example of that is Celtics carved turnips into skulls.  They placed these carved turnips in their windows to ward off evil.  This tradition evolved into today’s jack-o-lanterns.

Below are a few Halloween superstitions, folklore and a phobia:

• If you hear footsteps behind you while you’re walking on Halloween, DO NOT turn around . . .  if you do, you may be staring Death in the face.
• If you want to run into a witch on Halloween, a sure-fire way to do this is by wearing your clothes inside out and walk backwards.
• If you are born on Halloween, you will have the gift of communicating with the dead.
• If you feel a chill up your spine, someone is walking on your future grave.
• A medieval superstition that is still around today; doorbells, chimes or any type of bells ringing are supposed to chase away evil spirits.
• Walk around your home three times counterclockwise and backwards before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits.
• For the Ladies, if you carry a lamp to a spring of water on Halloween night, you can see your future husband in the reflection.
• Place a burning candle inside a jack-o-lantern on Halloween to keep evil spirits and demons at bay.
• Cucurbitophobia is the fear of pumpkins.

And here are some neat U.S. Halloween facts:

• Halloween is the Holiday when the most candy is sold.
• Halloween is the second most commercially successful Holiday; Christmas being the first.
• Halloween is the third-largest party occasion next to Christmas and New Year's Eve.
• There are approximately 25 million Halloween cards sold annually.
• The top four states for pumpkin production are Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California.

I'll end my blog with a short (but cute) Halloween poem:

"We mask our faces
and wear strange hats,
and moan like witches
and screech like cats,
and jump like goblins
and thump like elves,
and almost manage
to scare ourselves!"
~Author Unknown

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!