So why do you like Halloween so much?

Discussion of general Halloween topics
tomanderson
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Post by tomanderson » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:09 am

This is just a reflection, but I have bopped around a little on different boards, different kinds of boards relating to horror and monsters and other kinds of "dark culture," if you will; and I notice that this particular topic of Halloween draws a certain TYPE of dark culture crowd that is maybe more relaxed and maybe naturally more meditative. People on other types of "horror" boards, that are more "entertainment" related, seem a bit more uptight.

Maybe this is because of Halloween's attitude of "expressiveness," meaning the holiday has for a long time been a time when the inner mind could come out and dance around for a little while, in public, and you do it and your neighbor does it too...it's a very social form of dark culture that so many people find to be enjoyable and full of mirth and good humor.

It's a weird thing to do and yet so natural. The previous October here in the Los Angeles area, when my friend and I gave humongous amounts of candy out to the trick or treaters--boy, I sure remembered just what it was like when I was a trick or treater, running around in wacky costumes getting Snickers bars and Milky Way bars and what have you thrown in the pillowcase or maybe the Toys R Us plastic Halloween bag.

We did our best, with meager decorations (some skulls, a glow skeleton and some flashing lights), to make the house spooky and such, and had monster movies playing really loud on the TV. The trick or treaters started arriving at some point, and every one of them had fun coming up the steps onto the porch and doing the trick or treat thing. This was so much fun, it's really hard to convey. I hadn't given candy out to trick or treaters in what seemed like a million years. And here it was again, the experience, more or less just like I remembered it from when I was a kid.

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Winnie Sanderson
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Post by Winnie Sanderson » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:30 pm

I have been thinking about this and I don't really know why I love Halloween so much. As long as I can remember it was the day I looked forward to the most. It was so much fun as a kid and I have refused to let being an adult stop me from enjoying "my Day." I don't think I can be described as having a dark personality although I do have a sick sense of humor :evil:

I look forward to sharing "my day" with my little boy and creating memories for him that he will remember when he is older.

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EvilMel
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Post by EvilMel » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:20 pm

Hey DOD, I would love to be an extra but I'm not anywhere near Hollywood or anything. There's not much call for horror movie extras in TN, ya know? I wish there was though.
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MHooch
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Post by MHooch » Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:58 am

EvilMel, you never know. If there is a university nearby, contact their performing arts dept. And sometimes the chambers of commerce of larger size towns/cities have contacts to filmakers. Hey, Stephen Speilberg shot a big portion of War of the Worlds right here in the Shenandoah Valley, about 50 miles from where I live, and used locals as extras. Who would've thunk it?? Alas, work constraints kept me from meeting the man of my dreams (Tom Cruise...yeah, I know he's a weirdo, but I am nothing if not loyal! :oops: ).
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Spooky
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Post by Spooky » Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:06 am

Evil Mel-My cousin just did two low budget independant movies-she's nowhere near Hollywood.

If anyone has my space, you can look the movies up.

They are :Curse of the Wolf-she was the lead actress, and her new movie comes out in September called "Chasing Darkness". Check it out.

I am going to visit her in a few days, she's a 4 time world karate champ, and did all her own stunts, and she's a fitness instructor, and massage therapist...she's going to give me and my sister in law a massage.

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Post by Spooky » Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:09 am


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midnight kitty
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Post by midnight kitty » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:44 am

ooohhhhh, what a good topic. lets see, why do i love halloween. the most broad explanation would be that i just love the whole atmosphere surrounding halloween.
now for greater detail. like some others here, i am of the darker personality. i'm not fond of flowers, butterflies, the sun (i burn way too easily, even when i have spf 50 on. and my eyes are very sensitive to sunlight, i have to wear sunglasses most of the time). i don't like wearing shorts and tank tops. i prefer chunky sweaters and jeans.
i love the smell of fall. it smells like leaves, burning wood, pumpkins, spices, and that little nip that i just can't put my finger on.
i love walking down the street and driving down the county roads (there's quite a bit of county road here) seeing the red, orang, yellow, and purple leave blowing in the air and crunching under my feet or tires.
i love to go pumpkin picking, then carve jack-o-lanterns and roast the seeds. there are some really good fall festivals here that i take advantage of every yr.
i love that the costume shop around the corner from my house has their hearse parked in front and have halloween type music playing all month long. i love driving up to sleepy hollow (just a 2 hr drive from my house) and going to the headless horseman festival.
decorating my house gives me that thrill that no other project gives me.
all oct long i have halloween themed programs on tv (mostly videos and dvds since disney doesn't show anythig good anymore {w/ the exception of when they show the halloweentown movies and hocus pocus})
the parties are always fun. i love throwing my daughters' halloween party. there's nothing like seeing little kids faces after they get the 1st apple from the bobbing tub.
then comes the most precious of nights when the ToTers come out. i make sure i have the good candy. i must have spent over $100 on candy just for 3 hrs of ToTing.
the next mornign though i feel a little depressed coz another halloween has come and gone. but then i remember my birthday is 2 short weeks away and then thanksgiving is another 2 short weeks after that.

ok enough of my novel
trick or treat

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Post by uncletor » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:38 am

halloween has always been one of my favorite wild cards.
When I was a kid, it was mixed in with the current hot rod culture...big daddy roth t shrits, shrunken heads hanging from rear view mirrors, Monster mash, Roger Corman movies at the drive in, VAMPIRA black and white comic books bigger then the normal color ones. I got my first shrunken head (rubber) at age eight. I didn't know what to think of it then.
You'd get the Universal monsters on t.v without really knowing that was what they were...you would just perk up when you saw the UNIVERSAL logo go on in October and hope it was Frank, or Drac, or Wolf. Then you'd get the hammer stuff from England with those accents and the red blood, and the Mexican stuff that was dubbed in, you could tell, and was just WEIRD on after midnight...And there was this whole history of stuff you couldn't look up, becausse there wasn't any books that covered it..like WHO thought up KING KONG? How MANY Dr. Jekyll's WERE there? Stuff like that...horror films and halloween were seen as disposable culture...it didn't matter...but you were drawn to it because it was way out there...and as stuff that didn't matter and was expected to GO AWAY you ate it up, because you BELIEVED what the adults and what normal society TOLD you...this stuff wouldn't LAST...and it took you beyond your comfort zone, sometimes it scared you, a lot of times you could admire the art behind it without knowing that was what you were doing, you would just stare at the ads for American International movies or the Aurora model kits....it could work for you or against you, it was just the way it went..
The horror movies would play all summer long at the drive in, and this, with the rock and roll culture of the time would get you READY for Halloween in the fall. The same thing happened with Halloween when it latched onto goth, punk, glam, you name it.
Summer would be going, you could see that, but you didn't MIND because there was this ONE BIG BLAST that would be at the end of it that would get you through to Christmas season..
The neighbours all decorated their houses and had SOMETHING for you..mazes, a display, maybe a drink of cidar..There were the candies that you could ONLY get THAT time of year. And you could see parts of their style, their personality reflected in that...
Dad bought you your first copy of Poe, Gramma told you about seeing the silent version of Barrymore's DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE that scared her and her friends when going to a horror movie by YOURSELF as a woman was 'as bad as smoking opium' as far as the town was concerned.
And you remember high school, and the year that the quiet girl you had defended against a drunken football player came to the dance. She was Cat Woman. Textured black spandex body suit. Heels. Whip. Mask. Hair teased into a huge do. And she came over (strode is more like it) and grabbed you by the neck with her gloved hands and you danced with her all night.
And The Hollies, LONG COOL WOMAN IN A BLACK DRESS has never been the same since.
Last edited by uncletor on Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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tomanderson
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Post by tomanderson » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:37 am

uncletor, what a wonderful post there! a thousand stories in just a few words.

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Post by One Eye'd Jack » Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:47 am

Hehehe........ (see post in "When did you discover you had an obsession with halloween?")

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MHooch
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Post by MHooch » Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:46 am

Isn't uncletor just the best??
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Re: So why do you like Halloween so much?

Post by Dutchess of Darkness » Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:24 pm

Here's one that member's might enjoy again :)
Image

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Re: So why do you like Halloween so much?

Post by Haunt Master » Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:33 pm

Thanks a lot, Dod! I hope everybody can enjoy it here, too! ;)
Dutchess of Darkness wrote:Here's one that member's might enjoy again :)

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Re: So why do you like Halloween so much?

Post by Rising Dead Man » Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:00 pm

Ever since I started trick or treating as a little kid I loved it and Halloween stuck with me ever since. I am now 15 and still obsessed!
Halloween wraps fear in innocence,
As though it were a slightly sour sweet.
Let terror, then, be turned into a treat...
~Nicholas Gordon

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Re: So why do you like Halloween so much?

Post by Haunt Master » Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:13 pm

I love Halloween when I was 4. I love to go tot-ing until I was 12. At 13 thru 17, I had halloween party at school. When I graduated high school, I still love Halloween! I love to go to the horror movies, haunted houses and attractions, even decorate my own haunt yard display!

That's why I always love Halloween just like in my dream everyday! :D

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