Best of Halloween 2022

What a great year this was for Halloween festivities! My kids are getting older, but their love for the holiday is still there. The whole thing started this year when my Mom sent us this pretty sweet inflatable ghost lawn ornament. Never had one of these before, so it was cool to add some spooky decor to the front yard of our house! Thanks Mom!

We made our annual trip to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. This year nobody got lost and we all had a great time by taking a hayride and tromping through the pumpkin patch in search for the biggest, best pumpkins we could find!

Our old friend Linus was there, and he is still waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive. I guess he needs to be a little more sincere? Anyway, we found our pumpkins and had a blast carving them on the night before Halloween.

I chose to carve the visage of pure evil himself, Skeletor! My kids carved images of Morticia, King Boo and Eevee into there pumpkins while we watched "Ernest Scared Stupid" and the new Netflix film "The Curse of Bridge Hallow".

The Curse of Bridge Hallow is the story of Stingy Jack and how he is accidentally brought back by a young girl who letshim out of his turnip prison. This causes all of the Halloween decorations in the town to come to life! In all honesty, this movie was pretty fun and a lot better than I thought it would be. The kids enjoyed it, so it will probably become a staple in our Halloween viewing for years to come.

Lucky me! I won a Halloween themed contest on Twitter just by liking a post! The prize pack was very cool and included some packs of Halloween themed Pokemon cards, a big Slimer sticker a Sloth key ring and of course lots of candy treats!

Speaking of sweet treats, my wife picked up these Vampire O's donuts. I don't usually like powdered donuts, but these were really good. The powder wasn't overpowering, and the ring of raspberry filling was tasty! The wife also picked up some zombie themed, chocolate covered donuts, but they all got eaten before I could snap a picture!

In addition to all the sweets, we got some savory offerings from two of the biggest burger chains around. Burger King kicked up their Whopper, by creating the Ghost Pepper Whopper which has to be my favorite new burger of the last few years. If you like a little bit of spice with your beef, definitely give this a try. It is so good! This limited-time burger features a classic flame-grilled beef patty topped with spicy queso, bacon, jalapeños, and ghost pepper cheese on a seasonally appropriate orange-and-black sesame seed bun.

Not to be outdone on the Halloween front, McDonald's resurrected their Boo Buckets! I took the kids to McDonald's, and we all got the McBoo Pail, which is totally cool because that was the one, we all wanted. The food was not Halloween themed, but it doesn't get much better than eating your food out of the head of a ghost themed bucket!

My twins went trick or treating as Luke & Leia from Star Wars, so of course I had to be their Dad aka Darth Vader! I went nuts looking for an affordable costume and, in the end, I ended up with this Ben Cooper Darth Vader ensemble. I saw it at Spirit Halloween for $9.97 and immediately snapped it up! 

What a great 2022 Halloween season this turned out to be. I hope you and your family had a fantastically scary time. Can't wait to see what 2023 brings us! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2022!!!

Hope everyone has a night filled with frights, fun and of course CANDY!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 10/31/22

 Throw on your Red Leather Jacket, and dance with some zombies as we take you back to the 80s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!

Artist: Michael Jackson
Song: Thriller
Album: Thriller (1982)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: #4
Bonus Fun Fact: Vincent Price was brought in for the "rap" portion of the song when it was decided that a horror icon needed to recite the lines. Luckily, Quincy Jones' wife, Peggy Lipton was a friend of Vincent Price.

Throwback Jam of the Week: 10/24/22

Throw on your freakiest outfit, cut your hair in the fresh wave style and slip on your Ben Cooper mask as we take you back to the 80s! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK...

Artist: Whodini

Song: The Haunted House of Rock

Album: Whodini (Released 1983)

Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: NA

Bonus Fun Fact: Whodini was one of the first rap groups to mix rap & R&B, in turn this helped bring about a new genre of music known as New Jack Swing!

Best of Halloween 2021

Halloween is only a few days away and I have to say that the 2021 season has been a real surprise for me. Last year was fun, but COVID really put a damper on a lot of the usual festivities. This year, my family is back to doing some door to door trick or treating and we'll be decked out in some sweet costumes!

My youngest daughter and my wife will be hitting the streets as characters from the Harry Potter books. My daughter is dressing up as a student from the Ravenclaw house, while my wife has decided to be Bellatrix Lestrange. I have read the first Harry Potter book on my girls recommendation, but I am not too familiar with the character. I know she will pull something cool together in the end though.

My oldest daughter, my son and myself will be going as characters from Stranger Things. I have been a fan of this show since day 1 and my daughter just finished watching the first 3 seasons. My son, has never seen the show, but has played the games and read some of the comics. I will be going as Chief Jim Hopper, my daughter will be Eleven and my son as Dustin. Should be a lot of fun!

The candy selection this year has been fantastic! I found these Ghoul-Aid popping candies at the Dollar Tree and my kids really enjoyed them. My wife picked up the new M&M candies with glow in the dark bags and the Hershey Cookies n' Cream Fangs. Also of note but not pictured here is the Skittles Shriekers! These bags hide super sour versions of Skittles candies within. You never know if you will get a regular flavor or super sour. These are way better than the "Zombie Flesh" flavored Skittles they released a few years back. Not as fun, but definitely more palatable.

Of course the traditional General Mills Monster Cereals returned to shelves and are as tasty as ever! Boo-Berry is my favorite. This year the makers of these cereals stole my idea and introduced...

Monster Mash cereal! Which is a mix of all the monster cereals in one box. I had been doing this for years, but now it is a whole lot easier and I don't have to open 3-5 boxes of cereal to create this delicious mash-up! Also hitting grocery stores was Ghostbusters Cereal as a tie in to the new Ghostbusters Afterlife movie. It is a solid cereal filled with fruity cereal bits and marshmallows. Can't complain about that!

Usually around this time Burger King unveils a new Halloween themed menu item. Past offerings have included the Ghost Whopper, Halloween Whopper and Nightmare King. This year they released the Ghost Pepper Chicken Nuggets. I loved these! The first bite I took was a bit underwhelming, but after a minute the burn hit my mouth and it was AMAZING! These need to be a year round menu item or as had been suggested, turned into a premium sandwich! Wendy's got into the holiday spirit as well by offing "Boo Books". For $1 you got 5 coupons for free junior Frosty treats. The artwork was fantastic and gave us this little zombie Frosty character. My family used our coupons after we went to the pumpkin patch. It was a nice way to end the day.

Mountain Dew was back with VooDew 3! I know a lot of people have many different opinions on what the mystery flavor is this year, but after much consideration and consumption, I have to say it tastes like blue raspberry Airheads candy to me. What do you think it is? Another spooky addition to the Halloween treats this years was the Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights cookies. I'm not sure if I've had these before, but they seem fairly familiar to me. 

One of my favorite memories from this Halloween season was finally sitting down with my son to watch the Monster Squad! I loved this movie as a kid and I was hoping my kids would enjoy it too. Every time I mentioned watching it, I was turned down flat by those kids. Then my daughters and wife decided to watch a Harry Potter movie which my son had no interest in viewing, so I suggested Monster Squad and we both had a blast viewing this 80's scary flick offering.

Overall it has been a great Halloween season and I can't wait to see what 2022 brings. Hope you all have a great and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 10/25/21

  Throw on your leather hat and head to Spook Central as we take you back to the 80's! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!

Artist: Bobby Brown
Song: On Our Own
Album: Ghostbusters II Soundtrack (1989)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 2
Bonus Fun Fact: This song reached #1 on Billboard's "Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs" and features backing vocals by Babyface.

2021 Halloween Movie Recap

Every year myself and my wife compile a list of horror flicks we would like to view during the Halloween season. Unfortunately this year we were thrown some unexpected curves and the list was never made. We have watched a few scary movies, but not nearly as many as in the past. Some have been surprises and some have been not so great. Here are my thoughts on a few of these films.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019)

This movie has been on my "Want To Watch" list for a few years now. I remember reading these books back in grade school and becoming entranced by the gorgeously grotesque drawings of artist Stephen Gammell. One thing this movie did exceptionally well was the ability to bring these illustrations to life!

The story itself reminded me of the Goosebumps movie that starred Jack Black from 2015. Several teens find a haunted book, unleash a bunch of creepy monsters and have to figure out how to stay alive while getting these literary nightmares to disappear. The acting was solid, the effects were a big upside to this film and overall it was an enjoyable watch. Not that I would want to have a repeat watch, but if you were a fan of the books, I say give it a try.

Hell House LLC. (2015)

I had read about this movie on other blogs throughout the years and when I saw it in the free offerings on VUDU, I decided to give it a whirl. This was one of the films that surprised me. It is yet another found footage horror film, but it is presented in such a way that it felt like you were watching a documentary. The premise is that there was a mass casualty incident at a haunted house in New York state and no-one who witnessed the events was able to say what actually happened.

The story of the disappearing haunted house crew and patrons is told through interviews with town officials and found footage from the recordings of the crew and those in attendance the night of the incident. There were some scares, the acting was on par with other low budget horror films and the characters made you genuinely care about what happened to them. I still want to know what really went down at Hell House that night!

Hell House LLC. II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018)

Hoping to get some answers from the original Hell House LLC., I decide to watch part II! This entry was a huge step down from the first film. It felt disjointed, the acting was not great and the story felt like they were making it up as they went along. 

Yes, the creepy clown was back and that's about all this sequel had going for it. I was looking for answers and the film makers tried to provide them, but it was more of a letdown than anything. If you liked the original, I would suggest skipping this one because it kind of ruins the mystique that was built up in Hell House LLC.

Pumpkinhead (1988)

I had not seen this movie in years and decided it was time for a re-watch. This one did not disappoint! Famed creature designer Stan Winston took to directing this 80's monster classic and he did a fantastic job in his debut. If you don't know the story, it's pretty much a revenge flick. A man's child is killed on accident by a few reckless teens in a backwoods town. The man seeks the help of a local witch to help him enact revenge on those who did him wrong. This brings about the resurrection of Pumpkinhead, a mean, ruthless, killing machine!

The creature is beautifully done and creepy, the story is not the most unique, but works and the acting is fantastic for this type of film. Lance Henriksen gives one of his best performances and John D'Aquino plays a great villain. His turn as Joel is a pretty far dip from his portrayal of Todd Gack in the Seinfeld episode "The Calzone". He really has great range as an actor. I know Pumpkinhead was not a huge success when it was released in the late 80's, but this creature feature deserves better than the 3 direct to video/tv sequels it has received. I think it's time we see a full fledged theatrical revival! 

Thankfully, we still have time to view some of our traditional faves like Friday The 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Monster Squad and Trick 'r Treat on Halloween night. I hope you had an enjoyable movie viewing season. I can't wait to get back to our traditional viewing next year and I'm excited to see what ends up on the list in 2021! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Throwback Jam of the Week: 10/18/21

  Throw on your thick rimmed glasses and head to the Walt Whitman projects as we take you back to the 80's! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!

Artist: Dana Dane
Song: Nightmares
Album: Dana Dane with Fame (1987)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: N/A
Bonus Fun Fact: This song was produced by Hurby Love Bug and features a sample from "The Munsters".

Throwback Jam of the Week: 10/11/21

 Throw on your knifed glove and head to Elm Street as we take you back to the 80's! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK!

Artist: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Song: A Nightmare On My Street
Album: He's The DJ...I'm The Rapper
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 15
Bonus Fun Fact: This song led to a lawsuit by New Line Cinema against JJ & FP for copyright infringement. The lawsuit was settled out of court and the music video was to be destroyed and a disclaimer was to be placed on all future pressings of the album. The disclaimer noted that this song is in no way authorized, licensed or affiliated with the Nightmare on Elm Street films.

Halloween 2020 Recap

2020 has been a year unlike any I've ever lived through before. In spite of this and all the restrictions, myself and my wife (mostly my wife) wanted to make this Halloween a great one, full of awesome memories for our kids. Of course the day started off with a nutricious breakfast of monster cereals. I decided to mix all 3 together in my own version of a delicious Monster Mash!

After breakfast and watching some spooky themed Power Puff Girls, Unikitty, Teen Titans and Adventure Time cartoons, it was time to suit up! The whole family decided to dress up as Ghostbusters! My girls were Erin Gilbert & Jillian Holtzmann and my wife was Abby Yates. I was Ray Stantz and my son was Peter Venkman. It was a beautiful day outside, so we went outside and the kids chased me around the yard with their proton packs on their backs!

Even our dog, Wicket got dressed up for the occasion!

The kids were tired from running around catching ghosts, so we went inside where my wife had set up a scavenger hunt for the kids! She hid clues all around the house and after they found each clue they were able to grab some candy and put it in their buckets.

The wife went a little overboard with the candy buying this year, but she wanted to make sure we had all the kids favorite chocolate treats. These included Hershey's Bars, Almond Joy, Snickers and Reese's Peanut Butter Bats. But that's not all...

She also got all their favorite fruity candies like Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Pixie Stix, Air Heads, Blow Pops and Skittles. She did not know though, that the Skittles she picked up were the Zombie Skittles that randomly included "Zombie Flesh" flavored pieces. Me and the kids had a good time with these and let me tell you, if you have not tried them, the Zombie Flesh taste stays in your mouth for a long time!

While my wife was crafting lunch, the kids did some Halloween word searches, puzzles and word scrambles to stay busy. When lunch was served, the kids were ecstatic to see that my wife had made some Mummuy Dogs for them! These were hot dogs cut in the shape of mummies and then carefully wrapped in crescent roll wrappings. DELICIOUS! 

We ate more candy and then went back outside to bust open the Halloween pinata I picked up. The kids destroyed that thing and my son broke the rope twice while utilizing his pattented "Spin Move". Eventually the candy hit the ground and so did the kids!

Hyped up on sugar, I would have thought these kids would have never slowed down, but we all went inside and played the "Spooky Hallow" level in Pac-Man Party on the Wii. Now we were ready for some real food and the wife knocked it out of the park again with these jack-o-lantern shaped chicken quesadillas!

To wind down the night we went Trick-or-treaing at my sister in law's house, put out the jack-o-lanterns (my son made Kirby, my oldest daughter carved Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas", my youngest daughter carved Scraps from "The Corpse Bride" and me and the wife made Witches Shoes and a Bat cave), checked out the blue moon and watched "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" & "Ichabod and Mr.Toad" with the kids before getting them to bed.

To close out our night, myself and the wife watched "Trick r' Treat" and eventually fell asleep! All things considered, it was a pretty great Halloween. I hope you had a fantastic Halloween also. Can't wait until next year!

2020 Halloween Movie Recap

This year, unlike years before, I decided to scroll through all the streaming services we have and compile a list of 30 movies I wanted to watch during the month of October. We made it through about 20 of them. Some nights I fell asleep early, other nights we were interrupted by restless children. It's all good though, some of my pics were winners others pretty crappy. Here is a quick recap of some of my favorite horror movie watches from 2020.

TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)

I had been meaning to see this movie since it was released in 2016, but never took the time to watch it. I am glad I waited until the Halloween season to explore this zombie apocalypse film. It was creepy, scary and the claustrophobic atmosphere of being trapped in a train with a butt-ton of flesh eating zombies just added to the fear this South Korean film brought to the table. 

The writing was fantastic and I actually had sympathy for the characters caught on the train and loathed the heartless businessman who would step over anyone to save himself. If you're a fan of the zombie genre, you really need to check this out. It is dubbed, so you have to get used to that, but otherwise an excellent flick.

PROM NIGHT (1980)

I know Prom Night is a slasher flick classic, but I never really had the desire to see this movie. I was way more into Freddy & Jason by the time this movie hit my radar. This year would be my first viewing of this 1980 horror hit and let me tell you it was entertaining. Jamie Lee Curtis plays a character named Kim who is similar to her character Laurie in the original Halloween movie. She is seen as perfect by her classmates and seems pretty innocent, but when the death of her sister years earlier comes back to haunt her, she needs to step up to defend herself. Not only is Kim able to do that, but she also cuts a mean rug on the disco floor. 

Loved those dance scenes! Tense moments, some twists and throw in Leslie Nielsen as Kim's Dad and you have a winning formula for a great 80's slasher flick!

The Ritual (2017)

The Ritual was a movie that actually was not on my list. After a few nights of watching some 1980's horror movies, my wife wanted something more recent. We decided to watch this movie about 4 men who take a trip in memory of their fallen friend. These English blokes decide to go backpacking in Sweden. While there one of them is injured and they decide to get him help by cutting through an off trail forest. Nothing bad could come from that, right? Well it does get bad from there! The movie turns to psychological scares at this point, since you never really see what begins to hunt these friends in the forbidden forest, but by the time you do see the monster it is a shock! 

This thing is massive, deadly and pretty damn cool looking. The end left me scratching my head a little as the final 2 friends are taken in by a cult as a sacrifice to this monster that they believe to be a god. It is worth a watch and I'm glad it made it's way into my queue this Halloween! 

Hobgoblins (1988)

This was one of those movies that was so bad, it was good! I knew from the beginning that this would be a Gremlins rip-off much like Munchies, but still I wanted to see these little goblins raise some havoc! You see, these magnificent monsters have been locked up in an old defunct movie studio film vault because when they landed on the lot decades before, it was discovered that they had the ability to make people live out there wildest fantasies...with deadly results! A new young security guard frees them and it's up to him and his friends to destroy these fiends! 

The acting is below average, the effects are iffy and the story is not the greatest, but damn was it a fun and extremely weird ride! On a side note, there was an after credit scene! This was probably one of the first. Can't wait to see the 2009 sequel!

Of course there were more movies watched, these were just some of the ones that stood out. Also viewed for the first time and enjoyed were Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Hubie Halloween, The Babysitter 2: Killer Queen, Hatchet and Demonic Toys.

It really was a great movie viewing season this year, but like all good things it has to come to an end and I decided this final week would be dedicated to some of the classics that I've already watched a million times, but still love like Friday The 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Monster Squad. The final film this year will be Trick 'r Treat on Halloween night. I hope your movie viewing was as enjoyable as mine this year. I can't wait to see what ends up on the list in 2021! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!