Creepy Kitch Halloween Spectacular Extravaganza!

Or...to simply put it, another episode where Stac and Cins ramble on about various things ad Nausea.

So here it is, our Halloween Special!
This is different from our usual episodes as it in lack the usual movie reviews. On our special bonus episode Stac and Cins chat about various Halloween-y type of things such as; what films are tradition to watch on Halloween for us, stories on Trick or Treating past, Ghost stories, and other general craziness.
We also give a long list of thank you shout outs to our other friends, podcasters and other folk who has helped us on this wacky journey.

Enjoy!

Lesser Known Halloween Favorites, 1

I am a total slut for the Halloween season. You're shocked I know; you're also just as easy for the orange and black as I am or you wouldn't be here. Come, you're among friends; embrace the inner holiday slut. Embrace it. SUCCUMB! Of course, you get purple and orange herpes if you do; that's the festive price we all must pay. I also have green and red gonorrhea, but that's a topic for later in the year.

As a result of this tarted up behavior of mine, I will watch almost anything that has Halloween in it, at least once. I've discovered several enjoyable little movies as a result, most of them aimed at people about 25 years younger than myself. Hooray for emotional immaturity!

Christopher Llyod's DAAAAID in this! This dvd came WRAPPED IN PLAAAAAASTIC! Did you see what I did there? Huh? Huh? Didja?

The first of these titles is the underrated and hugely enjoyable When Good Ghouls Go Bad, starring Christopher Lloyd, Joe Pichler, and Brittany Byrnes. I watched this absently one day while folding laundry, and was fell in love with it; the story is sweet, it's got great timing for the comedic parts, and while there is some cgi it's used more to augment the practical special effects. That's right, folks! You got real people as zombies, or, if too dessicated, puppets! I think the special effects have a lot to do with the charm of this film-- had it all been cgi it would have taken on a static, sterile quality instead of the lively goofiness that is instead inherent. The costuming is also a lot of fun-- a lot of decayed velvet and shredded silks kinda deal, which I personally love.

The plot is simple as well as unlikely, like any good holiday special should be: the town of Walker Falls doesn't celebrate Halloween anymore, fearing the wrath of the ghost of Curtis Danko, who after committing suicide (I think. I need to rewatch this. Today, probably. NCIS is fun and all, but the dead people don't tend to smart off. They just lay there. How inconsiderate.) in 1981, swore that a curse would come down on the head of anyone who brought Halloween back to the small town. Theyve bumped along fine for twenty years, until the Walker family that the town's named for, comes back to reopen the candy factory that established the town in the first place. Christopher Lloyd plays Uncle Fred, the patriarch of this clan, who is goofball incarnate. Everyone calls him Uncle Fred, something he put into place for branding reasons years before; even his adult son and 12 year old grandson Danny call him this. There's a lot of family dysfunction here; dad works too m uch, leaving Uncle Fred as playmate for Danny, who is bullied a lot at school. The usual plot of coming to realize your loved ones are the best thing ever, blah blah blah.

Christopher Lloyd channeling Lemmy from Motorhead.

This is very much aimed at kids, but it's got enough gleeful ghoulishness that parents can watch along and enjoy it. Minimal smarm, more of a focus on Dead Folks Crackin' Wise, which is fine by me. This is actually a great gateway drug for kids to get their feet wet in the horror genre. There is a love story of sorts, between both father and son Walker; both are sweet and not saccharine, thanks be to God. Trouble starts when Danny is pressured into looking at the "cursed" statue that Curtis Danko made the night he died. As an aside, isn't Curtis Danko just the perfect name for a town legend?

How perfect does he look for the school weirdo circa 1981? You KNOW he listened to Bauhaus and the Smiths.

Shortly there after, weird shit starts to happen all over town, and Uncle Fred accidentally drops dead. But it's when he resurrects as a zombie that trouble starts to really fly. There are great bits where Uncle Fred gets an arm or two ripped off, and then needs his limbs reapplied via power drill and hammer! Like a I said, there's a happily morbid streak in this film. It's also revealed that many of the children of Walker Falls have been having Halloween in secret, in the now derelict home that Curtis Danko once lived in. It's a very sweet, sort of Secret Garden vibe; the kids decorated and come in costume while bringing candy, music, etc. I really like these scenes because there are some great costumes floating around in the background; more thought than usually goes into costumed extras scenes. But at the same time, a lot look exactly like what you'd expect a kid to come up with on the fly, especially in a town where Halloween hasn't been since 1981.

Curtis Danko post crypt. He's a really great looking puppet. How cool would that look in a yard haunt?

Give it a watch if you like anything pertaining to Halloween, and especially if you have kids. It's a great way to help kids find delight in horror, instead of seeing it as something to be avoided until they're 20 and finally bring themselves to watch Poltergeist as well as A Nightmare on Elm Street, and only then with an alcoholic booster. Autobiographical? Perhaps. A little.

Or a lot.

Liquid Courage! Why yes, I am a lightweight. Thank you for asking!

Halloween Artists, version 1

I love Twitter; I learn all kinds of weird, interesting stuff there. Like how to put on makeup like Angelina Jolie, or what Craig Ferguson's Labor Day dinner looks like. Please note, I'm not complaining, folks! I also discover a lot of awesome Halloween-based wonderful, like the AWESOME website, Cult of the Great Pumpkin. On this site I discovered my newest entry to the Favorite Artist link, a man named Bruce Walters.

I don't know if Mr. Walters defines himself as a specifically Halloween artist, but he certainly has made one hell of a contribution to that medium. He did a series called Halloween Flight, and it is so perfect at summation for this most hallowed season that I have to share it, and, when I finally beat my finances into submission (it's all about violence with me, but I embrace that, really), I'm going to get his book of this instillation. Here are a few examples of his stuff, used COMPLETELY without permission.

There is a snippet of poem for this that reads:
"Summer's path has led to winter's threshold.
Its entrance moonlit as foresaid.
Enter gravely or with revelry bold
for with you, also pass the dead."

This is the only text in the series, and both it and the art itself reminds me heavily (in tone) of Edgar Allen Poe.

Everything about this image is perfect for me.

Head over to his website here to see the full series. While there be sure to look around at his whole site, not just this installation. He has a lot of wonderful artwork there, one of my favorites being the gigantic painting he did of the Headless Horseman.

Go! Check it out! Wallow in the coming season!

P.S: NO idea why the hell I can't get he italics to turn back off. But it's irritating the fuck out of me.

IT BEGINS!!!

The orange and the black is upon us! HALLOWEEN SEASON IS OFFICIALLY OPEN! It's always open for me, but that's because I live on the grounds and never really leave Halloween. Brief detour for Christmas, but I am the Keeper of the Creepy.

To commemorate this Season of Spooky, I have links!

I-Mockery has started their two months of Halloween celebration, beginning today! Go give it a look, they have great content and creepy content both!

X-Entertainment is still in the Summer Party, but I know Matt loves Halloween, and he's already dropping hints on how awesome this year's Halloween Countdown is going to be, so I would imagine it'll start soon, so keep an eye out!

WOOHOOO! Let us celebrate the orange and the black and the purple! My favorite time of year is about to start!

A Halloween Intervention

I have to do this.

I didn't want to, but I had to. I have some friends making the claim below, and it's time to call them out. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! I'm looking at YOU, R!

It is time for me to make an announcement, and it is this: Halloween 3: Season of the Witch is not now, nor has it ever been, a good movie. It is in fact, a BAD movie. Does that make it devoid of enjoyment? Hell naw! Some of my favorite movies could never in a million years be caled good; I am a connoisseur of celluloid cheese and gobble it frequently, I collect shite film the same way an oenophile collects vintage bottles.

It IS however an interesting idea, a hilarious watch, and enjoyable if for no reason beyond that always delectable Tom Atkins.

But good? It features anemic British robots barfing up frozen orange juice concentrate. This isn't The Exorcist, folks.

What the hell is that face from space up there supposed to be?

That being said, I would LOVE a poster of the above shot; that shot of the trick-or-treaters against the orange sky is straight up awesome.

SEXY. BEAST.

Watch this. This is a happy song! You'll sing along! Right up to the part where you bore your ear canal out with a drill because you can't get that fuckin' tune out of your head!

Not a Good Idea?

I'm listening to the audiobook of The Exorcist, read by William Peter Blatty, the author.

This is some scary, scary shit.

Halloween Decor

Alright my pretties, it's about that time of year, as we all know! As I am currently sifting through my vintage paper decorations for stuff to send to Cindy (and possibly putting stuff up around the house. There may or may not be at least two five foot tall paper skeletons up in Chez Spooky as I type this.), I wanna see your favorites!

Gimme pics of your homes, things you like to decorate with, haunted houses, or just things you'd like to one day own!

Bring it on!


I personally love vintage stuff, but I put up anything-- and I DO mean ANYTHING that catches my eyes. I'll update with pics once I get my lights up!

Time-Life The Enchanted World: Ghosts

I am a legitimate, to the bone product of the 1980's. I watched Transformers and G.I Joe, He-Man, and even She-Ra though I hated her and possibly thought her twin brother was hawt. But some of the staples of my childhood in that most neon-colored of decades have been forgotten, and I am here to remind you of them, starting with a book series that my mom got: Time-Life Books "The Enchanted World" series. Anyone else remember these? Here's the commercial, to stir the blood into remembrance, as it were:





We had a ton of these; my mother is the progenitor of my morbid streak, though she's much less open about it than yours truly. I LOVED these books when I was a kid; I was about five years old or thereabouts when Mom started getting them. If I begged enough she might read pieces of it aloud to me as I played in the backyard and she worked on her tan. I started out just looking at the pictures, then eventually reading the captions and little stories told in the margins; by the time I was in high school I knew my favorites cover to cover.

For years I tried to talk Mom into letting me have them-- I doubt seriously they've been read all that much since I left home, but she would never give them to me. It's like that damn Monster Mash record, all over again.

Until I finally just found my own on eBay, my sister and I would slap the SHIT out of each other over who got this album when Mom died. We're a delightful bunch.

Most of my friends didn't remember these books at all, probably because it was a mail-away deal, not something you could just impulse buy at the local book store. Those who did usually only had Witches and Wizards, the first volume in the series. Mom has at least ten of these volumes, which was apparently unusual.

I wanted to read these books again so badly, but didn't want to pay God knows how much on eBay. Compounding the problem, I didn't know the name of the series (The Enchanted World). Doing a search online for a book called Ghosts usually ends up about how you'd imagine it would. But one day Bevin, my frequent (and often unwilling) partner in crime (as opposed to Cins, who is ALWAYS willing to shit stir) and I lucked out one day whilst shopping in Seattle. We went to Half Price Books, a store whose very existence makes me ridiculously happy, when a familiar brown cover (Magical Beasts) caught my eye as I was heading upstairs to look for more glorious girl-smut to add to my forever expanding library. The book was on the very top of a tall shelf, unnoticed for who knows how long; only reason I saw it was because it just happened to be at eye level with my head at the right angle when I was on one specific step. Between myself and Bevin (she bought Water Spirits, I bought almost all of the rest) we decimated that shelf. I got almost all of my favorites (still need Gods and Goddesses and Water Spirits) and a few other my mom doesn't have. Several of them are of a decidedly spooky bent, and perfect for this blog and the upcoming season!

My favorite as a kid was Ghosts. Simple, elegant, freaky as Hell's own gate. I would haul this out every time I had a sleep-over; great fodder for scaring the piss out of myself as well as my poor victim, usually one of my best friends, D.J. Heh. I'll have to remind her of that.

Skeleton or not, I'd still kiss him. With tongue, all lickory like! Painted by Horace Vernet.

This book is so very cool and creepy; the cover alone was enough to give myself the chills, and more than once, even as a teen, I had to put the book away when home alone because I'd unnerved myself. I self-medicated with My Little Ponies. (True fact: Cins was a My Little Pony in a former life! I was a witch.)

The book utilized a wide variety of artistic talent-- in researching this, I made some surprising discoveries. I also discovered that other than cover pictures, you can't find SHIT for these books. So I took photos; I could have scanned but eh, I'm lazy.

Click any of the pictures below for size GIGANTIC, so you can read the text on some of 'em!

This is just the flyleaf. There are three or four of them like this; how effing scary is that?! Painted by John Jude Palincar.

There's a lot of tricks like these in this book, and freaking LOVE it. Book credits this to Yvonne Gilbert.

This is one of the pictures I "hid" from; didn't like to actually look at it, as it were. Called the Ankou, a representative of Death in Bretagne (Brittany). Credited to Mark Langeneckert.

This is from the story titled as The Hooded Congregation, a story from Sweden. Scariest Christmas eeeeever. This and several other contributions in this book was done by Chris Van Allsburg, the artist who wrote and drew The Polar Express, Jumangi, and Zathura! I find it hilarious that I knew this guy's work from this; we never owned any of his children's books.

"Clattering on the staircase and howling in the hall, ghosts known as screaming skulls terrorized anyone who sought to displace them from the houses that once had been theirs." (pgs 58-9) Painted by John Jude Palencar.

This snippet is the reason my younger brother and I don't like to go near random wooden stakes in the ground. Seriously. Painted by Marshall Arisman.


Does this really need words? Painted also by Marshall Arisman.

One of my favorite ghost stories of all time, painted by Judy King Rieniets.

The Wife's Revenge; if my husband poisoned me and drove me to suicide he'd be lucky if the least he got was a haunting. Created by Kuniyoshi, a famous Japanese artist who was born in the 18th century. Old school horror!


She sees you. Everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. Go check under the table cloth. G'wan. Have a peek. Painted by Gary Kelley.

Remember the story of the bride who wanted to play hide and seek at her wedding reception? Yeah, they found her. Eventually. I'm gonna play trick-or-treat at my wedding reception just to see the uneasy looks on everyone's faces. Painted by Rick McCollum.

These books are pretty prevalent online for those interested in checking a few out. I love them and recommend them to everyone; you can get the whole set (all TWENTY ONE volumes) for about 150$, which breaks down to pretty minimal per book. Not bad for something that originally retailed in 1985 for 15$. A lot of people are selling the books individually, too, and your local library might have some to flip through; I know ours does.

Go forth! Read and better yourselves! Now please excuse me, this took me hours to write, I'm sure you have eye strain, and I need a shower.

The Halloween Comics You're Not Reading, Part l

I love Halloween. In my head it's always orange and purple and black; even Christmas is a touch spooky with me around, because I like to pass time on Christmas Eve telling ghost stories and put Haunted Mansion ornaments on my tree. I occasionally try to count all of the Halloween stuff that's up all year round in my bedroom and always lose count/interest somewhere in the thirties.

Some of my favorite authors and artists have hat same ever-present autumn in their souls, and lucky for me, let it reflect in their work. I think I'm going to do a feature on each of them as it occurs to me, so today I'll sing the song of Dan Brereton, one of my favorite artists and creator of one of my favorite comic book series, The Nocturnals.

Meet the family!

The Nocturnals is a neat mesh of weird: you have pulp, horror, and Halloween, and it creates something really special. Essentially, this is an ensemble story about a family and the trouble that they frequently face. The saturnine fellow up there with the girl with two-tones hair is Doc Horror and his daughter, Evening. Doc and Eve fell to earth from another dimension, trying to escape the parasitic evil that took over their own planet. Eve was just a small child at the time, and as a result of her fall was seperated from her father for a year as he tried to find her. Doc ended up working for an old time gangster who eventually helped him reunite with Eve.

Around that same time period their littel twosome grew by several as Polychrome, Starfish, the Gunwitch, Firelion, and Komodo were adopted into the clan. Eventually the Raccoon began to tag along too, originally because he'd very much like to get into Starfish's pants. Each Noctunal has their own bizarre back story, and it parts of each are revealed through the different stories currently out. There's also a Nocturnals bible called Nocturnals: A Midnight Companion, which gives more in-depth character backgrounds and biographies.

Here's a quickie into:


Polychrome, or Poly for short. She's a ghost, murdered and originally a wraith, but she now cruises with this crew and helps protect instead of haunt. She's a very gentle sort of soul, and doesn't have the same appetite for violence that her adopted kin possess.

Firelion, or Phestus Gold as he is named. Used ot be a cop, then caught fire, all by his lonesome. The government rebuit him, bigger, faster, fire proof. They HAVe the technology! Too bad they all sucked, and Phestus his the road. He likes stabbing things and lighting them on fire, depending on his mood. Me likie Phestus. Lots.


Doctor Nicodemus Horror, head of the family, so to speak. His wife was killed (I think) by the same entity that he and his daughter fled from on the Black Planet. He can't be out int he sun as it's lethal to him, and he's also contracted a nasty little virus that occasionally brings out his more lupine characteristics. He's a genius and very compassionate, despite the fact that he looks like Dracula.

Evening Horror and The Gunwitch, two more members of our little group. Eve is also referred to by her loving family as Halloween Girl, a very appropriate title since she is rather a physical embodiment of that holiday. This kid is seriously spooky, and she's got a plastic jack o lantern full of toys that mean serious business when it comes to Eve's protection. Somehow she can hear ghosts, though I'm not sure if it's a gift she inherited from her mother or something in her that changed when her father dumped her through the portal as a small child. With her there is the Gunwitch, a resurrected gunslinger who is part zombie, part enforcer, and all silent, doting babysitter for Eve. He's a dead eye shot, and also just a dead eye, what with the zombification and all. He was called back into service by Doc Horror, and protects his friends with his guns. Eve made his hat.

Starfish, the aquatic anomaly. She was discovered as a little fetus thing in suspended animation by the good doctor. He out her in a tub back at the Tomb to study her, and to his shock, he grew a girl! She's quite volatile, and good in water or out of it. She's very good with a gun, and as the Raccoon discovers, not above slinging a punch. She's most (to me) like Eve's sister, and doesn't hesitate to call a brat a brat when needed.

The Racoon, who was called Bandit and is called Procyon Cleanhands. He was built by the Narn K Corporation in what was dubbed The Monster Shop. Supposed to be warriors for sale, they kinda ruined that by having a nasty little thing called free will. He escaped some time before the start of this story, and Doc helped him get on his feet though he soon went his own way. He has a very ambiguous moral compass and tends to be on his own side, rather than a straight good or bad guy. He thinks Starfish badly needs to get laid, by him, and is doing his hardest to make that happen.


Komodo, or the Dragon Boy. Narn K's most recent escapee, he got his wings clipped (right off) for his first escape attempt. I think he's roughly a teenager in temperament and age, and also very restless to see the world. He and Eve get along quite well.

There's your basic rundown, now go read it! Gorgeous art all through out-- the issues that Brereton illustrates as well as writes are all entirely painted interiors, and are gorgeous. Eventually I want to get some actual prints of Brereton's work for my walls, but until then I have the internets. Dan Brereton is my favorite to do the art for the books, but some stories have been done by Ted Naifah (of Gloom Cookie and other stories).

One really great idea conceived of and executed resulted in the story The Troll Bridge. Eve makes "friends" with a rotten little devils head lantern, and ends up dragging her through several different worlds. All of the artists of these respective worlds did the art for this massive cross over, and it's AWESOME. Jill Thompson gets to draw Eve in the Frightside, where she meets The Scary Godmother, another favorite of mine. She also meets Usaki Yojimbo (and is drawn by Stan Sakai), as well as Jingle Belle, Santa's daughter, you get to see a zombie gunfight, all kinds of great stuff!

If you need a jumping off point the story starts (I believe) with The Black Planet. Go. Read.

REAAAAD!

Seriously, how can I resist having such art in my home?

Discussion Time! Halloween Costume Goodness!

Since we're on a Halloween kick here at Creepy Kitch, I thought I would follow suit and open up a discussion for all.
Yay! Its sharing is caring time!
So, in honor of one of my all time favorite Holiday's fast approaching, I ask you this chilling challenge!
What was your all time favorite Halloween costume you wore?
This can be from when you were a kid to just last year. Seriously, I'm 33 years old and I still dress up for Halloween. And not in the way a typical adult female would either. For me Halloween is not "dress like a whore" day but "AWESOME COSTUME MADNESS!!" day. I really do try to go all out depending on my time and my money that year.
I think I've only missed a couple Halloweens costume wise. And it broke my heart both times to not have a costume. And I assure you I have MANY favorite costumes.
But this one was my all time favorite.

Jurassic Park Employee.
I did this costume back during my senior year in high school. I thought I was OH so clever doing this. Actually I STILL think I was clever doing this. It was 1994, the year Jurassic Park came out and I loved, LOVED that movie. Judge me all you like but I STILL love that movie and consider it one of the best movie theater experiences I have ever had in my life. I also had just recently taken a class on theatrical makeup that included a how to do bruises, bloody scratches, scars, and other fun gore.
So I decided to combine my love for the film and my new found knowledge via costume. I put together a somewhat generic looking "archaeologist" outfit of cut off jeans, tank top, denim over shirt, panama hat and neckerchief. I stenciled in the JP logo on the back of my over shirt along with the title "Velociraptor Containment Team". I even made myself an IN-GEN badge using a school photo, cardboard, and lots of packing tape. Then, using my mom's cosmetics (much to her chagrin I assure you) I managed to give myself a rather convincing black eye, bloody lip, skinned knees, and raptor claw marks across my face and arms. All with the help of Mary Kay! Okay, granted, my mom only owned shimmer eyeshadow at the time so some of my bruises had a sparkly effect but it still looked convincing if I didn't stand in the sun too long!
The best part about this costume was going Trick or Treating with my friend's little sister and brother that night. I managed to convince two other friends of mine that this whole Jurassic Park idea, was a good one. So they followed suit, putting together their own JP costumes. And while we escorted young Anne-Marie and Brendon to get their sweet surgary goodness, the three of us would put on a show for the door people involving, screaming, shaking bushes and a raptor puppet. I figured hey, if they think we're too old for trick or treating, at least this theatrical experience would earn us some candy. And earn candy it did! We came home with quite a horde.
And to date that is my favorite Halloween costume. I've done others since then (Indiana Jones with boobs, Kayako from The Grudge, A fry cook on Venus) but I had the most fun wearing my Jurassic Park worker costume.
...I am so tempted to do it again.

So lay it on me, What's YOUR favorite?

An All Hallows Sighting

I-Mockery has started their Halloween count down! Every year they two a solid two months of Halloween updates of all kinds, so go their for your ghoulish fix!

It also looks like X-Entertainment is going to start the Halloween countdown on September 16, so start looking for that, as well!

Both sites have great offerings and I visit both extensively this time of year!

Also, they have pumpkin cheesecake at Olive Garden currently. It is DELICIOUS.

It Comes.. I CAN FEEL IT!!

They do the Halloween Dance with me! It's like popping and locking, but with more candy corn.

Halloween is coming! Halloween is coooming! Halloween is cooooming!

I am skipping as I sing this! I need to get cracking on my Halloween costume-- it involves the top hat I found in San Diego.

Halloween candy is starting to creep into the grocery stores, and the local Dollar Tree has some really cool stuffage. I may do a post on what I find, actually.

This is a pointless post, fueled by cold medicine and deep seated yearning for red and orange leaves. Yes.

I put my candy in here. I was recently accused of stealing this from my five year old nephew by my five year old nephew.