calliopes_pen

The Yuletide tag set is open. I’ve been going through it see what things might interest me. Right now, here’s a list of what I’m pondering when it comes to either offering to write or requesting. There are a few others I have yet to watch or read that sound interesting, so I’m leaving them off the list for now. This is in order according to books, then movies, tv shows, etc…

I will add that I was amused to see WWII RPF, with a cast of Christopher Lee, Julia Child, Jon Pertwee, and Roald Dahl.

Dracula - Bram Stoker
Dracula the Undead - Freda Warrington
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Bell Book and Candle (1958)
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Crimson Peak (2015)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (Movies - Hammer)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
The Innocents (1961)
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
The Omen (Movies)
Rebecca (1940)
Stardust (2007)
The Uninvited (1944)
Warlock (1989)
White Zombie (1932)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Dracula (TV 1968)

Dracula (TV 2013) is one that I’ve never seen, but I have heard enough about it to be uncertain if I want to give it a shot.

Meanwhile, I found out yesterday that Comet TV will be doing a special showing of three silent films on Halloween night. They’re calling it Hushaween. At 9 PM it’s Nosferatu (1922); at 11 PM, it’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); and at 1:30 AM, it’s The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Pretty sure I could only last through Nosferatu, but hey—glad they’re on at all.

I had a grand total of 92 trick-or-treaters last night, as they all came from 5:30 PM, until 8 PM. Having only 8 or 9 pieces of candy left in the bowl, I turned out the lights.

50 of those trick-or-treaters came within a ten-minute span of time. We had one quite disturbing little boy who had a real machete. He was angry with his little sister, and slammed the machete into our yard about half up the blade. He tore it back out and screamed to the heavens, while she laughed at him. And then, he stalked over, put on a smile, and very politely requested candy.

I gave him the most (five pieces) of all. Costumes of note (well, the first 15 kids weren’t dressed up in anything but normal clothing.) include a boy that dressed as what looked like a giant blueberry. It was almost Willy Wonka style. He walked up and down the street, but never came by my house, so I couldn’t ask what he was.

1 little boy had been dressed as Trump Taco, minus the Trump mask. Sweet kid; terrible costume choice from his family. The more interesting thing that I spotted would be the two people dressed in T-Rex costumes. Fully done with long tail, teeny arms, tiny cut-out in the throat to see, large head with fangs, etc… Their parents carried the bag for candy, because they couldn’t.

There was one child I didn’t see at first, as he came after dark, and was dressed head to toe in black, and a black mask. When he touched a button, you could then see two glowing red eyes in the dark. So I saw that “floating” up the ramp. And either he came by again, or someone else had the same costume with another group, for I spotted two more glowing red eyes later.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/981854.html

This year, despite the rain, we ended up having a grand total of 41 trick-or-treaters. Word appeared to spread that I had Twizzlers to give away, because several children and suspiciously older teens requested them before I even brought the bowl to them. One even said, “They told me you had Twizzlers. I want those instead.”

The first came around 5 PM, and the other 40 started coming at 7 PM. I ran out of candy and had to turn out the lights around 8 PM—before the next wave appeared at the end of the street. The final one was a teen (not in a costume--but the second to last, her friend, was) that was disappointed because she "thought it would be livelier around here, but it's dead!"

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/968982.html

In the end, it was a grand total of 64 (20 came in 10 minutes) kids that came to my door, two of whom I recognized from when the local news showed the trick-or-treaters in a roped off area downtown.

After the 64th kid left, I turned out the lights and went off to watch Return of the Vampire on Get TV. It was 8:30 PM, and we were pretty much out of candy. The temperature had fallen down to 40 degrees before anyone arrived, with the wind at 25 mph, so I'm amazed anyone came at all.

There were no sightings of Michael Meyers, Jason Vorhees or Freddy Krueger walking down the road in a line (with a fairy princess with butcher knife behind them) this year. Instead, it was mostly kids (and many teens) bundled up. Aside from an undead nun, a scarecrow wearing a Scream mask painted brown, a court jester skeleton, and a glow-in-the-dark skeleton pirate. Oh, and the kid dressed as pepperoni pizza, and one teenage Red Riding Hood.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/957442.html

Tomorrow evening, I will be headed out to the annual Zombie Walk around 5 PM. Last year’s was at the start of November, so they ended up nearly freezing in their tattered clothing. This year shouldn’t be as bad for them, since the temperature is due to be in the 60’s tomorrow. (Now, what that falls to at or near sunset, which is when they’re normally ready to shamble onward, I don’t know.)

So far, unless something else comes along during the month, I plan to go to see Halloween (1978) on October 25th at 4:30 PM, and Psycho (1960) on October 26th at 2 PM. After doing a lot of reading up on it, I opted to avoid The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, playing this Sunday. It’s just not one for me.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/955546.html

How many trick-or-treaters did everyone get? At the other house—where I went to be with everyone, as a tornado/severe weather was on its way—we ended up having 57 trick-or-treaters. Several of whom opted to continue trick-or-treating despite a tornado siren, high winds, and torrential rain*. Without an umbrella. And I had to give them candy, since the lights were on—Dad was trying to make his way over, it was dark—kids and teens without costumes misinterpreted. Some observations:

1. What made my night? Looking out the window and seeing a kid with a machete in his head. Behind him, stood an adult dressed as Michael Meyers. Together, with three others, they started slowly walking down the street. Behind the Michael attired guy was someone dressed (perfectly) as Jason Voorhees. And behind him? Freddy. Behind all of them was a fairy princess with a fake knife covered in blood.

The Michael sighting occurred just as a commercial played the Halloween theme. Great timing.

2. One eight year old kid loves Dum Dums more than words can say—so someone out there finally likes our cheap candy. He was very particular and instructed me to search and find five sour apple Dum Dums. No more, no less. Also, he put in a request for blue ones which I think he said had something to do with a triangle. We didn’t have those, and a Google search turns up nothing.

3. It was the first Halloween for two kids (about 2 years old) dressed as dinosaurs. The request for candy is “Grr?” Giving them candy caused them to say “Roar,” quite happily.

4. If you’re at my grandmother’s old house, where Mom currently is, it’s near the highway. They literally bus in the children for Halloween. There was a traffic jam as people lined up all down the street—and, from the look of it, down the entirety of the nearby dead end street, so it took Dad 30 minutes to get to us when it should have been 5, or 10 at the most.

*Everyone’s fine, by the way—the wind messed up surrounding counties, and rolled a semi truck somewhere, but I believe everything here is okay. There was one tense moment as it headed for my aunt’s house, but she’s fine. 80 mph winds and sideways rain with lightning was the worst of it in Lone Oak, and we didn’t end up with any hail.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/936501.html

In honor of All Hallow's Eve, I'm inviting trick-or-treaters to my 'door'. Comment "trick-or-treat" to this post and you will get a surprise in your 'bag' on the 31st. Treats can be anything you'd like - my bubbling cauldron can serve up pretty pictures, drabbles or ficlets, kittens, or random other things.

As I'm just spreading this one around for everyone, and not actually participating--I disabled comments.