The Four Weeks of Halloween

The Fourth Week of Halloween 2023

Recommended in this episode Poems * Zombies * The Corpse Less Taken * Extraterrestrials * Mermaid poems by Jamie Gower Movies/TV Lockwood and Co. (2023) Spooky, some menace and jump scares; stream on Netflix. One Lane Bridge (2020) Spooky, some jump scares, grown-up discussions of grown-up problems; stream on Acorn, AMC+. Wednesday (2022) Spooky, some jump scares and violence, including a pretty upsetting attack on Thing. Mostly surprsingly sweet, though. Stream on Netflix. Books Dracula Daily Like it says on the newsletter, “Get the classic novel Dracula, emailed to you in real time as it happens.” Also bound in a beautiful annotated print edition [https://bookshop.org/p/books/dracula-daily-reading-bram-stoker-s-classic-with-commentary-by-the-internet-matthew-kirkland/19829408?ean=9781524884703]. Peeps (Scott Westerfeld) Vampirism as a sexually-transmitted parasitic infection. Spooky, sometimes scary—especially in the alternate chapters, which chronicle the queasy life-cycles of real-life parasites. The book is on back-order, but is available on Libby [https://share.libbyapp.com/title/258480]. In a Class By Itself The Bat Woman (1968) Oh, migosh, this is amazing. About as scary as the Adam West Batman, although there is a fish-man who might be scary if you’re under 11 years old. Stream on Tubi, rent on Amazon Prime Video. Also, the New York Times did a wonderful article [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/movies/the-batwoman-maura-monti.html?smid=url-share] about the movie and its star, Maura Monti. What next? We had a great time doing The Four Weeks of Halloween, and are wondering: should we do more? Not Halloween-specific, obviously (at least not until 2024!). But maybe we pop up for specific holidays, or on a regular monthly or quarterly cadence? What do you think? Let us know in the comments! And as always, we’d be ever so grateful if you could recommend us to a friend. We’ve even arranged wee gifties for you if someone uses your signup link. So we hope you might be able to help. Either way, and always, you’re the bee’s knees in our book. We hope you have a fun, safe, and delightfully spooky Halloween.

The Third Week of Halloween 2023

Recommended in this episode: Poem Dear Dr. Frankenstein by Jericho Brown [https://www.jerichobrown.com/]. From his book The New Testament [https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/the-new-testament-by-jericho-brown/], published by Copper Canyon Press [https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/] Movies/TV Young Frankenstein (1974) Spooky? Possibly? Maybe?; stream on Max, buy the DVD to hear Mel Brooks’ commentary (prepare to have your heart broken when he reacts to seeing his departed friend Madeline Kahn on screen again) Werewolf by Night (1999) Legit scary, especially in the first half, but ultimately surprisingly sweet; stream on Disney The Wild, Wild, West (1965-1969) Occasionally spooky, although the spooky element almost always turns out to be a ruse by the villain (like the steam-powered Kraken tentacle that was destroying shipping in the San Francisco Bay—seriously, that was an episode) also mentioned: Eureka (2006-2012) Not even spooky, sometimes tense, mostly amiable romps Books Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (at times scary, due to examples of the real consequences of super-hero level violence; also on Libby [https://share.libbyapp.com/title/5185856]) Music What’s He Building in There? by Tom Waits (spooky, in a fun way; listen on most music streaming services) And we recommend searching for Halloween on any music streaming service—there’s a lot of stuff! also mentioned: Skullcrusher Mountain by Jonathon Coulton (spooky, also in a fun way; we’d recommend anything by Mr. Coulton) Podcasts Limetown (spooky, some scary descriptions of violence; available via most podcast players—also a TV series on Peacock, and a prequel novel) also mentioned: Welcome to Night Vale (spooky, maybe a little scary?; available via most podcast players—and is the nucleus of an entire spooky media mini-empire)

The Second Week of Halloween 2023

Recommended in this episode Poem The Haunted Palace by Edgar Allan Poe Movies/TV Into the Woods (2014) Spooky at worst; stream on Disney, rent on most services Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) Not even really spooky; rent on Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu Books The Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare and Beyond blog (be sure to search for “Halloween“) His Face All Red by Emily Carrol (spooky; also on Libby [https://share.libbyapp.com/title/1816485]) Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore (spooky, with swearing and discussion of “sexy times”; also on Libby [https://share.libbyapp.com/title/4896557]) Podcasts Strange Studies of Strange Stories (discussion of spooky, the scary, and sometimes horrifying stories and novels from the first half of the twentieth century and earlier) Old Gods of Appalachia (spooky, sometimes scary, occasionally briefly horrifying) also mentioned: Camp Monsters (spooky, sometimes really scary)

The First Week of Halloween 2023

Recommended in this episode: Poems Vintage Halloween Greeting Cards by various Movies/TV Van Helsing (2004) Spooky, some scary; rent or stream on Apple+, AMC, Prime Video, YouTube and others Crazy Head (2005) Spooky leaning to scary; stream on Netflix Good Omens (2019-2023) Spooky, some scary; stream on Prime Video Books Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman (spooky at most; also on Libby [https://share.libbyapp.com/title/590489]) Monster, She Wrote by Lisa Kröger & Melanie R. Anderson (non-fiction about a range of works; also on Libby [https://share.libbyapp.com/title/4629200]) The Weird edited by Anne and Jeff VanderMeer (spooky, some genuinely scary, one to two horrifying; also on Libby [https://share.libbyapp.com/title/712706]) Podcasts Random Number Generator Horror Podcast No. Nine (plot synopses of the spooky, the scary, and the horrifying) Also mentioned Too Scary, Didn’t Watch (plot synopses of the spooky, the scary, and the horrifying) Wikipedia (another great resource for plot synopses before you commit) *If you recognize what line from what movie I paraphrased for that last line in the intro, let us know in the comments, would you? See you there…

The Fourth Week of Halloween: for Kids

Recommended in this episode Poem The Adventures of Isabel [https://allpoetry.com/Adventures-Of-Isabel] by Ogden Nash Movies It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060550/] (1966) Spooky, barely Coco [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307] (2017) Spooky, at most Books Mommy? [https://www.amazon.com/Mommy-pop-up-book-Maurice-Sendak/dp/0439880505] by Maurice Sendak Spooky, some scary (mostly the price—it can be hard to find) Where the Wild Things Are [https://bookshop.org/p/books/where-the-wild-things-are/18862064] by Maurice Sendak Spooky Terry Jones Fairy Tales [https://www.powells.com/book/terry-jones-fairy-tales-9780805238075/2-3] by Terry Jones Occasionally Spooky Games Grim Fandango [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Fandango] Spooky, grown-up themes Podcasts Scary Stories for Creepy Kids [https://linktr.ee/scarystoriesforcreepykids] Spooky Music “Frankenstein” by The Edgar Winter Group Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/track/2l0Z9fY1E8Bep8opmhmDhq?si=359f1916622d4507] / Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/us/album/frankenstein/190809993?i=190810402] / YouTube Music [https://music.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=juVZ1dbn_t0] / Amazon Music [https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00136NSWM?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_C4i2YK291WE7XoYv0tNT276cU&trackAsin=B00136JDS0] “Fury of Godzilla” from Godzilla, the King of All Monsters by Akira Ifukube Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/track/0WsPyY54YmdM2l1zNzg0yi?si=b1c4b245d93e44bd] / Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/us/album/fury-of-godzilla/1548613084?i=1548613760] / YouTube Music [https://music.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=hFiG67hrqwo] / Amazon Music [https://music.amazon.com/albums/B08Z7RG73J?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_V8Nny6hAC7blhMRMit8GSPoi1&trackAsin=B08Z7DWPWW] “Main Title” from Godzilla, the King of All Monsters by Akira Ifukube Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/track/0tMaMzsOc2Y0EX2Uoj9QDy?si=e86a20ea9e334dbc]/ Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/us/album/main-title/1548613084?i=1548613420] / YouTube Music [https://music.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=qv-jukzhJfk] / Amazon Music [https://music.amazon.com/albums/B08Z7RG73J?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_U3S4Wg83eF2zcRPs1KuACCVYd&trackAsin=B08Z7HC65C] “The Murder” from Psycho by Bernard Herrmann Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/track/0OyPu4OqWn6wS40vWDTuE1?si=f266423ab4924ea4] / Apple Music [https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-murder/1440795706?i=1440795874] / YouTube Music [https://music.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=P119HeK3COQ] / Amazon Music [https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00FU537B4?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_yXDK8ScD19lF1FgNilGkjAuh5&trackAsin=B00FU4YHI2]