Halloween 2021: October 31st - HALLOWEEN

I went into Halloween with no plans beyond watching a ton of horror movies and reviewing them, like I always do. At the last minute, I was called upon to help a friend with handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. This necessitated me throwing together a costume with literally some random stuff I had lying around my house. The result was an extremely hodgepodge Frankenstein costume. Dealing with the neighborhood kids, in search of candy, is always delightful. I'm a softie for that kind of stuff. After wrapping up there, I returned home and got back to the final day of the Halloween Horror-fest Blog-a-thon. October 31st only comes once a year, so I have to make it count. On with the reviews!

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

Among hardcore Muppets aficionados, there is much debate around whether or not Disney has done right but Jim Henson's iconic felt creations in recent years. The 2011 theatrical reboot was moderately well received, though a vocal minority insisted it missed the spirit of Henson's work. The 2014 sequel was both a creative and box office shrug though. The attempt to retrofit the characters into a modern sitcom structure the next year was widely despised. The recent Disney+ series, “Muppets Now,” started out alright but degraded into mean-spiritness too quickly, in my opinion. Yet Disney is determined to keep this brand alive and, this year, rolled out what is somehow the very first Halloween special to ever star the characters. 

It's Halloween night and the Muppets are throwing a big party. Gonzo the Great has other plans, however. He's been invited to an exclusive night at the Haunted Mansion. Fifty years ago, his hero – a magician called The Great MacGuffin – disappeared while inside. Nobody is said to be able to survive a night inside the structure. Gonzo, being the impossible-to-frighten weirdo he is, looks forward to such a night. Pepe the Prawn tags along, under the mistaken assumption that this is a celebrity-packed Hollywood party. Both of them will encounter many strange things as they stay overnight inside the Haunted Mansion. 

“Muppets Haunted Mansion” earns points for maintaining the variety show structure of the original seventies TV series. This is an hour full of puppetry, songs, goofy humor, and celebrity cameos. The story structure is very loose and allows for a number of gags. There's even an extended homage to the reoccurring ball room dancing sketch from the old show, where random couples around a dance floor crack silly puns. Among the special guest stars, I don't recognize a lot of them. But Will Arnett, as the “Ghost Host,” and Yvette Nicole Brown, as a smart-mouthed limo driver, have mildly amusing small roles. The list of blink-and-miss-them cameo is a random hodgepodge of names like Danny Trejo, Pat Sajak, and the sadly late Ed Asner. 

From the title on down, it should be obvious that “Muppets Haunted Mansion” is an extended act of corporate synergy. This is a special meant to advertise the Haunted Mansion attractions around the world in various Disney parks, as much as it is to remind audiences that the Muppets exist. The narrative roughly follows the structure of the ride itself, taking Gonzo and Pepe through the graveyard, into the stretching room, and featuring the famous wall paper and “Doom” Buggies. The Hitchhiking Ghosts and “Grim Grinning Ghosts” naturally appear as well. Though Kermit and the gang are technically absent from the story, the famous Muppets play various roles throughout the Haunted Mansion ride. So Fozzy is mashed up with the Hatbox Ghosts, Piggy with Madame Leota. Kermit appears as a ghostly master-of-ceremony, with Rowlf as an organist. Honestly, I was kind of impressed with the sheer number of Muppet cameos they sneaked into this one. Characters from the original show, “Muppets Tonight!,” and the movies drop in for brief appearances.

As for the special's actual entertainment value, it starts out strong. Pepe, a character I'm otherwise not crazy about, does produce some decent laughs with him continually confusing between the Haunted Mansion and a regular party. This does lead to an amusing cameo from John Stamos, of all people. A running gag about a skeleton and mummy that can't quite get the timing right on the dramatic sound effects made me chuckle. The Electric Mayhem, appearing as Piggy's spectral band, complaining about needing more break time was another solid joke. Yet this special probably only should have been a half-hour, as its energy seriously sags in the second half. An extended sequence devoted to Pepe being married to Taraji P. Henson, as a murderous bride, feels belabored. Gonzo getting a lesson in friendship doesn't have much dramatic weight and the monster-filled chase scene that follows is limp. Also, a joke about a screaming goat was funny once but is repeated several times.

Despite definitely being uneven, “Muppets Haunted Mansion” does rank among the better “Muppets” spin-offs in recent history. It was clearly mostly shot on green-screens, which might just be a reality of COVID era production. I would've liked a little more Halloween ambiance, though I guess that would've distracted from Disney pimping their theme park attraction. I'm also still adapting to Matt Vogel as the voice of Kermit, who still strikes me as too nasally. The special itself made me chuckle a few times and kept me mildly diverted for most of its runtime, which I suppose is all we can ask for from something like this. I certainly hope this is a predecessor to more Muppet Halloween specials and that they work out some of the pacing bugs in future installments. [6/10]

The Undying Monster (1942)

Most of the attempts to emulate Universal's iconic series of monster movies were made by low budget studios. I've definitely gotten the impression, from retrospective documentaries and books on the topic, that other studios thought they were above the horror genre. But I guess the second wave of Universal Monster flicks, in the late thirties and forties, must've made enough money that even Universal's biggest rivals took notice. A year after "The Wolf Man" came out, 20th Century Fox would release their own version of the werewolf legend. 1942's "The Undying Monster," when it's infrequently mentioned, is usually regarded as a handsome take on classic horror tropes. 

Stately Hammond Hall, along the cliffs of the foggy British countryside, is home to a curse. Centuries ago, the Hammond lord is said to have sold his soul to the devil, emerging once a generation to sacrifice the latest heir. The modern Hammond family – including Oliver and his sister Helga – regard this as nothing but a superstition, though Hammond men do tend to die young. While out on the rocky cove, Oliver and a female friend are attacked by an unseen beast. Kate falls into a coma, Oliver is injured, and his pet dog is torn to pieces. Scotland Yard detective Robert Curtis arrives to unravel this mystery, find the killer, and resolve the case of the Hammond monster once and for all. 

The first thing you're going to notice about “The Undying Monster” is how gorgeous it is. Hammond Hall is an atmospheric location, full of chilly stone hallways and fireplaces that cast ominous shadows. At one point, the camera is even situated behind the flames of the fireplace, watching Helga and Oliver in front of it. The banisters, enormous windows, and wooden spires of the interior provide all sorts of interesting sights for the camera to peer around. Outside the castle are rocky flats that are, naturally, blanketed with wispy fog. There's a tomb as well, with elaborate statues of knights and a wolf-like creature. (That, for whatever reason, has prominent breasts.) All of this is captured with moody direction that goes heavy on the shadows. Whenever people or monsters are sneaking around the darkened rooms, “The Uncanny Monster” settles into an absolutely delicious groove of classic horror ambiance.

Another aspect of “The Undying Monster” that elevates it above your typical old dark house fare is a likable cast. Heather Angel, as Helga,  is a reasonable heroine. In the first scene, she grabs her brother's rifle and goes after the monster herself. She's never quite that proactive again but it's a scene that makes an impression. James Ellison plays Detective Curtis, making no attempt to disguise his American accent despite being from Scotland Yard. He's a likable hero, dissuading local police by spinning a wild story about an unleashed monkey. He stays sensible but is also wiling to go above and beyond to get results, all while maintaining a sense of humor. I also found myself liking Heather Thatcher as Chrissy, his comic relief sidekick. She's not as broad and annoying as characters like this usually are. In fact, “The Undying Monster” is refreshingly free of clichés. There's no love triangles, no melodrama. This is a focused mystery.

It's such a mystery, in fact, that I sometimes wondered how long I'd have to wait for the monster to show up. The movie sets up plenty of red herrings. The family servants are sneaking around and making ominous comments, suggesting they definitely know something. Helga's husband, a scientist himself, intentionally destroys evidence at one point. A surprisingly acrobatic fist fight in the tomb reveals another potential suspect. By the time a minor character dies off-screen – one of only two deaths in the whole movie – “The Undying Monster” is starting to feel a little on the dry side. Luckily, the movie does not wuss out with a “Scooby-Doo” ending like so many old dark house flicks. It makes us wait but there is some satisfying, if subtle, monster action in the last ten minutes. Even if it's then capped off with some laborious exposition. 

Director John Brahm would go on to make “Hangover Square” and  the 1944 version of “The Lodger,” proving he had a real knack for classy and atmospheric horror. Both of those movies starred George Sanders, who was the studio's original pick to play the detective role in this film. He flat-out refused and it is, admittedly, hard to imagine Sanders in the role. “The Undying Monster” basically gets by on its incredible mixture of shadows, fogs, and castle setting. As a mystery, it's a bit long-winded. As a monster movie, it plays things a little too close to the chest. Yet I'm a sucker for black-and-white ambiance, meaning I still enjoyed this one a lot. It's definitely among the best Universal Monsters knock-offs I've seen. [7/10]

Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

In the realm of B-movie barons, Sam Katzman is not as widely beloved as your Sam Arkoffs or Roger Cormans. Yet Katzman carved out a steady career for himself throughout the thirties and fifties. At Monogram Pictures, he helped crank out westerns, jungle adventure movies, serial, and the occasional thriller. In the forties he made countless programmers for Columbia. Yet what really endeared Katzman to genre nerds was a sextet of monster movies he produced in the mid fifties. After “Creature with the Atom Brain” – which I reviewed last Halloween – and “The Werewolf” came “Zombies of Mora Tau.”

Off the Mora Tau coastline of Southern Africa, there is a legend. A ship hulling diamonds sank off the coast a hundred years ago, after stealing them from an African temple. Every attempt to salvage the diamonds have failed, because the zombified crew members of the ship still roam the jungles and seas. George Harrison is determined to get those diamonds and has brought along a professional diving team to help. His team, led by heroic diver Jeff, soon runs afoul of the zombies of Mora Tau. Jeff develops a romance with Jan, the great-granddaughter of the ship's captain. When she's endangered, by the ever-encroaching undead threat, he has to make a choice over whether the diamonds or her safety is more important. 

 

“Zombies of Mora Tau” is notable for a number of reasons. It is, as far as I can tell, the first movie to feature underwater zombies, predating “Shock Waves” and Fulci's “Zombie.” It's also a zombie movie that has more in common with “Night of the Living Dead” than “White Zombie.” These shambling, hostile corpses are all automatous, with no voodoo master to lead them. In fact, there's no mention of voodoo at all. The characters standing up against a horde of undead attackers also predates “Night” and all its imitators by ten years. Their condition is even communicable, though there's no biting. While the image of blank-faced zombies wreathed with seaweed is memorable, they aren't much of a threat. They are easily frightened by fire and can be taken down by a single bullet. The heroes fight off the animated corpses with relative ease. It turns out, if you take away the rot and the cannibalism, your typical zombies just aren't very scary. 

“Zombies of the Mora Tau's” importance to the undead genre, as a bridging film between “I Walked with a Zombie” and George Romero, is also not the first thing I noticed about it. The main thought I kept having while watching it tonight was “This is the whitest movie about Africa I've ever seen.” It's unavoidable. This is a movie ostensibly set in Africa without a single character of color. Presumably, some sort of local magic is responsible for animating the zombies, for installing the curse, but all of that backstory happens off-screen. All the zombies are white. All the heroes and villains are white. Even Jan's grandmother is a little old white lady, living off the coast of Africa. It's just really funny to me that this movie attempts to float on the mystical reputation of “Darkest Africa” without bothering to include even a token black character. 

Yet I don't think the future of the zombie genre or narrow-sighted racism is what were on the producers mind with this one. Instead, “Zombies of Mora Tau” is basically “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” but with zombies. All the men who have pursued the diamonds, who have followed the greed in their hearts, have ended up dead. Harrison's all-consuming hunger for the diamonds ends up getting his girlfriend – played by “Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman's” Allison Hayes – turned into a zombie too. He has to choose between his love and his greed. Guess which one wins out. Ultimately, the film's hero is defined less by his bravery and daring than by his willingness to realize that this treasure is not worth it. An act of selfless heroism is what saves the day and breaks the curse. It's easy to see this coming but “Zombies of Mora Tau” is still most interesting when focusing on what motivates these men. 

All in all, “Zombies of Mora Tau” is a B-movie totally typical of its time and place. What makes it funny is entirely unintentional. What makes it ahead-of-its-time was completely unplanned. Sam Katzman would soon move onto “The Man Who Turned to Stone,” “The Night the World Exploded” and his most notorious production: “The Giant Claw.” Katzman's prolific career would continue well into the sixties but he would rarely touch on sci-fi/horror again after these projects. I'm not surprised this one was gained a cult following of sorts, accounting to the handful of things that's interesting about it. Yet this was mostly struck me as a pretty droll B-flick. [5/10]

Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

Horror was going through an interesting time in the early seventies. The gothic horror films that defined the genre for decades were falling out of favor. Yet the harsher forms of exploitation horror that would become the new normal was only beginning to take shape. You were seeing these two styles bleeding into each other, in the gorier and sexier Hammer horror films of that period. Or films that took a more psychological approach to supernatural premises. Before “The Exorcist” became the new standard, “Rosemary's Baby” was briefly the template for a string of films that explored broken psyches from the inside out. It was during this time that a peculiarly entitled cult classic named “Let's Scare Jessica to Death” was released.

Jessica and her husband, Duncan, move to the picturesque countryside. Jessica recently has been released from a mental hospital and Duncan hopes the peaceful setting will sooth her nerves. Jessica, meanwhile, is plagued by fears that she is still loosing her mind. Along with their friend Woody, they discover a woman living in the house. Named Emily, she's young and vivacious, both men immediately attracted to her. Jessica also uncovers that Emily bares an uncanny resemblance to the children of the people who lived in this house, and supposedly drowned, a hundred years ago. This is just the first of many strange things Jessica notices, that makes her fear she is going crazy again. Yet something even more horrifying is happening here.

The film's title, selected by Paramount against director John Hancock's wishes, is flippant. But “Let's Scare Jessica to Death” really is about a woman on the verge of dying of fright. Jessica is scared of loosing her mind. She's scared of letting people know she's scared. All throughout the film, we are privy to Jessica's thoughts. She's constantly harassed by troubling ideas, that her husband is attracted to another woman. That she's going mad again. These thoughts, played in quick bursts of echoing voice-over, are paired with Jessica's concerns anyone will notice her nervous state. Zohra Lampert's performance, from her stiff but jittery body language on down to her sad smile, conveys this unsteady mental state. 

When it becomes impossible for Jessica to disguise her fragile mental state, we learn why she's so eager to keep this information a secret. Jessica is surrounded by men totally unprepared to help her. Duncan seems disgusted by his wife's mental illness. When he suggests sending her back to New York, back to her doctors, he seems inconvenienced. When Jessica's pet mole is discovered killed, and she's understandably distressed about it, Freddy looks at her with a mixture of pity and disgust. But not sympathy. Both men seems totally preoccupied with the sexually available Emily. Jennifer desperately needs help. She needs someone who will listen to her, who will take her pain seriously. Instead, she's around men who are too selfish to even consider how Jessica is feeling. When Duncan inevitably becomes a monster that pursues Jessica violently, it's simply the film literalizing the cruel indifference he already feels towards his wife. 

The possibility that Jessica is going insane does seem very real. As a horror movie, “Let's Scare Jessica to Death” has an eerie quality. Since so much of the movie takes place inside Jessica's head space, it's hard to say how much of the weird things she sees are actually happening. A common psychological symptom is paranoia. Is this why Jessica sees the townsfolk as so hostile to her? Or are the particular scars that each of them carry a clue that something strange is happening? By the last end, the film has engulfed us totally in Jessica's unsteady perspective. This allows it to get increasingly horrific. Dream-like images, of dead bodies emerging from the water, or knife-wielding vampires stepping into a room while she sleeps, become more common. “Let's Scare Jessica to Death” ends on a totally inconclusive note, leaving us lingering in that unsettling mental space. 

Bizarrely enough, “Let's Scare Jessica to Death” was originally conceived as a horror/comedy about how much hippies suck. Director Hancock would completely rewrite the project. Some people still see it as a commentary of the death of the hippy movement, which was happening in real time in 1972. Others see similarities to Sheridan Le Fanu's “Carmilla,” in the idea of a vampiric young woman infiltrating a household. (Though “Jessica” noticeably lacks the lesbian content that would make “Carmilla” notorious.) Unsurprisingly, most modern readings discuss it as a movie about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It still has a spooky power to it, with Lampert's fragile performance at the center of it. [7/10]

Silent Madness (1984)

As I discussed some last night, the last decade has been an amazing time for formally obscure horror movies to be rediscovered. I've seen a lot of the one-off eighties oddities I discovered during my college slasher binge reappraised. Thanks to slick new Blu-Ray presentations, overlooked films like “The Slayer” and “The Burning” are slowly becoming beloved. “Silent Madness” is one I figured would never receive such a treatment. For years, rumors circulated in the retro-slasher fandom that the movie's rights were wrapped up in complicated legal issues. Or that its owners owed money to the mob. But anything is possible here in the future and Vinegar Syndrome recently gave “Silent Madness” the prestige treatment, even releasing the long flat movie in 3-D.

Dr. Joan Gilmore works for a Californian mental hospital. The staff is hopelessly corrupt and, due to budget cuts, they've begun releasing unwell patients that have been deemed no threat to society. They intended to release the harmless John Howard... Instead, they set violent psychopath Howard Johns free. Johns immediately begins to murder people, on his way back to the sorority house where he went on his first rampage twenty years ago. Joan teams up with a record keeper named Mark, in hopes of finding Johns and stopping him before he kills again. Yet the hospital dispatches a pair of sleazy orderlies to cover up the mistakes and make sure Joan's story never reaches the press.

In many ways, “Silent Madness” is a paint-by-numbers slasher flick. It's blatantly emulative of “Halloween.” It follows a killer who committed a crime years ago, escapes a mental hospital, and returns to the scene of the crime to kill again. He also likes to leave dead bodies in surprising places. Howard Johns doesn't even wear a cool mask. He's just a pasty-faced dude in work pants. Yet there's something reliably entertaining about “Silent Madness'” commitment to formula. About its blooping, synth-farts soundtrack. The way Johns' killing spree was spurned by a sexual humiliation, the way the twist ending has someone chastises women for being “slutty,” feels like the movie acknowledging the psycho-sexual undertones of the subgenre. The murder scenes are clever, especially a moment involving a barbell being tossed through a window. The stalking scenes are tense, such as Johns' face appearing reflected in an arcade game's screen. Or the extended chase through the air vents of the college. 

There's a lot of colorful elements to “Silent Madness,” both literally and figuratively. Director Simon Nuchtern paints extended sequences in bright reds or electric blues. The 3-D element comes off as pure camp now. A spinning claw, a sledge hammer, a nail gun, and spurting blood from a tightened vice all fly towards the camera. Sometimes, the 3-D effects are even rendered in primitive animation. To match the colorful visuals are a cast of memorably bizarre characters. The fat town sheriff speaks with an effeminate lisp as he spits creatively profane dialogue. The sorority girls play “Dragon's Lair,” do inverted aerobics,  and pose for erotic photography for each other. Joan and Mark's romance is even kind of cute. 

What truly cements “Silent Madness'” status as a minor slasher classic – a slashic, if you will – is its subversive social commentary. The reason Howard Johns' hospital has to release so many patients is do to government budget cuts. This, of course, was a very real problem facing the mental health facilities in the eighties. Instead of the hospital's operators admitting they made a horrible mistake, they deploy the two sleaziest orderlies in the world to cover it up. And by “cover it up,” I mean murder Dr. Gilmore. These guys might just be included to boost the body count. When they get a pneumatic drill to the head, it's satisfying. Yet it fits the film's commentary on how those in power inevitably abuse it. It's even implied that the inhumane treatment he received in the hospital made Howard Johns more dangerous than he was already.

I've only previously seen “Silent Madness” as a blurry, grainy VHS rip. Vinegar Syndrome did a great job of restoring the movie. Even if the edges of the frames still appear distorted, which I think might be a side effect of the movie being in 3-D. “Silent Madness” is often dismissed as a generic slasher flick, which is not entirely unfair. You might only be able to appreciate movies like this after you've seen another fifty movies just like it. The things “Silent Madness” does well become readily apparent when you see how many similar do these same things poorly. I'm happy I can retire my bootleg of this one. I maintain that it's a gem. [7/10]

Titane (2021)

Films that deal with the macabre, the extreme, the gothic, and the horrific still struggle to gain critical respect. This is true even in 2021. Genre bias is a hard thing to overcome. And yet maybe we are making progress. Because, this past year, a horror movie that contains quite a lot of extreme images won the Palme d'Or, the highest prize at that most prestigious of film festival, Cannes. Julia Ducournau's “Raw” certainly made an impression but her follow-up, “Titane,” has received an even more rapturous reception. If a body-horror filled, future cult movie experience like this going all the way to the top isn't a sign that maybe horror can be awards bait now, I'm not sure what is. 

When Alexia was a little girl, her father wrecked the family car. The following surgery has a titanium plate placed into her skull. She's left with a nasty scar and a fixation on automobiles. She grows into a disturbed adult who works as an exotic dancer at auto-shows, where she can indulge her sexual fetish for hot rods. She's also a serial killer, who has left a trail of dead bodies across France. When it looks like the police are close to identifying her, she disguises herself as a long-since missing boy. The boy's father, a firefighter captain named Vincent, accepts “Adrian” as his son. Alexia's attempt to carry off this deception are compounded by one very unusual factor: Her latest mechanophiliac tryst has left her pregnant. 

“Titane” is a movie that defies all expectations. I intentionally read as little about it as possible before seeing it, as I was told going in blind is the best measure. This is absolutely true. At no point in the film's 108 minute run time did I have any idea what was going to happen next. Well, that's not entirely true. I knew this was the movie where someone fucked a car. Yet even that scene unfolded in a far more bizarre fashion than I anticipated. “Titane” consistently surprises you by mixing extreme violence and sexual deviancy with sentimentality and raw emotion. The story takes multiple wild swerves, the premise seemingly changing several times. Elements of what you'd call “magic realism,” though peppered with far more horrific body horror than that term usually implies, weave in and out. It is the most unpredictable, and most satisfyingly baffling, motion picture experience I've had all year.

It's fitting that “Titane” is constantly shifting gears and surprising its audience, as this is a movie all about transformation. The inciting incident of the auto accident totally changes Alexia's life. It changes a car from an mundane object into something sexually desirable. Her decision to go undercover and assume a new identity has her changing her body. She binds her breasts and pregnant belly, shaves her head, and breaks her nose. Yet Vincent accepting her as his son causes her perspective on life to change too. A normal pregnancy is a drastic physical change too, which the film accurately recreates... And then takes even further, because this lady got impregnated by a car. The film's touches of “Tetsuo”-like body horror, motor oil and shining chrome appearing in places where those things definitely should not be, is only the most obvious type of transformation in the story. 

Paradoxically, as much as “Titane” is a movie about bodies changing, it's also a story about people who only know how to be one type of thing. Vincent, played with heart-rending sincerity by Vincent Lindon, is obsessed with masculinity. He injects steroids to maintain a youthful, muscular physique. He bonds with his “son” by slam-dancing and picking fights. Alexia, meanwhile, is totally baffled by her new lifestyle at first. As Adrian, she's usually silent and blank. During a key moment, she performs her strip tease while in her masculine persona. Both of these characters are striving to be something else but are held back by preconceived notions. Vincent is vulnerable and desperate to love, yet still fixated on a macho image. Alexia wants to be accepted but still only knows how to express herself with sex or violence. Both of these characters will have their perceptions challenged before too long.

Through all its twists and turns, “Titane” is nothing less than utterly compelling. Ducournau's direction is extremely fierce. An extended sequence depicting Alexia's violent hobby is punishing and graphic. The violence in this movie hurts. That includes the skin-crawling body horror. While comparison to Cronenberg's “Crash” are inevitable, Cronenberg is cool and lifeless as polished steel. “Titane” is hot and warm like exposed flesh, bursting with emotion. Its final images are of acceptance and compassion. Both Lindon and Agathe Rousselle, as Alexia, expose themselves physically and emotionally. This is a film where the stabs to the head and the soft kisses on the cheek hit with equal intensity. 

We already know that “Titane” is France's submission for Best International Feature at next year's Academy Award. A decade ago, it would've seemed impossible that a movie this transgressive, this graphic and wild, could get a Oscar nomination in any category. Yet consider this: “Parasite” won the Palme d'Or and would then go on to win the Best Picture Oscar, defying all previously held expectations. Using this same very scientific formula, I can now declare that this movie where someone fucks a car is going to win Best Picture next year. In all seriousness, “Titane” is an absolutely spellbinding movie. I was totally absorbed and blown away by every minute of it. By no means a traditional horror film but nevertheless an amazing one to conclude my Halloween season with. [9/10]

In many ways, it feels like this Halloween has been an especially low-key one. Not just for me but the whole world. I guess we are still easing back into the normal flow of things after 2020. No haunted attraction or corn mazes were visited. Fewer pumpkins were carved than usual. Yet I still did everything I could to make the Six Weeks of Halloween special. Lord knows, I packed in as many movies and TV shows as I think I possibly could. Feelings of burn-out and "why the hell am I doing this?" did occasionally drift into my head. 

Yet a moment occurred earlier tonight. (Or last night, more accurately.) I was standing out in the cold, in my Frankenstein mask. I saw the flashlights of trick-or-treaters approaching the house, from further up the road. The wind kick up and the fog machine blasted another round of mist into the air. I was surrounded by pumpkins and giant novelty skeletons. "I love this time of year," I found myself thinking with a massive smile on my masked face. Thank you for that gift, Halloween. Thank you for reminding me why this time of year is special. I'll miss you, Halloween. And, as always, I look forward to meeting you again in another eleven months. 

And to anybody alive out there in Internet Land, thank you for reading. Thank you for going on this journey with me. The Autumn Country closes its gates for another year, except it never really goes away either. Good night and safe travels.