Halloween 2026: Preamble

 

Halloween is always special. This is something I have believed for as long as I can remember. A very early memory of mine is of one of those kids board books, of trick-or-treators going about their October 31st ritual. I can recall thumbing through those extra thick pages over and over again, before I even really knew how to read, simply fascinated by the imagery. The morbid heart was always within me, drawing me towards monsters and shadows and candy corn and cheap plastic vampire fangs.

 

Halloween is always special but it is extra special this year. For, through a confluence of events that would seem improbable if not for the clear indication that they did in fact happen, I am getting married this October. Yes, this morbid heart of mine found another. One that understands the way I see the world and shares many of my pains, hopes, fears, and dreams. Sorry if I become insufferable at any point this season but I am in love. I am irreversibly infected with how much I adore this person and constantly astonished at how much she adores me. The Halloween season means maybe as much to my intended as it does to me, which is part of why we are a good match. This is also why we have decided that the start of October – which was already our anniversary, through a nice fluke of fate – is the date we are going to tie the knot. We both like this time of year more than most and it seemed the ideal day for us to make this on-going relationship thingy we've had for a bit into an actual binding legal status. 

Not to gush too much about the woman I love here but... At one point, as we were banding about ideas for our ceremony, she asked me if we could incorporate a slight Frankenstein theme into the decorations and so forth. I didn't suggest that! It was all her idea! Somehow, I have not only found a person who wants to marry me but also likes creaky old monster movies and gothic literature and bullshit like that enough to incorporate them subtly into our big day. Let me tell ya, that was one of many moments with where I realized how extraordinarily lucky I am to have them in my life. She's drawn little key chains of the two of us as the monster and the bride to give to guests! How adorable is that and also how the hell did I convince this spectacular human being to love me?

 

Alright, alright, I'll stop. You fine people probably don't want to read about the point where my self-loathing and my love for my almost-wife intersect. The point is, yes, I am going to be extra busy this September and October. Will that effect the Halloween Horror-fest Blog-a-thon? I mean, probably. My watching and writing schedule kind of went off-the-rails before the end of last October and I was only engaged then. Now that I've got actual places to go, people to transport and lodge, and a wife to marry and cherish forever, my time will definitely be occupied more-so this year than in ones past. It's entirely possible that I've simply reached the point in my life where writing in-depth reviews of two movies and two TV show episodes every day of September and October isn't practical or feasible anymore. 

I'm still going to try though. Yes, I've got a shit ton of stuff I wanna watch and write about this year. Hey, did you know they made a new “Killer Tomatoes” movie this year? Holy shit, what a perfect oppretunity to write about that particular cinematic endeavor! Hmmm, I've reviewed almost every film series or release represented in the old Movie Maniacs toyline except for a few exceptions. Maybe I should include those titles in my marathon this year, to satisfy an extremely obscure and random element of my autistic fixations? Am I also going to try and watch fifty horror movies from fifty different countries again, despite not really succeeding at doing that last year either? Yeah, because that's just what I do now, I guess. Oh yeah, I've got a line-up of classic and recent anthology shows and a few other vaguely spooky programs to occupy myself with as well. 

Ya know, nobody is reading these words. Blogging is a barely extant hobby these days and Blogspot continues to persist probably because nobody at Google notices they haven't deleted it or incorporated it into some other application already. I started doing this because I wanted to, way back when social media was an extremely different landscape than it is today, and now I continue to do it because I want to. Because it makes me happy. Will the person who is going to be my spouse soon find my obsession with watching and writing about a bunch of mostly old horror movies every September and October as important as I do? Well, I guess those are the kind of questions that you get answered to when you finally shack up with somebody! 

 

Anyway, yeah, that's the plan. If I miss a day or get a little behind, so be it. Halloween is about having fun! I think watching horror movies and TV shows is also fun! So I shall attempt to balance doing this alongside publicly declaring my love to the person I adore the most. If another human is indeed reading these words, thanks for caring enough to stop by and partake of some vintage horror fan shenanigans with me. 

And thus: Journey with me down to the cemetery and pantomime a danse macabre or two.  Let us do the Monster Mash. Perform the Time Warp with me umptenthly. The mortals among us who have withstood the Thriller in the past are called upon to withstand it again. Boys and girls and them/theys of every age, you clearly do like something strange. Ain't you afraid of no ghosts as well? I know I am. The spooky, scary season is upon us and I have more reasons than usual to celebrate. The Autumn Country calls to me once more and I have a bride to accompany me this time. She's not stitched together from pieces of corpses either, at least I don't think so. And so soft gusts of love and memory beat at the heart reproachfully. The lights that burn for those who die were flickering low but let them now flare high. For it is the haunting Hallowe'en!