Halloween is almost upon us once again, and the number of related items available made me wonder why Halloween isn’t made into even more of an event? Something like an UnBirthday. Think about it- you could have jolly old Satan Claws come and fill your stocking with guts, surround your Halloween tombstone with goodies and rotting carcasses, and then you could all sit down to a traditional Halloween dinner of roast pumpkin and Innocent Bystander. Seriously though, it could be turned into more than just Trick Or Treating and bobbing for apples, even in these financially difficult times.
Halloween is great fun for both kids and adults, and it can serve as a bonding experience for families too. Involving youngsters in Halloween themed games can be a superb method of entertainment and education on traditional pastimes (even when their origins have become so obscured by popular culture). Dressing up, getting made up as witches and monsters and the like can be lots of fun for all involved, and safe Trick-Or-Treating is a great thing for making memories.
But Halloween shouldn;t be limited to just the world of kids. There’s all kinds of events on in clubs, cinemas and so on plenty for the adult Halloweener to sink their teeth into (sorry). There’s a great deal of Halloween themed merchandise that make great gifts, such as licensed horror movie memorabilia and other merchandise such as action figures, posters, statues, and of course the movies themselves. You could check out things like the ever-creepy Living Dead Dolls figures, or the movie collectibles created by MacFarlane Toys, NECA and Sideshow Collectibles.
Fancy a memorable Halloween evening in? Gather your friends, some suitably kitsch horror movies (Go for the cheese more than the darker stuff- zombie films, cheap B-movies, Chucky, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and its billion sequels, films you can shout at), Halloween snacks (stock up on kids snacks and themed sweets- there’s nobody saying the grown-ups can’t have some fun too), add some suitably camp music (I recommend ‘Project 1950′ and ‘American Psycho’ by the Misfits or anything by the Cramps) and there you go, you have the makings of a fun Halloween party in your own home. Granted, that sounds like a typical night in at our place, but still, there are people out there who are actually normal. Somewhere. I think. get your place decked out with rubber bats and skeletons and make an event out of it.
Want an evening’s entertainment? Seek out any of the following great horror films from the golden age of 80s cheese:
Re-animator, Scanners, The Burning, Class of Nuke ‘Em High (okay, this is a spoof but it still kicks ass), The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, An American Werewolf in London, Bad Dreams, Hellraiser, Evil Dead 2, Return of the Living Dead 2, Creepshow, Day of the Dead, Trick or Treat, Poltergeist, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, A Nightmare on Elm street,. TITLE. EVER), Dead Zone, The Gate, The Hunger, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Monster Squad, Society, Sorority babes in the Slime-ball Bowl-O-Rama….. Hell, there’s thousands of them. See what fun there is to be had.
There’s a wealth of ways to go to make your Halloween memorable. Start off with a film night as suggested, then go along to a themed party or event,. Preferably in costume. Look at your local listings for events locally that you can go along to, the more ludicrous the better. If this comes across as a no-brainer, that’s because it really is. With a little effort and forethought you can change the commercial Halloween celebrations into somehting the whole family can enjoy. Don’t think of it as unwanted cost- think of it as a welcome break from normality and a way to celebrate in these hard times.Halloween celebrations aren’t all about handing out sweets to bored kids at your front door- it should be fun and. I mean, how often can you actually run around wielding steaming intestines and wearing a mad grin during the rest of the year? Actually, forget I asked that.