Zombos' Closet of Horror

It's Not Halloween Yet But It Will Do Anyway 3rd Annual Halloween Contest!

Foaming at the mouth in anticipation of next month's festivities? Already chowing down on candy like it's Halloween Night in preparation for the big event? Restless like a zombie because you're just dying to wear that costume you've been eying in your closet all year long? Then I've got a contest for you!

Thanks be to the Big Honkin' Promotion God (that would be Sylvia at Big Honcho Media), two lucky people (that could be you, and maybe you, too--yes,  you, the one stuffing Cheetos up her nose for YouTube.)

Just email me with your mailing address and I'll enter you to win The Evil Dead and Hatchet on Blu-ray! So don't just die of boredom waiting for Halloween; now you can die of anticipation! (Did you catch my mention of BLU-RAY!)

Hurry! Contest ends September 7th.

2 Winners will each receive:

• The Evil Dead on Blu-ray
• Hatchet on Blu-ray

EVIL DEAD Blu-ray available on the shelves August 31

Two brand-new hi-def transfers personally supervised and approved by Sam Raimi and an all-new audio commentary featuring Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell.  Includes Limited Edition DVD packed with 3 hours of original bonus features!

Special features include:

• On the Blu-ray:
  • All-new audio commentary with writer/director Sam Raimi, producer Robert Tapert and star Bruce Campbell
• On the special-features DVD:
  • One By One We Will Take You: The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead
  • The EvilDead: Treasures from the Cutting Room Floor
  • The Ladies Of The Evil Dead Meet Bruce Campbell
  • Book of The Dead: The Other Pages
  • Discovering The Evil Dead
  • Unconventional
  • At The Drive-In

HATCHET Blu-ray available on the shelves September 7

Unrated director's cut, features an all-new audio commentary with writer/director ADAM GREEN and Victor Crowley himself - KANE HODDER!

Special features include:

• Audio commentaries:
  • Co-producer/writer/director Adam Green and Star Kane Hodder (new)
  • Adam Green, co-producer/cinematographer Will Barratt and actors Tamara Feldman, Joel David Moore and Deon Richmond
• The Making of Hatchet
• Meeting Victor Crowley: An in-depth look at the creation of a new horror icon
• Guts & Gore: Go behind the scenes of Hatchet's special makeup and prosthetic effects
• Anatomy of a Kill: Witness the "jaw-breaking" birth, design and execution of a death scene
• A Twisted Tale: Writer/Director Adam Green recounts his decades-long friendship with "Twisted Sister" front man Dee Snider
• Gag reel
• Theatrical trailer

Halloween Rattlin' Candy Coffin

This is actually quite creepy-cool: you pull on the skeleton's foot dangling out of the coffin and he shakes, rattles, and rolls like an Elvis Impersonator. The spider and web graphic on the coffin lid is a wonderful touch.

My Halloween: Halloween Addict

Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...

Allhollow Steve at Halloween Addict keeps his October Dreams in mind all through the year.

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

I think it's one of the few holidays that is really about fun. It hasn't been clouded by set-in-stone tradition, family politics, overcrowded holiday travel, gift buying stress, etc.  It's about the thrill of being out at night, getting free candy and treasures, dressing up in costumes, watching scary movies.

You can celebrate Halloween however you want: with loved ones indoors, traipsing through a corn maze at night, by the warm glowing warming glow of a television horror marathon, handing candy out to kids and families at your door, building a yard display for the community to walk by and see.  So many different things, and it's all about fun.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

My ideal Halloween would be waking up with a balanced Halloween breakfast of pumpkin pancakes and a bowl of a General Mills Monster Cereal. Then I'd be out the door embracing the crisp Fall day and off to the local pumpkin patch for pumpkin scrutinizing and picking. From there I'd head back home to read a little from my favorite Halloween tome "October Dreams" while sipping a pumpkin spice latte. With AMC's FearFest on, I'd spruce up my house with any last minute decorations and carve my jack o' lantern before the trick or treaters start showing up (I'll be the cool house giving out mini Jones Halloween sodas and full sized candy).  When the doorbell stops ringing I'll switch over to my annual tradition of watching Trick 'r Treat with the lights off. I'd close the evening with John Carpenter's Halloween.  Once the clock 'ticks to 12:01am on November 1st the magic of the night dissipates...

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

As a kid, I had a 55" classic Beistle jointed green-tinged skeleton that hung on my bedroom door every October.  I loved that thing.  When the skeleton got hung up I knew that candy wasn't far behind. As for collectibles/decorations I don't like, I'm not a huge fan of vintage Halloween collectibles. I think it comes down to the fact that I don't like googly-eyed jack o' lanterns. I like a traditional jack o' lantern with empty triangle eyes. There's something both friendly and sinister about that traditional look.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

I can't quite remember my very first.  I know that one of my very first costumes was a Collegeville "Tiger" but the one I really look fondly on was when I was in Elementary School and asked for and received a Ben Cooper "Darth Vader" costume.  My mom had this black velvet cape from a Halloween party she and my dad had gone to a few years before and I swapped the crappy, short vinyl cape that came with the boxed costume with the huge, black velvet one.

I wore it to school for the October "costume day" (when the teachers parade the classes around to each other's classrooms). In my mind I WAS Darth Vader. There was no more authentic looking Vader in that parade.  Didn't matter that I was still wearing the bright yellow vinyl suit part that said "DARTH VADER" across the chest, or that the cape was red on the inside (clearly more Dracula than Vader), OR that I was only 3 1/2 feet tall and not a 6' 5" David Prowse, OR that the mask had a rubber band holding it to my head.  Didn't matter.  I was rockin' that Vader costume.  Even had the "Imperial March" tune stuck in my head as I tromped around.  I couldn't have been happier.

What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?

Clever answer:

Question: Do you want to see something really scary?

Answer:  [attacking] Raawwwwwwwwr!

Straight answer:

Question: Would you like to make enough money doing HalloweenAddict.com to quit your day job and live comfortably?

Answer: Yes. Yes I would.

I Know What I Did Last Weekend

Hersheypark was a blast! The Wildcat is the most exhilirating wooden roller coaster ride I've ever experienced. It's bone jarring fun you can really sink your screams into.

Equally exhilirating, but not as gut-wrenching, is the Hersheypark Carrousel. An exquisite parade of fantasticly carved wooden horses, prancing proudly around regal chariots. Quick, can you name movies that had carousels in important scenes? (Hint: one is by Alfred Hitchcock.)

Two superb examples of our fantastic culture: one with a hint of fear, the other a merry nod of the head captured in color and motion.  Both go round and round, and up and down, and carry lots of riders.

But all good things, as the saying goes, so now I'm back to blogging, and catching up on all those reviews and skewy views piling up in the closet.

My Halloween: My Ghoul Friday

Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...

My Ghoul Friday is the kind of girl you want to have around every day of the week, but especially on Halloween.

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

Halloween is the one season of the year when the general public gets on the same page as they engage in play, and they see beauty in the dark.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

That's really tough. My ideal Halloween might be a bright, crisp, but not too cold day that started with pumpkin flavoured coffee before heading to a pumpkin patch that had different types and colours of pumpkins and gourds. After choosing a wheelbarrow full of goodies, and maybe consuming some hot apple cider, I would make my way to a place in the country - maybe a cottage - where I and my closest friends (Oooo and let's throw in a number of fellow haunters I've always wanted to meet) would spend the afternoon adding the final touches to decorations (would be nice if there was a barn available). There would be cooking over a fire and music as we got closer to evening. And the night would be capped off with some excellent horror movies and perhaps a few games. I suppose that's a bit boring. Even if we added attending a Halloween fair or parade in the afternoon, my ideal Halloween doesn't get very fancy.

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

I have a plastic vintage black cat & pumpkin lamp I found at a second hand store for a dollar. It sits in my office year-round.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

If you've ever gone to my "About Me" page, you've read the story. It started when my parents let me spray paint a tombstone on the concrete wall of our basement for my Grade 4 Halloween party.

It was my first real Halloween party, and I wanted it to be great. I constructed a haunted house the length of the basement and led people through dangling, slimy snakes hanging from the ceiling - just one example of the many forms and obstacles waiting for them in the shadow. I hadn't gotten over my fear of the dark, and I was deathly afraid of being in the basement alone (never mind with the lights off), but to make sure I could see well enough to safely guide each guest one by one through the haunted space, I sat alone in the pitch black basement for 20 minutes before the party goers even started to arrive.

That's when she was born, the little ghoul in the basement. Since then, she has come back to me every year, usually in late summer, ready to build creatures for Halloween. Sure, she's there throughout the other months, peeking through my eyes at the newest horror film being released, or tickling my neck so I turn to see the brochure for the Festival of Fear coming to the city.

What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?

Q: Can we, the general public, help you with time and donations to make your ideal Halloween come true?

A: And my answer is yes ;)