Back from the dead.......

Yes I know the Halloween Countdown was a total letdown, but we're back!  Hopefully this time around we won't have any big breaks like that.  Again I'm totally sorry ghouls.  Now if you still want some Halloween Overkill throw us some support down below and let us know that you're still following the site!!!

12 Days Left........Halloween Countdown 2010

 Finally!!!!!!! I've been telling you about the "Trick or Treat Studios" contest that I've been planning on holding for weeks now!  Well come one, come all, here it is!  I bet you are wondering what the prize is, well I kind of gave it away yesterday but you probably didn't know it.  Yesterday I posted this seemingly random image at the end of the "Trick or Treat Studios" interview

Well "ghouls" this was not a random image but a preview of the prize itself! Yes, "Trick or Treat Studios" has given HalloweenOverkill the chance to award one of you lucky readers this mask! To win the "Devil" mask all you have to do is tell me who sculpted it. Here's a clue: http://trickortreatstudios.com/devil_halloween_face_mask.html Answer the question in the comments below and you could be the lucky owner of this mask just in time for Halloween this year! (I really hope the winner will actually use this as part of their Halloween cosutme)  Oh yeah and another thing you get with this mask is the official "scent" of Halloween.  You know what I mean, this mask just has that "smell" that we all remember as children smelling right around Halloween. (No it's not a gross smell but that rubbery smell that we all love and remember)  A huge thank you goes out again to "Trick or Treat Studios" for partnering with HalloweenOverkill to bring you "ghouls" this amazing prize
Some official rules for the contest;
1. Winner must live in the U.S. (due to shipping costs)
2. To be eligible to win you must answer the question: "Who sculpted the Devil mask?" the answer can be found here - http://trickortreatstudios.com/devil_halloween_face_mask.html
3. an Email address must be left with your comment/answer so I can contact you.
4. The mask will be shipped as fast and safely as the post office allows.
5. This contest ends Saturday, October 23rd at 11:59 P.M.
Not a rule but to show a little appreciation to the fine folks over at "Trick or Treat Studios" please head over to their Website, Blog, Facebook Page, or send them an email to thank them or just tell them how awesome they are!  Also click here to read yesterdays interview with Mr. Zephro from "Trick or Treat Studios"

13 Days left................Halloween Countdown 2010

 Unlucky number 13.  Fortunately for you this number will prove to be very lucky, for today with 13 days left until the great day of days we have an amazing interview with Mr. Christopher Zephro, from "Trick or Treat Studios".  We also have what I believe to be one of the best giveaways we have held here at HalloweenOverkill! (Which will be posted tomorrow) If you haven't heard of Trick or Treat Studios they are a mask making company and in my opinion one of THE best ones out there!  Before you read the interview I'd like to tell everyone out there that keeping in contact with Mr. Zephro has been nothing short of fantastic!  The response time and professionalism of his responses have been great and I really feel this is shared in his endeavors with the company.  Without further ado here is the interview with Mr. Chris Zephro from "Trick or Treat Studios".

1.  So why Halloween? What is it about that special holiday that made you want to open your business with that one single night in mind?

That’s an easy one, Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Ever since I was a kid, Halloween has always been the one night of the year I couldn’t wait for. In fact, I put up all my decorations in September so that I get to enjoy the vibe for a couple of months.  I love look of Halloween, the smell, the feel--everything about it.

2.  And as far as being in the Halloween product industry: there are so many different things for us to buy, so why did you choose masks to be your focus?

I chose masks because I felt the biggest market opportunity was there.  I did a ton of research before I started this business and talked to a number of retailers and distributors.  Almost all of them expressed a frustration with the quality and originality of masks. In fact, they said the mask business was all but dead and expressed disappointment regarding that fact.  When I heard those comments, it was clear to me that there was potential for a mask company that, for lack of a better phrase, could “bring back Halloween.”  In other words, a company that could bring back the classic designs, high quality and good pricing of the Golden Age of mask making, which took place during the '70s and '80s.  Everything seemed to drop once those great companies decided to move production to China.

3.  Do you have a personal collection of masks yourself?

Yes I do.  I love masks and I’m very passionate about them.

4.  If so, what are your favorite ones and what is it that you love about them?

Well I’m a big fan of the Halloween franchise and I think it's pretty safe to say that I have one of the best collections of replicas from each of the movies.  There is something about the simplicity of that mask that makes it so cool.  I also have quite a few Don Post masks from the '70s, Topstone and Distortions Studios masks.  All of those masks bring back a classic look and feel that I liked so much as a kid.

5.  Some movies now have gone the way of CGI, but tell us a little about your favorite practical masks from cinema.

Michael Myers takes the cake for sure, but I also like the Jason's hockey mask.

6.  Speaking of masks in cinema, some of my favorites are the ones from Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. Any hope of you guys doing some reproductions of these Don Post classics?

Those masks are fantastic.  I have all of the originals except the Pumpkin, so if you know anyone selling one tell them to email me at chris@trickortreatstudios.com.

I would love to do those masks and I’ve made a number of inquiries about them, but there seems to be a lot of red tape regarding who actually has the licensing.  I’ll stay on it though, and maybe one day we'll come out with them.

7.  So I read in Horror Hound that you were working on a Universal Monsters license. Do you have any updates for us on that?

We should have something done with them soon.  There are a handful of B-Level horror movies they’ve done that we’d love to do masks for, but unfortunately I can’t publicly announce the names because my competitors would try and grab them from us (something that has already happened once before).  But I should have the deals inked soon and we’ll make sure to tell you.

8.  What about some new licenses -- any exclusive juicy bits of info you'd like to bestow upon HalloweenOverkill?

Sure, we recently signed a deal with Mr. Scenes to do the first ever mask based on Dr. Deadly.  He is a very famous character from line of horror model kits series from the '70s.  We’re going to be doing a mask based on Michael T. Gilbert's Mr. Monster, the world’s greatest monster fighter.  And just tonight we signed a deal to do masks based on the famous characters of Johnny Ace.  We're also going to be releasing a handful of new Eric Pigor's Toxic Toons and David Hartman's Sideshow Monkey Characters.

9.  For the fans who have no idea how masks get produced, once you have the idea down on paper what are the next steps?

Justin Mabry, our Art Director, would probably be better at answering this one than myself, but I’ll take a stab at it.  After the concept has been drawn out from all angles, the mask is sculpted in clay.  Once the clay sculpture is finished, a tooling master is made so that multiple molds can be made.  From there, latex is poured into the mold and we develop a paint master of what the finished mask is going to look like.  Both the tooling and the paint masters are shipped off to our production company and they deliver three production samples for us to approve.  Upon approval, we place schedule production and the finished masks are shipped to our warehouse, waiting for delivery to our customers.

10.  Do you have any plans to get into facial appliance type masks or are you guys sticking with the actual full face and head masks?

Appliances are not on the calendar right now, but we’re definitely going to get into full costumes and props.

11.  So where should us “Ghouls” (what I call my followers) be looking for your products this year?

This year we are in a handful of costume stores across the world.  Next year that number will expand significantly.  Of course you can always go to our website, www.trickortreatstudios.com and order them directly from us.  We’ll even throw in a couple of cool stickers ;-)

12.  Anything thing else about Trick or Treat Studios that you'd like to mention?

Just want to thank all of our customers, fans and supporter.  These masks are for you and as Ozzy Ozbourne would say, “I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!”

-Chris Zephro-

There you have it!   An amazing interview with Mr. Zephro from "Trick or Treat Studios".  Please click on any of the links or the banners above and below to visit their website.  Check out some of their awesome masks and order one in time for Halloween!  For the sake of length I will be posting the contest as a separate post tomorrow afternoon.  But as a word of warning I will say if you want to win this contest you better be back here tomorrow because this is going to a very short contest.  Why you ask?  Well you'll see when we post it tomorrow, but let's just say we need to shorten this contest so that the winner receives his/her gift in time for Halloween.

15 Days left.........Halloween Countdown 2010

Who doesn't love an awesome t-shirt? Everyone has their favorite, you know the one that guarantees a comment from the local Target employee ringing you out? Seriously who has had that happen to them? Anyways the people over at Crazy Dog T-shirts.com have informed me that because you "ghouls" are fans of HalloweenOverkill they would like to pass on a deal to you. Enter the code "HALLO5" sans the quotations at checkout and receive an awesome five dollars off of your already insanely cheap orders. That's right 5 bucks off just for checking out my little crypt here on the web. The folks over at Crazy Dog have crafted some mighty fine horror and Halloween related shirts such as these,






You can click each of those shirts to be taken to the actual page where you can order each one! Or if you just wanna browse the other sweet shit that they have just click right here or on their name up above. Besides the awesome horror/Halloween t-shirts, they also have other types of shirts sporting funny movie quotes and some other comedy related shirts. In addition to their awesome selection of shirts they also have a mini Halloween store where you can orders shirts and costumes! Head on over to Crazy Dog T-shirts and order yourself some sweet ass shirts, use your code "HALLO5", and don't forget to tell them thank you! That promotional code will expire on Halloween so go now! Also don't forget to click over on the right for the BloodyDVDs.com Contest!

17 Days Left............Halloween Countdown 2010 CONTEST!!!!

Who doesn't like a great deal on DVDs?  Well in case you haven't heard of them yet, you need to head on over to CrazyApe.com  These folks have some seriously crazy deals on DVD packages.  Oh and by the way they have BluRay titles as well!  After watching a few of the films on the "Pure Terror" 50 Movie Pack, I cannot stress enough how awesome of deal CrazyApe DVD packs really are.

The Pure Terror Pack contains classics such as "Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf" (starring the amazing Paul Naschy), "The House by the Cemetery" (which by the way was the first movie I jumped into on this set, and if you haven't seen it, buy this pack and watch it now-- you have never seen a crazy bat scene like the one in this movie), and "Scared to Death" (with the absolutely always terrific Bela Lugosi).  These are just some of the names of big stars found on these 12, yes I said 12, discs of DVD terror ranging from downright cheesy to pretty damned terrifying.  As far as the quality of the transfers on this disc I don't really have any complaints. The audio was off on one of the titles but I believe that probably extends all the way back to the original.  The quality actually gave them a bit of that "old school" horror vibe to them and actually enhanced the experience if anything.  I also had the chance to check out their Cult Terror Cinema 12 pack which really took me back to the days of my youth.  I swear this collection had some of the exact movies I would sneak out of my bedroom after midnight to watch on after hours cable.  The sweet thing about this deal is that you get all 12 of these Cult Terror Cinema films in one pack for just $8.99 (price at time of writing, list price is $14.98)!!!  I have to stress yet again how great of a deal you get with these folks.

 I highly recommend you head over to BloodyDVDs.com to check out trailers for some of these Horror and Cult DVD movie packs.  Another thing to keep in mind is that CrazyApe doesn't just sell horror packs, but they also have holiday packs including Christmas movies, cult cinema, drive in movies, bombshell collections, and documentaries as well!
 Now for the big announcement!  I bring to you the first contest in the inaugural HalloweenOverkill Halloween Countdown 2010 being brought to you by CrazyApe.com & BloodyDVDs.com!!!  The fine prize up for grabs is their "Blood Suckers" 12 Movie Collection.

 As found on the back of the case, this set truly is "A fangtastic pack of films with bite!"  Included in this pack are titles such as: Blood Bound, Blood Sucking Babes from Burbank, Hollywood Vampyr, Lifeblood, Strange things happen at Sundown, and others.
   Here are the rules for this contest:
  1.  Comment on this post below with your email addy and your favorite quote from a vampire flick.
  2.  Head on over to BloodyDVDs Facebook page here and "like" it.  (I'll confirm this with the winner)
  3.  Winner will have this shipped to them as safe as the post office can provide.  (No guarantees, but I promise I'll try to ship fast and safe.)
  4.  Winner must live in the continental U.S. (sorry folks, I'm not rich----yet)
Again you really need to head over to Crazyape.com or Bloodydvds.com or BloodyDVDs Facebook page and order yourself some of their awesome DVD sets in time for a Halloween Horror Marathon, or just plain out thank them for being so fuc%&ing awesome!  I'd also like to thank CrazyApe.com for providing the reviewing copies and the contest giveaway set.
By the way this contest ends Friday, October 22nd.

24 Days left.........Halloween Countdown 2010

Per Request......My Favorite Fake Blood Recipe!

 This is, in my opinion, is the best and most affordable fake blood recipe that I've used. Some words of warning before you go out and start slinging this shit all over the place though.
1. It can and will stain your clothing/furniture/skin
2. It is not edible (please see notes at end)
3. Adults only
4. Recipe is very sticky!

OK so here's the recipe:

1. Mix Karo Syrup, chocolate sauce, and some clear dish soap in a bucket or bowl. The chocolate sauce is a must, the dish soap is not, but I've always seen it added to the recipe so I included it. Also make sure you are using more Karo syrup than the other two ingredients.

2. Add several drops of red food dye. Next add a few drops of purple, brown, and blue food dye. You may have to play with the colors a bit to achieve realistic color. Remember blood isn't necessarily fire truck red, it tends to look more brownish with a blue tint sometimes.

 

3. Mix all of the ingredients together, adding more color as needed.

If you want an edible blood, or blood used around the mouth or near (not in) the eyes then a spoonful of peanut butter (not chunky) should be used in place of the chocolate syrup and dish soap.

Another optional ingredient I have seen added to the recipe is to mix in a photographer's solution. The website I will reference below suggests Kodak Photo Flo.

What this does is allows the blood to seep into clothing much better than the traditional recipe, and it will also look more realistic on the fabric. Remember if using photography wetting agent, the recipe will again become inedible.
One site that I would like to reference is, http://www.ehow.com/how_6226972_make-blood-using-karo-syrup.html (original recipe was not found here, however they are almost exact replicas) visit this link if you want more detailed instructions, and thank you ehow.com for some inspiration.

***HalloweenOverkill and the writer/owner of HalloweenOverkill assume no responsibility for damaged skin/furniture/clothing, etc.  Please make and use at your own risk.***

See that new link above?

Yeah, well you need to head on over there right now! Seriously, go now! Oh and by the way "Trick or Treat Studios" and HalloweenOverkill just might have the best contest of any Halloween Countdown this year. You're going to want to keep your eyes glued to HalloweenOverkill because it could pop up at anytime. (that sounded way more dirty than I meant it to.)

Simon Pegg fans unite!

Simon Pegg AND Andy Serkis, count me in! That is exactly who will be starring in the new film by the legendary John Landis of "An American Werewolf in London" fame. Also listed in the movie are; Tim Curry (Anything can happen on Halloween, haha!), Isla Fisher, Christopher Lee, and Tom Wilkinson. Sporting an all-star cast it looks as if Burke & Hare should be quite the little horrific comedy film we have all been waiting for. Check out the trailer below.

After watching it however, I do agree with what most are saying online, and that is that the trailer is not the greatest to ever hit the net. But how can we discount the track record of Mr. Landis, Mr. Pegg, and other greats like Christopher Lee? I'm pretty sure once this hits the big screen we will all be cheering these two buffoons on as they create some pretty hilarious scenarios involving body snatching. Oh yeah did I mention that earlier? The duo of Burke and Hare were known for selling the dead to science for a paycheck. But what happens when they start running out of fresh dead bodies to sell, they make their own! Sounds like comedy gold.

Scared Stiff Tv has made a Halloween masterpiece, and you really must check it out!  Seriously, check out Tiny's Halloween below and then head over to their website, Scared Stiff TV.  Once over there you can watch other shorts films which Scared Stiff describes as, "Scared Stiff is a new horror anthology show that is created by horror fans, for horror fans."  Watch this and then read on for my take on the film.

Wasn't that amazing?  Seriously, the production values were slick as hell, the atmosphere was spot on, the sound fx were perfect, and the actors/actresses really brought it home.  The thing that really stood out about this production was the tension it created.  You really thought that each person Tiny visited was going to be his victim but essentially he was just there for some treats.  I love how they waited until the last scene to give us the "treats," again the tension was one of my favorite parts of this production.  Do yourself a favor and head over to Scared Stiff TV or their youtube channel here.  Well, another great piece of Halloween memorabilia for you on HalloweenOverkill's 1st Annual Halloween Countdown (2010) and up next for you we have.......... lets just say you're going to want to be here tomorrow for something special.  Does the word "giveaway" excite anybody? 

Celebrate Peanuts!!!

 This year is Peanut's 60th birthday party!  October 2nd to be exact.  To celebrate this momentous achievement Charles Schulz’s family has put together a pretty neat website that works much like a social networking game.  Once you go to site (click the banner below) you can sign up to begin the game.  The goal is to earn points to use in different sweepstakes.  To earn these points toward winning the prizes such as, a custom Peanuts iPad all you have to do is link one or all of your social networking accounts.  These can be twitter, facebook, myspace, youtube, or foursquare.  Once you have done that, you can begin earning points by completing the to-do list on the website.  Like I said these points can be used to enter a drawing for a custom iPad, $25,000 sweepstakes, and other great Peanuts prizes.  Check the site out by clicking here or the banner below and join in the countdown to the Great Pumpkin!

31 days left......... Halloween Countdown 2010

 Well folks this is it.  We have about 20 minutes until the beginning of OUR season, OUR month, OUR favorite time of the year.  October 1st will be here soon and what better way to kick off the Halloween season than with our friends over at Gothtober.  If you thought that the Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare zombie dlc was the best news you were going to get all day you were wrong.  (Don't worry I thought so too, until I was made aware of this site of Halloween awesomeness!)  Gothtober has enough wickedly awesome stuff from years past to keep you busy until the 31st, and that is not even including this years content.  Tonight at Midnight their 2010 campaign will begin.  How the site works is that it works like a Halloween Advent calendar.  So for each day you head over there and click on that day's date to get a new surprise in the form of a poem, a song, a video, a recipe, and other Halloween goodness.  The theme they are going with this year is called the "Haunted Boombox".  In the words of one of the sites wicked curators this year's theme will dish out an ode to ghosts of music past, sounds from beyond the grave, audible nightmares, and melted mix tapes.  Like I said they have a plethora (do you even know what a plethora is?) of old stuff and you get access it by clicking right here.  They also have a blog which keeps everyone updated on some of the artist's work and other little gems of Halloween goodness, and that can also be accessed by clicking this.  So everybody reading this needs to head over there and we will all count down the minutes to midnight (don't sue me Linkin Park!) and share in the deliciousness that is GOTHTOBER together! (By the way that's PST so us East coasters might have to wait a little longer, but it will be well worth it, I assure you!)  Also just in case you are using HalloweenOverkill as your Halloween 2010 Headquarters I will keep a Gothtober link on the sidebar located just below my Halloween Countdown 2010 link so you can just read my daily posts and then click over to Gothtober for another Halloween daily goody!

OH.....MY......GOD.........

So zombie are coming to Red Dead Redemption and I cannot wait!!! Also check out the side by side poster for the original game and the poster for the new "Undead Nightmare" pack, pretty sweet little take on the original!

33 days left.......... Halloween Countdown 2010

With all of the local haunted attractions opening this weekend I figured I would help everyone out and compile all of the haunted attraction search engines here.  It seems alot of these search engines are connected to Hauntworld in one way or another but produce some different results, so I will still list them below.  Most of the sites are utilized but searching or clicking on your state and going from there, but some of them let you put in a zipcode to produce more localized results.  I've also noticed that not all of them have been updated with this years information but should be soon.  So click any or all of the links below and hopefully you will find an interesting local haunt to visit this weekend.  By the way some of the sites below even list actual haunted places as well.  Have fun and remember these are not always exactly accurate but should pretty much do the job. (YMMV)

And for my hometown friends in Michigan please visit FearFinder.com for all of your local Detroit and other Michigan Halloween Haunts!

Use this next one for your other Halloween season fun stuff such as Haunted Hayrides, Corn Mazes, Pumpkin Patches, and other Haunted Attractions.

And last but certainly not least this link is for our friends over in Canada looking for a local scare!

38 days left......

So I missed a few days, it is my first countdown after all.  I promise I'll make it up to you ghouls.  Hmmm... I'm not really sure how much I can write about this but I'm sure gonna give it the old college try.  By the way I think in the 6 months of this blog being in existence this might be the very first time I have shown myself, sorry for being such a recluse.  ( I lied, I just realized the George Romero meeting post had a pic of my wife and I )

 

So there ya have it, the Candy Blood Bag.  This nifty little seasonal item was found at my local Giant Eagle grocery store.  I've heard about these several times in the past but never actually got my hands on one.  After looking at the back of the card and noticing that it was an imported good, I just knew I had to taste this delicious lead laced liquid candy treat.  Here is what the blood bag looks like.

Actually the thing looks pretty disgusting.  When you tilt the bag to the side the blood doesn't just run down the side but is actually quite sticky and looks as though it really does have the consistency of real blood.    After a few minutes of deliberating on whether or not this stuff would give me lead poisoning or just make me gag I decided to take the plunge and drink the damned stuff.

Taking the plunge.......

Right about now is when that godforsaken stuff is hitting the back of my throat in all of its frightfully warm and sticky grossness.

Kudos to the wife on the cool mirror effect, but wait a minute......  Blood drinking should equate to no reflection right?  I guess I'm the shittiest vampire ever.  Actually you haven't seen shitty vampire until you see the outtakes from this shoot.  If you guys beg in the comments, I just might post two pictures of me in the most ridiculous poses you've ever seen.

So if you've never tried one of these things let me warn you ahead of time, DON'T!!!!  This was one of the most wretched tasting things I've ever had the displeasure of pouring down my gulllet.  It literally tasted like sour theatrical blood.  It said it was supposed to taste like cherry.  Did these guys use the Crayola method of naming their flavors.  (Read the Crayola markers post if this doesn't make sense.)  Seriously this tasted nothing like cherry but did taste exactly like sour, warm, sticky, dolphin blood.  Boy did I feel like Dracula.  Albeit a dolphin blood drinking one.  Aqua Dracula perhaps?

By the way I'm totally bummed that none of these pictures show off the Dracula tuxedo shirt that I put on specifically for this post.  However the shirt does show up very prominently in those outtake photos I was telling you about.

p.s.  Sorry if that was a shitty post guys but again how much can you write about fake, shitty tasting, liquid, blood candy?  Also for those that were interested in the "Horror Draft"  let me know again because I'm not sure if my list is complete and I really want to get this thing off the ground in time for Halloween so I can throw together some nice prizes.

43 days left.....

Tonight we're gonna keep it simple and keep it clean.  I want to briefly talk about Halloween Anthologies.  I don't know about you ghouls but sometimes a good Halloween themed yarn can topple a Halloween themed movie.  Maybe it's because the tale that is being told on paper allows us to envision the surroundings and atmosphere as we see fit and not how some shoddy director sees it.  Below you will see a partial list of some of the Halloween themed anthology books that are currently sitting on my horror themed bookshelf.  This is not an exhaustive list of everything out there but just the ones that I currently own.  Oh and by the way I implore you to please leave comments below on any Halloween themed anthology collections that I am missing, as I would love to do some Amazon shopping and pick up some more.  Again I will remind you ghouls that these are not Halloween themed fiction novels, but anthologies.  The Halloween themed novels will be another post later down the road.  So without further ado, the first post in the HalloweenOverkill Halloween Countdown 2010!  First up we have,

 

"Murder for Halloween"

Edited by: Michele Slung & Roland Hartman

BOO!

From the fog-enshrouded back alleys of London to a cry in the woods, from a black cat's glowing eyes to a knocking at your door, once every year they run wild: goblins, ghosts, pranksters, and things that go bang in the night.  Sometimes it's only a trick.  Sometimes it's murder.

The fiendish collection brings together the scariest and most unforgettable stories ever told, both classics and new works by the greatest names in mystery.  From a haunting story set in ancient Rome to a mysterious tale-within-a-tale told by an enigmatic jazzman and set in the American South, from Poe to McBain, Muller to Straub, welcome to All Hallow's Eve.  And hold on for morning.

 

"Halloween Horrors"

Edited by: Alan Ryan

It's Halloween night.  And you-a brave soul, indeed-are reading the most terrifying collection of Halloween stories ever written...

Thirteen tales by today's most frightening storytellers.  You turn each page, your heart pounding in your chest.  You are afraid.  Deeply afraid.

Then the doorbell rings.  You jump up to answer it.  And there, standing on the dark porch step, a lone figure reaches up, pulls a colorful mask from his face-

And scares you...to death.

TRICK OR TREAT!

 

"All Hallows' Eve" 13 Stories

By: Vivian Vande Velde

Witches are dancing.

The dead are walking.

Vampires are feeding.

For tonight is All Hallows' Eve.

A deceased serial killer strikes again, a girl becomes trapped in a centuries old mausoleum, and five friends meet their fate after an unsettling visit with a backwoods psychic-all within the pages of this haunting collection of stories that take place on Halloween night.  With tales that range from the disturbing to the devious to the downright gruesome, here is a book that begs to be read with the lights on...and the doors locked.

"13 Horrors of Halloween"

Edited by: Carol-Lynn Rosssel Waugh, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Isaac Asimov (yes THAT Isaac Asimov)

A killing frost is on the pumpkin, a ghostly harvest moon hangs in the midnight sky of All Souls' Eve, and thirteen tales of murder and the macabre make "13 Horrors of Halloween" a perfect withes' brew of short story suspense.

As the clock strikes the witching hour, Ellery Queen invites you to a mysterious masquerade to witness a bloody crime.  Edith Wharton lures you to a remote and lonely spot to watch what happens on the night when the dead can walk.  And Ray Bradbury (yes THAT Ray Bradbury) shows you how a demented mind makes bobbing for apples a very grisly game.

Graveyards and haunted houses, vampires and ghouls, messages written in blood, and jack-o-lanterns alive with menace-they're all waiting to grip you with delightful chills of terror in this unforgettably frightening collection of Halloween tricks and treats.

"Frightful October" Tales of Halloween Horror

By: Paul Melniczek

"Frightful October" takes you across shadowed cornfields and along the twilight streets of suburban neighborhoods, beneath dark forests and through haunted houses, in this short story collection centered around Halloween and the darker aspects of the fall month.  These chilling tales can be whispered before an autumn bonfire, or in the confines of an evening chair, but regardless of the surroundings, the terrifying atmosphere has already been set in place, and you're the invited guest.  You'll have shivers crawling your spine, as you turn each dreadful page of this wickedly delightful book.

As I stated above this is in no way an exhaustive list of every single Halloween anthology out on the market, but I do personally own these ones in particular.  If there are any out there that I am missing, please remind me in the comments below.  Also here on the countdown we will still be featuring Halloween themed novels, Halloween texts with historical value, and grab-bag Halloween books. (this will make sense when you see them)  Also the covers you see above are the ones that I actually own, but because of the age of some of these books there have been other covers printed during later reprints.  All of the book synapses featured above were taken from the back of their respective book covers.  And yes I know one of the bigggest Halloween anthologies of all is missing from this list, and yes I do own it.  The reason it isn't on here is because I feel it deserves a post of it's own.  Only 43 more days until the night of nights......