20 Days until Halloween!

Right about this time of year is when all of the television shows start airing their Halloween specials.  One of the shows that happens to give a-lot of love to Halloween each year is Saturday Night Live.  And while the show isn't always as good as it was in the late 80's, early 90's, I do support the fact that the show has come back from a series of totally unfunny episodes about 6 or 7 years ago, and one of the reasons the show has become infinitely more funny than it was back in the early 00's is the presence of Kristen Wiig.  I've been a huge fan of her going way back to the Joe Schmo Show which aired on Spike TV way back in 2003.  Not only is she super sexy in my opinion (my wife totally disagrees, anyone got my back on this one?) but she is also one of the funniest females in the history of the show.  In what has easily become one of my favorite Halloween skits of all time, this short entittled Shanna: Halloween Party aired this past Saturday (October 8th, 2011) and deserves to be seen by all of you ghouls who may have missed it live.

Zexy!!!

24 Days until Halloween!

Let's kick the Halloween season celebration into high gear with a giveaway shall we?  For our first giveaway of this year's Halloween Countdown we have a prize from the infamous PopCap games!  Up for grabs is a download code for the full version of Plants vs. Zombies for the mac! (Sorry P.C. users)  Here are the rules for the giveaway:
1.  In the comments below tell me what your favorite plant and your favorite zombie are. (any zombie will do, cinema zombie, literary zombie, etc.)
2.  Leave your email in the comments
3.  It wouldn't hurt to go check out PopCaps website, and even "like" the Plants vs. Zombies page on facebook.  If you do happen to go over there and "like" them, let me know in the comments for a bonus entry!
(Number 1 & 2 count as one entry and 3 will count as a bonus entry)
All entries will be entered in random.org and a winner will be chosen.  The contest ends Sunday, October 9th at 11:59 P.M.!

Keep coming back to read HalloweenOverkill's 2nd Annual Halloween Countdown for more great giveaways this Halloween season!

25 Days until Halloween!

Wow, I'm falling behind already, but I'm back now and I come bearing treats.  Guess who else is back? That's right, it's Tiny!!!  If you ghouls remember I featured Tiny last year in my Halloween Countdown in the form of a short video entitled "Tiny's Halloween" from Scared Stiff TV.  If you don't remember it, or didn't get the chance to check it out today is your lucky day as I will post it again.  After you watch the first video, go ahead and watch the second video which is entitled "Tiny's Halloween 2" and continues the creepy adventures of the bizarre trick or treater!  These shorts are just too good to leave unnoticed during this year's Halloween Countdown!

Tiny's Halloween

Tiny's Halloween 2

Awesome weren't they?  Now ahead and visit Scared Stiff TV to watch more of their amazing video shorts.  I'd also like to let everyone know to check back tomorrow as we will be having our first giveaway of this year's countdown!  I'd like to ask you all, who would win a battle between an army of plants and an army of zombies?  Not sure?  Then come back tomorrow and enter for your chance to find out in the form of a Plants Vs. Zombies download code! (Mac users only this time, sorry pc pals!)

29 Days until Halloween!

For some reason this post didn't auto-post as it was supposed to last night, so we're going to be a day behind until tomorrow when I can write the catch up post.  Anyways, leave it to Greg Nicotero to bring us something so unbelievably awesome that words cannot describe it.  I know it's a year late but maybe some of you ghouls have never seen the short "United Monster Talent Agency" which is a spoof of the Universal Monsters of yesteryear.  AMC aired this short last year during their Halloween marathon and I think it's just way too delicious not to share with you ghouls.  Grab your popcorn, dim the lights, and get ready for "United Monster Talent Agency"  Oh yeah and keep your eyes peeled for cameos from Eli Roth and Jeffrey Combs!

THE UNITED MONSTER TALENT AGENCY - Greg Nicotero
Thanks to Dailymotion for the embed!

30 Days until Halloween!

Kicking off this year's Halloween Countdown is a review of Midnight Syndicate's new cd, "Carnival Arcane"!

Midnight Syndicate's new cd, "Carnival Arcane" is so infectious that I simply cannot stop listening to it!  From the moment I popped it in the cd player on the ride to school I simply knew that the Midnight Syndicate had struck gold!  Carnival even left my wife sitting in the car saying, "What is this, it is totally creepy?".
Starting with the first track, "Mesonoxian Visitors", the cd actually feels like it is guiding you through this dark and twisted carnival that has just come to your town.  I love the use of the track "Midway" as an actual introduction by way of a carnival barker to the macabre realm we have just entered.  Midnight Syndicate's use of sound effects mixed with their trademark orchestral sound is cranked up to maximum effect here, as I actually felt as if I was experiencing all the thrills and chills of a creepy carnival.  The tracks range from downright spooky to over the top carny style thrills such as, "Under the Big Top".  Some highlights I'd like to point out from the cd are the tracks, "Carousel Ride", "Kiddieland" (I guarantee this track will send chills down your spine), "Krellsig's Kastle of Fun" (in which I actually felt like I was on one of those decrepit old haunted carnival dark rides), and "Lights Out".  My favorite track of "Carnival Arcane" was "Welcome to the Carnival" with its thumping background beat and it's haunting melody! One of the most amazing things about "Carnival Arcane" is the apparent use of  "Binaural Recording"  I'm not sure if Midnight Syndicate actually recorded some of the parts this way or if it was just my brain, but I swore on some parts of the cd I felt as though I was actually walking right down the midway or sitting in on one of the shows in the carnival.  (For those that don't know what binaural recording is, it is the use of  two microphones to record sounds so that a stereo 3d surround effect is  achieved)
Since this is an official review I am going to score it with the old "Jolly Jack-O-Lantern" rating scale, which I haven't used in quite a while.  I officially give "Carnival Arcane" from the Midnight Syndicate 5 out of 5 "Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns" and can officially say it is tied for first as my favorite Midnight Syndicate cd!

Yes, 5 "Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns" is a must own for those don't know the rating scale, so please do yourself favor and click the Midnight Syndicate logo at the end of the post and purchase the cd from them.  We really need to support artists such as this who go out of their way to make sure that our Halloween (and every other day for that matter) are as creepy and macabre as we all love them to be!

Don't forget to check out all of the other amazing cds and other treats that are in the Midnight Syndicate store as well!

Halloween Countdown 2011

Keeping with the pumpkin theme from last year, I finally finished this year's Countdown logo and wanted to unveil it tonight!  This is not an official countdown post as I will be posting today's official 30 days to go post.  Think of this as an invitation if you will to join me as we count down the final 30 days until Halloween.  Unlike last year's countdown we will be posting every single day until Halloween.  So make sure you check HalloweenOverkill every day in October for this year's HalloweenOverkill Halloween Countdown which will include, book reviews, movie reviews, guest posts, interviews, giveaways, and some tricks and treats!  If you ever miss a day you can click the Halloween Countdown logo in the sidebar to be taken to all of this years posts.  Another think I'd like to mention is that if you want to see all of the blogs that have a Halloween Countdown this year, click the Cryptkeeper logo in the sidebar and that will take you to the official Halloween Countdown blog where you can see all the participants!