The Paul Melniczek Halloween Book Extravaganza part 1

When do you start enjoying your yearly Halloween reading?  Some of you might say that you never stop, to which I say kudos!  But if you are anything like me, even through the year round Halloween festivities, you have some classics that you wouldn't dare sully with the taint of any season other than autumn.  These are the tomes that must be read only when the nights become darker, the leaves are blowing, and the cider is flowing!  Does that Halloween reading list of yours contain anything by Paul Melniczek, cause if it doesn't then it would be an honor to introduce you to some of the most wonderful seasonal reading treats you will lay your eyes upon.  And if you have already read any of Mr. Melniczek's Halloween books than you already know how important these are to seasonal reading.  First on the list we have an anthology that is sure to turn your Halloween season into the darkest of seasons.  A Haunted Halloween is one of those anthologies that takes Halloween and ties it into each of the tales told in the book, but unlike other anthologies that attempt this tie in, these tales actually bleed Halloween!  Each and every tale in A Haunted Halloween has that Halloween flair that shines through with ease as only someone with as much love for the holiday as Melniczek can make happen!  This book is easily a must purchase for those that wish to add it to their list of Halloween "must-reads".  A Haunted Halloween contains 11 stories and 4 pieces of artwork.  The book also has a very nice wrap around cover that when opened creates one larger piece of artwork!

A Haunted Halloween

Halloween.  The name itself conjures up a witch's brew of images.  Leering jack-o-lanterns sitting on porches, costumed children trick-or-treating across suburban neighborhoods, skeletal trees marking the passage of another season, and lonely fields of corn swaying gently in a chill, autumn breeze.  But there is also a darker side to this magical night, one which can breathe life into things which were only possibility  and sculpt them into dreadful reality.  Every home has at least one closet which harbors a skeleton.  There's a house in every town with a morbid past and haunted occupant.  Families hide their own dark secrets, and inside each of us wages a struggle of good against evil, one in which the final outcome is never certain, or necessarily pretty.  Within the folds of the dark season, all things emerge from the shadows to celebrate, claiming the holiday for their own sinister purpose, and for every treat there's a nasty trick waiting somewhere close by...

Click the Dark Regions Press button to order A Haunted Halloween!

The second story that Mr. Melniczek has cooked up for Halloween is "Mischief Night".  I haven't finished this one yet but am currently in the process and will grade it once I have completed it.  If you want a review of sorts though, all you need to do is turn to the back of the book where you will find a quote from Al Sarrantonio, author of the Orangefield Cycle - "Paul Melniczek writes about Halloween as if it's his birthday, Christmas and the Fourth of July all rolled up into one!"  Do you really even my review after reading that?  Here is the cover for "Mischief Night"

"Mischief Night"

When Rusty and his friends decide to visit the local neighborhood haunted house on Halloween night, they get much more than they bargained for, becoming embroiled in a hair-raising escapade which threatens to drag them into a living nightmare.  There are more tricks than treats to be found in this old-fashioned Halloween romp, and the plot continues to grow deeper and darker as old man Berger and his minions of evil seek to bring Rusty and his companions under their sinister control, their purposes unknown.  In the tradition of a Halloween campfire tale, come and join the thrills and chills in this story of an October adventure gone drastically wrong.

Click the Bad Moon Books button to order "Mischief Night"

So there you have part one of the Paul Melniczek Halloween book extravaganza!  Check back each and every day leading up to the darkest night of the year for more Halloween goodness and check back soon for part 2 of this feature! 

First Halloween Costume Find!!!

Check out this amazingly detailed hobbit costume f/x foot I found today.

And you'll never guess where I found it................

Grandin Road Halloween Preview

I honestly cannot believe that up until this year I had not heard of Grandin Road.  Grandin Road is an online store of sorts that sells home furnishings of the Martha Stewart ilk.  BUT......... they also sell absolutely amazing Halloween decorations as well.  Check out their preview for this year's Halloween collection that will debut on August 1st (yeah that's today, I meant to post this last night, whoops)  The preview is really high quality stuff and actually showcases some of their more awesome wares.  Check out Grandin Road (click the blue link above the video below) and see if they have anything that might up the spook factor in your home this Halloween.

Grandin Road Halloween Haven

New Midnight Syndicate CD on August 2nd!!!!!

Mark your calendars ghouls because on August 2nd Midnight Syndicate will be releasing another audio journey into the unknown!  This Gothic nightmare will be known as "Carnival Arcane".

"Carnival Arcane" is the 14th release from the masters of Halloween music, the Midnight Syndicate.  To get a little taste of what this release is all about, here is a preview from the CD insert: "The train smoke drifting through the pale moon light signals the arrival of the Lancaster-Rigby Carnival.  In a forest clearing, these mesonoxian visitors await your arrival.  Stroll along the midway and behold wonders both fantastic and macabre from every corner of the globe.  And be sure to ride their one of a kind carousel for an experience you'll never, ever forget."
Sounds pretty f'n sweet doesn't it?  If that preview doesn't give you goosebumps then maybe this little audio clip from the cd will!  The track featured in the preview below is titled Freakshow.

Click here to be taken to the CD pre-order page, where for only $12.00 you can experience the "Carnival Arcane" in the discomfort of your own crypt. (The $12.00 includes shipping & handling!) Also if you head over to the Midnight Syndicate shop you can purchase the official "Carnival Arcane" t-shirt! Please do yourself a favor and pick this CD up, I kid you not I have used several Midnight Syndicate CD's at my home haunt for about the last 8 years and every year several people ask me what soundtrack I am using. These guys really know how to bring that extra atmosphere to Halloween or any other rainy, dark, thunderstorm filled night for that matter!

Bath & Bodyworks Halloween

Earlier it was Spirit Halloween, now I bring you the Bath & BodyWorks Halloween collection.  Well, some of it anyway.  Now you may be asking yourself, "What is a hardcore ghoul like him doing checking out Bath & BodyWorks?"  Well if you must know, it is a place that is one of the "must visit" stores during mall trips with my wife, and in doing so I have actually come to enjoy some of the scents of their products.  If said products also come packaged in Halloween themed dispensers then count me in!  Oh, and if I need to justify myself anymore B&B does actually sell several products for men.  Anyways, I'm sure there are several other Halloween fans out there, male and female,  that don't mind picking up some of Bath & BodyWorks seasonal wares.  If you're looking for any recommendations, here are the few that I think are the best of their "stuff" this year, but this is by no means the entire collection.  To see the entire collection, click the link at the bottom of the post.

"Sour Drop" hand stuff, and yes the bottle glows in the dark.  

I'm obsessed with glow in the dark "stuff" in case you are a new reader.

"Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin" hand soap.

Not the scariest packaging ever, but it's still pretty cool looking.

"Spiced Cider" room spray.

I think every ghoul on the planet loves spiced cider scented stuff, especially when you can make your whole room smell like it, and the bottle is pretty neat as well.

"Sinful Vanilla" body lotion.

Not one dude on Earth will be buying anything labeled "Sinful Vanilla"

but I still think the bottle and vintage text are cool anyways, haha.

Haunted House Wallflower

Now this thing is a must own!  Couple this with a "Pumpkin" or "Spiced Cider" scent

and you have yourself one hell of a Halloween decoration.  Oh yeah and it glows in the dark!

"Sour Drop" Hand Sanitizer

Again not much use for myself, but you can't complain about the

awesome Halloween theme packaging.

"Gum Ball" Hand Sanitizer

Really curious what this will actually smell like once my wife buys it,

which is inevitable once these hit the stores. (She's a total Halloween nut as well!)

"Chocolate Chew" Hand Sanitizer

All 3 of these are cool packages, however they really don't compare

to last year's bottles.  Oh, and by the way, why the hell did they decide to forgo the Marshmallow

scent from last year, I'm pretty sure that was everyone's favorite? (Maybe I'll post some pics of last year's bottles in a Halloween Countdown 2011 post?)

WOW!  Never in a million years did I think that I would dedicate a post to Bath & BodyWorks!  Oh, well I guess it never hurts to get in touch with your feminine side right ghouls?  Seriously though, for my gal ghouls out there, this stuff should have you pretty excited.  And for the ghoul dudes out there, maybe I just made it that much easier for you to pick out some Halloween gifts for your honey.  Hope you really enjoyed this post because you'll probably never see hand lotion, hand sanitizer, or anything titled "Sinful Vanilla" on this blog ever again. HAHA

Bath & BodyWorks Halloween Collection

Spirit Halloween Hits a Homerun!

I was glossing over some posts at my favorite online haunt, that's Halloween Forum for those that don't know. Anyways, someone there posted that the Spirit Halloween website had been updated with some pretty wicked new Halloween stuff for this year.  After deciding to go check it out the thing that amazed me the most were these little items!




Pretty bad-ass aren't they? You can order them for $2.99 plus shipping from Spirit's website (plus S&H, which I think is like 5 or 6 bucks OUCH) but hopefully they will have them in the stores once they open as well. So which one is your favorite, and will you keep it on your car all year long or just for the season?

Halloween mood setting in.......

Not sure why, but I'm totally getting in the mood for Halloween - BIG TIME!  I'm not sure if it's the cloudy, cool weather the last few days, or the influx of Halloween related research I've been doing on the web.  Whatever the reason, expect a huge increase in Halloween themed related posts from here on out!

Half Price Horror: Halloween Night

From the back of the book:

"This party is a killer.

Brenda hates her cousin Halley.  And Brenda isn't the only one.  Because Halley keeps stealing other people's boyfriends.  So Brenda and her friends decide to plan the perfect murder.  Something to go along with Brenda's perfect Halloween party.  Not that they're really going to kill anybody.  It's just a joke.  Right?  Ha.Ha."

Boy am I a sucker for Halloween themed books. The thing is most of them are terrible.  I promise to you all now that when I get the time I will publish my ultimate Halloween tale and I promise it will be worth your while.  Well to jump right into things, Mr. Stine really dropped the ball this time.  There were so many different ways he could have taken this book, what with the Halloween theme and all, but he chose to only include our favorite night of the year for about 6 pages.  Why Mr. Stine, why?  Basically the book starts off with us being introduced to Brenda and her cousin Halley's relationship, a rocky one to be blunt about it.  See Halley keeps trying to steal Brenda's boyfriend, and Brenda isn't very happy about it.  Halley takes this a step further and starts hitting on one of Brenda's best friends boyfriends as well.  Eventually we are introduced to Brenda's brother as well, who may or may not be the perpetrator behind the events that are to follow.  After Brenda teases one night that her and her friends Dina and Traci should write their school paper on a murder mystery wherein one of them murders Halley, somebody starts playing very sick pranks on Brenda.  I won't spoil the pranks because they are actually the best and goriest parts of the book, but let's just say I wouldn't read this book if I was a PETA member.  Eventually Halley does enough emotional damage to Brenda, which causes Brenda to suggest to her friends that they should ditch the school paper and murder Halley for real!  One of the things that I found terribly unlikeable about the book was how easily Brenda's friends go along with this.  I know we wouldn't have much of a book if they didn't, but come on!  If someone suggested murdering anyone in the way that Brenda suggests it, I would be on a phone call with said psycho's pshichiatrist and/or the police office immediately.  So basically the whole book revolves around Brenda and her two friends planning this crazy complicated switcheroo murder at Brenda's Halloween party.  The big twists and answers I was waiting for finally come in the last 10 or so pages, when we finally get to the actual Halloween party.  Do the friends go ahead with their plan to kill Halley?  Yes, but with a very crazy twist at the end.  I have to say I was actually somewhat surprised by the ending but not every part of it.  You'll know what I mean if you hunt this one down to read. (Some of it was so obvious it actually caught me off guard, ever had that happen?)  You will also find out who the person committing all the pranks on Brenda was.  Was it her snotty little brother, Halley the bitchy cousin, one of Brenda's friends just playing some Halloween pranks, or maybe even one of the cheating boyfriends just rubbing it in.  I'll give "Halloween Night" 2 Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns out of 5.  It's not worth the cover price, but if you are a Halloween freak like me then you might want to pick it up on the cheap just to get your 10 page Halloween fix.

 

"Halloween Night"

Author: R.L. Stine

Publisher: Scholastic (1993)

Cover Price: $3.50

Half Price Books Price: $1.00 (clearance shelf)

for anybody looking for the lowdown on my Jolly Jack-O-Lantern rating scale please visit this link!  But keep in mind this was written for movies but can be interchangeable for books as well.  Also the only thing that is going to receive the "Seal of Suck" are things below a 1 JJOL rating.

Oh and by the way all of the covers you see on my Half Price Horror reviews are actual scans of the copies that I own including my first review "The Nightmare Man"

Reliving my childhood through blogging or Monsters of the Gridiron return!

I'm still not quite sure why there are things from my childhood that I can't let go of.  Maybe it's just that comfort that it gives you when remembering the old times.  These kinds of memories help to get over realizing that those time are gone forever and we can't bring them back.  I'm sure all of you ghouls feel the same way about many things from your childhood as well.  One of the things that I fondly remember while growing up were the amazing promotions that the larger companies used to do.  I can still remember going to Vegas Food Center and just standing in awe at the cutouts of Frankenstein and Dracula and Elvira. (I think I stood and looked at hers the longest, you with me gentlemen?)  These were the signs that my favorite day of the year was upon us and that in the time waiting for that day to come we could enjoy the splendors of free Halloween goodies - with the purchase of several unnecessary food products.  One of the promotions that stands out the most in my head was the Coca-Cola Monsters of the Gridiron promotion.  Now growing up an athlete and sports fan along with being the world's biggest Halloween/Horror fan (we all have that title right?)  this one really struck a cord with me, I mean come on Coca-Cola had the marbles to mix two of the greatest things on the planet for us!  The effort that went into the makeup on some of these guys was on some serious Hollywood shit.  Instead of listing them all you can view them here in the full set.

Since I was born and raised in Detroit and will always be a Detroit fan, Pat "Chillin" Swilling (as seen above) was my favorite card in the set which I sadly no longer own.

 Sorry about the small size ghouls but I couldn't get them to fit properly at any other size.

I love how the two new teams at the time received no love and just got their logos stamped on the cards.  Another cool thing I totally forgot about the promotion was that you were also given a number and code with some of the Coca-Cola products that you could call and listen in on some of the player's pre-recorded messages for a chance to win a trip to the super bowl.  They also came with scratch off cards to win extra prizes such as pre-paid long distance phone cards.

In addition to the set seen here there are people on ebay who claim to have completed a set with different numbered cards and cards featuring totally different players.  Was this another set altogether or some set of rare variance chase cards?  If anyone knows please let me know.  Wow, this is really bringing me back to the better days.  Anyhow, Emmitt Smith seemed to lead the commercials if I remember correctly and I believe was even featured on the radio ads that were used to promote the cards themselves.  Speaking of the TV commercials and radio ads, I believe I should get credit for finding the only thing to not exist on the internet.  You'd think someone, somewhere would have posted either the TV ads or the radio commercials somewhere, but to the best of my knowledge they do not exist at present.  But back to the story.  I really wish Coke would either bring this back with some modern players and costumes even though they were well ahead of their time when this promotion came out in 94', or at the very least some of the bigger corporations out there need to start doing massive Halloween marketing campaigns such as this again!  I really do miss Halloween of yesteryear.  Look for more old school Halloween marketing and promotions in the HalloweenOverkill Halloween Countdown coming soon!
I would like to thank photobucket user eef97, I used his pictures of the full set and could not find a proper way to contact him.  If you are reading this thank you, and let me know if you want them taken down. (I uploaded them to my own account to save your bandwidth.)

UPDATE!!!!!!!

So you know that alternate set of cards I was talking about, I did find some photographic evidence on photobucket to prove that a THIRD type of card exists with a different Monsters of the Gridiron logo up in the top corner that was holographic instead of just a color print.  I know I sound like I should work for Coca-Cola promotions as much as I'm obsessing over this but like I said I really loved this promotion as a child so it really brings back some fun old memories to write about it.  And please if anyone can explain or investigate the difference between the three different sets that would be awesome and please email to let me know any information on this.  So we have the original set of player monster cards, we have a second set featuring some different players and monsters (or at least this is what is claimed) and a third set with a holographic Monsters of the Gridiron logo also seen above, what gives?

Credit for the photo above goes to Arrowheadchief found on photobucket again let me know if you want these taken down or if you yourself have any info on these magnificent Halloween collectibles.

One of the Cardboard stand-ups used in the promotion - credit for this photo goes to the Redskins Blog over at http://blog.redskins.com/

The Perfect Halloween

 OK so first off I wanna give credit to "pumpkinman" over at halloweenforum.com for posting this great question.  Now to ask it again, you have just woken up on October 31st ( let's say it is a Saturday) it's 6:30 A.M., what is your idea of a perfect Halloween?  You can just give the general idea or give me the hour by hour rundown!

Halloween: The Happy Haunting of America Review!

5 Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns

Jolly Jack-O-Lantern Rating Scale

Halloween: The Happy Haunting of America 10th Anniversary Edition is a tour of haunted attractions across the U.S. hosted by Daniel Roebuck and company and produced by Chuck Williams.  The 10th Anniversary Edition adds 10 new haunts to the documentary, and the DVD itself is jam packed to the maximum with bonus features. This new edition is also full of small celebrity cameos. Look for stars like Robert Englund, Angus Scrimm, Alice Cooper, Don Coscarelli, Tony Todd, and Doug Bradley. 

My first observation about the main feature, "Halloween...The Happy Haunting of America 10th Anniversary Edition Presented from the Magic Castle," was that it wasn't necessarily a documentary in the traditional sense but more of a visual documentary, consisting of a series of pretty quick videos of each haunt.  That is not to say that the haunts weren't researched very well, because I got the impression that the filmmakers spent plenty of time recording footage. The parts where Mr. Roebuck introduced each video segment were also full of informative anecdotes about each haunt (and about the Magic Castle, which is where the 10th Anniversary Edition was filmed). On a side note: I would like to say that my home state of Michigan was given much love because nearly half of the haunts featured were located in MI.  If you ever get a chance to head up to MI you MUST go to see the spectacle that is Erebus haunted attraction in Pontiac, MI.  As Mr. Roebuck will inform you in the DVD, this attraction actually made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Back to the review.  Although I was expecting full video walk throughs of each haunt, that was not what I found here. But that doesn't really take away from the quality and theme of the feature itself, since the images that are provided give you a good sense of what the rest of the haunt must be like. I would also imagine that part of the idea behind this was to get the audience off their asses to go see these amazing attractions in person. I think of the main feature as more of an introduction to what the filmmakers thought were the best attractions to go to.

There are so many special features on the DVD it would be difficult to review them all, but one that's not to be missed is "Dr. Shocker's House of Horror." In this short segment, you'll get a glimpse of a massive collection of horror related masks, toys, statues, posters, and other treats all housed in what I believe to be a small museum in Mr. Roebuck's basement (?).

Overall, I believe this DVD is a must-own for Halloween enthusiasts. While the DVD has a few shortcomings, as a whole it proves to be a Halloween fan's dream, providing glimpses into the most famous haunted attractions and a wealth of Halloween extras that must be seen to be believed! It is clear that the creators of this video, like me here at HalloweenOverkill, have a Halloween obsession and for that, this DVD goes into the HalloweenOverkill Hallow of Fame.  Also click here to check out the whole extras list and purchase the DVD.

 

Memories of Halloween Honeymoon!

My wife and I shared our honeymoon at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and after spending about a week there, we had wayyyy too many pictures (about 400) but not all of them were Halloween themed, so we thought we'd share a few of the more seasonally themed ones here at HalloweenOverkill for your viewing pleasure!  The Magic Kingdom was decked out for the holiday and looked beautiful.  How the Halloween celebration works at the Magic Kingdom is anyone who has access to the parks on designated days can pay an extra fee to stay after hours in the park to enjoy the festivities (otherwise known as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party)  included free face painting, after hours rides, trick or treating throughout the park, live shows and parades, and a special fireworks show.  It took cast members about a half hour to transform the park from autumn themed to a total Disney Halloween Kingdom.  I mean every building in the park was lit up with halloween lights and they modified all the street lights to look like Mickey ghosts, and then they.... well just look at the pics you'll get the idea.

This was the view as we entered the park the day of the Halloween celebration

Lovin it!

A Mickey doll in a Main Street shop window


A few shots of the Sleepy Hollow refreshments stand which is actually a year round feature in the Magic Kingdom

A sign outside the park letting you know the dealeo

A Main Street island decorated for the holiday

Me standing by one of the Halloween bronze statues that they put out for the celebration

A Mickey pumpkin in Toontown Fair

A shot of Cinderella's Castle from down Main Street
(sorry about some of the shoddy camera work, we were still learning how to use some of the lens since we had just received it as a wedding gift the day before)

A scarecrow on Main Street

Another scarecrow on Main Street

My wife and I after getting our faces painted at the Pirates of the Caribbean Halloween station

These designs were projected on the streets by some special Disney voodoo magic

A shot of one of the Mickey lamp ghosts withe the beautiful castle in the background

A better shot of one of the Mickey lamps

A good shot of the main attraction!!!
Here are some shots of different signage throughout the park during the Halloween after hours

A few shots of Main Street while waiting for the Halloween parade to start

I like how this one turned out so blurry, ads an eerie feel to the picture

The Main Street train station as we left the park



Spooky

This was the bag that you could purchase to Trick or Treat with (another $10, expensive trip)

This was our Trick or Treating candy haul from the Magic Kingdom

This was a bonus shot from inside the Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant at Downtown Disney after the party at Magic Kingdom

Let us know what you thought and if you want us to post some of the short videos we took also by commenting in the comments down below!