Alas, we’ve reached the conclusion of another year’s Halloween Horrors Contributors Series. As with years past, I write this final intro with a bit of sadness in my blackened withered heart, but more so a sense of satisfaction and pride. How can I really be too dispirited when I’ve had such a frighteningly awesome time these last few weeks celebrating Halloween and Horror with such a large group of like-minded fiends and friends? No, this celebration may only be beginning.

Unlike previous years, where the Halloween Horrors series generally ended a day or two before the actual day of Halloween, we still have 5 days until Halloween. As stated in yesterday’s post, this should provide you, the reader, with opportunities to not only catch any entries from this series that you may have missed, but also a chance to watch a few of this year’s featured films, if you haven’t already done so. I know you haven’t watched Carnosaur 3 yet. Don’t lie! 

More importantly, you still have plenty of time to get out there and truly enjoy what the Halloween season has to offer! Whether that be film screenings, horror conventions, trunk or treats, scare houses, or even an annual Halloween camping trip at a media conglomerate owned campground, I implore you to indulge in all the events and activities this Halloween that you can. However, if the Halloween Horrors continues to teach me anything year after year, the absolute best part of Halloween (or any holiday, for that matter) is the people that you choose to spend it with. Which is why we will be closing out this year’s series with the person I spend every Halloween with… my wife, Mandi Fallon.

So, thank you once again for joining us this October! I truly do hope you’ve enjoyed reading all the collected pieces this year. As always, all “thanks” go to our amazing contributors as this series literally would not exist without their support. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go decorate a golf cart!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

 

When Dustin was considering themes for this year’s Halloween Horrors series, I was immediately intrigued by the ‘themes within a theme’ idea, and I had fun trying to help come up with categories!  I also loved the idea of using a randomizer for those who were gutsy enough to write about whatever topic it landed on.  Because I knew what a lot of the topics really were that were hidden behind the super clever quips that he came up with (really, DFallon – “I Love the Nightlife?” LOL), I chose to go the randomizer route.  I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes, hoping I wouldn’t get Kaiju or “found footage”.  I didn’t, thank goodness, but I also didn’t get what I would have chosen.  My fate was ‘Grandma Got Ripped to Shreds Last Night’, which meant I had to pick something featuring a werewolf or werewolves.

Now, I am not a lover of werewolf movies, but I’m also not a hater; I guess you could say I am indifferent to them.  I don’t dislike them as much as I do movies set in deserts or tropical locations (I know, I’m weird), but this subject matter just isn’t overly appealing to me personally.  I do love the original The Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr., and I like An American Werewolf in London, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch them on repeat.  I also didn’t want to choose something so blatantly obvious as the aforementioned.  What I AM a sucker for is old black and white movies.  Lots of them.  I definitely have the soul of an 87-year old woman, and my movie choices fall right in line with that.  Because of this, I went with a classic – 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man from Universal.

For those of you who may have never seen The Wolf Man, the story revolves around Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) who, in a nutshell, gets bitten by a werewolf on a foggy night when the wolfsbane is in bloom.  Forebodingly, this grim fortune was foretold to him by the Gypsy Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya).  He heals supernaturally quickly, but eventually realizes that his fate has been sealed by those poisonous teeth and is ultimately killed by his own father, who bludgeons him about the head with an ornate silver handled cane.  Our titular film for this piece begins four years after the events of The Wolf Man with graverobbers breaking into Larry’s Talbot’s tomb.  They remove the wolfsbane, the full moon shines on Larry, and he is revived.

Larry is found the same night by police wandering the streets with a nasty head wound (seemingly from his initial demise), and is taken to the hospital and treated by Dr. Mannering.  That same night, he is transformed by the full moon and attacks and kills a constable. Remembering after transforming back to his human form, he begs Dr. Mannering to get the police before he kills again.  Police Inspector Owen hears Larry’s story and doesn’t believe it, confirming that Larry Talbot was indeed killed four years prior.  He believes Larry to be an imposter, and demands to know who he is.

Larry becomes irate and is eventually bound to his bed.  While restrained for the time being, Dr. Mannering and the Inspector travel to Larry’s home town and discover his tomb to be empty.  They also discover one of the graverobbers has been murdered in the same manner as the killings years before.

Back at the hospital Larry breaks free, escaping to travel the countryside to find Maleva, the Gypsy who foretold his doomed fate years before, to seek a cure for his immortality.  She tells him of Dr. Frankenstein, and together, they traverse the continent to find him.  They find Frankenstein’s monster instead (played by Bela Lugosi), trapped in ice.  Larry breaks the monster free in the hopes that he can assist in finding the doctor’s notes, but alas, as one would expect, no dice.  I won’t spoil the rest, but suffice to say it ends with an epic battle of the Monster fighting the Wolf Man.

Released in 1943 by Universal, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was the first of what would become known as “monster rally” movies, where several ‘big name’ movie monsters appeared together in the same film.  Several critics and writers are of the opinion that of all the “monster rallies”, this was the most successful, and that it was even the innovator of future monster battle movies such as King Kong vs. Godzilla and Freddy vs. Jason.

Personally, I feel like most of the “rally” movies, while fantastic in theory and craved by fans, are rarely ever done properly and they just miss the mark.  While I liked the culmination of Freddy vs. Jason, for example, the entire film leading up to that point was mid at best.  However, as mentioned before, I am also very much a ‘you kids get off my lawn’ old lady, and if the movie is old and black and white, I will overlook most things and tell you it’s fantastic.  Although Bela Lugosi is absolutely less than ideal as Frankenstein’s Monster (really, no one can hold a candle to Boris Karloff), the fact that it’s a Universal black and white horror movie is all I need.

In summarizing this piece, I am also wrapping up this year’s Halloween Horrors Series as the last entry. I am also finishing this summation the day before our wedding anniversary as tomorrow*, October 13th, will be 18 years since I married my soul mate and the creator of Horror and Sons. A Halloween themed wedding, two amazing sons (Bishop Campbell and Dekker Price, each a horror namesake – yeah, we’re committed, and they just have the COOLEST names, am I right?), many ups and downs and even some sideways thrown in for good measure later, and here we are.  I know that Halloween and/or horror mean a great deal to you if you’re reading this for reasons personal to you.  Maybe it’s nostalgia for what Halloween used to be, an appreciation of the horror genre, or possibly you’re just a person who celebrates all holidays with the same fervor.  For me, Halloween has always been my favorite, and the fact that I get to spend my life with someone who loves it just as much as I do makes me feel like the luckiest ghoul on Earth.  Yeah, I went there.  Come at me, bro.

*She wasn’t supposed to tell you this part. Also, it’s no longer “tomorrow”, but 13 days ago. Ehh, who’s counting?

Happy anniversary, babe, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all!