Hey, Hey it's Monday...
Welp, I did it again...forgot the Friday post. Funny how the brain works when you have a posting schedule...it never reminds you. I even had a note this time. Oh well, hopefully, you're following me (or taken the friendship challenge) on Facebook and see the movie suggestions in real-time. I'm going to list them here real quick and then move on to some other stuff.
Oct 10th - Oct 18th Movies to celebrate Halloween
Behind the Mask : The Rise of Leslie Vernon : On Prime
All Hallows Eve : On Prime & Tubi
Freaks of Nature : On Tubi (Red Band Trailer - NSFW)
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse : FXNow
Phantasm : Prime & VUDUfree & Tubi & Shudder
Videodrome : Peacock
The Pit & the Pendulum : Prime
Happy Death Day : Have to rent or buy this one...Amazon or Vudu
ZomBeavers : Prime & Tubi
Even though I heard some people on a podcast act like Halloween was canceled throughout the United States, I decided it wasn't canceled at my house. So I dug out the decorations and began setting up the front yard for all the ghouls & ghosts who enjoy this creepy season. We'll leave candy out for any trick-or-treaters this year in case they want to social distance...
One Halloween, many years ago, I created a Jason prop for the yard to add to my light-up skulls and gravestone decorations. I took a simple Styrofoam figure, the upper half of a zombie that you stuck in the ground to make it look like it was coming from the grave, and threw a shirt over it, and added a Jason Hockey Mask and a machete. I then stuck it on a pole and set it behind my bushes, so it looked like Jason was standing behind everything. It was pretty cool and I was pretty proud of myself. Then someone lit it on fire.
Luckily the cat freaked out and I went to see what was going on. You see while I thought I created a cool Halloween decoration, someone else saw a torch. Once I went outside and stood next to it for a minute, getting the hose and turning on the water, I saw it too. All in all, it only burnt a couple of branches after, of course, melting everything that wasn't flammable on my new homemade torch. The incident made me gun-shy for a couple of years.
Finally, I decided to get back out there and throw together some characters. And a tradition was born...although I'm not always sure the neighbors enjoy being on the street with the Halloween guy. To be honest, it's a bit of a chore to get it all up now that I have added so many characters to the layout. So I wait as long as I can before hauling everything out and getting it in place. There is always at least one person who will stop and say, "Wasn't sure if you were doing it this year." if I wait too long. I try and have it complete 2 to 2.5 weeks before Halloween.
So I've been doing it for over 10 years now, and each year I add 1 -2 characters(unless I have to rebuild a previous character). I rarely retire one so they just fill the yard now. Some of the neighborhood kids like to come out and watch them go up, some like to wait to see them when they are done, and other kids beg their parents to drive by my house every day in October until they are up...and then once they know the decorations are up they ask to drive by every other day. Another reason for the 2 or so week time frame - so I can tell people when to look for it.
Halloween is always fun as the older kids and adults like to look at everything and take pictures and the little ones like to be scared or show off their scary movie knowledge. I'm always surprised by how young some of them are...even though I started pretty young myself. I had one little girl come by every year and tell me who each character was...she was 3 or so when she started. Of course, some of the kids are too scared, so my wife and I stay close to the street and share extra candy with those little ones.
When I put the decorations up this year I had a few visits from neighbors. One wanted to see how we planned on handling candy this year, another said his daughter would be excited to see them going up, and a few stopped by to let me know they were happy to see something familiar in this crazy 2020. It took 2 days, about 12 hours total, to get everything up and situated and I was super tired by the end, but it's always worth it to see the cars slow down and talk with strangers who all know my home as the creepy Halloween house.
The first day was Zombies and Spiders before preset up for the people.
This year's new characters : the Killer from Happy Death Day and a Wolfman
Here are all the other characters in no specific order...Leatherface, GhostFace Killer, Jason, Freddy, Michael Myers, Chucky, Possessed mom from Conjuring, Pennywise(Classic) and Georgie, Regan from the Exorcist, Sam from Trick 'r Treat, Samara from the Ring
Hope you like the decorations. Remember to stay safe this Halloween and the rest of 2020.