A Hollow Halloween

Like most things this year, Halloween is different. Our friend Jenn lamented that this is the first time in 25 years, she and her husband John haven't had a party. With Norwalk in the red zone, normal trick and treating is discouraged. 

We haven't had trick or treaters in years. Jenn and John normally get about 400. Jenn is rigging a contraption to distribute treats without contact. I wonder how it will go. She estimated they would get 100 trick or treaters. But that was before we hit the red zone.

For the past few years, we've gone to A Haunting at Mill Hill; it's a fundraiser for the Norwalk Historical Society. This year it was done as a movie. It was a good movie, but not as effective as wondering the Mill Hill cemetery at night and having the actors perform in front of you.

We've been watching lots of horror movies this month--many courtesy of TCM. Some are classics such as  Dracula, Mark of the Vampire, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Diabolique, and William Castle's The House on Haunted Hill.

We saw two Hammer films: Horror of Dracula--good and The Satanic Rites of Dracula--boring--not enough vampires but Joanna Lumley appeared (Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous.)

Other films include 13 Ghosts, Friday the 13th, Halloween H20, Eye of the Devil, and Night of Dark Shadows

Some are so bad, they're almost good: The Killer Shrews with collies appearing as shrews and From Hell It Came in which a martyred tribal leader is reborn as a walking tree trunk.

Two more films of note. We watched The Beast Must Die based on a recommendation from Screen Rant. It had a good set-up: a man invites eight people to a secluded island to discover which one is a werewolf. The first half of the film was so horribly dubbed, it was hard to pay attention. 

Indestructible Man is another TCM selection.The Brute (Lon Chaney Junior) is executed, but a scientist reanimates his body and he's out for revenge. Max Showalter plays a police lieutenant who questions a burlesque dancer. At the end of the film, he proposes by telling her he got her fired. He figured she'd be too busy being his wife. How romantic.

I've also recorded The Wicker Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Haunting, and Haxan to watch later.

Happy movie Halloween.