Killer Instinct

A book has been on my mind recently, mostly because I'm currently reading it.  The book in question is Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the book that inspired the hit Showtime series, Dexter.  As of this blog, I'm only about half way through it.  (No spoilers, please.  I'll probably review it at a later date/when I'm done reading it.)  If you don't know the story or series, I'll give you a brief rundown.  The main character is Dexter, a blood splatter specialist for the Miami-Dade Police Department.  If there's blood on a scene, Dexter can tell you how it got there, at least from a scientific standpoint.  However, Dexter also has a dark secret:  he's a serial killer.  He has a bit of a conscience, though, as he only kills people whom he knows are also serial killers.  

I'd say he cut himself shaving, but he obviously still has a beard.

Review: Identity

Stop me if you've heard this one: a seemingly unconnected group of people find their lives entangled after an accident leaves them all stranded at a creepy motel in the middle of nowhere. As the hours drag on, folks start turning up dead, and the remaining survivors find that there's more to their blahblahblah...

Oh sorry, did I bore you? Yeah, the slasher film formula has gotten a little creaky over the years. While we still thrill at the sight of Jason hacking up his horny teenage victims, there's not a lot of mystery to the affair anymore. After watching Identity though, I think the ol' sub-genre still has a few gallons left in the tank.

No More Clowning Around

Halloween has come and gone.  The costumes have all been put away.  The stores have swept all the Halloween stuff in the discount isle and put out the Christmas decorations.  The leftover candy is probably still sitting in the corner along with all the discount candy you bought.   Well, I'm still in the Halloween spirit and I promised a second Face of Halloween article.  So, here it is!  A post about my own personal Face of the Dark Side of Halloween!  

The spooky season doesn't start at the beginning of October for me.  Instead, the season really starts somewhere in August or September.  This is because important announcements are made during this month.  Announcements about one of the most creative Halloween attractions in Florida:  Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights.   
 

You Don't Know Jack

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!
The moon is full and bright
And we shall see what can't be seen
On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels,
Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gowns
We haunt the street
And knock on doors
For trick or treat.

Tonight we are
The king and queen,
For oh tonight
It's Halloween!

-Jack Prelutsky

I love that poem, because in a very short amount of time, it seems to get across everything that's so great about this holiday. The ghosts and ghouls, the trick-or-treating, the feeling that something is different from the other 364 days of the year. And most importantly, the power of being whoever or whatever you want to be, if only for one night. It's intoxicating.

However, it also points out something about Halloween that makes it unique among holidays (in fact, Daffy laid it out very well in his last post): there's no central figure of representation. All Hallow's Eve is truly an ensemble cast of monsters, spirits, and other grotesques, and I have to confess that I rather like it that way. It just seems to fit that the holiday for misfits and outcasts would include everyone on the bill. I know some people like to equate a popular horror movie villain with the role, but if their story isn't expressly ABOUT Halloween (and not merely taking place on Halloween night, Mr. Myers), I don't think it works. Many folks think that Sam from the film Trick 'r Treat would be the perfect mascot, and while I do love Sam, he hasn't been around long enough to do the job. Give it a few more decades and we'll see.

He is a cutie though.

King of the Pumpkin Patch

Halloween is sort of an oddity in the holiday world.  It is one of the only national holidays without a set figurehead.  Christmas has Santa Claus, Easter has the Easter Bunny, Valentine's Day has Cupid, even Independence Day has Uncle Sam.  Halloween, however, doesn't have a mascot, a single face that defines the holiday.  It has dozens.  Think about it.  When you think of Halloween, you don't think of a face.  You think of skeletons and jack-o-lanterns.  You think of cemeteries and spider webs.  You think of ghosts, goblins, monsters, costumes, masks, and a tub load of candy.  You think of the general, ghoulish, frightful fun feeling that surrounds the holiday.

Pictured:  The very essence of Halloween.