WELL IT'S FINALLY HERE. And i decided to have a little movie marathon for Halloween. It doesn't matter which spooky movies you watch, of course, as long as you watch a lot of them. I started things off with some Halloween episodes of South Park; you know the one's -- when Scott Baio gave me pinkeye, spookyvision and the spookyfish etc. Then I followed things up with some Scooby-Doos from the first and second seasons -- you know the GOOD ones -- and I especially made sure to watch the one about the Miner Forty-Niner (Hiya Cheekies!!!) in honour of all those Halloween hayrides.

Then it was time for a couple classic Halloween short subjects: Lonesome Ghosts starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as "ghostbusters". Then I put on the old Donald Duck cartoon "Trick or Treat". And finally, as extra added Halloween warmups I went to the tried and true "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" followed by "Garfield's Halloween Adventure". And to really get things going I chose the classic Disney version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" which is one of the best (and spookiest) animation sequences ever made!

Now for the real movies: my first choice was the first Amicus omnibus movie "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" which my cousin got me into many many moons ago. Peter Cushing as the mysterious tarot card reader Dr. Schreck (guess what THAT means) reads each train passengers' future -- only to find none of them HAVE a future. Of course, there's Michael Gough and Christopher Lee in the old reliable "crawling hand" sequence and even an EXTREMELY young Donald Sutherland in the vampire story.

Next we go to the classic Robert Wise original "The Haunting" (the 1999 remake does not exist. Sorry) which is one of my favourite horror films of all time. Wise pays real homage to his old mentor Val Lewton with this stylish ghost story. And the acting is top notch with Julie Harris leading a great cast. The sound in this film is, of course, phenomenal and gives it a real sense of dread. Based on Shirley Jackson's classic novel "The Haunting of Hill House", the film concerns our cast of "ghost hunters" spending time in the most haunted house in the universe to determine whether or not ghosts are real.

After this, we wind things up with a similar film made a decade later: "The Legend of Hell House" adapted from Richard Matheson's novel. This film is very similar to "The Haunting" in that it also features a group of people locking themselves inside "the most haunted house in the world" to determine whether ghosts are real. However, it's much different in that, where "The Haunting" was subtle, "Legend" is in your face. Another great cast features Clive Revill (attention Clive Revill fan club!), Gayle Hunnicutt, Roddy McDowell and Pamela Franklin (the little girl from "The Innocents" now all grown up) as paranormal investigators who bite off a little more than they can chew. Granted, the ending is just a tad weak but it doesn't spoil the rest of the movie leading up to it.

So that's that. Another Halloween has come and is almost gone. But just remember, spooky movies are for watching all year round -- not just for Halloween. Because, you see, as you draw your curtains closed around midnight tonight, you MUST remember that Halloween is 365.