IT'S THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN ONCE AGAIN

 HOW UNBELIEVABLE THAT IT'S THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN ONCE MORE! 

Growing up in the 1970s was prime time Halloween territory.  The monster boom which started in the late 1950's with Universal's Shock Theater package sold to TV stations was still going strong in the 70's.  Horror hosts, which started nascently with Vampire in the early 50's and really got started with Zacherley (Roland in Philly) with Shock Theater was also still going; my local horror host was Joe Zawislak as Dr. Shock.  Zawislak actually asked permission from John Zacherle (who had long before moved to New York City) if he could do a riff on his Zacherley Cool Ghoul make-up was given the OK. 

From 1969 until his death in 1979, Zawislak's Dr. Shock was a staple for me every Saturday afternoon.  Comic books in the early 70's also were experiencing a horror boom because of the relaxation of the Comics Code ban on monsters, vampires & their ilk.  Marvel Comics had a golden ago of 70's horror comix with such staples as TOMB OF DRACULA, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and a host of others while DC published everything from EC Comics-like anthologies like THE WITCHING HOUR, HOUSE OF MYSTERY, THE UNEXPECTED, HOUSE OF SECRETS, GHOSTS etc.  Every other comic book publisher also had their own horror comics; HAUNTED LOVE was a particular favourite of my cousin Loran. 

Gothic horror boomed as well with the rise of DARK SHADOWS on TV and a bevy of Gothic horror novels featuring the required nightgown-clad woman running from a spooky house with one lone light in a top window. 

There were tons of horror-themed vinyl records for kids and adults as well as the return of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's song MONSTER MASH to the top 40. 

TV horror was in full swing as well with series like Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER (spun off from the highest watched TV movie of all time . . . at the time) and countless spooky Saturday morning cartoons like SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU and it's countless clones such as THE FUNKY PHANTOM et. al.  H.P. Lovecraft really took off in paperback books in the 70's (as well as a paperback edition of what purported to be the actual NECRONOMICON);

and that's even before the horror bombshell that was Stephen King starting his career in the middle of the decade.  Even the damn breakfast cereal went monsterific with COUNT CHOCULA, FRANKENBERRY and BOO BERRY; still going strong to this day.  Horror TV movies experienced a golden age in the 1970s and even Hammer Horror was still releasing movies until the blockbuster that was THE EXORCIST changed the game forever.  But even THAT was a horror movie!!!  Monsters were permeating the very air we breathed in the 1970s and it's never been the same atmosphere no matter how popular horror became in the years since.  I was 11 when STAR WARS hit the silver screen and -- don't get me wrong -- I was fully a fan and saw it 14 times in the cinema at the time.  But STAR WARS was the death knell for the horror boom in 1977.  After a few years, horror returned, of course, starting with another blockbuster that was John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN in 1978 which birthed the horror movie boom of the early 1980s.  And that was great too.  But totally different in feel and atmosphere than the 70's version; based on the slasher films like FRIDAY THE 13th.  But the 80's were very different from the 70s.  Still great but different. 

Every year, when the Halloween Countdown comes around, it is my childhood 1970's horror atmosphere of Halloween that resonates with me.  And everything I do, watch and read for Halloween these days still comes through the filter of Halloween in the 1970s. 

The never-fading feeling of my little self in my costume (usually made by my Mom who also did my scary makeup) walking down my town's streetlight-lined avenue in the dark.  The air still held on to a little bit of summer with a slight chill in the air and, if I was lucky, some nice mist clinging to the trees which had already dropped most their red, orange & yellow leaves onto the very street upon which I was walking from house to house to get my FULL SIZE candy bars -- that's right, you poor modern folk -- there was no such thing as fun-size candy bars -- we got the actual regular-size candy for trick-or-treats.  This fun-size nonsense didn't start until the 80's; long after my trick-or-treating days were done.  So follow me this month down the gently-descending road leading to the autumn leaf-covered cul-de-sac with one lone streetlight and some fog hovering around the bare-branched treetops.  This is were you'll find the Countdown to Halloween 2025.