COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2024

 THE EARTH HAS TURNED ONCE AGAIN TO THE SPOOKY SEASON! 

Beautiful Chad Savage art; I hope you don't mind me using it here.  Everyone please go buy stuff at The Dark Art of Chad Savage -

And the Countdown to Halloween is here.  You know, when I was growing up in the 1970's, the horror boom was going strong.  It was a time when gothic horror was king (owing a lot to DARK SHADOWS), horror comics were published by every company, horror movies (from the classic Hammer Horrors and Amicus flicks to the new breed sparked by THE EXORCIST) were everywhere,

Bobby "Boris" Pickett's old single "MONSTER MASH" once again became a hit single, horror hosts were on TV's all over the country playing old horror flicks, horror paperbacks (including the soon-to-be ubiquitous Stephen King) ruled the shelves, horror LP's came out all the time, Bigfoot and UFO's (amongst other cryptids and strange phenomena) filled TV shows and magazines (including the classic IN SEARCH OF... with Leonard Nimoy) and everyone was holding parlour seances, wearing mood rings, playing with Ouija boards, reading Tarot cards, reading mass market paperbacks of THE NECRONOMICON and some even turning more to the "old religion". My mother loved all things spooky and horror and she encouraged that Halloween spirit in my all my life.  Her favourite holiday was, of course, Halloween.  She even chose as the place for her honeymoon -- Salem, Massachusetts!  When we lost her this past October 9th, I dedicated the 2023 Countdown to Halloween to her and her love of everything spooky.  And this year, I do the same -- and every year I do the Countdown from now on.  I mean, who else could I dedicate it to?  The love of the horror genre and the season of Halloween is not nasty and evil as some idiots would try to convince you.  Halloween and all things spooky are to me like a cozy blanket to wrap myself inside.  It brings back those wonderful bygone days of childhood when horror and Halloween evoked not a sense of fear but a sense of wonder. 

from Kelsi Slime & Slashers Halloween-a-thon

A full moon peeking from behind the clouds, framed in bare tree branches with perhaps a slight mist rolling in over the jack o'lantern perched grinning on somebody's porch. And the sound of skittering leaves gently wafted down the street by a cool, Autumn breeze.  All this and more is what Halloween means to me and my mother and I loved it so much.  Of course, I still do.  I can't believe it's been 18 years since I first glimpsed John Rozum's OG Countdown to Halloween and decided to participate in it.  I think I only missed a year since that time.  And if it's at all possible, I hope to continue doing the Countdown to Halloween because Halloween and all the spooky scary stuff of which it's made is some of the most important stuff to this cobwebby old heart.  So drop by every day here in October and I hope you like what you see.  I'll be watching the spooky movies once again and talking about them so I hope you'll join me and even maybe participate in the 2024 Countdown to Halloween.  As Dr. Shock once said:  "Let there be fright . . . in the night!".  Spook along with me, ghoulies and ghosties.