Happy Halloween 2012!!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!   Can you believe it's finally here?!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful time tonight.  Tonight the veil between our world and the otherworld is at its thinnest.  If you have heard a strange sound that cannot be explained or saw a shadow when no one was around.....it could very possibly be someone trying to communicate with you!

Don't forget to send me your list of costumes you saw tonight!  I will add all of the submissions together and see just how close I came to predicting the costumes this year.  Also, we will be able to see what kinds of costumes were popular in different parts of the country and the world!

We have had so much fun counting down the days til Halloween and have really enjoyed putting together our Halloween Extravaganza and sharing the videos with you.  While we know it was long in length, we sure hope that we taught you something new.  This was a story we really wanted to tell, in order to honor the victims of the Salem Witch Trials.  While researching and working on the project, we experienced several mishaps and strange occurrences.  One such incident was when Chas was reading about the witches.  The light kept flickering on and off on his 3-way lamp and at one point, it went out completely.  He checked the bulb and the chord and found there was nothing wrong with them.     Was this due to the events in Salem?  Was someone trying to prevent us from sharing our information?  We will never know, but we can't help but feel there were some spooky forces at work!

Our final video of our Halloween Extravaganza is below.  Once again, we truly hope you enjoyed our project.  Soon, you will be able to view all the videos easily in one list on the blog.  Thanks again for making this a great Halloween season for us!  Happy Hauntings!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPvsGsjzs4

Halloween Extravaganza: Chas's Pictorial Tour of Salem

It's the night before Halloween, are you excited?  We sure are!  Chas will hopefully be handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters (weather permitting) and as for me, I'll be watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and wishing I was at a party or something.  LOL!  Don't forget to keep a list of all the costumes you see!  I would like to do a follow up post to my costume prediction list!

We have a special treat for you tonight.  We have given you the history and ghost stories of Salem...now we will take you on a pictorial tour!  Chas visited Salem in 2008 and took some really great photographs of the town.  In this video, he will explain what he saw and give you a better view of Salem as it is today!  Have fun!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-W5r4ILxas

Halloween Extravaganza: More Haunted Places in Salem

Good evening!

We have three new episodes in our Halloween Extravaganza tonight!  Wednesday night we will wrap up this series!  We really hope you have enjoyed watching the videos and hope that you have learned something from them!  We also want to wish everyone a safe next few days on the east coast, also to those further inland. 

Tonight's first video is about the hauntings at Patriot Cinemas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKlmY_EMbKA

The second video focuses on the haunted Danvers State Hospital.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj1aobIuRRY




And our last video features four short ghost stories for your spooking pleasure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNc7Lpvo-WE&feature=plcp




We hope you are getting prepared for Halloween!  We still have two more days full of Halloween fun to share with you!!  :)

Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Extravaganza: Haunted Places in Salem

Another Friday is here yay!!  Once again I've been having internet problems.  Basically, our local phone company who we have our internet through, decided to put in fiber optic lines.  We weren't supposed to experience any problems, but of course they were wrong.  It seems as if each week, we have some kind of problem with either the internet or the phone lines being down.  Ugh! 

So, tonight we have three episodes from our Halloween Extravaganza.  These episodes are about haunted places in Salem.  You will find out why these places are haunted and who is haunting them!  You may want to leave the lights on!  ;)

Our first haunted place is St. Mary's Cemetery.  Cemeteries are spooky enough, but a haunted one?  *shiver*!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkQu9nAfYx4 

Our next haunted place is the Salem Marine Society/The Hawthorne Hotel.  Haunted hotels are very spooky!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbQo6JEgpOE

Our last haunted place for the evening is Salem State College.  For many, college marks the start of a new life. For a few at Salem State College, it was the beginning of their end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-hizpO7mHA

We hope you enjoy the spooky stories from the very real places in Salem!

Halloween Extravaganza: The Bloody Curse of Sarah Good

Hello everyone!

Are you scared yet?  While a ghost story can be scary, what makes it even more scary is when the story is based on a real person.  I think that is what makes the stories surrounding the victims of Salem so eerie.

In tonight's episode we learn about the bloody (quite literally) curse of Sarah Good.  Makes you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u4mDyM7Jsg

Halloween Extravaganza: The Curse of Giles Corey

Happy Monday, or maybe not so happy.  Mondays are never that good of a day are they?  Well, to make it a bit more bearable, we have a new video in our Halloween Extravaganza!  As you know, we are now into the ghost story segment of our special!  Tonight's video is about the curse of Giles Corey!  Watch the video to learn about Giles and why there is a curse!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir424U3n9kE



We hope you enjoy!!  There are still more ghost stories to come!

The 2012 Halloween costume prediction list from Halloween Night!

Greetings my fellow ghouls!

Welcome to the 6th annual Halloween Night costume predictions list!  I started this annual event in my Yahoo! group "Halloween Night" and have had so much fun writing them!  I make my own predictions on what I think will be *in* this year as far as costumes are concerned.  I will list my top ten choices with #1 being the top costume.  With that said, let's start the list!

10.  I will always save a special place for the classic costumes.  Witches, ghosts, skeletons, etc... these costumes have been around for centuries and never get old!  They are easy to make at the last minute and the little ones always look so cute dressed in them!  I guarantee that you will see at least one trick-or-treater decked out in a classic costume this year!

9.  I think homemade costumes will be big this year due to the economy.  Store bought costumes have become pretty pricey over the past few years and a lot of people just can't afford them.  Thanks to the birth of Pinterest (follow Halloween Night on Pinterest HERE) and several DIY websites, you can find a very easy to make Halloween costume for cheap! 

8. Zombies will definitely be making a comeback this year.  Zombies have seemed to become part of our culture with zombie walks, tv shows, video games, etc....  Just be sure to be armed with candy and you'll make it through Halloween in one piece!  ;)

7. Monster High!  The Monster High dolls have become a highly collectible fad among youngsters.  Thanks to Halloween novelty stores such as Spirit Halloween, kids can now dress as their favorite Monster High character!  

6.  Who wants to visit Sesame Street?  No need, because Big Bird will most likely make an appearance at your Halloween shindig!  Thanks to the presidential debates, Big Bird has become a hot commodity costume with some stores actually selling out!

5. The Avengers hit the big screen this year and will hit your doorsteps this Halloween!  Think of all the possibilities: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, etc...  Super heroes are always a kid favorite, so I think you can expect to see at least one of these characters this year!

4. Gangnam Style!  Psy, the Korean rapper, has because a huge name in the past few months with his hit song "Gangnam Style"!  It's a really catchy tune and the music video is great!  If you attend a big Halloween party, I'm sure you'll see at least one person dressed as Psy!

3. Vampires will definitely be hanging around again this year.  They are still huge in our popular culture with the tv shows True Blood and Vampire Diaries as well as the last movie installment of the Twilight saga.  I love when little kids dress as vampires!  

2. Angry Birds to the rescue!  This action packed game has become a massive hit worldwide!  Everyone I know seems to have played Angry Birds.  I'm a fan myself, having three different versions of the game on my smartphone!  There are costumes for kids as well as adults...they are cute!

1. The number one costume for this year is....Batman!  The third movie in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale hit the movie theaters earlier this year.  These movies are the best Batman movies I've ever seen.  Kids love dressing up as Batman and I think there will be a lot of them this year!  Of course, we will never forget the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado during the premiere of the latest Batman movie. 

There you have it!  I would like to ask all of you to keep a checklist of what costumes you see this year, as I would like to post a follow up after Halloween to see how on target my list was!  Thanks everyone and let's have a great Halloween!

Halloween Music

Happy Saturday!  It's a beautiful, Autumn day here at Halloween Night headquarters, hope you all are enjoying the weather where you live! 

I stumbled across this website the other day and wanted to share it with you.  The owner has compiled Halloween playlists and posted them on his website.  You have until November 1st to visit the site and download the compilations until the site disappears for a year (it returns in October for the Halloween season)! 

You can visit the website here: http://www.halloweenhitswebsite.com/index.htm

Don't forget to enter our giveaway!  It ends tomorrow night (Sunday) at midnight!   http://halloween-nights.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-night-giveaway.html

Happy listening!

Halloween Extravaganza: Aftermath part 2 and Haunted Salem

Good evening!

It's Friday once again...all I can say is YAY!  After a very rough week at work, I realized just how much I love writing this blog and I appreciate all of you for taking the time to read it and comment.  :)  You guys are great!  And to reward you this Friday night, we have three new episodes in our Halloween Extravaganza to share with you!

Aftermath Part 2 continues to discuss how the Salem Witch Trials affected the town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4T3f1V5ABQ

 

Our next video is our introduction to Haunted Salem!  You want ghost stories?  You're going to get them! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D02AxLj7qnM&feature=youtu.be



Our last video for tonight focuses on our first ghost story!  The ghost of Bridget Bishop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UONGDzrm28k

There you have it!  We are now getting into the very spooky and strange happenings in Salem!  We hope you enjoy!  Be sure to let us know what you think!

Also, don't forget to enter our giveaway!  You have until Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight central time to enter!  It's all FREE!  :)  Enter here: http://halloween-nights.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-night-giveaway.html

Have a hauntingly great weekend!

Halloween Extravaganza: Aftermath part 1

Hi everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  We are now ready to share more episodes from our Halloween Extravaganza with you!  Tonight's episode will start our focus on the aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke1YDnYnwpE


Also, don't forget to enter our giveaway!  You have until Sunday night (at midnight central time) to enter!   http://halloween-nights.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-night-giveaway.html

We hope you enjoy tonight's video!

Halloween Night Giveaway!

Greetings boils and ghouls!

It has been a stormy weekend here at Halloween Night headquarters...perfect weather for doing Halloween activities!  Speaking of, we promised to do a giveaway in October if we reached 200 likes on our Facebook page.  We are now well on our way to 300 likes!  So, as promised here are the details for the giveaway!

The prizes include: a set of Halloween coasters, a magnetic notepad, a Charlie Brown sticky notepad, a glow-in-the-dark ghost containing Skittles candies (this is awesome, I have one!), and two owls which were handmade by me (I sell them on my craft page Peridot Moon Creations).  I wanted to include more items, but had to watch my budget.  Maybe next year I will have a bigger prize package.  ;)

In order to enter our giveaway, you must visit our blog and leave a comment on THIS post.  I WILL NOT accept email entries.  If you try emailing me your entry, it will get deleted.  I receive too many emails in my inbox as it is, your entry would most likely get lost!  We will not accept entries on Facebook either.  You do not need a blogger account to leave a comment.  There are several methods in which you can "sign in" to leave a comment which are as follows:

• You can comment anonymously.  Yep!  No account needed!  I will ask that you put a first name and the first initial of your last name, or something similar in order to tell you apart from the other commenters.
• You can comment by using several different log ins from other websites including: LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad, AIM, OpenID, Blogger, and Google.

So, as you can see it is very easy to leave a comment.  When you comment, let us know your favorite part of Halloween!

This giveaway is totally FREE!  I see so many giveaways where the winner has to pay shipping.  I'm sorry, but that's not a true giveaway to me.  We will also ship the prizes to anywhere in the world, so don't hesitate to enter!  Please note if you are outside of the United States and you win, YOU will be responsible for any customs fees that might occur once the package hits the country you are in.  I've never had trouble with this, but you never know what any of the postal systems will decide to do!

I will be using the website random.org to pick the winner.  You will need to keep an eye on the blog and Facebook page...once the winner is picked, I will post on the blog who the winner is.  You will have up to 5 days to email me and claim your prize as well as give me your mailing details.  If you fail to email me within the 5 day period, your name will be tossed out and I will use random.org again to pick a new winner.  You can follow the blog by email.  On the right hand side of the page, if you scroll down a little, you will see a letter.  Click on that picture and follow the prompts.  You don't need to worry about spam, if we don't post anything, you don't receive an email.  :)

If you have any questions please let me know.  You can message me via the Facebook page.  So, there you have it!  The contest will be open from now until next Sunday night.  I will stop accepting entries at midnight Sunday night/Monday morning...that gives you a week to enter!  Good luck to all of you, and Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Extravaganza: Salem Witchcraft parts 4, 5, & 6

Hello spooky friends!

How is your week coming along?  I am definitely ready for Friday...I'm sure you are as well!  Tonight we have three videos in our Halloween Extravaganza to share with you! 

Salem Witchcraft Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUOX4SdQWP8

Salem Witchcraft Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd3FqzV8EZo

Salem Witchcraft Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcBcwtv-lHE

Happy Hauntings!!

Halloween Extravaganza: Salem Witchcraft part 3

Greetings!

We have a new episode tonight in our Halloween Extravaganza which finds us continuing our research into the Salem Witch Trials.  Please make no mistake, we are not making light of this tragedy.  We wanted to bring people closer to the events in Salem in order to better understand what was going on at the time and what the true story behind the witch claims really was.  That being said, here's our next episode!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8hpdyDjcJk

 

Happy Hauntings!

Pumpkins & Salem Witchcraft: Part 2

Good evening!

Did you attend any haunts over the weekend?  I'm hoping to visit the local pumpkin patch soon to take part in their festivities!

I did manage to get two pumpkins last week.  Check them out!  $4 for each!

These pumpkins are huge!  Not sure how much they weigh.  They are the perfect size and shape for carving and I can't wait until I'm able to carve them!  I'll carve them the weekend before Halloween.  By then I may have acquired more pumpkins!

We also have a new episode in our Halloween Extravaganza to share with you tonight!  We've been getting good feedback on our project so far and we really appreciate those of you who have taken time to comment!  In tonight's episode we explore more of Salem witchcraft.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caTprTCRGNQ

Enjoy and have a great day tomorrow!

Halloween Extravaganza: Salem Witchcraft Part 1

Happy Weekend!

Hope you have been able to watch some Halloween movies this weekend!  Tonight we have the next episode in our Halloween Extravaganza.  This is the moment you have been waiting for...will we now be exploring the Salem witch trials!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY6k62sRgZo

We hope you enjoy tonight's episode!  Lots of history, chaos, and drama!  Let us know what you think!

Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Extravaganza: Cold Winter Days & Let the Witch Hunt Begin

Good evening!

Hope everyone is ready for the weekend!  Tonight would normally be our Fright Night Friday movie review, but with our Halloween Extravaganza project underway, the move reviews will return in a few weeks.  Instead of posting a movie review, we will be sharing two videos with you tonight from our Halloween Extravaganza!

In "Cold Winter Days" you will learn about the events that led up to the Salem witch hysteria.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exF273dEIk0

In "Let the Witch Hunt Begin" we will 'test' you and see how much you really know about the witch trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm9kgctTwtU

We you hope enjoy watching these videos tonight!  Don't forget, you can rewatch all of our videos so far via our youtube channel or by reading our recent posts here on the blog.  Let us know what you think!  Thank you to those who have left us comments so far, we really appreciate it!

Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Extravaganza: Salem Politics

Hello everyone! We are fastly approaching Halloween, can you believe it?! I sure hope all of you have made your preparations for the big night! Costume picked out, candy purchased, party plans, haunted houses you'll be visiting etc... If you do anything special for Halloween, why not drop us a line and share your party pictures..we would love to feature them on the blog!

We have a new video from Chas and Anna's Halloween Extravaganza to share with you tonight! In this episode, we will explore the politics of Salem during the time of the witch trials. From a political point of view, Salem was divided into two groups. This would ultimately be one of the main issues leading up to the witch trials. As always, please feel free to comment and let us know what you think! Hope you enjoy this installment!
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDhho6rgHu0&feature=plcp

Halloween Extravaganza: Salem History

Hello everyone!

So, we got your attention with our intro video to Chas and Anna's Halloween Extravaganza.  Are you ready for the next video?  Of course you are!!  ;)

Now we will be traveling over 300 years in the past to explore Salem's history!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J76OWUEMtOk&feature=plcp

We hope you enjoy!  Be sure to leave us comments on what you think so far!  You can view the first video again here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttYnx4-QVM&feature=plcp



Happy Hauntings!

Countdown to Halloween 2012!

Hello everyone!

I'm proud to report that we are participating in the 2012 Countdown to Halloween!  You may remember that we participated for the first time last year. What is Countdown to Halloween?  It's exactly what it sounds like!  Countdown to Halloween is a community of Halloween bloggers who hold month-long blogging marathons counting down until Halloween.  All of the participants are listed on the Countdown to Halloween blog, so you are able to peruse at your leisure!  Participants also get to display the Countdown to Halloween badge.  It is a lot of fun and even though some of us aren't able to post every single day, we do try our best to bring you a month-long Halloween fest!  :)  For further details on joining in this year's countdown or to see the list of participants, you can visit Countdown to Halloween here.

If you have found us from the Countdown to Halloween page, please let us know!  :)  Let's make this the best Halloween ever!

Chas and Anna's Halloween Extravaganza!!

Happy October 1st everyone!  I hope you all have your Halloween decorations out and are ready to get spooky!

My co-owner, Chas, and I have been working on a secret project for the group/blog for two years now.  We were supposed to unveil the project last year, but life got in the way and we had to set it aside for awhile.  Eventually we were able to pick it back up and work on it full force.  We wanted to do something special for you: our readers and fans to thank you for all your support!  If it wasn't for you reading the blog posts, submitting movie/book reviews, sharing recipes and craft ideas, and interacting with us on our Facebook page, we wouldn't be here!  We wanted to share something interesting with you, but at the same time try to spook you as well!  We were not sure what we wanted to do, but then we started researching Salem, Massachusetts just for fun and the idea for our project was born.  The history and tragedy surrounding Salem was a story that we felt compelled to tell...we are not making light of this tragedy.  We created this project with the hope that we might inform people who otherwise may not know what all happened in Salem.  Of course, since Halloween is our business, we wanted to share the spooky side of Salem: ghost stories and curses!  The project turned out to be longer than we expected, so we will be posting the video links in segments during the month of October.  This will give you something fun to do while counting down the days until Halloween!

We would love to hear your feedback on this project.  Each time we post a video, please be sure to leave us a comment either here on the blog (you don't have to have a blogger account to comment), at the Yahoo group, or on our Facebook page.  We would really appreciate it!  Please keep in mind we are amateurs and are not claiming to be professionals.  We are doing this project for a hobby and to share our love of Halloween!

Are you ready for our first video?  Well, here it is!  Welcome to the first annual Chas and Anna's Halloween Extravaganza hosted by Halloween Night!  We hope you have a hauntingly good time!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttYnx4-QVM

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Real Steel

Hello Everyone!

We finally have a new movie review for you tonight!  Thanks to weather and internet outages, I haven't been able to update the blog.  Our movie review tonight comes from my friend, Melissa over at Gothic Charms!  Enjoy!

Real Steel (2011)

Stars:

Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Dakota Goyo

We start watching this movie and I'm thinking... Ok, this is just Stallone's "Over The Top" for this generation, right? With a little Rock'em Sock'em Robots, big boy style.

Boy meets father for the first time and finds him sorely lacking. Father displays to everyone time and again that he's just not father material...even taking his son "shopping" for robot parts in the middle of the night and abandoning him there. This guy lets everyone down: his kid, his girlfriend and his bookies.

So along the movie the father matures a bit and the kid's happy, their Bot is coming along well in the fights and it's time to put up or shut up - get a big fight. Father and Son are happy after the fight until the father's past catches up with him and he and child get beat up, losing everything. The father betrays his son and heads off without him, proving to the world yet again that he's a sorry excuse for a father.

What comes next is the eventual maturing of the father and then it's bonding time - where father and son get together to battle the beast of the bots - ZEUS. 

In a way this movie IS a typical underdog story where the kid gets a parent, the guy gets the gal and everyone lives happily ever after.....However, the bot fights are really awesome to watch - and even funny in one case. Most women would agree that watching Hugh Jackman taking his shirt off would be worth watching, regardless of the plot. However the story is likeable and enjoyable (and the guys get to see Evangeline Lilly in very little clothing.)

My pet peeve: enunciation. You go half the movie thinking the bot's name is ADAM when it's ATOM. For such high paid actors you'd think a little enunciation wouldn't be too much to ask! LOL

Overall, I give this movie 4 skulls. It's a great "feel good" movie, kids will like it, geeks will like it, women will enjoy it and men will dig the carnage! 

 

Awesome review, thanks Melissa!  I've been wanting to see this movie, it sounds really good!  If you have seen the movie and want to share your thoughts, be sure to leave a comment!  We are also looking for more movie reviews, so if you're interested please send me a message!  :)  

We will be doing our giveaway in October so stay tuned!

Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Crafts for Kids

Hello everyone!

I hope this post finds you getting ready for Halloween!  I will be attending the Witches Night Out event at our local pumpkin patch on Friday night...I'm so excited!

I realize that most of our content on the blog is geared more towards the adult crowd, but as we want to make this a place for everyone, we have a couple of Halloween crafts for kids!  I remember loving the crafts we did in school!  I don't have kids so I don't know if Halloween is as big in schools now as it was when I was in school, so I think it's important to keep the Halloween craft ideas alive at home!

The first craft we have is from the website Spoonful.  They have come up with a great craft idea called "Closet Monsters"!

Courtesy of Spoonful.com

I think these are REALLY cute and a very easy activity for your children to do, with your help of course!  They could make these for their everyday clothes, or make them special for their Halloween costumes!  It seems that they have used wire hangers for this project, but you could just as easily use the more durable plastic hangers!  For the full tutorial visit the link below:
http://spoonful.com/crafts/closet-monsters?nav=time&cmp=NLC-NL|Spoonful|DailySpoonfulNewsletter|DailySpoonful|General||091012|||famM|


The second craft I have for you tonight isn't really a craft, but an activity page.

Courtesy of Spoonful.com

Isn't this cute?  A connect-the-dots dragon activity page!  I love how he's roasting his marshmallows with his own breath!  In the background you can see the spires of the nearby castle!  This will be fun for your little ones to color!  I found this on Spoonful as well...you can download the full sized picture below:
http://spoonful.com/printables/dragon-connect-dots-game?nav=time&cmp=NLC-NL|Spoonful|DailySpoonfulNewsletter|DailySpoonful|General||091012|||famM|

I'll keep my eye out for other kid crafts and remember, if you find something you'd like for me to share, please feel free to send it on to me!  Also, if anyone makes the closet monsters, please send me a picture...same goes for the dragon picture!  I would love to feature you and your children's artwork here!  :)

Happy Hauntings!

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Spiders 2: Breeding Ground

Happy Friday everyone!

We have another blast from the past for our movie review tonight!  This review was written by my co-owner, Chas, back in 2006!  If you're a member of our Yahoo group, you can view the original post here!  Hope you enjoy the review!

Spiders II: Breeding Ground (2001)

Rated `R' For violence and gore, language and nudity

Plot Description:

Alexandra (Stephanie Niznik) and Jason (Greg Cromer) are rescued at
sea by a passing ship that happens to be the floating laboratory of
crazed Dr. Grbac (Richard Moll). This is very bad news for the
healthy young couple as the nutty doctor implants spider eggs in the
bodies of humans to create giant spiders; Jason is next, unless Alex
can defeat Grbac and a horde of escaped spiders. ~ Buzz McClain, All
Movie Guide

My Review:

This is a Low-budget horror and big-time fun. The opening of the
movie was very well done. When Alexandra and Jason are on the ship
the crew are friendly, a bit too friendly. The special effects were
decent. One could sense that they did not take this movie too
seriously. If you have arachnophobia I would suggest staying away
from this movie. If you want a nice Saturday night horror flick, I
would recommend this movie. I give it a three skull rating.

Thanks for the review, Chas!  This movie sounds like it's full of creepy crawliness...I am not a fan of spiders, so I am not sure I would ever watch this!  What about you?  Have you seen this movie and have a comment to make about it? Let us know!  And remember, if you'd like to do a movie review just send me a message on our Facebook page or here on the blog!  :)

Happy Haunting!

Halloween Night Recipes~Pumpkin Soup

Hello everyone!

We finally made it to September...come on Autumn!!  :)  I have had intentions for quite some time to transfer some of the Halloween recipes I've had for years onto the blog.  I want to categorize them eventually to make them easier to find once they've been posted here on the blog.  We've been holding an open discussion over at our Facebook page about what features you, the reader, want us to start posting.  Julie came up with a great suggestion...instead of candy or other sweet Halloween recipes (though we will post those as well, don't worry!) she was really interested in actual meals.  This reminded me of some of the Halloween meals I've come across in several of my magazines.  These are meals you could serve at a Halloween party, take to a potluck dinner, or just make for your family!  My wonderful friend, Brenda, who has become one of my main researchers for this blog found the recipes that I will be posting this week.  Be sure to check out Brenda's art page: Emmy Bunter Art Dolls and her band: Fish with Feathers!

Our recipe for this week is Pumpkin Soup!  Brenda found two really great recipes for this dish which is why I'm sharing both.  This first recipe Brenda found in one of her Linda McCartney books (yay for a Beatles related post!).

Pumpkin Soup
from LINDA'S KITCHEN by Linda McCartney (Little, Brown)
Serving Size: 6

1 3/4 pounds pumpkin, cleaned and cut OR 4 cups pumpkin cubes
1 1/2 quarts water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3/4 cup chopped parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan, simmer pumpkin cubes in the water until they are very tender.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan and sauté onions until golden.

Purée pumpkin and liquid in a blender or food processor, or press through a strainer, and return to pan.  Add the sautéed onions and parsley. Season to taste and heat through.

(PER SERVING: 89 calories; 4.9 g fat (0.6 g saturated fat; 50% calories from fat); 0 mg cholesterol; 120 mg sodium. Note: Analysis includes 1/4 teaspoon salt.)

Notes:
This warming soup can be garnished with toasted pumpkin seeds.

I love the suggestion of toasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish!  Here is the second recipe:

Pumpkin Soup
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
•1 tablespoon margarine
•1 onion, diced
•1 16 oz can of pumpkin purée
•1 1/3 cups vegetable broth
•3 cups milk
•1/2 tsp nutmeg
•1/2 tsp sugar
•salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, cook the onion in the margarine for 3-5 minutes, until onion turns clear. Add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Cook over medium heat for another 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!
Makes 4 servings.

Nutritional Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 190, Calories from Fat: 63
% Daily Value
Total Fat: 7.0g, 11%
Saturated Fat: 1.2g, 6%
Cholesterol: 0mg, 0%
Sodium: 388mg, 16%
Total Carbohydrates: 24.3g, 8%
Dietary Fiber: 4.9g, 20%
Sugars: 13.1g
Protein: 9.2g
Vitamin A 356%, Vitamin C 11%, Calcium 9%, Iron 17%


I love the fact that this recipe uses nutmeg!  You can have a lot of fun in the way you serve these soups.  You could serve it in a bread bowl or you could hollow out a pumpkin, find a bowl that will fit inside your pumpkin and fill your bowl with the soup.  This leaves zero chance of your soup leaking out of your pumpkin and makes for easy cleanup!  :)  You could also add a spooky element and use a skeleton ladle which you can purchase at a party store.

Hope you enjoyed our first recipe post!  I had fun writing it and can't wait to write more!  If you try these recipes, please let me know how they turn out!  That being said, PLEASE share your Halloween recipes with me!  If you have a blog/website/page and you submit a recipe, I will mention your site in the blog post.  It's an easy way to get free advertising plus, we want you (the reader) to be as involved as you possibly can be! 

Happy Eating and Happy Haunting!

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: The Wicker Man

Hello everyone!

Sorry to be so quiet lately!  I've been working on craft projects for my page Peridot Moon Creations.  I'm hoping to create a varied amount of Halloween crafts to sell!

It's time for our Fright Night Friday Movie Review and once again we have dug into the vaults of Halloween Night for tonight's review!  This is a review I wrote for the Halloween Night group back in 2006!  Hope you enjoy!

The Wicker Man (2006)

*Attention, I am going to give some hints away about the ending. Not
exactly how it ends or who is in the ending, just some disturbing
parts that happen. If you don't want to read about it, please don't
read the end of my post!*

Now, on to the review! This movie is a remake of a 70's cult classic.  The
remake stars Nicholas Cage as a sheriff who goes to a mysterious
island off of Puget Sound (anyway, that's what I was lead to believe)
to investigate the disapperance of a little girl. This island is only
inhabited by a village of people who practice pagan rituals and stuff
like that.

It was very suspenseful, but not scary. It didn't give me nightmares
and I'm the biggest wuss when it comes to scary movies! LOL! I had
my suspicions about one of the members of the island, but
thought "nah, I'm wrong." Well, I ended up being right. lol! The
ending was a bit disturbing. There wasn't really any gore in it.
They do show a nasty scene of a person that was killed, his face looks
gross, but other than that, no blood and guts or anything like that.
Anyway, about the ending. I don't want to give away too much, but I
do want to give out a warning because I'm sure some people wouldn't be
able to handle it. You do hear someone getting beat up really bad
(getting bones broke and stuff) and you can hear the person screaming
and cursing and crying out. Also, there is a burning alive scene, you
don't actually see the person burning persay, but again you hear
screaming and yelling. That's about the only part that bothered me a
little.

Well, there you have it! It was a pretty good movie and I hope that if you decide to see it,
you'll enjoy it too!  I give this movie 4 skulls! 

There you have it!  I hope you enjoyed the review!  Have you seen the movie...do you have any thoughts?  We are looking for more movie reviews, so please email me if you'd like to write a review!

Happy Hauntings!

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Crocodile 2: Death Swamp

Spooky Greetings everyone!

It's time for another movie review!  This time I have dug deep into the vaults of Halloween Night and found an original movie review written by my co-owner, Chas, from 2006!!  This review is posted on our Yahoo group page.  I decided to dig up some of our old reviews so we would have them archived here on the blog as well!  Here is Chas with this week's review:

Crocodile 2: Death Swamp (2002)

Rated ‘R’ For violence/gore and pervasive language

PLOT DESCRIPTION: A band of black-garbed bank robbers packs up the loot from their latest bloody heist and heads for Mexico aboard a commercial airliner with passengers on holiday. When bad weather compels the pilot to turn the plane around, the bandits highjack it, taking it straight into a tremendous storm which causes the plane to crash into fiery pieces in a swamp. The survivors include only a few passengers, most of the bad guys, and a pretty flight attendant (Heidi Noelle Lenhardt), whose fiancé in Acapulco hires a renegade professional tracker (Martin Kove) to help him find the downed plane when the authorities prove useless. The rescuers had better hurry: The swamp is the home of a prehistoric-sized crocodile, and she's 1) angry, and, 2) hungry.

My Review

The plot of this movie sounded interesting. Seeing a prehistoric-sized crocodile going on a feeding frenzy sounded like a good movie to me. Granted movies like this are not top quality, but some do remind me of those ‘B’ movies of the fifties. I sat down and watched 95 minutes of a disastrous movie. There was very little story plot. They compensated this ghastly movie by over using pervasive language. I am not a prude, but hearing the ‘F’ word throughout the movie is way too much. The acting was terrible. Did these actors actually go to acting school? The crocodile was good, but I have seen much better effects in movies made many years ago. Not one scene of this movie did I enjoy. In my opinion the two writers (Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch ) should find different careers than to torture us with such horrible movies. Gary Jones (who directed this lemon) should have been fed to the crocodile. STAY AWAY FROM THIS TURKEY!!! Out of the possible five skull rating, I am giving this terrible movie one skull. Believe me, I am being very generous. 

Wow, thanks Chas!  I can honestly say I think that's the first one skull rated review I've posted, and the only one so far!  This movie sounds terrible, thanks for warning us!!  Have any of you seen the movie?  What were your thoughts?  Remember, if you have a movie you'd like to review for our blog, please email me!  We would love to have more reviews!

Happy Hauntings!

Book Review: The Little Big Book of Chills and Thrills

Greetings guys and ghouls!

I have another book to add to our Halloween Night Book Club!  Hope you enjoy my review!

The Little Big Book of Chills and Thrills

by: Natasha Tabori Fried and Lena Tabori

I purchased this book a few years ago after finding it in a search online.  I knew I had to get it and I have been so pleased with it!  This book is packed with Halloween fun from silly to the serious.  There are several stories featured including: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Hobbit, The Judge's House, and several poems from poets such as Edgar Allan Poe!  The book also includes instructions on how to perform spells and magic tricks.  There are several accounts of curses and haunted places as well as different superstitions.  There are recipes featured throughout the book that are easy to make and sound quite tasty!

What I love about this book is that all of the content is scattered throughout, so you never know what will be next when you turn the page!  I'm not sure why, but this book reminds me of Halloween of long ago...maybe because of the wonderful use of vintage Halloween images!

This book is great for kids and adults and a must have for those who are really into Halloween.  It would be fun to read from it during a Halloween party!  I can honestly say that it's fun to read the book in the dark during a thunderstorm as well.  ;)

I highly recommend this book.....you definitely won't be disappointed!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  If you would like to review a book to add to our shelf, please feel free to email me!  I would love to read your reviews and add them to the blog!  :)

Happy Hauntings! 

Halloween Goodies!

Hi everyone!

I am so excited to show you some of my new Halloween goodies!  I am lucky enough to have a few friends who understand my passion for Halloween...one of them just moved to Washington.  My husband and I helped load the truck for her family's long journey.  They made it safe and sound and things are going very well for them!  I'm so happy for her, but I do miss her very much.  Thank goodness for Facebook and Skype!

In the process of packing for her move, Verna came across some items she no longer wanted.  Some of them were dishes, framed art, etc...  Some of them were Halloween items!  Some she had for awhile, some she had recently purchased at garage sales.  I'm really excited to have these as part of my Halloween collection and will be using them in this year's haunt!  I wanted to share the items with you, so following are pictures of the items that Verna gifted to me!

To make them easier to view, I uploaded the smaller items into a collage format!  As you can see I now have a vampire lips car magnet, spooky stick on nails which have really cute skeleton faces on them (will have a better picture of it later in this post), a Sugar Daddy candy dry erase board, cupcake liners and picks, a set of vampire magnets (will post another picture), a "wicked" magnet, and a vampire lips notepad!  The big picture shows all my magnets on the fridge including my mini Emmy Bunter doll magnet!

Here is a picture of the stick on nails:

And a picture of the vampire magnet set:

Check out the cute crocheted ghosts she found!

I will have more pictures to show you later!  How about you?  Do you have any cool Halloween items you'd like for me to display here on the blog?  Email me, I would love to see your items and so would our readers!  :)

Happy Hauntings!

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: The Thing

Hello everyone!  It's been very busy here at Halloween Night headquarters!  I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to post in awhile.  My husband recently purchased The Thing for $5 at Walmart and we watched it last weekend...here is my review!

The Thing (1982)

My husband was really looking forward to seeing this movie again.  He said he hadn't seen it in years whereas I'd never seen it!  I was a bit skeptical, thinking it would turn out to be some kind of cheesy, freaky movie.  I was pleasantly surprised!  

The movie takes place in Antarctica where a team of American scientists are busy researching the region.  They come into contact with a dog (I think it's a stray, or maybe it's supposed to be a wolf, I'm not sure!) and that's when all hell breaks loose!

"The Thing" is a shape-shifting alien who starts taking over the American scientists.  Scared out of their wits, they start turning on each other, not knowing who is the alien or who might become the alien next.

I really enjoyed this movie, there was a lot of suspense and some killer special effects.  Those of you who enjoyed the Alien movie series would definitely enjoy this movie as well!

I give this movie 4 skulls! 

There you have it!  Any thoughts on the movie?  Have you seen the remake and want to write a review?  Drop me a line!!  Also, I plan on going through our Yahoo Group and finding the movie reviews that were written there and transferring them to the blog.  One last note, I want our readers to know that you are more than welcome to write a review for a movie that has already been reviewed here.  Basically what we'll do if this happens is include the link to the previous review in your review post!  The more reviews the merrier! 

As an added note, we here at Halloween Night are huge fans of the Christopher Nolan Batman movie franchise.  We were deeply saddened when we heard the news about the shootings in Aurora, CO during their midnight premiere of the new Batman movie.  The victims and families are in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Men in Black 3

Hello everyone!!

My husband and I are back from our trip and I have lots of Halloween inspiration to share with all of you!  That will be saved for another post because tonight we have a Fright Night Friday movie review!  My awesome friend, TJ, wrote the review for tonight..hope you all enjoy it!

Men in Black III (2012)

Considering it was the first movie I had ever seen in a Drive-in movie theatre, I was in for one hell of an experience watching Men in Black III, starring Will Smith as Agent J, Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, Josh Brolin as a young Agent K and Emma Thompson as Agent O.

The movie continues the themes of the previous films, but it also makes for the disasters of the second film. Granted, the second film is okay, but I don't really like how fast it moves and it really didn't do the first film any justice.

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones portrayal of their characters, one which first began 15 years ago, is definitely like their previous roles, but they take them to another level, I think. Agent J makes fun of Agent K's lack of emotions (which, by the way, they had a hilarious picture of this scene on Facebook, but the 'mad smile' meant for Agent K is meant for Kristen Stewart) quite a bit more than in the past. This is taken a step further after J travels back through time and meets up with Agent K.

I have to say, Josh Brolin does a tremendous job playing the younger version of Agent K. It almost seems as though Tommy Lee Jones did a voice-over for him, since his voice sounded identical to Tommy Lee Jones's. He also has the same sarcastic, and slightly emotionless personality of Agent K known by fans of the series. In my personal opinion, Brolin definitely deserves some sort of recognition for his role as young K.

Emma Thompson as Agent O is the typical Emma Thompson-type role. She is a slightly awkward agent working for MIB, who possibly has more than friendly feelings toward K (though we are never shown if this plays out). Since I love Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney in the Harry Potter films, I enjoyed her character in this film; she even reminded me a little bit of Trelawney (the first words out of my mouth when I saw Thompson on screen was 'Look, it's Professor Trelawney!)

All in all, I was very impressed with this film. I'm glad the filmmakers didn't rush this film's plot, and they really did a good job with this, especially with the casting of Josh Brolin (can you tell I liked his performance? Haha!) I liked going back in time with Agent J to rescue Young Agent K from some sort of catastrophe (sorry, I won't give anything away!). And I was moved when, near the end of the film, we learn how Agent K came to find J before recruiting him for the MIB (again, no spoilers!) This was a great first movie to see in the Drive-In, and I highly recommend it for any sci-fi fans and fans of the film series!

I give this movie 4 skulls.

Thanks for the great review, TJ!  I definitely want to see this one...I'm a huge fan of the first movie!  I'm also glad that you finally got to see a movie at the Drive-In!!  It's so much fun!!  

As always thanks for reading and if you have a movie you'd like to review, please email your review to me!  I will feature it on a Friday night!  

Happy Hauntings!

Be Back Soon!

Haunted Greetings everyone!

Just a note to let you know that we will be taking a break here at the blog, group, and Facebook page.  My husband and I are going on vacation for two weeks!  We leave on Thursday and get back the middle of June.  We are going back to England, but this time for a much happier occasion...a wedding and the rest of the time is our vacation!!  We will be going to London for a couple of days and see the things we missed the last time we were there in '08 (when we got engaged).  I can't wait to tour the Tower of London...maybe even go on one of the ghost tours!  ;)

I will still be accepting movie and book reviews, I'll have access to my email, just won't be posting anything until we get back home!

We hope everyone has a great week--stay spooky!

Happy Hauntings!

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Dark Shadows

Hello everyone!

We have another movie review for you!  This one is courtesy of my friend Melissa, over at Gothic Charms!  She reviewed the new Dark Shadows movie that's in theaters at the moment, be sure you don't miss it!

 Dark Shadows (2012)

First off, it's not as slap-stick funny as some of the trailers make it look like - thankfully! It does have several laugh out loud parts though! :)

I saw many pictures of the movie before it was released that made me wonder if I was going to like it, it looked REALLY "out there" - even for J. Depp and T. Burton! However, I like how they pulled it together - blending the 70's era with the dark comedy.

Lacking is the stereo-typical Dark Shadows entrance music - sorry folks! Instead it opens playing Moody Blues - AWESOME! If you love 70's music then you will really enjoy yourself - including a cameo from Alice Cooper singing several songs! I left the theater singing "No More Mr. Nice Guy".

There were a few changes that I think worked well, like the combination of the characters Victoria Winters and Maggie Evans - and combined in such a way that you really didn't expect it. The "sex" scene with Johnny Depp and Eva Green - HILARIOUS! What happens between Barnabus and the Doctor is simply scandalous (but funny!)

I don't want to give too much away, but you have to go see this film if you love dark humor, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Michelle Pfeiffer or Helena Bonham Carter. However, one has to wonder why Tim Burton is constantly killing off his wife in his movies...

I give this movie 5 skulls.

Thanks for the great review, Melissa!  This makes me all the more anxious to see it!!  I'm glad you enjoyed the movie, and I hope the rest of you do as well!  Remember, if you have a movie review you'd like to share, please email me!  Movie reviews are posted on Friday nights!  

Have a great weekend!