User blog:NedWolfkin/My Halloween Traditions

Even though it is still a month and a half away, I thought I'd share with you my yearly Halloween traditions. I would also like to hear of yours if you have any.

To me Halloween isn't a signle day, it is an entire week: the six days leading up to Halloween and Halloween itself. Throughout this week I go to bed watching old horror themed cartoons. (Also I should warn you that ahead you are going to read a lot of Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Phantom of the Opera!)

On the first day I play the first three Castlevania games and Castlevania 64 while having a horror movie marathon of classic horror movies playing on a small television. These movie are: Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), King Kong (1933), The Wolf Man (1941), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), White Zombie (1932).

The second day I play my Super 8mm prints of old horror films (some of which are abridged): Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Nosferatu (1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), Der Golem (1920), Cat and the Canary (1927) and The Phantom Carriage (1921).

This year the third day will be a friday, so I will be playing halloween themed episodes of shows from my childhood.

On the fourth day I have a Lon Chaney marathon: The Unknown (1927), The Phantom of the Opera (1929 recut, different from my 8mm print which is of the 1925 cut, though it includes the '29 version's colored Bal Masque sequence), The Penalty (1920), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), and the 2002 stills reconstruction of London After Midnight (1927), The Unholy Three (1930). I also watch Freaks (1932).

On the fifth day I listen to old time radio horror shows and Halloween themed episodes while I work. While having dinner I watch Beetlejuice (1988). Before bed I watch short silent horror films:

On the sixth day I watch Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), and The Phantom of the Opera (1989) while carving a pumpkin. Before I go to bed I watch my favorite movie of all time Return to Oz (1985). I don't consider it a horror movie, but I do watch it the day before Halloween as it marks the anniversary of when I first saw it.

Then finally, on the big day itself HALLOWEEN (which is like Christmas to me) I watch Sleepy Hollow (1999). I plug the small television into a different computer and play a playlist of horror movie trailers while, on my regular computer, I read summaries of classic horror novels (Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Invisible Man, The Shrinking Man, etc.). The movie trailers I watch are:

The Phantom of the Opera (1925), (1943), (1962), (1983), (1989) Dracula (1931), (1958), (1992) Frankenstein (1931), (1957), (1994) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) (1960) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), (1956) Attack of the Killer Refrigerator Texas Chainsaw Massacre Friday the 13th Nightmare on Elm Street Halloween Child's Play Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte Cat Creeps (a remake of Cat and the Canary) Beetlejuice The Gremlins The Goonies Sleepy Hollow (1999)

and of course Return to Oz (1985) - Trailer 1, TV Spots, Spanish Trailer (low quality english recording of Spanish Trailer).

After reading the summaries I log on to this site and read my favorite Creepypastas, skimming through the longer ones to save time. After the trailers are done I watch Hocus Pocus (1993) followed by It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

After dinner I play Slender: the Eight Pages while Who's Line plays on the small television (not a show I like but rather have playing for traditional reasons: on the first Halloween I was on this site it came on TV). Near the end of the night I listen to Creepypasta readings while watching Creepypasta fan videos.

And that my friends is how I celebrate Halloween. I hope I haven't missed anything, but if I did I will just add it later.