SON OF THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN! DAY 31: HALLOWEEN NIGHT VIEWING!

Happy Halloween! It was a wet and low-key night for us here in South Louisiana, but we still managed to get out and get some candy (well, the kids did, at least!) and now it's time for Halloween 2013 to join the history books.

Almost.

If you're like me, you enjoy staying up on Halloween night and watching at least one horror film before bed. Instead of spending time trying to convince you of my favorite horror flicks, I thought I'd share five trailers of five films I feel are perfect for Halloween night viewing. I leave it up to you watch one, or all, or none.

Thanks for reading SON OF THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN! Perhaps next year, another monstrous relative will rise to take on the task of a thirty-one day Halloween celebration...only time will tell!

5. The Conjuring

4. Scream



3. Psycho


2. Night of the Living Dead



1. Halloween

THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN! DAY 30: MY FIRST (AND LAST!) GHOST PHOTOGRAPH!

Roughly ten years ago, I was driving through Lafayette as part of my work as a merchandiser. It was Halloween day, and I was hoping to finish work early so I could spend the rest of the day watching horror movies at home. While scanning through the local radio stations, I happened upon Bobby Novosadt talking to another DJ about the Protestant Cemetery in Lafayette. I was familiar was the cemetery since I passed it almost every day. Bobby was talking about a tree that "collected" the souls of the dead in the cemetery, and that a person could see the faces of these souls in the tree. I thought this sounded pretty dumb yet creepy enough to investigate.

I drove to the cemetery that day, found the tree, and discovered that the "faces" were nothing more than knots in the tree. It was a spooky tree to be sure, but there were no "faces" in the tree. The cemetery itself was, however, extremely eerie, so I made sure not to stick around for long.

I've thought of that visit for years and this morning, finding the sky just gray and overcast enough for some cemetery visiting, decided to return. I photographed the "tree of souls" for tonight's entry, but didn't expect to find something else in the photos, something I definitely didn't see when I was taking the pics.

Below are the labeled pics of the tree. I didn't notice anything in the pics after taking them, but after uploading them to my computer and examining them closely, I found something unusual in photograph D. Look and see if you can find it.



 

Here's what I'm talking about in photo D:



For a better look, open photo D in another window or tab and zoom in on your own. I don't believe that image is a part of the tombstone or the sun playing on the trees behind the tombstone. I can't exactly say what it is, but I know it wasn't there when I took the pic. Is it a ghost? Nothing at all? I'm not sure.

All I am sure of is that I won't be revisiting the Protestant cemetery anytime soon.

SON OF THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN! DAY 29: VINCENT PRICE PERFORMS "THE RAVEN!"

In yesterday's entry of SON OF THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN!, I wrote about my affection for the works of Edgar Allan Poe and how they had inspired me in high school as a reader and performer. I performed Poe's The Raven numerous times in prose/poetry competitions, but always felt that I wasn't doing the work justice. Indeed, I'm not sure anyone ever could...except for one person, a man of singular ability and presence with regard to the performance of the macabre and horrific: Vincent Price.

You may or may not know Price as I do, from his many wonderful horror films of days gone by, movies like The House of Wax, The Bat, House On Haunted Hill, The Tingler, The Fly and of course, the various loose adaptations of Poe's works in which Price starred. But you've heard his name and you know his voice, especially from Michael Jackson's Thriller. You may also remember his final performance in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands.

Price lent a weight, credence, and nobility to the roles he played and the films he starred in that elevated the material and made it classic. There are no bad films featuring Vincent Price, and he shines even in short works like his performance of Poe's The Raven from the late 70s. He truly brings the poem to life and leaves you feeling as haunted as the narrator of the poem.

SON OF THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN! DAY 28: THE TELL-TALE HEART... ANIMATED!

One of the main reasons I'm writing SON OF THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN! and why I love the horror genre so much is because of the experiences I had reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe as a child. No other literature during my formative years (outside of comic books) captured my imagination and thrilled me as much as Poe's stories. I was well-known in high school for my readings of Poe's The Raven in speech classes, as well as my performance of that poem and The Tell-Tale Heart in prose/poetry competitions.

Years ago, while watching the special features for the first Hellboy film, I discovered an animated adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart. It brought me back to the feeling I had when I first read the story, as well as Poe's other works. Though mild by our standards today, The Tell-Tale Heart was the first animated film to be given an X rating in the UK and was also nominated for an Academy Award.

Poe and Halloween are made for each other, so enjoy this brief animated adaptation of one of Edgar Allan Poe's most beloved short stories, The Tell-Tale Heart.

SON OF THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN! DAY 27: WHY YOU SHOULDN'T BUY A HAUNTED HOUSE!

It might seem like an obvious "never in a million years," but according to realtor.com, more than half of Americans are willing to purchase a haunted house.

You may not believe in ghosts or spirits, or you may believe some are peaceful, harmless spirits and that the violent, malevolent, and sometimes deadly activity seen in haunted houses is a creation of Hollywood.

I personally believe that sometimes, human spirits spend some time among the living, or perhaps some sort of "echo" of their life remains. I also very much believe that most hauntings, even those people claim are "harmless," are generally the work of malevolent entities, in other words, demonic spirits that wish to inflict fear, pain, and suffering on human beings.

Because of those reasons, I would not even consider purchasing a house that has a history of negative supernatural activity. Thankfully, there are laws in place that require homeowners and realtors to disclose details about such houses, for example, if a person has died within the home in the last three years before the sale.

You might think it would be "neat" to live in a haunted house, but there are numerous cases (some of which have become horror movie fodder, like the recent film The Conjuring) that would quickly convince you otherwise.

Read this article for more information, including an interview with Carmen Reed, whose family experience the supernatural events which became the basis of the film "A Haunting In Connecticut." The case involved the Catholic Church and is generally accepted as valid within the supernatural investigation community.

Here's an infographic from realtor.com that provides a nice breakdown of the current trends with regard to the selling and buying of haunted houses.