I don’t usually find horror films that scary. When I see a zombie movie, however, I am usually left a bit jittery. My longtime fear has always been zombies. I don’t know, it could just be the terrifying fact that there would be no place to run to in the case of a zombie outbreak. Anyhow, I’m getting off topic.

I went out to go see Paranormal activity after much prodding from my friends, and I have to say I was incredibly impressed. We follow a couple, Katie and Micah, as they record their haunted encounters in their California house over the last few weeks of September until the first few weeks of October.

The setup claims that the footage you’re watching was recovered by the local Police. The majority of the footage is the day to day life of the couple as they try to catch footage to prove that Katie is being plagued by demons.

A bump in the night and strange occurrences give way to much more disturbing happenings. You watch the timer in the lower right corner, gripped with anticipation for what will happen next. Yet even when you think you’ve got the pacing down, you find yourself startled by something new.

Part of my love of this movie is perhaps the unbelievable machismo of Micah, as he seems to taunt the spirit. Even as the evidence becomes more and more real and disturbing, he seems to goad on this spirit. After all, every horror movie needs the misguided and bullheaded antagonist to keep things on their awful course.

The ending of the movie was re-vamped when it was picked up by Paramount. Though I don’t know what the original ending was, I have to say that the printed version was worth the wait. Paranormal Activity is a true horror movie that will have you on the edge of your seat, and you can add my thumbs-up to the chorus of positive praise.

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As I was walking around my neighborhood in Queens yesterday, I came across a pretty cool front yard display. Well Considering that most New Yorkers don’t have front yards, this was a pretty great attempt! I think it’s pretty amazing that anyone has the stones to put some sort of lawn display in NYC. I mean, think about it: there are so many little punk hooligans. It’s a miracle that this display has stayed intact so far after Halloween has passed. I wonder how long it will last though; will it be like one of those families that leaves their Christmas decorations out all year long? Oh and check it out: this is the first implementation of the Stemrot.net logo! Boo-yah.

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While I was on my post-Halloween cleanup, I found a sketch that I then turned into an illustration last night. Yes I do have pumpkins on the brain.

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Admittedly, I thought I was into autumn… Timothy McSweeney Has an amazing post about fall. Apparently I got called out.

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Grimbro is a digital artist I came across while shuffling through drawn.ca. He started doing “13 Nights of Halloween” where he forces himself to churn out 13 digital paintings based on a Halloween theme. This year: vintage horror characters. Check more of them out here.

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Move over, fight club. A new movement is underway: the naked pumpkin run. Apparently what started out as a small group of streakers wearing pumpkins on their heads in Boulder, CO, has now spawned the beginning of a nation-wide community with runs taking place in Seattle WA, Portland OR, Arcata CA, and Sebastopol CA, and Phoenix, AZ. Man, nudists are weeeeeeird.

P.S. you have to read their (verbose) history.

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I just came across the work of Pumpkinrot, an artist who is seriously into Halloween. His work is mostly setting up installations of macabre scarecrows, masks, and various Halloween sculptures. Aside from being impeccably photographed, the textures and compositions of these pieces are incredibly haunting. Wow.

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Looks like someone found a good use for Via, Starbucks’ new instant coffee packet. Now I think that instant coffee is pretty vile by nature, so I haven’t felt too compelled to try Via despite their big media launch and the fact that there’s one right next door to my office. I can’t really say I have a right to trash talk it, but if the quality of Starbucks is any indicator, I think I’ll pass. Despite it’s dubious quality as a beverage, I’m sure it works fine for baking purposes. I’ll keep you posted on the results (i.e. I feed it to my co-workers and no one dies). Feel free to post your own findings!

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Boston.com did a great post with photos from around the world following Halloween, Samhain, and Dia de los Muertos. You can find the article here.

From October 31st through November 2nd, a number of festivals, holidays and solemnities take place, all loosely related and revolving around remembrance of the dead. Halloween, Samhain, All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, the Day of the Dead and other festivals trace their origins back to Celtic, Aztec, Roman and Christian traditions. Halloween is largely a secular observation these days, All Souls and All Saints remain mainly Catholic observations, and the Day of the Dead is still largely a Latin American tradition, its roots in Mexico’s Aztec heritage. Collected here are photographs over the past week from the varied observations of the Days of the Dead around the world.

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Now on to the fun stuff… Undoubtedly, the greatest part of this weekend was finding an abandoned cemetery on the edge of the property of Captain Grant’s. Supposedly, the graves go back to the 17th century but the earliest we found were in the early 1700s. There were many family names there, so I don’t think it was simply a family cemetery. According to the owners of Captain Grant’s, their intention is to try to involve some of the descendants of those buried there in renovating the graveyard.

After a haunted house in Norwich we were soon en route to the Coloniel Inn at Concord, MA, another haunted inn. Unfortunately we did not get the room we wanted and instead got our own cottage off-site. Seeing as it was just a crashpad to land at after Salem Halloween, we reluctantly accepted.

Jam packed with crazies, each street in Salem was just as crowded as 6th Avenue for the Village Halloween Parade. Sadly, there were no naked people with body paint nor floats. Much like New York on All Hallow’s Eve, the streets were swollen with out-of-towners. Due to commuting, I imagine, most people kept their costumes simple.

I would absolutely do it again, though I’m thinking I’ll see how Sleepy Hollow does Halloween next year. My suggestion for Halloween in Salem though is to get there early, or to just go a week before the actual festivities. They pretty much have all the same events running all month (and in some cases, all year). It’s fun to be in the middle of the crowds and party in such a historically spooky town, however these same crowds make it pretty hard to step into a bar and get crunk. That’s “street” for crazy drunk…

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