Happy October! It’s been a busy summer. I admit that keeping up with a blog this year has been challenging. On one hand I love it, I love sharing Halloween haiku and other spooky stuff, but truth is I simply don’t have the time to blog like I used to.
I did make time to visit Disneyland recently for some Fall fun.
I also know times are tough and depressing. It’s not going to get better anytime soon, we need Halloween! We need to celebrate our culture and traditions more than ever and we need to make new memories! Good memories! You never know when that may be the only thing you have. So after careful consideration, I will again be celebrating all 31 days of Halloween this year.
There will be two themes this month, Haunted Halloween and Halloween Happy. Americans are a haunted people, but we all deserve life. Halloween is for everyone. Full stop. The holiday combines both ancient pagan and religious ceremonies. The original purpose was to chase away the demons and bad ghosts that crossed over the spirit realm because of the thin veil between the living and the spirit world.
Don’t let anyone tell you how to do Halloween. Decorate or not. Wear a costume or not. We can be scary and sweet. We can be spooky and cute. Let the teenagers trick or treat. Kids collecting candy are too occupied to do anything else. I truly believe Halloween makes people happy. It’s about community. We need our communities more than ever. It’s the only thing that can save America now.
Be sure to check back every day this October for cool, fun, and inspirational Halloween, horror, and haiku.
HALLOWEEN SCHEDULE 2025
Monday Macabre
Every Monday, I’ll be posting a brand new Halloween Haiku, honoring the theme of Haunted Halloween.
Trick or Treat Tuesdays
Check in on Tuesdays for some online fun. I’ve got treats and I’ve got tricks.
Wicked Art Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, I’ll showcase the amazing and unique talents of Halloween artists from around the globe.
Timeless Thursdays
Every Thursday, let’s travel back in time and revisit some of the greatest Halloween music ever made on the corporeal plane.
Friday Fright Nightcaps
Bubble bubble, drink away trouble, it’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps!
Sinister Saturdays
Decadent desserts from the darkside. I’m not much of a cook, so this could get truly evil.
Spooky Sundays
Spooky Sundays are for reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms.
October is mere hours away and to celebrate this month’s theme of pumpkin apocalypse and welcome back the Halloween season with some of the spookiest pumpkin scenes in horror.
Stsrting with my personal fave from Disney’s Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad, 1949. The Headless Horseman wore a fiery pumpkin head on top his shoulders and terrified the poor ‘ole school master Icabod Crane by chasing him down and throwing his own head at him. It’s one of the most iconic scenes in animation and pretty darn scary for Disney.
Disney’s Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad, 1949
Who can forget the 1952 Disney classic Trick or Treat, when Witch Hazel casts a spell on Donald Duck’s pumpkin causing it to dance around and sing. Head on over to Disney Plus to view the whole classic animation in its entirety.
Horror films are meant to scare us, whereas spooky family films are meant to delight us. It’s all about the intention, right? Which is why horror fans everywhere took a doubletake at Eli Roth’s scary kids film, The House With a Clock in the Walls.
The horror maestro traded in his trademark blood and gore for a whimsical Halloween tale with an incredible production design featuring a magical haunted house filled with secrets and crazed jack-o-lanterns who spew their pumpkin guts on you.
Enough with the kid films, we want killer pumpkins!
Carved 2024
If you didnt see the logo plastered all over the posters, no one would have ever guessed this stoner horror-comedy was a Hulu production. It wasn’t the greatest movie, but the scene where the pumpkin creature exacting revenge by slaughtering most of the participants of a pumpkin carving contest is alone worth a watch.
Tales of Halloween, 2015
Starring several horror icons, this spooky anthology features ten terrorific tales set on Halloween night, directed by a who’s who in horror. I adore this film, it has Adrienne Barbeau as segment DJ, killer ghosts, naughty trick or treaters, aliens vs axe murderers, demons, witches, but no creature is scarier than the killer pumpkin from hell in Neil Marshall’s horror short Bad Seed.
Trick ‘r Treat, 2007
Michael Dougherty’s directorial debut is four Halloween stories connected by a mysterious trick or treat demon named Lil’ Sam. Candy is good enough keep Sam at bay, just as long as you don’t break any of the rules of Halloween. In one of the movie’s scariest scenes, we learn there are consequences to making Lil’ Sam angry. You will never blow out a pumpkin before midnight again after watching this movie.
Trick ‘r Treat never received a decent theatrical release, but instead of falling into obscurity, it became an instant cult horror classic. This October, the movie will get a re-release for two nights only.
It’s one of my favorite horror films of all time and instantly invokes the true spirit of Halloween. A must watch for any Halloween and horror fan.
Happy September! I’m so excited the ‘Ber months are back! This is my favorite time of year. It’s also the time of year that seems to go by super fast, making it hard to enjoy the holidays. The way things are going in America, I think this year will be important to celebrate Halloween, lean into traditions we love and make new memories. This is the way only way to keep our hearts and spirits free.
This month’s full moon is corn moon, named after the harvest time in North America. It’s also a blood moon, a total lunar eclipse. It’s a special night for charging crystals and casting spells to keep evil away. Hopefully, it work on earthbound evil as well.
It’s not that I think the world will end anytime soon, but we’re getting to the point where choices for survival may need to be made sooner than we ever thought possible. In some ways, it feels like the 80s all over again, with the same damn players! Except this time, we have treasoners in the mix! So, this Halloween season, grab a GenX’er and party like it’s 1999. I’m not going to say it’s our last Halloween, cuz unlike my younger self, I still have hope.
Be safe out there.
when all the bombs drop pumpkin apocalypse nature’s last scare
August is for aliens. Ha! When I went to write up my list for favorite alien movies, I noticed I forgot to post my favorite Werewolf Movies list last month. Obviously, my brain was abducted by aliens back in July.
That’s okay though, cuz now you’ve got one post with two lists of great spooky movies to watch this Halloween Season. There’s no breakdown, just lists. Go watch ’em!
There doesn’t appear to a definitive origin story for the werewolf. Early movies were just based on a collection of myths and legends from around the world. Like vampires, this lead to a variety of possibilities of appearance, characteristics, and nature of the beast. Early movies like Universal’s Wolfman, starring Lon Chaney, wowed audiences using brilliant make-up techniques and stunning special effects of their time to achieve the werewolf transformation. It was simple, but sorta magical. By 1981, technical advances in both film making and special effects allowed John Landis to direct one of the most realistic transformations of man into monster that moviegoers ever witnessed. To date, it’s been hard to top. My list though, isn’t necessarily a ‘best of’ list, just my faves.
American Werewolf in London, 1981
The Wolfman, 1941
Ginger Snaps, 2000
Dog Soldiers, 2002
The Howling, 1981
Wolfen, 1981
Silver Bullet, 1985
In the Company of Wolves, 1983
Wolf Cop, 2014
Brotherhood of the Wolf, 1998
By mere definition, aliens on the other hand do not have origin stories. They come from beyond the great unexplored universe. Movie audiences flocked to theaters to see the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers in search of thrilling new sensations. In 1979, Ridley Scott’s Alien, delivered in spades, spawning a 40-year blockbuster franchise, solidifying aliens as a huge part of cinema. SciFi and Horror are like peanut butter and jelly, they just go together. Condensing a list of thousands of movies down to just ten spots is pretty agonizing. For purposes of this list, I chose what I think are the scariest alien movies. Admittedly, some are more action than horror, but having a terrifying villain is half the assignment.
Alien, 1979
The Thing, 1982
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
Event Horizon, 1997
Annihilation 2018
Predator, 1987
Pitch Black, 2000
District 9, 2009
A Quiet Place, 2018
Nope, 2022
I love all these movies so much, I can watch them over and over. It’s really hard to pick a winner. Help me out! Here are two great lists of horror films to watch for Halloween 2025, help me decide who wins this epic battle, werewolves or aliens?
Happy August! This month’s theme is August Aliens, in honor of FX’s new show Alien Earth, the exciting new chapter in the Alien universe, brought to us this time by Noah Hawley, a writer and producer known for Bones, Legion, Fargo and more. I cannot wait!
Like tonight’s Sturgeon Full Moon, change can be good. This time of year marks the end of summer and the coming of Fall harvest. This is Halloween pre-season. It’s time to get our spooky on! So, look to the skies and wonder what’s out there. What scary monsters are peeking at us from behind the stars?
Don’t forget the corporate monsters down here, tearing apart mother earth and unending years of deep rooted traditions. Resist! Stand by your traditions and be proud of your culture. Be open to all cultures and let’s learn from each and celebrate together.
alien hive minds steel hearts of corporate monsters run, while monsters fight
Happy July! It’s a buck moon tonight. This the time of year when young deer grow their antlers.
This month’s theme is Werewolf Americana. Werewolves have been a source of great thrilling fiction since the turn of the 20th century. Stories of man-eating monsters roaming the countryside were brought over with immigrants from Europe. Often times, these stories were told to ostracize newcomers of other races, religions, and such, and sometimes, the monsters were already here.
One of the scariest things about werewolves is they do not know they are the monsters. The curse takes hold and changes them into beasts they don’t recognize if they looked in the mirror, but make no mistake, these are not innocent beings. These damned men and women have no control of their bloodlust and will kill even small children and ravage our towns and cities. They must be destroyed before they spread their evil disease and they kill us all.
blood and strawberries painted halls of white marble savage werewolves feed
Distributed by Universal Pictures and directed by young and upcoming wunderkind named Steven Speilberg, the oceanic horror-thriller was based off Peter Benchley’s best selling novel of the same title grossed $7.9 million dollars and spent 14 weeks at the top of the box office, making it the very first “summer blockbuster” of Hollywood films. A critical and commercial success, the movie changed the landscape of all art and film and would go on to be the first film to earn $100 million dollars.
Jaws is a masterclass in fear, even John Williams’ brilliant score alone was enough to send shivers up spines and keep people outta the water. It isn’t just about facing the horror of giant man-eating vengeful shark though, it’s a psychological look at the breakdown of smalltown life. It’s the fear of a simple man overwhelmed with the job of trying to protect his community. A weary wife and mother afraid of losing her family. The fear of a elected official losing the faith of his community. The fear of a community losing their economy, their livelihoods, and their lives to something they cannot control. The fear of a young insecure college grad being ridiculed for his intellect and his ideas. And, the fear and trauma of an old fisherman who survived a horror greater than war.
It was years before I truly understood how great the story of Jaws was. I was very young when I first saw it in a drive-in theater in San Diego, CA. It’s my first movie memory, peeking inbetwen the car seats up at giant screen, yards away, as young swimmer was violently yanked under the water. This was back in the day when parents didn’t really shield kids from sex and violence in movies and TV. I watched a lot of old 70s horror movies this way. In fact, this is where my love for horror movies began. Being the first movie I ever saw, Jaws has a very special place in my heart. I try to watch it every year, usually around Fourth of July, when the story is set. I must have seen this film a hundred times at least and it never gets old.
Some may argue Jaws didn’t do any favors for sharks. Yes, it created mass hysteria and worldwide fear of sharks, For all the fear it generated, I think Jaws also sparked interest in sharks. Something that led to the increased study of sharks and all sea life behavior, maybe even put marine biology on the map. This all helped create conservation of sharks and ocean life. It’s been a long hard fought battle to save this planet by learning not to be afraid of what lurks in the ocean. Love it or hate it, Jaws is an unforgettable masterpiece worth celebrating.
Happy June! It’s a strawberry moon. Also known as a honey moon, aptly named due to the harvesting season for strawberries and honey. This is the lowest moon of the year and a rare lunar event.
I have a confession, I mixed up my themes and months this year, but I had a good reason. This June marks the 50th Anniversary of Steven Speilberg’s Jaws, that occasion only comes around once, and I have a special place in my heart for the nautical horror-thriller, being the first film I ever saw in a theater. So, instead werewolves and berries, which has been my June theme for the last few years, we are celebrating a theme of Creatures of the Deep. There are more than just sharks out there in the great wild. Truth is, we don’t even know what’s out there. Beware of what lurks under calm waters.
blood in the water an ocean full of monsters circling their prey
Cemeteries are big part of almost all scary movies, really only a handful are set in a cemetery or at least prominently feature a cemetery. Here are my picks for top films heavy on atmosphere and dripping with terror.
“Sometimes, dead is better”. ~Cemetery Man ~Gravedancers ~Pet Sematary ~Phantasm ~Return of the Living Dead ~The Omen ~Graveyard Disturbance
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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