Sinister Saturdays are turning out to be a showcase for my failed baking attempts.
And, this Saturday is no different!😄
Overbaked red velvet tombstone cakes
Yes, I used box cake. Middle finger to the haters. But the box cake wasn’t the reason why my Red Velvet Tombstone Cakes were a little well done, it’s just my inability to pull pan out of the oven when the box says!
They looked alright, but were dry as a bone and when I flipped them over, the cakes didn’t retain the pan designs.
I did however manage to bake another cake in my my lovely Wiltern pumpkin pan and it turned out kinda nice.
First thing you need for box cake is box mix and I prefer Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist Red Velvet cake mix. This is the easiest cake mix, only 3 other ingredients are needed to bake the cake, 1 cup of water, half cup of oil, and 3 eggs.
Follow the instructions and you’ll get a nice fluffy red velvet cake.
Next, you add 4-5 drops of orange food coloring into buttercream frosting to get that nice classy orange color. If you want it brighter, I suggest using 2-3 more drops of orange and 1 drop of red. Next, spread frosting all over your cake.
Lastly, you add Halloween style sprinkles and viola, Halloween Cake!
It was a bummer the Red Velvet Tombstone Cakes didn’t turn out, but I was happy with the pumpkin cake pan version.
Happy Sinister Saturday! Today, we attempted to bake pumpkin bread using a Nordic Ware Haunted Manor pan.
Nordic Ware pans are amazing. The Haunted Skull cakelet pan is my favorite.
The Haunted Manor pan will set you back $25-30, depending where you buy it and when.
This might be a purchase to save for after Halloween or a Black Friday sale for a nice discount. Highly encourage everyone to buy Skull pan. It’s super useful for a ton of different recipes.
I started with a box of Libby’s Pumpkin Bread.
As I said before, I’m not into baking. I mean, I’d love it if I wasnt so damn bad at it!😅
I’ve been successfully using Libby’s Pumpkin bread for years. The recipe is super easy, four eggs, a cup of water, half cup of oil and mix well.
So fast, so easy, a child could do this. After baking for an hour, it looked like I might pull it off.
Out of the oven, it started out okay.
30 mins later, reality crushed my weekend dream of making Haunted Manor pumpkin bread. The cake broke into several pieces with the top half not all agreeing to come out of the pan.
But my dreams of great baking are often nightmares.
I eventually gave up and dug it out, resulting in the above picture. It seems a Haunted Manor pan may be too advanced for my baking skills!🤣
While the Haunted Manor cake visual was complete failure, it tasted fantastic! Just like always. That’s why I love this pumpkin bread mix from Libby’s.
I used some leftover batter to make pumpkin muffins instead.
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.
Horror films have captivated audiences since before Universal’s wild heyday of Horror during the 1930s. Each era has had great scary films and some so good, they spawned sequels and created franchises. Jaws, a 1975 horror adventure from a new young director Steven Spielberg gave birth to the summer blockbuster! In fact, thanks to horror, some amazing technical achievements have been discoverd, like new camera and lighting tricks and, make-up, and special fx. Horror films are truly the backbone of Hollywood.
Art by Hao Shun Da
I personally have been a horror film fan for over 40 years and I pride myself on having seen a majority of scary films and always look forward to those I’ve havent found yet. But there’s just one thing I haven’t been able to figure out, and that’s which era had the best horror. Was it Universal’s monster era or the SciFi greatness of the 50s, or how about the great slasher films of the 80s? It’s so hard to choose! Help me out!
Lately, I’ve been rewatching a lot old classic horror movies and the Universal monster movies are still my faves. Fans of the 1930s viewed the supernatural fantasy as an escape from the daily misery, living through the depression. The films may seem tame or not as scary or sophisticated as the films of today, but for some movie goers, the stories were based on popular cultural myths and legends, while others had never heard of these creatures at all. Swamp creatures and the reanimated dead were the super scary, particularly to those who were extremely religious.
I tried to figure out which monster I thought was scariest but I’m on the fence. Help me determine which monster is the scariest.
Recently, I posted my choices as the scariest horror scenes in movies. What you all may know was just how hard making that list was. There were a slew of great horror films to come out of the 70s generation and choosing which had the scariest scene was kinda agonizing. I kept questioning which movies I thought were the best, which had the best story and characters, which seemed most popular with movie goers, and which was my personal favorite.
So, in the spirt of the election year, help me determine which is the best.
Happy October! I can’t believe we’re celebrating our 6th Halloween season! This year, work has been crazy busy and finding the time to keep up with blogging is a huge challenge, but I’m not quitting yet!
Although, I’m going to scale back a bit, I will still be celebrating all 31 days of Halloween. Our theme this month is Halloween Vintage Classic, bringing together two of my favorite things in the whole world, vintage style Halloween decorations and old black and white spooky movies.
Be sure to check back every day this October for cool, fun, and inspirational Halloween, horror, and haiku.
HALLOWEEN SCHEDULE 2024
Monday Macabre
Every Monday, I’ll be posting a brand new Halloween Haiku, honoring the theme of Halloween Vintage Classic.
Trick or Treat Tuesdays
Play spooky games and win spooky prizes! Every Tuesday, head over to Instagram for some fun and a chance to win some cool Halloween stickers and pins.
Wicked Art Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, I’ll showcase original Halloween art that most represents our theme of “Halloween Vintage Classic” from the world’s most talented artists.
Thursday Time Travels
Every Thursday, let’s travel back in time and revisit some great black and white haunted classic movies.
Friday Fright Nightcaps
It’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps and we’re gonna put the boos in booze!
Sinister Saturdays
Saturday nights are alright for fighting. It’s election year in the USA and what better way to get ready for November than by voting for your favorite scary movies!
Spooky Sundays
Spooky Sundays are for reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms.
Due to time constraints, I’ll be running a shorter challenge this year, starting in the last week in October, with me choosing a winner on Halloween night. More details to come, but for now, sharpen those pencils or pull up a blank page; I can’t wait to see those Halloween haiku!
Title: Talk to Me Director: Danny and Michael Philippou Starring: Sophia Wilde, Marcus Johnson, Alexandra Johnson, Joe Bird and Miranda Otto Distributed by: A24 Running Time: 1hr 35min
When a group of Australian friends become addicted to conjuring spirits using the embalmed hand of a satanic medium, they quickly learn the dangers of opening doors to the spirit world.
The movie starts out with a grieving Mia (Sophia Wilde), hot off her mom’s funeral, begging her BFF Jade (Alexandra Johnson) to go to a party, so they can experience some fun and excitement. She’s particularly close with Jade and Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird), even Jade’s mom, played by Miranda Otto (of LOTR and Sabrina fame) who is hip to the kids and their little white lies, but this struggling single mom is also a busy nurse who gets called back to hospital leaving the trio alone to go sneak off to the party.
It’s unclear at this point if Mia has had time to process her mom’s death but she’s obviously a muddled mess of emotions and prime target for what’s about to happen.
Each teen takes their turn, first, they’re strapped to a chair and tied down tight by the biggest member of their group (if that ain’t a red flag I dunno what is), next, they light a candle, grab hold of the embalmed hand and say one of two commands, “talk to me” or “I let you in”. What follows is 90 seconds of madness.
What should be a terrifying event (see every other horror movie ever made about conjuring the dead), these kids instead get a huge thrill out of being possessed. In some ways, the movie likens it to getting high. Spirits take control of the teens’ bodies and say the wildest shit. Some spirits are good, some spirits are bad, some spirits are horny and make out with the dog, and some spirits are recently deceased family members who have committed suicide for unknown reasons.
Mia instantly becomes obsessed with touching the hand, desperate to communicate with her dead mother again. Despite objections from Jade, and the other more hardened members of their friendship circle, Mia’s quest blinds her to the dangers so much that she drags young Riley with her to friend Hayley’s house for another go. This time, giving permission, that she doesn’t actually have, allowing Riley to partake in the fun, but playtime is over.
Mia’s weakened emotional state and the group’s bending of the rules, attract the attention of a demonic spirit and this one’s not letting go of Riley.
In Talk to Me, there is a clear separation between the living and the spirit world, but it matters not because these kids don’t pay attention to rules or respect the dead. This is horror movie version of fuck around and find out.
Mia’s life begins to quickly unravel, until she basically becomes a conduit for evil demons looking for a soul. Mia hallucinates and even allows spirits to possess Jade’s boyfriend, in what becomes just one of a very long line of frustrating scenes as we watch Mia’s choices go from bad to worse until the unthinkable happens.
My initial thoughts were Talk to Me wasn’t as scary as it could have been, but I began to appreciate the film after a second viewing and its contributions towards horror.
First, there’s the amazing and very realistic portrayl of Gen Z. As I stated before, these kids reveled in being possessed, rather than get scared. I dont know if it’s social media, bad parenting, or shitty education system, all of which seem to be a worldwide problem, but this generation is missing some serious critical thinking skills. The desire for instant thrills, gratification, and lack of self preservation to the point they’re messing with the dead is bonkers. Like any good A24 movie, I’m sure there was subtext and hints all over the movie that clued audiences into what was happening, but the performances are so spectacular that we can’t do anything but zero in on what’s happening to Mia, and then Riley.
Riley, oh my gosh, if there’s a victim of the year award in film, hands down it belongs to this character. Your heart will break, your skin will crawl, you’ll feel pain just by looking ar him. It’s horrific, and it’s one of the many reasons I’m highly recommending everyone spend $ to rent on Amazon Prime on Halloween night.
Scariest scenes: Any scene involving the possessed Riley in the hospital and his torture scene.
Title: The Boogeyman Director: Rob Savage Starring: Chris Messina, Sophie Thatcher, Vivien Lyra Blair Distributed by: 20th Century Studios Running Time: 1hr 38m
Based off the 1973 short story by Stephen King, I found this one on Hulu the other night. I hadn’t read the story before, so I thought maybe it would be a paranormal movie, but it kinda turned into a creature feature. For anyone new to the lore, a Boogeyman is predominantly North American mythos of a hellish creature that hides in closets, under the bed, or other dark creepy places and eats children who misbehave, or in this case, are just unlucky.
A recently widowed psychologist Will Harper (always solid Chris Messina) and his two daughters, teen Sadie (Yellowjackets star ingenue Sophie Thatcher) and young Sawyer (very talented Vivien Lyra Blair) are still reeling after the unexpected death of the mother, when the youngest girl suddenly finds stalked by the Boogeyman. It’s a little unclear how the creature came to find young Sawyer, maybe the family’s collective grief invited the Boogeyman into the home.
Or it could have been this sad welp below, who lost his family in the movie’s opening scene.
Lester Billings (played by my new favorite character actor David Dastmalchian) shows up in doc’s office, totally unannounced, without an appointment, and talking about the creature that comes for your kids when you’re not paying attention. Dark stuff and the doc Harper agees, there’s something off about this dude. For some creepy reason, while Harper is in the next room calling 911, Lester decides to check out the families’ closets and quickly finds out the Boogeyman eats adults too. Btw, the Boogeyman is also an extreme multi-tasker because it manages to haunt two families at the same time.
Now about that Boogeyman, filmmakers kept all the traditional tropes to make their monster feel familiar to audiences, hiding in the dark, afraid of light, mimicing voices, fast traveling like ghosts or a spirit, but, then, they also smartly added some new characteristics to unnerve and surprise filmgoers, moving away from a paranormal entity to a more corporeal physical creature.
It was ugly, had tentacle-like appendages walked on ceilings, moved in all directions, making it near impossible to outrun.
Monsters are not all powerful though. In fact, they have a lot of limitations, and Sadie and Sawyer turn out to be two smart cookies, who manage to defeat the Boogeyman, for now at least. People should probably still check under the bed and in the closet.
I found this PG-13 horror thriller to be a short enjoyable romp. The film relies on the creeponess of the dark, jump scares and the anxieties of a grieving family to scare audiences. Much like Lake Mungo, a film I reviewed earlier this month, grief is a powerful negative emotion that really opens you up to supernatural. Since there’s no gore, sex, and only mild use of drugs and bad language, The Boogeyman is probably good for families looking to introduce older kids into horror.
Scariest scenes: When young Sawyer rolls her lamp ball under the bed to reveal the Boogeyman for the first time and another jump scare moment when the Boogeyman suddenly appears and grabs Sadie.
Title: Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Director: Jung Bum-shik Starring: Wi Ha-joon, Park Sung-hoon, Ji-Hyun Park Distributed by: Showbox Running Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
I found this South Korean ghost flick while strolling through Tubi the the other day. Korean horror cinema is known for its bleak and tragic outcomes and this one was right on point.
Inspired by a real CNN travel story that named Gonjiam one of seven freakiest places on Earth, Director Jung Bum-shik crafts a story of a web series film crew live streaming their visit to the abandoned South Korean asylum, in hopes to make big money, only to find it plagued with demonic forces.
The movie starts with a motley group answering an ad posted by Youtube owner Ha-joon for “Horror Times” to shoot a live-streamed event held at the long abandoned and haunted Gonjiam, the site where dozens of curious trespassers and self-proclaimed ghost hunters have disappeared from. Room 402 in particular is so haunted, no one can even open the door. The controversial mental hospital had closed after the death of its pioneer director, who mysteriously killed herself. Rumor was, the asylum was actually a place designed to torture and kill political prisoners.
Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from decades of watching paranormal films, is that ghosts don’t like liars and fakers, but what they hate most of all is being disrespected and underappreciated. Basically, all ghosts act like teenage girls.
Despite the natural setting of an abandoned hospital, the film crew’s captain, played by Wi Ha-joon from Squid Game fame, decides to trick audiences by setting up fake shots of “haunted activity”. Ugh! Ha-joon sets up camp a half mile down the road to control the broadcasts, all while directing his crew to film and go where he wants.
Well, dude, the spirits see your creepy doll and motion detector lights, and raise you wheelchairs that move on their own, ghastly ping pong balls, and changing wall messages from “let’s live” to “let’s die”.
As the exploring crew go deeper and deeper into the hospital, their experiences with the former residents increase enough to spook them out and they all try to flee. It doesnt take long for them to find out though, once you’re admitted to Gonjiam, there’s no escape.
Gonjiam is a mix of standard horror fare and hand-held camera footage, which provides the most scares. The formulaic film relies heavily on the dark atmosphere and jump scares, but honestly, there’s not enough of them to make this film stand out. That said, it’s not the worst way to spend the evening.
Scariest scene: Crew member Charlotte finds herself locked in Room 402 with a ghost of a naked man.
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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