There’s a lot of misery in the world right now, and a lot of bad people. You have choice. Full stop. YOUR choice holds more power than you think. If it didn’t, so many people wouldn’t be trying to take it away from you. Always remember that.
This is not just to remind my American friends to check if they’re registered to vote this November, it’s a reminder to all that preserving traditions and embracing our communities makes us stronger. It improves our mental health and well-being. So, I want to encourage people to choose to get involved with community as much as possible during the ‘Ber months. This is the perfect time of the year to do so.
This is the time of year when people do the most for each other. We’re all trying to bring joy into our lives and escape pain. Helping others will help youself. It’s as simple as that. It’s a proven time-tested theory. So, you wanna feel better? Get out there and be part of your community. Participate, volunteer, buy local and embrace the holiday spirit. There’s so much to do, see, and experience during the ‘Ber months.
Also, protect your wallet. People are scamming, at the highest levels. READ. Do research. See who you’re supporting and don’t support people and companies who hurt your community. We all gotta stick together and protect ourselves.
The ‘BER months are a magical time. Let’s make the most of it!
Don’t forget to follow Halloweenhorrorhaiku on Pinterest and Blue Sky.
Have a Happy Halloween season, everyone! Be safe out there!🎃
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.
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!
Peter Cushing reprises his role as the brilliant Baron Doctor Victor Frankenstein in this sequel to The Curse of Frankenstein 1957.
Having escaped the guillotine with the help of a hunchback man named Karl, Baron Frankenstein escapes to Germany and assumes the name of Dr. Victor Stein, where he equally caters to the rich and helps the poor with their ailments at a local pauper’s hospital.
It’s been three years since this new Dr. Stein showed up, and the local medical council is miffed with him for refusing to join their stuffy board, so they dispatch three advocates to see what he’s up to. Among them, young scientific admirer Dr. Hans Kleve, who recognizes the Baron immediately and returns later to blackmail Stein, but he doesn’t want money, he wants to partner up!
Turns out, Dr. Stein’s new gig is a bit of ruse, since now he’s able identify patients who are about die or lose a limb, which helps him collect body parts for his experiments much more easily.
Dr. Stein shows Dr. Kleve his newst creation and relays plans to transplant a living brain into a healthy body. In fact, he’s already found a donor, his henchman Karl, who is more than willing to swap his decrepit body for a new one, especially after meeting Dr. Stein’s new assistant Margaret.
At first, the transplant is a success, but when Dr. Kleve tells Karl he’s a medical sensation, Karl panics, knowing that Dr. Stein’s previous experiment, transplanting the brain of an orangutan into a chimpanzee turned the poor creature into a cannibal.
Karl runs away after killing the lab’s vile janitor during a violent fight and hides out in the stables belonging to Margaret’s Aunt.
Unfortunately, Karl’s deformities eventually mysteriously return and Karl does indeed turn cannibal. After killing a few townspeople, Karl then heads to a party to kidnap Margaret but is caught. He screams out Frankenstein’s name and the whole town now knows Victor Stein is really the outlaw Baron Frankenstein!
Although not quite as scary as the first film, Terence Fisher directs another well-plotted out thriller with stellar performances from the cast all around. I ways loved how Fisher allowed Cushing not to portray Frankenstein as a madman but more an overzealous brilliant scientist. I recommend this one for the high production quality, the comedy of 1950s special effects, great performances, and the glorious melodrama like only a Hammer Horror film can provide!
Hammer’s unique story mash up between Burke and Hare cases, legendary serial killer Jack the Ripper, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a mesmorizing gender-bender thriller.
Set in infamous Whitechapel at the height of Jack the Ripper’s murderous spree, Dr. Henry Jekyll (Ralph Bates) hell-bent on his quest for immortality, crosses moral barriers with his experiments.
At first, the young doctor pays a local mortician to acquire body parts of newly-deceased women who end up in the morgue, but when supplies run low, the doctor enlists the grisly services of two lowly gentleman, Burke and Hare, who indiscriminately kill unsuspecting victims and bring their dead bodies to Dr. Jekyll.
But Dr. Jekyll’s serum has unintended consequences, when it transforms his own body into the body of a beautiful woman, who he eventually names Mrs. Hyde (Martine Beswick). He tells his noisy neighbors, including his admirer Susan (Susan Brodrick), that the alluring woman now living with him is his recently widowed sister.
Between The Ripper and Burke and Hare, the city of Whitechapel is gripped by fear. Someone eventually finds out about deadly duo’s murderous deeds and they succomb to the town’s pitchfork. This leaves Dr. Jekyll at a disadvantage, just as he was making progress with his serum.
Sister Hyde quickly realizes her demise is tied to Dr. Jekyll’s research, so she begins stalking the dark alleys of Whitechapel herself for young female victims to murder in the name of science.
Back in 1971, the idea of a man transforming into a woman was really taboo stuff. For some moviegoers, that in of itself was the horror. Despite the obvious misogynistic horror trope of making every other woman who appears on a screen a victim, this film really pioneered LGBTQ and woman empowerment themes.
Martine Beswick really stands out here with her cutthroat and sensual performance as Sister Hyde. She’s one spooky bitch, and probably deserves a little more attention in the pantheon of horror villains. If you’re new to Hammer Horror, definitely give this wickedly smart thriller a watch.
Part spy thriller, part goth horror, all parts 1970s grooviness, complete with sherpa vests, The Satanic Rites of Dracula takes place two years after Dracula, A.D. 1972. An undercover cop for Scotland Yard barely escapes the clutches of an evil mysterious cult in London.
In his dying last breaths, the agent recalls witnessing the horrifying bloody ritual sacrifice of a beautiful young naked woman, seen in secret photo evidence that he smuggled out of the compound.
With their colleague dead, Inspector Murray and Scotland Yard are at a loss for answers, so they call on Professor Van Helsing and his scholarly granddaughter Jessica to help decipher the satanic symbols and identify cult members.
While Inspector Murray, Jessica, and others go to the compound to dig around, Van Helsing reaches out to an old friend he recognized in the photos, with hopes of infiltrating the satanic cult made up of government officials hellbent on destroying the world and bringing back the Prince of Darkness.
Christopher Lee returns for his 7th and final performance as Count Dracula for Hammer Films. Also reprising their roles, Peter Cushing starring as Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing (a descendant of Dr. Abraham Van Helsing) and Michael Coles as Inspector Murray; and a young and absolutely fabulous Joanna Lumely shines brightly as Jessica Van Helsing, the woman Dracula hopes to make his new bride.
A heavily edited version of Satanic Rites of Dracula was redistributed in the U.S. in 1979 as Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride. You will find it streaming under that name on Plex, a free streaming service with an overwhelming ton of ads.
Legendary screen actor Peter Cushing reprises his role as Professor Van Helsing in Brides of Dracula, a sequel to the popular Hammer film, Horror of Dracula.
Count Dracula is dead, but his disciples live on, terrorizing Transylvania, all thanks to a young school mistress Marianne Danielle, played by Yvonne Monlaur, traveling to a small village to teach girls French and etiquette.
After her stagecoach mysteriously rides away leaving her stranded, Marianne meets the Baroness Meinster and agrees to stay the night in her castle.
Marianne sees a strange man in the chamber across from hers. In the middle of the night, she sneaks over and finds that the man is actually the Baroness’ son and her host keeps him locked up.
Ignorant to the dangers, she helps Baron Meinster escape and unknowingly releases a monster.
The undead Baron wrecks havoc on the local village, but thankfully, infamous vampire hunter Van Helsing, who has been called upon by a local priest, is back to save the day!
Released in 1960, Brides of Dracula was directed by Terence Fisher, a frequent collaborator and director of Hammer films. Despite losing the charismatic Christopher Lee as the titular character, Hammer had vision to expand the vampire universe and this was their first film doing so. I’ve read online that the production was plagued with problems, but totally worth it, as this is one of best Hammer films I’ve seen.
Brides of Dracula is now streaming on Prime Video with paid subscription.
**PROGRAM UPDATE 10-07-23: Due to a malfunctioning oven, I will not be able whip up recipes for Sinister Saturdays as promised. So instead, I’ll do something little more in my wheelhouse, scary movie reviews. Every Saturday in October will now be dedicated to reviewing a scary paranormal movie.**
Happy Autumn! Don’t be scared, but October is exactly one week away!
Earlier this year, Halloween Horror Haiku celebrated its 5th anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already. It hasn’t always been easy, especially these days when work consumes most of my life, but I’m still enjoying writing haiku and sharing in the spirit of Halloween. That’s why instead of easing up, I’m forging ahead with a 31-day plan to celebrate Halloween 2023!
Be sure to check in every day in October for cool, fun, and inspirational Halloween artwork, haiku, poems, stories, and PRIZES!!! That’s right, I’m giving away a ton of cool prizes this year, but you must be a follower of Halloween Horror Haiku, either here on WordPress or Instagram (click the links to join me).
HALLOWEEN SCHEDULE 2023
Monday Macabre
Our theme this month is A Haunted Halloween. What’s Halloween without a visit to a haunted house? New haiku will be posted every Monday and will connect to tell an overarching story.
Trick or Treat Tuesdays
Play spooky games and win spooky prizes, every Tuesday this October.
Wicked Art Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, I’ll showcase original Halloween art that most represents our theme of “A Haunted Halloween” from the world’s most talented artists.
Thursday Terror
Every Thursday, let’s travel back and revisit the scariest films to come out of the golden age of Hammer Horror.
Friday Fright Nightcaps
What did the ghost say to the bartender? More boos, please! Grab your cauldron, it’s the return of Friday Fright Nightcaps!
Sinister Saturdays
Join me in my own personal dungeon in hell, y’all might know as the kitchen, as I share some spooook-tacular recipes to die for every Saturday, and post pics and videos of my follies. This could be the scariest day on the schedule, folks (definitely the funniest)!
Spooky Sundays
Spooky Sundays are for reading, relaxing, and recharging our brooms.
Will trick or treating be a Halloween tradition that survives the apocalypse?
Past:
Trick-or-treating can be traced all the way back to the Celtic celebrations of Samhain, on what is now known as October 31st, the night when the dead were believed to come back to the living. Villagers disguised themselves in costumes made of animal skins to drive away evil spirits. Food and drink were left out. Bonfires were lit. Sacrifices made. Basically, the Halloween party life hasn’t changed much, well, maybe we don’t sacrifice as many bodies as we used to, but, we’re still lighting shit on fire and eating and drinking until we pass out. By the middle ages, people dressed in more elaborate costumes went door-to-door asking for treats, even performed for treats. Christianity took hold and their diehard zealots tried their best to push out pagan ceremonies of All Hallows eve, October 31, and All Hallows Day on November 1, with their own for All Saints Day on November 2. Everything only got muddled and combined. Immigrants brought their Halloween traditions, including trick-or-treating, to the USA, but by the 1920s, pranksters almost got Halloween canceled with their viciousness, horrible pranks, and acts of violence, that’s when parents started to organize community-wide events like parades, carnivals, or festivals.
Present:
Whoohoo, trick-or-treating is back, baby! According to Statista.com, Halloween spending is up to $10.6 Billion dollars in 2022, with $3.6 billion dollars being spent on costumes, and deep-pocket pet owners shelling out $710 million dollars to dress up their pooches and kitty-cats. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, they estimate about 42 million trick-or-treaters this year and 128 million dwellings offering treats, and a recent article from US News and World Report says the top three costumes were: the witch, Spiderman, and that funny inflatable dinosaur.
Future:
Mask or no mask, let’s face facts, you need people to trick-or-treat. You need people to pass out candy and you need kids, small people, to collect it. I mean, the USA couldn’t make it through a manageable pandemic without hoarding toilet paper and staying inside to stop the spread of a highly infectious deadly disease, it’s doubtful the majority of the population is going to make it through one of IET‘s 13 hypothesized apocalyptic doomsday scenarios.
The good news is, when the dust clears, I believe there will some form of a society, and probably one in need. Going door-to-door to collect food and handouts could become commonplace again, not mention to leaving “treats” to ward off evil (people) from doing good folks harm and you can be sure, as long as someone remembers October 31st is Devils night, somebody is going to be up to no good. I think trick-or-treating will most definitely survive the apocalypse.
Will haunted attractions be a Halloween tradition that survives the apocalypse?
Past:
The mention of real haunted houses dates back to First Century A.D., when Roman author and politician, Pliny the Elder, wrote a letter about a man haunting his house in Athens, ever since then, people have been telling stories of ghosts and haunted houses. That’s its own topic for another day. This post is about haunted attractions, live entertainment inspired by haunted places and things.
In 1802, Madame Marie Tussaud opened the first wax exhibit, which took the public by storm, depicting gruesome decapitations of public figures such as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Her permanent museum on Baker Street in London featured what she called the Chamber of Horrors, wax figures of notorious murderers and villains. This is thought to be the very first horror attraction. Sadly, Tussaud’s closed in 2016.
Madama Tussaud Chamber of Horrors Guillotine
Over 100 years after Tussaud’s, the first-ever electrified haunted attraction ever recorded was the Orton and Spooner Ghost House, at the Edwardian Fair in 1915, as part of the steam collection, in what would become known as dark rides, moving vehicles, trains, and boats that took passengers through scenes, like a spooky house or the tunnel of love. It didn’t take long before attractions featuring dark rides popped up in carnivals, world fairs, and exhibitions worldwide.
The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland
In 1969, Walt Disney opened The Haunted Mansion featuring groundbreaking technology and audio-animatronic ghosts. This is when commercialized haunted attractions were thought to have become a cultural mainstream. The idea was born in 1951 between Walt Disney and his Imagineers, when early illustrations created by the Legendary Harper Goff, of the proposed park featuring a church, a graveyard, and a “run-down manor perched high on a hill that towered over main street”, but Walt didn’t like the idea of a rundown house in the middle of his brand new park. It’s said that after a visit to the Winchester House in San Jose, CA, with its creepy deadends and stairs leading to nowhere, Walt was inspired to fashion the mansion in a similar way. It originally was going to be a walkthrough too, but Walt and the team decided on making it a dark ride that would carry passengers through their animated “Museum of the Weird” and christened their vehicles “doom buggies.” During the planning years, The Haunted Mansion grew darker and stranger, and took on several iterations, not to mention several years to build. Sadly, Disney died in December of 1966 and never even had the opportunity to experience one of his most popular creations.
Since The Haunted Mansion’s opening in the late 60s, there have been hundreds of commercialized haunted houses or carnival dark rides, too numerous to count. Haunts popped up in abandoned buildings and farmhouses across the USA, People capitalized on both rumored and actual haunted places, offering tours, mazes, hayrides, and festivals in honor of legendary ghosts and American haunts. According to AmericaHaunts.Com, there was even a book written on the subject authored by Jim Gould and Tom Hilligoss, who detailed makeup FX, scene ideas, and marketing strategies. Over 20,000 copies were sold and Gould and Hilligoss became known as the first Haunted House experts. They would go on to create the Haunted House Company, one of the first outfits to sell FX, masks, lighting, costumes, etc.
Present:
After Hollywood’s horror boon during the 1970s and 1980s, horror movies became more mainstream and an entire industry of itself. Bigger theme parks found a way to offset seasonal attendance by offering haunted mazes and attractions. In 1973, Knott’s Berry Farm turned part of its fairgrounds into Knott’s Scary Farm. Today it boasts 160 acres featuring haunted mazes, spooky characters, scary rides, and scare zones. Universal Studios would cash in on the craze during the1990s, using its extensive film history with classic monster films and newer horror franchises as inspiration for haunted mazes and attractions. Soon after, all haunts everywhere featured popular characters from horror books, movies, and television. These days, I’ve heard there are something like over 4000 amateur-made, professional, or commercialized haunts every Halloween.
Future:
No people, no haunted attractions. We’ll all become ghosts. Every place will become haunted. Simple as that.
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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