Haunted House 101

How to Scare Your Neighbors with Creepy, Do-It-Yourself Halloween Decorations

I took Stewie out of storage on the first of October. The eight-foot-tall scarecrow with a massive, mutated pumpkin head (he may have grown in the abandoned gardens near Chernobyl) is always the first prop I put up in my Hallowe’en yard display.

I debated for a minute whether “Uncle Albert,” a “groundbreaker” zombie that jerks out after visitors step on a pressure-triggered mat, should make an appearance this year. But who was I kidding? He gets the most screams, so of course, he was joining this year’s graveyard scene!

I’m an …

by Shelley Spranza | October 28, 2014

My Job Is to Scare the Crap Out of You

At Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, Dead Bodies and Killer Clowns Are My Artistic Medium

by Patrick Quinn | October 22, 2014

I always knew that writing and visual arts would be unpredictable career paths. But I’ve discovered that there is one thing that I can always count on: dead bodies.

As the …

Haunted Houses

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | November 1, 2013

All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the …

Here’s Your Snickers. Just Don’t Kill Me.

Halloween Has Gotten Milder Over the Years. But—Take It From a Vampirologist—It’s Still About Rule-Breaking and Bargaining.

by Bruce McClelland | October 31, 2013

I am a vampirologist. I have a blood-red business card to prove it. And a doctoral dissertation in Slavic folklore. Because of that, people tend to give me things they …

Even Halloween Has Become Aspirational

Why Get To Know the Neighbors When the Trick-or-Treat Experience Is So Much Classier In Another Part of Town?

by Joe Mathews | October 31, 2013

Last Halloween, I felt like the victim in a horror film. I was the guy ignoring the wise warning of my older next-door neighbor.

You’ll need at least 15 bags to …

No One’s Going To Murder Your Cat Today

Halloween May Feel Sinister, But That’s Mostly Because of Untrue Stories

by Lisa Morton | October 31, 2012

Depending on whether you tune in for The Walking Dead or prefer the antics of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, you’ll find Halloween’s imagery either devilish or delightful. For all …

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