It’s almost October, so you know what that means. Halloween is upon us! :-)
I try to make it a ritual to find a couple of different ways to entertain myself throughout October, whether it be going through a book, a video game, or some movies on the day itself. For example, a couple of years ago I played through the entirety of DOOM 3: BFG Edition. I’ve also watched movies on Halloween night such as John Carpenter’s Apocalypse trilogy (The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness), Psycho, and Bram’s Stoker’s Dracula. This year, I’m thinking of doing both, plus adding a book or two to the mix.
I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve picked up a new copy of the original Dracula novel. I may go ahead and do a re-read of it. In addition, I have a copy of Stephen King’s novel The Shining that I picked up while visiting the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado (the inspiration for the hotel in the novel). Admittedly, I never got around to reading it, so this month would be a good time to rectify that oversight. :-)
On the gaming front, there has been an indie horror game that I’ve tried that might be fun to try and beat: Five Night’s at Freddy’s. You play as a security guard in a Chuck E. Cheese pastiche called Freddy Fazbear’s, where you have to stay alive despite the animatronics coming to (accidentally?) kill you, and the limited power to operate the security cameras, lights, and doors. A typical game session provides plenty of paranoia and jump scares, as you frantically try to locate the animatronics in the restaurant and risk having them screeching at you unexpectedly. While I picked up the iOS version for my iPad, I’ve come to find I need to get the PC version. I’m not proud of this, but I was playing the game while in bed and tossed the tablet away when one of the animatronics caught me unexpectedly and screamed right in my face. With the iPad not in a protective case, I was lucky it landed on the mattress.
As for Halloween night itself, I’m thinking I’d like to do a relatively innocuous double feature. As I’ve decided not to go to the Alley Theatre production of Dracula, I figured I would watch the original Dracula film starring Bela Lugosi, as it was based on the same stage play. The second film would be The Crow; it’s not horror, but it does take place on Devil’s Night. It also helps that it’s one of my favorite comic book movies. :-)
All in all, I think I’m pretty much ready for this upcoming October. I’ve got good books, a good game, and good movies. I just hope I get to be able to get through them all. :-)