Respecting A True Classic//October 242nd, 2020

I have a confession to make, boils and ghouls.

Somehow, and I truly have no real explanation for this, up until last night, I had never gotten around to watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I know. How can I even call myself a horror fan, right? I truly don’t know how it escaped me for so long. I suppose I have to be in the right kind of mood for those slasher type films, and when the mood strikes, I tend to veer more toward the slashers I’ve had more exposure to throughout my life, such as Michael Myers (obviously!), Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees. Leatherface was just someone I never got to know that well over the course of time.

But honestly, after finally viewing the movie that made him a horror icon, I truly wish I hadn’t waited so long.

As much as I enjoy horror movies, I always find it very hard to call one “perfect”, at least by technical standards. No piece of media is without its flaws, and the horror genre, no matter how good the story is, usually tends to play to so many tropes and cliches that you catch yourself muttering “Here we go again...” at least once no matter how much you’re enjoying it.

But such is not the case with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

This is truly the granddaddy of horror/slasher films. Many of the horror tropes we’ve come to know over the years were clearly born in this movie. The strange hitchhiker, the forewarning gas station attendant, kids entering a seemingly abandoned house despite things like bone wind chimes and chainsaw noises...There is just simply no doubt, even after seeing hundreds of horror movies before this, that this movie did it first and did it best.

There is also so much charm to be found in the simplicity of this movie. First of all, is there anything more unsettling than that dark, gritty feeling of a 1970s horror film? Absolutely nothing glamorous is to be found here. It’s all very simple and overall just very real. Honestly, when Leatherface makes his first onscreen kill (RIP Kirk), I was expecting something a bit more bloated and drawn-out, but was pleasantly surprised to see him just get right to the point. And the chase scenes, which I can’t deny tend to get tiresome for me in most slasher films after awhile, were just so realistically done in this, in a way I don’t think I’ve seen before in anything else. Leatherface doesn’t have any freaky way of always moving faster than he should, nor do his intended victims have the annoying habit of stumbling over everything in sight to slow them down. It’s all just incredibly realistic, and that makes it all the more unnerving. There is nothing added here to spice things up, and there doesn’t need to be. This is truly just an honest account of a killer and his victims. No magic, no polish, just a man and his chainsaw.

As much as I love, and usually tend to prefer, characters with a supernatural element to them, at their core, characters like Leatherface are a hundred times scarier because you get the sense that, somewhere out there, people like this could actually exist. It’s not a far stretch that there could be a mentally ill man out there somewhere, with a little bit of butcher knowledge and a chainsaw, just waiting for someone to stumble onto his property in the middle of nowhere. One of my favorite quotes of all time, and my stance on horror in general, really, is this one from Walter Jon Williams:

“I’m not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels. I’m afraid of what real human beings do to other real human beings.”

And while that quote can certainly apply to many things, I think it most certainly applies to Leatherface and his family, the first true icons of the slasher movie genre, and arguably, the most realistic.

Stay spooky, my friends. And expect lots more Leatherface in the future.

I'm Not So Sure About This Social Media Thing//October 94th, 2026

I started this blog six years ago on New Year's Day. I had been through some major life changes in 2018/2019, and really found myself along the way. I felt as though I really had cemented a place for myself within the Halloween community on social media, and often, when I would caption my posts on Instagram with snippets of memories, or a specific feeling that maybe not many others could understand, I would get comments and messages from new friends and followers, complimenting the way I wrote, sometimes even asking for more, and so, the idea to start a blog again was born, and, silly as it may sound, I am very proud that I've managed to stick with it as long as I have. Long work hours, personal problems, bouts of anxiety and depression....none of that has ever fully stopped me from coming back and doing what I love. But, lately, I have been feeling a little off about social media in general, and that's something I really would like to talk about, as I feel it taking a to...

Tales From A Walk: April 5th, 2026; AKA Easterween/Creepster/Zombie Jesus Day, Etc.

Someone asked me once When do you stop mourning the previous Halloween and start looking forward to the next one? That's always been a hard question for me to answer, as I am always looking back or looking ahead, depending on the situation. I often see what was, and what will be again, simultaneously. But today, I went for a walk. Probably my first full walk since Christmas time. That last walk, the remnants were still there. Though it was a different holiday entirely, I still met some rotting pumpkins, and some dead leaves clinging to their brittle branches. Then two back to back winter storms came in February, burying us in two feet of snow both times. I don't know that I've ever felt more like I was in alternate reality, or farther away from Halloween. Today was different, though. When Easter comes, you hear all this talk of spring, and new beginnings, and that sort of thing. And I guess it never really hit me how that can apply to Halloween as well. Wal...

Here’s Where The Story Ends//October 337th, 2020

Everyone has moments in their life when they feel like giving up. That feeling of “This is never going to happen, so why keep trying?” Sometimes it relates to a thing that would be trivial to anyone else, sometimes it’s about something more life-altering. But, we’ve all been there. I have moments of discouragement with this blog. Times I’ve told myself, “No one cares”, or “No one will read this”, etc., but I continue on, for the joy of it. And sometimes, something amazing happens. If you haven’t read my previous post, Have You Seen This Pumpkin? , I would strongly suggest doing so before continuing on with this story. The short version is, I saw a pumpkin in someone’s window when I was twelve years old, and have spent the last twenty-one years trying to find it for myself. When I published that post, I wasn’t expecting much of a response. I was really just hoping to hear someone say, “Yes, my family had this pumpkin when I was a kid!” Or “I once saw this in a neighbor’...

Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

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