Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 One of the most puzzling things I can probably tell you about myself is, despite the fact that my obsession with Halloween began at the age of four, I was very much a “scaredy cat” in childhood. In fact, most people found it quite odd that my favorite holiday was Halloween. Any kind of spooky storyline or imagery that didn’t directly relate to Halloween, was usually too much for me, even when it was something aimed at children. This was possibly due to my overactive imagination, but whatever the cause, I was not one of those kids who grew up enjoying horror. As you probably already know, horror is my main genre of interest nowadays. And I recently decided to the revisit the movie that really kickstarted my interest in horror, the first horror film I ever really watched on my own, at the age of fourteen: the Stephen King miniseries Rose Red. What got my attention about this movie, initially, was that Kimberly J. Brown was in it. Rose Red was released about three months after the se...

Would you believe me if I said there was a time where even the slightest spooky thing used to scare me? Honestly, I almost don’t believe it either.  But there was a time, even though Halloween was always, and somewhat inexplicably, depending on who you asked, my favorite thing in the world from the time I was four years old, that most scary stories were a “no-no” for me. I could sit here for hours spinning yarns about the several years I spent afraid of mirrors thanks to Bloody Mary, or the nightmares induced by a monster made of slime on a show my teenage cousin was watching at our house one evening, but there is one very particular memory I’d like to talk about today. When I was little, there was a set of books in the library that I didn’t dare go near. A dark compilation of tales known as Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. Looking at that book cover really brings me back. In my mind, the thought of opening that book was akin to opening the dreaded spell book...