Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 It’s that time of year again. The time when Halloween “ends” to the layperson, and even some of the spookiest people take a two-month break to obsess over Christmas. It’s the damndest thing, how, as early as the stroke of midnight on November first in some cases, the world transforms, seemingly forgetting that Halloween ever happened, into a sugar-coated, red-and-green, fairy-lit wonderland, while some of the leaves haven’t even fallen from their trees yet. It’s like a switch flips, the opposite of a blackout, and about ninety-percent of the world gets brainwashed. I scroll through my social media feeds and wonder where my kindred spirits went. No, enjoying Christmas as well as Halloween does not make you any less of a spooky community member, but for some of us, it’s depressing to see. We gather to keep Halloween alive all year round, yet, if you were to scroll through my Instagram home page right now, you might get the impression that my favorite holiday is actually Christmas. T...

  A skeleton is once again just a reminder of death. Are you offended, or scared? Did you forget what it meant just days ago? Every leaf is now just a dried-out inconvenience. Not long ago you traveled just to watch them all die. It's so hypocritical, when you think about it. Those pumpkins on the porch decay, and you say they have to go. There's no place in the world for their unique, wary faces anymore. What's different is no longer beautiful. You remember you hate spiders, you think black cats bring bad luck. Do you even remember Halloween night, once you've extinguished the last Jack O'Lantern flame?  Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one without seasonal amnesia. Or maybe I'm just the only one brave enough to say, "This is who I am", as I stand tall, trying to achieve the scarecrow's confidence, still dressed in orange and black. The skeletons still dance for me. Even the rotten pumpkins glow.  Even the brownest leaves are beautiful to me...

 As I lay drowning in my pit of post-Halloween depression, I can’t help but think back to years past, and how I’ve dealt with things over the years. I never quite had the language to describe what I was feeling in my childhood, once November hit, but I know that a nasty, achy feeling was always there. I remember once saying that it felt, on some level, like I was the only person left in the world, desperately trying to survive. Once I saw the Halloweentown movies,  I started to think of myself as being a resident who kept missing the bus, and was therefore stuck in the mortal world year after year. All I wanted was to keep it going, but somehow I never knew how.  One of my greatest attempts, though, happened when I was ten.  Halloween was on a Friday that year, so this was one of the few times I actually had the day off on November first. (Sidenote: I’ve always felt like that day should be an excused absence for anyone who loves Halloween, child or adult. As an adult...

 It's a strange and fascinating, thought not necessarily in a good way, feeling, when you feel so at home in the world one day and then like you've landed on an alien planet the next. How can something that felt so perfect, so comfortable yesterday, feel so foreign and off-putting today? This is how November first has always felt for me, though. I've often compared it to being away at boarding school for about ninety percent of the year. You spend this huge chunk of time in a place where you don't fit in, that never truly feels like home even if you have a bed there, and then suddenly, for one glorious month or so, you're able to travel back to your real home. It feels so fabulous, so welcoming. You finally feel like you're a part of the world again. You have a family, a home, a place.  But, of course that wretched thing called the calendar has to involve itself and the day comes where it dictates you must get back on that bus and get back to that false excuse f...

 Something you may or may not have known about me, but possibly suspected:  I trick-or-treated until I was way past the age that society seems to deem “too old”. And, since every October, the question of “How old is ‘too old’?” seems to come back around, I thought I’d share my experiences, in defense of those “big kids” who may come around on Halloween night. As you obviously know if you know me at all, Halloween is my absolute life, and has more or less been such since my first experience with trick-or-treating at the age of four. Trick-or-treating was a magical thing to me, as a kid whose parents set strict bedtimes and very rarely ventured out for more than typical mundane tasks. It was just such a deep contrast to the rest of my life in my childhood, that it quickly became my favorite thing to do. Perhaps Halloween became my favorite holiday because every other aspect of my life was just boring, but I digress.  Anyway, I waited with bated breath for Halloween every si...

 One of the big things I have been looking forward to this Halloween season is seeing how the Halloween movie franchise finally ends. Halloween has been an iconic part of my “spooky seasons” since I was very young, even before I actually watched the movies. And, even though I may enjoy Freddy Krueger’s sense of humor just slightly more than Michael Myers’ more “strong and silent” approach to slasher-dom, the Halloween movies are always my go-to when it comes to rewatching an OG slasher. The atmosphere is just perfect. While many people seemed to be on the fence about Halloween Kills, I absolutely loved it and it’s one of my main go-to movies, period, not even just within the Halloween franchise. So I naturally had pretty high hopes for Halloween Ends.  To say that I was disappointed, just might be an understatement.  Halloween Ends was basically  the Necro episode  of American Horror Stories, minus a few details, with a little bit of Laurie Strode and Michael My...

 As you probably know, my taste in Halloween-y things ranges from things meant for people years (okay, sometimes decades ) younger than myself, to the darkest of horrors. I love spooky cute, but I also love a good gore fest, especially when it's set on Halloween night. It probably comes as no surprise that I absolutely love the Terrifier movies and particularly the character of Art the clown. And I consider myself extremely lucky to have caught Terrifier 2 in the theater on opening night. Before you ask, no, no one threw up or fainted at my showing. A couple of people got up and presumably went to the bathroom but I didn't see a sense of urgency in these people that told me they were about to toss their popcorn. At almost two and a half hours long, this is a movie some people simply may need a pee break halfway through. A few people behind me did gasp a lot, though.  Aside from a few moments that triggered my ommetaphobia, I got through it perfectly fine and thoroughly enjoyed...