Thank God for Netflix!

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year. We had wonderful traditions when I was growing up . . . decorating the house, trips to Vala's Pumpkin Patch (singing Pumpkin Carols on the way), watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and "A Garfield Halloween" on TV, hot cider steeped with cloves, carving pumpkins, creating elaborate construction paper witches, watching the costume-making process as my mom laboriously worked on beautiful outfits, costume parties with my parents' friends, and trick or treating with my Dad (wearing his arrow-through-the-head, as always).

As an adult, I've kept a few of the originals (decorating, hot cider, "Great Pumpkin" and "Garfield Halloween", and carving pumpkins) and developed some of my own traditions, mostly around watching mass quantities of scary movies. I read Ghost Story by Peter Straub every year around this time, and after reading John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In, I may add that as well. As far as guilty pleasures go, Bravo shows it's countdown of "100 Scariest Movie Moments" and AMC usually runs all three Omen movies on Halloween night. To my shock and horror, neither one of these events is taking place this year! Bravo, in between inane repeats of "Housewives of Orange County" has "13 Scarier Movie Moments", which is a measly 1 hour long special, and there is no mention of the Omen films anywhere on the TV Guide schedule. Luckily, I've been able to watch the "Scariest Movie Moments" special online (not quite as good, but better than nothing) and thanks to Netflix, I will be spending my Halloween with Damien Thorne once again.

Another of my favorite Halloween traditions is the Midnite Movie at the Esquire Theater here in Denver. Although the Midnite Movie runs throughout the year on weekends, they always pick an especially scary film for the week of Halloween. This year does not disappoint, as the flick will be The Exorcist! See it this weekend . . . if you dare!