Like quite a few people with a vested (and long-term) interest in the horror and horror-adjacent genres, I like a little “October Challenge.” Anniversary (22-years, this year) is also near enough Halloween that there was a long-standing tradition to do something kind of spooky in the way of romantic times.
Since my daughter was born, though, the ability to watch horror movies too openly has been strained. That part took a bit of a back seat. In fact, outside of a general “I will watch and/or read something spooky,” the only consistent thing is an annual watching of Trick ‘r Treat. Or near to annual. I’ve seen the movie a lot, basically.
I felt this year was a good year (daughter is now 9 and a bit more able to self-motivate away from spooky TV sets) to try and get something in on the old watch-/read-a-thon.
But what, Space Pilgrims, would it be?
What theme? What collection? What kind of numbers to try and hit? A movie a day? What might make it a Challenge?
The answer turned out to be: mostly watch movies I have seen before, probably a lot, and read stories and books I have read before. In the case of things like M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft: a lot. A few movies were things I maybe saw only partially or only a long time ago — like ‘Salem’s Lot — but quite a few — like Tremors — are movies I have seen many times.
No real numbers or goal. Just hang out in a place I already knew.
A lot of A Ghost Story for Christmas got watched. The BBC-adaptations of M.R. James and similar stories, I mean. Back in September, the newer specials finally hit Blu-Ray and I got to rewatch The Tractate Middoth which I’ve enjoyed. Favorite of the A Ghost Story specials overall is probably A Warning to the Curious. “No diggin’ ‘ere!”
I did a big read through (and re-read through) of “The Shadow over Innsmouth” and have been compiling a Deepest Dive (the first for the blog) where I hyper-analyze a lot of things. It just has taken me a longer than I thought to format everything. I think that story is kind of amazing in how stuff I never quite focused on will suddenly pop-out in subsequent readings. At various times in my life it has been a few different stories. Not all stories shift and flow in such a way.
I’m now going to go and read some more John Dies at the End (I have practically just re-started it, but I know the story really well so it’s ok if it doesn’t get finished) and relax.
It has been extremely nice. There is an aspect of Halloween I have missed, it seems. A kind of coziness to the fright. Longer nights, colder nights, but with a jack-o-lantern burning bright. Silly cut outs and decorations blended with truly frightening ones. Scary movies but often with snacks and friends.
This sort of anti-challenge has helped me to get back in touch with that vibe. Not about pushing boundaries, but about stopping off along the way to catch up with old acquaintances. Ghosts, if you will, of that part of you that just liked to experience the vibe.
