Justine's Halloween Blog Party 2015

You're all welcome to attend my yearly Halloween Blog Party! It's in a new place this year, but it's not hard to find. You have a full moon to light your way.

Just follow that helpful little bat and his friends through the graveyard...

Almost there...

There's the place! Looks like it's raining, so you better hurry in.

I'll just open the door for you...

Welcome! Come on in!

Looks like the bats are staying for the party.

There are already some guests here to greet you!

Miranda was first to arrive as Rita Skeeter, that pesky, poison-pen reporter from the Harry Potter stories. She arrived early so she wouldn't miss a moment to report on.

Next was Alicia as a Mad Hatter Villain. She manages to be both colorful and scary at the same time. Look at those eyes! Alicia is a really talented makeup artist. Check out some of her Halloween makeup looks and tutorials here.

As if that Mad Hatter wasn't scary enough, two of those bats that flew into the house transformed into vampires before our very eyes! Patricia and her date Chris:

Old Fashion Halloween had a more traditional entrance when she knocked on the door. Although, being the Steampunk Seamstress that she is, she'd flown in on a Steampunk airship to get here.

We all heard the sound of dripping water outside. Something had emerged from the sea and was heading toward the house. It was Bob as Jaws!

There's lots of good music at the party thanks to Dead Air 98.3 FM: http://radiodork.com/

I've been listening to Dead Air through October and I've been hearing so many songs I've never heard before. Go listen, and I bet a lot of these songs will be new to you too. Dead Air dug deep, deep, deep into the past for some of these songs. There are quite a few from the 1930s.

Clay, the guy who assembled all of those wonderful vintage Halloween songs for Dead Air, sent his daughter Emily as his representative to the party. She emerged from the graveyard outside and glided to the door as a Corpse Bride!

Next to the door was a really creepy creature: Venom from the Spiderman comics! Just look at those claws. Venom had taken Jason as his host for the night.

A flash of fire shot up outside the window!

Out of the flames emerged Chris as a fashionable Devil!

Chris was also nice enough to bring brownies for everyone! (They were baked in the fires of Hell.)

Melody as Red Riding Hood came running up to the door with the big bad wolf on her heels! Luckily she made it inside in time.

There was more commotion in the graveyard. Look who stumbled out and made their way to the party! The Real Queen of Horror, Zena and her husband as a rebellious and a geeky zombie.

A fun party activity was watching the old Mickey Mouse cartoon "The Haunted House"

You might recognize a lot of the gifs in this post from that cartoon!

There's still time left if any of you would like to join the fun! Just send me a costumed pic and I'll add you to the group.

P.S. ~ As a little party treat to go with the Disney Halloween theme, here are bunch of cute coloring pages you can print out:

Disney Halloween Coloring Pages 

Insidious will leave you feeling haunted

After many recommendations, I have finally watched Insidious! I don't even know how many people have asked me if I've seen this. After a point, I started thinking there must really be something to this movie. There is!

Matt, From Spooky Halloween Arts, was generous enough to send me the movie. I'll try not to give any crucial pieces of the plot away, but you might not want to read this if you haven't seen Insidious yet.

I felt like Insidious paid tribute to some classic movie genres while still bringing something new. We've all seen enough haunted house and possession movies and those subjects are both represented here. What's new is the idea of Astral Projection.

Overall, I think the movie was artistically done. There appeared to be a greenish-bluish lens over most of the film, which gave it a bleak look. The first house in the movie is a large, Arts and Crafts style house that was built in 1909.

The characters who live in this house are a couple and their three children. The mom stays home with her kids through the day and gets to hear every shift and creak the old house makes. Sometimes she's also treated to the sight of shadowy figures wandering about. One particularly creepy moment happens when she hears something on the baby monitor that is not at all a baby.

After enough of these high jinks, the mother is convinced her new house is haunted. To make matters worse, her young son has had an apparent fall in the attic and is now in a coma. She convinces her husband to move the family to a new house. Their new place is light and airy, the total opposite of the last house. However, it's not long until the activity starts up again.

A priest is brought in, and we are eventually introduced to a psychic and duo of paranormal investigators. The paranormal investigators have sort of a Mormon missionary look to them. They're dressed more formally than any paranormal investigators I've ever seen. They add whatever levity is in the film. The psychic reminded me of the little woman who comes in to help the family in Poltergeist. She was sweet, soft spoken, trying to help a child, and a conduit for the other side.

One of the dressed up investigators with the psychic

The psychic makes contact with a series of paranormal entities. In a scene which is probably open to interpretation, I watched what I think was a residual haunting of the first house. Then there are other random ghosts wandering about and something that very closely resembles a devil/demon/the worst old Krampus postcard images you've ever seen.

I happened across a makeup tutorial for anyone who would like to recreate the creature's look:



Whether you find Insidious scary will depend on what scares you. There's not a whole lot of stuff leaping out at you, despite what the trailer leads you to believe. Watching that, you'd think this movie is just a bunch of nonstop jump scares. It's much more subtle and artistic than that.

In fact, Insidious reminded me a little of The Woman in Black. I was reminded because of the movie's timing and build up to scares. That and one of the characters looks nearly identical to her.  Maybe there have been lots of black veiled women in Victorian mourning dresses in Horror movies, and I've missed them. The veiled character in this movie was sort of a Woman in Black/Baby Jane mashup.



The same makeup artist you saw in the first video also created a version of that old lady ghost:



Isn't it funny to hear him sounding like a nice person under all this creepy makeup? Not that this is at all related to Insidious, but he does a killer Beetlejuice makeup tutorial too.

Somehow "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" managed to get even creepier when used in this movie. It was a surprising song choice, but it worked. I found some video of the "Tiptoe" scene with a little hidden gem. I bet those of you who watched the movie missed it. I sure did.



That's part of what's scary about ghost movies - the idea of something being able to watch you without you seeing it.

I found myself most freaked by a scene that probably wasn't supposed to be the most scary. For those who've seen the movie, you'll remember the unmoving wax-like figures in the 1950s style clothing.

I've seen this character referred to as The Doll Girl

I assumed these figures were the previous residents of the first house. Since we're viewing what I assume was a murder that took place in the home long ago, they've become yet another layer of the haunting.

The movie ended in a way that made me say "What!?" It was clearly one of those "...to be continued" endings. I wasn't aware until now that Insidious Chapter 2 came out in 2013. I need to see that! Many of the reviews I've read say that the second movie is even scarier than the first.

Last night after watching the movie, I thought to myself how it was just the right amount of scary. I laughed at myself during the movie as I jumped at a few moments, and I didn't feel traumatized after viewing it. I did, however, think of the movie a little today. Since basically all the action happens inside two homes, I noticed some household items reminding me of scary moments. Every door seemed suspicious, like it might creak open.

The ghosts were big on door opening.

The writers were saying on the DVD commentary how they thought the movie would stick with viewers, because of those everyday moments around the house. Common, uneventful moments like looking in a bathroom mirror, or reaching into a kitchen drawer, make you think twice after watching Insidious. This goes to show the movie's everyday, ordinary vibe. I really did feel like I was watching a normal family. Sometimes we're watching them from such a distance that we can  assume something else is watching them too.

Insidious is a slow burn of scares. It sneaks up on you. I went from wondering when the action would occur to getting the chills. The movie has that slower pace. If you're into subtle, shadowy frights, you'll have a good time getting scared by Insidious!

Justine's Halloween Blog Party 2013

Welcome to my annual Halloween blog party!
I'm waiting for my victims, err... guests as my new incarnation...

It can be difficult to find my vampiric castle, so be sure to bring a flashlight. It is awfully dark in the haunted woods that lead to my door. Can you hear that? Listen to them, the children of the night, what music they make...

I realize it's easy to get lost in the woods, so I sent you a guide:

He's cool, but you don't want to look too closely at his face. Just try to be brave and keep moving.

Can you hear that fluttering and squeaking above the trees? That means you're almost there!

You've now left the darkness of the woods and the creepy guide has retreated back into the dark. Just follow those bats and you'll be at my doorstep....

There's the party place!

Just knock on the door and someone will be there to greet you. Knock, knock, knock. Creeeeaaaak...

Follow Nosferatu down this drafty hallway and join the party!

So many spooky guests are here already:

Ked was first to arrive as a zombie sheriff.



Next was our celebrity guest Patricia, otherwise known as The Girl of Ghoul!

Henry arrived as a bloody and decaying zombie.



A strange whirring sound was heard outside the castle. We all ran to the windows to see what was out there.

What should we see but The Tardis parked right out front!

Out stepped Dex, back from the 1970s as Batman!

The Steampunk Equestrian Rider Midnyte Reader galloped into the castle on her prized clockwork pony.

Next Melody flew in as a glittering fairy. Looks like she brought her cat too. I see someone peeking around the side of the photo. :)

A crash of thunder was heard and lightening struck the castle. Soon after the storm began, Matt arrived as Frankenstein!



Dr. Phobia and his patient had time to leave the clown E.R. and come to the party. Notice his severed finger necklace. (Brian from Scaryvisions and his wife)



Michael arrived as The Phantom of the Opera and actually took off his mask! Who knew what was lurking under that mask all this time...

Kristin channeled London After Midnight and scared everyone with her razor sharp teeth!



More bats were heard fluttering outside the window. One flew in and materialized into Lorelei Bell's alter ego, The Vampire Queen!

Lorelei was nice enough to bring along something for everyone to drink:

"The Blood of the Vine" :) I visited the Vampire Vineyards web site and found this adorable video advertising their product:



Zena, the rebellious zombie and her husband Charles, the nerdy zombie crawled out of their graves for the party!

We all turned to see a dark figure catapult through the door. It was Chris the Halloween Ninja!

As if that wasn't surprising enough, we all heard some strange scratching noises from the door. We hurried over to find Suzanne as Sylvester the Cat in quite the predicament. Watch out for the guest she brought, it looks like Death...

There's still more room at the party! If you'd like to join the fun, just email me a Halloween photo of yourself from the past or present. We'll all be snacking and dancing in the meantime. I think I hear some vampire music now!

That last video is worth watching as well as listening to. Fans of classic Horror movies will love all those old vampire moments!

I hope you enjoyed this year's party! If you'd like to take a look back at the blog parties of years past, here they are:

Justine's Halloween Blog Party 2012

Justine's Halloween Blog Party 2011