Happy Halloween and Monster Bash 2008!!

Wow! Can you believe it? It's heeeeere!




I'm so pumped up, you wouldn't even believe it.





My costume is ready, Jim's costume is awesome, the food is hopefully going to be ready in time, the decor is ready, the grand prize for best costume is ready, the games have been meticulously prepared, the murder circus is in full effect. Come one, come all to the spoOoOoOoOoOOokiest place on Earth!





The Bigtop from HELL.






Here's to having the greatest and most fright-filled Halloween ever, from my Monster Bash to yours!

Awesome Hayrides!!

There are few things that Monster Bash loves other than Monster Bash, Halloween, Apple Cider, Pumpkins...and of course: Hayrides!!

I love nothing more than to go to a creepy, or non-creepy, farm, take a ride on a wagon pulled by a tractor and sit covered in hay.



Well, this past weekend, I got a double dose of awesome Autumn hayride fun!!

On Friday, I sprung a trip to Corrado's Farm's Hayride of Horrors on Jim, who hates spur of the moment fun. But he conceded, and off we went with SpOoOoOoOky Cos and Renee!


For $12, you go on one of the longest hayrides that I think they offer on the East Coast, and you even get a spOoOoOkylicious surprise halfway through-Witches come out of their houses and bring you donuts and cider!!! mmm!!






Not only is that the main reason that I go on this hayride and love it so dearly, but also because of the location. It's literally in the middle of nowhere, in Hackettstown, NJ, in the woods/field. The farm is awesome. The only downside to going this year? The people sitting next to us who liked to heckle the ghouls. But they're everywhere-that's unavoidable.


Also available at Corrado's is a corn maze (I've tried it once, and got discouraged and gave up after 5 minutes)

and a haunted house (it's ok-I suggest you try it once). You can do all three for $25.00, or pay separately for each one you want to do.

on Saturday, I had to take a day to recover from all of the cider and mayhem.

Then on Sunday, we took our traditional trip to Masker's:

and then, followed it up with the traditionally awesome trip to DePiero's farm in Montvale, NJ for pumpkin hayride.

DePiero's website has some great pics of the pumpkin field, and they also have info on the Nightmares attraction that they host there every year. I've done it before, and once again, it's something to try out at least once.

Anyway, back to awesome Pumpkin hayride:

It's $8.00 for the hayride, or $9.00 for the hayride with a pumpkin. Obviously, why wouldn't you choose the $9.00 option?

So, we got our official "With Pumpkin" tickets, and off we went!

They bring you to a pumpkin patch, aka, a place where they pile up pumpkins, and the difficult decision of "which pumpkin is best" begins!

After about 45 minutes of measuring, searching, deciding, thinking I've chosen, putting it back, switching it out...I find it!

And then we ride back to DePiero's, get a nice Pickle on a Stick, and off we go to carve and love our new pumpkin friends!

Neverending SpoOoOoOkiness!!

Monster Bash blog has been knee deep in Neverender, which is a 4 night concert event with MB Blog's favorite band of all time:



Now, I know I'm straying a bit from Halloween, but, it is Autumn, and only a week or so away from everyone's favorite holiday, AND, Co&Ca and I have had some wonderful Halloween memories together:


1. Their 2nd Album: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 was released in the Fall (October 7th, 2003) and I listened to it profusely while going to Halloween attractions (I especially remember belting out "Man your own jackhammer!" while driving to Sterling Forest's Haunted attraction in NY that same week of its release).

2. The 3rd Album: Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness, was released on September 20th, 2005 (Fall-time!). So therefore, I enjoyed it thoroughly throughout the Autumnul and Winter Seasons (and year round)

3. The latest Album: Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow was released on October 23rd, 2007, and boy oh boy did I have a Halloween festival with Coheed and Cambria! First of all, I went to their spOooOoOoOOky release party at FYE in the Palisades Mall ( I went by myself and took a vacation day from work...that's dedication). Then, I paid 100x the original price of the 92.3 $.92 Halloween show on October 25th at the Blender Theater in NYC (I paid $100 on ebay just to enjoy Halloween and Coheed and Cambria together).

And now, with Neverender, The show takes place over 4 days, October 22nd - 25th, each night playing each one of their albums in its entirety. I've had my tickets since July. This is going to be the greatest 4 nights of my life, in preparation for Monster Bash 2008. I had to take off of work for this, that's how good it's going to be.
The Fiction Will See The Real....spOooOoOoOoOOoky!

Masker's Orchard: A Comprehensive Guide to Apple-Picking the Monster Bash Way

Nothing says "Autumn" like picking your own apples and spending the day at an apple orchard.

For the past couple of years, Jim and I have been going to the apple picking hotspot, Masker's Orchard in Warwick, NY.

This place...forget it....



Let me explain how a trip to Masker's typically works.

First, you approach the orchard. You will know you are getting close because you will pass about 3 parking lots dedicated to the Renaissance Faire.
When you see the signs for Masker's, you put on the apple radio station...which I can't find online anywhere...because it's TOP SECRET! Oh, it's 87.9 AM (I found out this past weekend, however, it didn't come in clear enough to listen to it this time).
Then, pick up your baggies with the map of the orchard on it from one of the parking attendants waving you in for the fun!
Park your car, and follow the map to find your perfect apple!
(Be sure to first check out those ripening schedules for your favorite apple! Remember, Granny Smith's ripen the 3rd week of September!)


Make sure you stop for plenty of photo opportunities! The views are breathtaking!
Masker's is also great for letting you know where the unpicked apples are hiding!



While picking those apples, make sure you eat a couple...you know...to make sure they're appley-enough!

Stop by the country store and buy some caramel apple kits!
Then, pick up some apple cider, have your car checked for stolen apples...and be off to make those apples into delicious pieces of art:


So, when do you guys want to go? Here are the directions!

Just an F.Y.I, we went this last weekend, and not only was it significantly colder than last year, but there seemed to be no apples left. I had heard there was a storm that destroyed some of the apple crop, but, I don't know. Also keeping up with tradition, I still couldn't find the Granny Smith section. Maybe next year!

Afterward, we also kept up with the awesome tradition of pumpkin picking hayride!!! more on that later!! (next blog!)

Pet Sematary...purposely spelled wrong

So I'm a little behind on the times here. I never saw Pet Sematary, until recently.

I don't really have an explanation why. I mean, I support Stephen King. I like the vast majority of his movies. I love pets. I love horror. I love 80's horror. I don't get it. All I can offer is an apology for not seeing this movie sooner.

Now that that's out of the way, on with my thoughts!

So, we rented it OnDemand, which if you don't know what that is, shame on you! It makes it easy for people like me to never leave the house.

The movie is from 1989 and, as usual with S. K., adapted from the book of the same name. This time, King even wrote the screenplay himself because he was tired of his movies flopping.

Starring in this movie is Dale Midkiff, who is in every one of my fave lifetime movies, including my all-time fave "Another Woman's Husband" with Lisa Rinna and Gail O'Grady. He plays Dr. Louis Creed, who is a doctor from Chicago who moves his family to a rural New England town. Also in this movie is Herman Munster, or Fred Gwynne who plays Jud Crandall, and the little boy from Full House and Kindergarten Cop that you love to hate, Miko Hughes who plays Gage Creed (the son).

By the way, the book and the film are pretty similar from what I've read, but as usual, the book seems a million times better.

Anyways, The family moves to this town, and are immediately troubled with bad luck. The daughter's cat dies, the son dies (which was totally obvious how he was going to die...they made more allusions to the trucks driving by than you can imagine):

everything is looking grim. There is even a scene in the funeral home where Louis's father-in-law punches him and blames him for Gage's death. Yikes!

Louis (Midkiff) learns from Jud that there are actually two burial grounds. One, the Pet Sematary is where the pets go when they "want to talk". The other, is an ancient Indian Burial ground which resurrects corpses, but the land has become "sour" so they come back evil. Well, you can imagine where this goes. Louis buries his cat and dead son in the burial ground, even though he's warned to avoid it, and they come back, you guessed it, evil! What will happen to Louis and his family?

In a side note, I just want to say that on the cover, see that guy with the blood and yellow eyes?

Well, ever since I can remember I thought he was the main character or someone that guards the Pet Sematary, or someone who comes back from the Pet Sematary...and wow, I was off. The character is actually a student, Victor Pascow, who is killed by a truck, and actually acts as a guide for the Creed family (because Louis tried to save him) and warns him against burying loved ones in the ancient burial ground.


he scared me the most, along with Rachel's dead sister, Zelda




Overall, I think the movie itself was great. It definitely had a few great scare moments, and of course the usual cat screeching scare moments that scare me anyway. Toward the very end it kind of gets ridiculous. You'd think Louis would learn his lesson. Also, I felt that they could've made the dead Gage a little more gruesome. I mean, he was hit by truck and he only looked a little pale. Compared to Pascow's dead character and the dead Rachel (the wife), Gage looked like he was still perfectly normal and had a pulse.


And hey, they're even making a remake to this in 2010! Get pumped!

The Time Has Come.

On Wednesday, October 1st, 2008, the official Monster Bash 2008 invitations were sent worldwide to the lucky 10 recipients (I was too cheap to order more) that have already discovered the theme of Monster Bash 2008.

Now, I will publicly reveal the official theme of Monster Bash 2008, Taking place on Friday, October 31st, 2008.

Why did I choose today?

Simple-because 13 is 31 backwards. Also, 13 is believed to be unlucky...but today, it is your lucky day...muahahahahah! spOoOoOoOoOoOky!


Have you been picking up on all of the little hints I've been dropping you?

Well...here we go....


The official theme is...


MURDER CIRCUS.


see you at the big top from hell (Jim's room) in 18 horror-filled days!

Afraid of Clowns? You're Not Alone

Let's face it, clowns are scary. Even when they're not meant to be...they still are.

So if you're terrified of them like the rest of us, know that you're in good company.

There's a name for it: Coulrophobia

There have been question and answer sessions to try to answer why clowns are so scary.

Many believe that people fear clowns so much because of this guy:

Pennywise.
This horrifying clown is from Stephen King's IT. Even though the movie was super long and in the end doesn't even have the clown in it anymore, it is still one of the most prevalent clown horror movies to this day.

There are many movies made that involve killing clowns. Some are really really horrible and bordering on soft core pornography:

Take my word. I've tried to find awesome clown horror. Here's what I came up with:

Mr. Jingles. Two words: Pure. Garbage. This movie, like many of the others I'm going to name, looks like it was filmed on a home video camera. I got this gem for $.96 on Amazon.com. I wish I had my $.96 back. The cover was so deceiving too:

I had such high hopes. Clown revenge, sounds awesome right? Wrong. I should've listened to IMDB's 1.7 out of 10 rating. But I didn't. I can't even begin to tell you how horrible it is. Take my word.

S.I.C.K. That stands for "Serial Insane Clown Killer". Right. I know what you're thinking already, and you're absolutely right. Once again, the cover fooled me with an awesome clown graphic, and I was out $1.27 for this piece of trash. The movie is basically like one of those work videos you have to watch about reporting sexual harrassment at your job, only with alot of uncomfortable sex scenes, and barely any killing. There's a "twist" ending, but by that point you're so miserable watching this movie, you may have already turned it off, or fallen asleep. And I can't blame you.

Dead Clowns. Clown zombies?!

Finally! After watching the other two movies, this one looked Oscar worthy to me and Jim. It was kind of a mix between The Fog, and a really bad Italian zombie movie. I thought it was going to be absolute perfection. Watching it the second time, though, made me realize I was wrong, dead wrong. I do have to say though, that the zombie clowns look pretty awesome. It's a shame the rest couldn't come up to calibur with them.

Camp Blood Trilogy. I can't even comment on this, because, I haven't seen it yet. It is about a guy dressed as a clown killing people...but the film quality doesn't look good at all. I don't have my hopes up. I also don't know how to feel about this movie ripping off the name/premise of Friday the 13th.

Killjoy. Again, another one I haven't gotten to yet. The cover may be deceiving. What do you think about it?

Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

This movie is the equivalent to a 5 star hotel. I think it's one of my favorite movies of all time. From the costumes, to the makeup, to the entire storyline, this movie is sheer perfection. The tagline is even "In space, noone can eat ice cream!" (from Alien: "In space noone can hear you scream"). Genius. And those cotton candy coccoons? Forget it.



Other than movies, there's so much more to look at about clowns. Remember John Wayne Gacy?

That's a real life scary clown. He went by the name "Pogo the Clown". yikes. I also realize that not everyone is a fan of their creepiness. Here's a website dedicated to hatred of clowns.
This website allows you to vote on what clowns are and aren't scary (kind of like hot or not.com).

I vote "yes" to that all the time. Clowns are always scary.


(I had to...I love him).

IT'S HERE!

October is Here!!

That picture...seriously..is from like 2003. Me, Julie,and Rochelle took it for the month of October at the mall as part of a calendar that we were going to give our former boss as a going away gift. I just liked how it had a pumpkin and a look of fear and horror on our faces.

Anyways, get pumpkinified!!

This entire month for me is like what December is to Jim's Christmas love.

I am full speed ahead into Monster Bash/Halloween.

What have I accomplished so far?

Well, let's look back, shall we?

We've had quite a journey here at Monster Bash Blog.

In March, we got acquainted.
In April, we got excited for scary movies.
In May, we ran the gamut from Autopsies, to cruises, to mummies...
In June, we had special guest Friday the 13th, as well as a discussion about my love of pumpkins
In Ghouleye, the Dark Knight came out and took over my life, and we talked about Ouija boards
In Aughost, I prepped you on the perfect costume picking
Last month, I began to accelerate into Halloweentown. I stepped on the gas a little bit, we went from 45 mph to about 65. I was about 5 over the speed limit.


Apple picking and Salem are two heavy hitters that I am going to actually do in October rather than in September to Dismember.

BUT!


I did go to spOoOoOoOky Lancaster and Terror Behind the Walls!

So I think I'm doing pretty well!
How are you doing with your costume hunting?
I'm done. Well, almost. I have to check on what AMR has been doing with it.

So, what do we have to look forward to this month?

Besides horror and every store being completely decked out in Halloween mayhem?!

We have:

Apple Picking

Pumpkin Hayrides

Salem

Announcement of the theme of Monster Bash 2008! A MB Blog exclusive!

Candy Molding like you wouldn't believe!

and of course

MONSTER BASH 2008!!!

I would also like you to know that at my job, I was asked to run the pumpkin painting contest because last year, my vampire pumpkin won 2nd place. So get excited for that!