Halloween Haunted

So, it’s coming up quickly; Halloween. What will you allow your tweens and teens to do this year? Will you allow them to go out door to door “Trick or Treating”? If so will you allow them to go out alone without your supervision? Are they going to a costume party somewhere, and do you know where? Will there be chaperones?

There are many that think that teens should not be going out door to door. But it is difficult to tell how old is too old for this activity. Some teens really get into the spirit of the holiday and want to experience it as long as they can. I’m not here to say teens cannot “trick or treat”, but I implore them to do it safely.

Some communities are now making “trick or treating” against the law with special curfews for teens on Halloween. I could find no special curfews for Halloween in Contra Costa County except for those imposed on who they should be imposed on; sex offenders.

I think the “trick” to Halloween and teens is simply to be aware. Talk to them, do some research in your neighborhood. Do you know where the registered sex offenders are in your neighborhood? It’s pretty easy to find out. The Megan’s Law website has a search tool that lists the address (and sometimes pictures) of every registered sex offender in California. Reading through some of the charges these people have been charged with it is terrifying to know they are in your neighborhoods.

I remember watching “Mean Girls”, and at one point in the show they talked about Halloween as being the chance for all the girls to wear the sexiest lingerie they could, and the “costume” was defined by what type of ears they wore. A quick look at some teen costume websites seem not much better. The costumes for our young woman look like something from Fredrick’s of Hollywood! Maybe I’m too conservative, but my girls will not be caught dead in something like that simply because they’d freeze to death. I know it’s not PC to say so, but I still feel that wearing such a costume is inviting things that we just don’t want our teens to experience.

So, if you let your teens out alone – take the steps for their safety. Create an itinerary. Map where they will be going, and review Megan’s list in that area. Try to be a little more conservative with costuming, and set a curfew. Halloween can and should be a fun time for everyone – but we all have to do our part.

Want to play a game? This October, Universal Studios Hollywood wants to take you on a hellish ride with Jigsaw, Michael Myers, Chucky and more as part of its Halloween Horror Nights. This year’s event, entitled “You’ll Wish it Were Just a Movie,” is the biggest in park history, and there will be some very familiar faces lurking in the dark corners of four new mazes.

“Our big vision was to take the most popular horror movies in the world and turn them into living horror movies that people get to experience,” said Universal’s John Murdy, the longtime horror aficionado who directed, designed and wrote everything the audience experiences in those mazes.

The mazes are based on three major horror franchises — “Saw,” “Halloween” and “Child’s Play” — and “My Bloody Valentine,“ which hit theaters with a splatter in January.

As you might expect, Universal officials say this is the biggest and baddest edition of the fright franchise, which launched at the Universal City park in 1986 with sequel years in 1992 and 1997 through 2000. The event was revived as an annual tradition in 2006 and has been a potent draw in Southern California, explaining the calendar expansion this year to 16 horror-dedicated days, the most ever.

For Lionsgate, which will release “Saw VI” on Oct. 23, the event is a fairly potent marketing opportunity, although the franchise is a killer all on its own; the worldwide box office for the films to date is $669 million, an impressive total considering the production budget for the first was $1.2 million and, reportedly, none of the sequels have cost more than $11 million to film.

In the ”Saw: Game Over” maze, park-goers venture into the lair of Jigsaw, the demented and ingenious killer, and they dare to inspect some of his intricate death machines from the films, among them the razor-wire trap and the needle pit.

That may be the centerpiece attraction, but the other three mazes offer frights of different flavors.

Even though it’s August, tonight the Halloween season really kicks off with the release of Rob Zombie’s second creation in the Halloween series.  It’s nice to know it’s right around the corner, but for the life of me I cannot understand why the release the movie in August?

I was checking around today on this fine Spring day and realized that we are almost down to 200 days until Halloween.  In a little over a month, we will be halfway there.  Amazing how time flies. Go ahead and get your pumpkin seeds so that you can start growing your pumpkins!

Watched Halloween tonight as it was on AMC. Yea the watered down version, but still very good. It’s a bit of a tradition that my wife and myself watch Halloween the movie every Halloween. This year we were just getting a head start. Went to Kirklands at the mall as well and picked up a few decorations for the yard. This week it will be time to stock up on candy and get ready for the trick or treaters! Can’t wait for it to get here, but will be sad once it’s over.

One more week until the big day.  It’s crazy sometimes how fast Halloween comes and goes.  I feel like I haven’t even prepared yet.

Anyways, to all of those who love Halloween, hope you really enjoy this week.  If you need help with any last minute costume ideas, then check out our costume store.

http://www.halloweenhaunted.com/hh.php?page=costumes

Rob Zombie is going from Halloween to an all new film for 2009, although it looks like it won’t stray to far from his earlier offerings. Here is an early look at the poster for that film:

Just a few days ago, June 20, the summer solstice came and went.  That can only mean one thing:from this point forward each day gets a little big shorter.  In a few months, we will see Halloween Costumes begin to populate the aisles in our local stores and the Halloween candy will be plentiful.  You can now officially begin counting down the days until Halloween.

130 days until Halloween.

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