Ghoulish greetings from Pan’s (and StarWarp Concepts’) home neighborhood of Sunnyside, Queens. where I took these pictures this week.
Hope you have a safe and happy Halloweekend!
(All photos © Steven A. Roman)
While it’s true that Halloween is arriving tomorrow, and you’re probably neck-deep in celebrating the Spooky Season these past three-plus weeks, but today there’s yet one more holiday to be found during Spooky Season: Frankenstein Friday!
Observed on the last Friday in October, this unusual holiday was the (mad) creation of New Jersey resident Ryan MacCloskey, who in 1997 wanted a reason to celebrate author Mary Shelley and her legendary literary Prometheus, and thus…Frankenstein Friday was born!
So, how can you best celebrate this monstrous day of remembrance?
Well, you could read the Shelley classic, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, of course.; that’s a good place to start. And there’s certainly no lack of Frankenstein and Frankenstein-inspired movies you could watch, from Thomas Edison’s silent movie to the 1960s Hammer Films, all the way up to last year’s stellar adaptation from Academy Award–winning director Guillermo del Toro.
Speaking of movies, as part of its Halloween programming Turner Classic Movies is running Bride of Frankenstein, the 1935 Universal monster movie directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff as the Monster, Elsa Lanchester as the Bride (and Mary Shelley!), Colin Clive as Frankenstein, and the scenery-chewing Ernest Thesiger as the giddily diabolical Dr. Pretorius. It airs at 6:30 pm, Eastern Time—a day late for this celebration, but that’s all right. (Unfortunately, they’re not running any of the other movies in the series, including the original Frankenstein—which, by the way, is celebrating its 95th anniversary this year.)
There’s also comic books! The Bride of Frankenstein Lives #1 is the first issue in a new miniseries that went on sale from Image Comics this week. Writer Kelly Thompson and artist Mattia De Iulis present a sequel to the classic film in which the Bride “must discover where and who she came from and begin what every living thing begins…the process of staying alive.” Sounds intriguing!
So, Happy Frankenstein Friday, Monster Kids young and all. Now get ready for the big day tomorrow: Halloween!
AMC’s annual FearFest celebration has been running all month, but this Saturday is dedicated to nothing but the adventures of Haddonfield, Illinois’s personal boogieman, Michael Myers, with the Halloween on Halloween Marathon. And as is often the case with AMC, they don’t run the movies in sequence, so it’s never a straight marathon, which never makes any sense, but…okay.
The trick-or-treat carnage begins at 6:00 a.m., (EST) with 1981’s Halloween II (because that’s naturally where you’d start, right?), followed by Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Then Rob Zombie’s 2009 remake of Halloween II arrives at noon, with Halloween III: Season of the Witch (no Michael, but still a good movie!) and Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake closing out the afternoon.
(Hey, AMC, why are the Rob Zombie movies out of order and not linked? There’s only two of them, y’know!)
For the evening, your daylong wait is over as John Carpenter’s original (and still the best) Halloween arrives at 7:00 p.m., followed by a rerun of Halloween II and…a repeat of Carpenter’s Halloween? Okay…
And then taking you through the overnight hours, into the Day of the Dead, are reruns of Halloween 4 and 5. So it goes.
What, no Halloween H20: 20 Years Later? No Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, or Halloween: Resurrection? Seriously, AMC, you need to get some, er, new blood in your Myers lineup.
Look into that for next year, would you?
The Freeform channel focuses on family friendly types of programming (well, it is a Disney channel, after all), so it’s no surprise that the annual kid-oriented 31 Nights of Halloween schedule has been stocked with perennial favorites like The Addams Family (starring Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, and Christina Ricci), Edward Scissorhands, Monsters Inc., and Hocus Pocus. This year it’s joined by the debut of the young adult witchcraft series Coven Academy.
Scattered among the old standards—which tends to endlessly repeat the Addams Family/Hocus Pocus/Scissorhands grouping—were the original Ghostbusters as well as Ghostbusters: Afterlife (a really good sequel) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (a…not so great sequel), plus the three Sam Raimi–directed Spider-Man films, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Oh, and one showing of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the animated feature best known for its stellar adaptation of Washington Irving’s classic story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
So what’s on the menu for Halloween?
The day kicks off at 8:30 am (EST) with Casper, the 1995 adaptation of the comic book character, starring the world’s Friendliest Ghost along with Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman. Keep an eye out for the cameo by Dan Aykroyd as Ghostbuster Ray Stantz. Is Ray’s appearance an official part of Ghostbusters lore? Fans are still debating that, thirty years later!
Following Casper are 2003’s The Haunted Mansion (starring Eddie Murphy); 1993’s Hocus Pocus (starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as the three witchy Sanderson Sisters); the 1993 animated musical Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas; a repeat of Casper…and then a repeat of Hocus Pocus.
The night closes out with the sisters’ return in 2022’s Hocus Pocus 2, and another Tim Burton animated feature, 2012’s Frankenweenie, to carry you into the Day of the Dead.
What, no The Craft? (Well, maybe Coven Academy fills that niche. Kinda.) And looking at the “31 Days” schedule, it would’ve made far more sense to have loaded the big day with the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp marathon that Freeform offered on October 16: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Edward Scissorhands, Dark Shadows, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Sleepy Hollow. Now that’s a Halloween lineup!
Oh, well…
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the programming for AMC’s FearfFest. See you then!
Halloween is just four days away! And what better way to pass the time than watching horror movies? Starting today, we’ll take a look at what a few of the cable channels are offering for free programming on All Hallows’ Eve. Of course, this year Halloween falls on a Saturday, so trick-or-treaters and partygoers might have other plans for that day…
Nevertheless, we begin with the Movies! channel…
As it has for years now, Movies! really gets into Halloween, with Spooky Season–themed movie marathons running throughout October—a day of vampire films, a day of ghosts, a day of alien invaders, even a day of Vincent Price flicks—and this year’s Halloween schedule is a mix of vampires and werewolves, ghosts and demons. And Vincent Price, of course!
As for Halloween, the festivities kick off at 10:45 a.m. (Eastern time) with House of Wax, the Vincent Price classic. If you’re into men turned into monsters, like the horrors to be found in the recent #1 movie Clayface, then you may be interested in Price’s villainous turn as a sculptor whose waxen figures seem a bit too lifelike…
It’s followed by Hammer Films’ Dracula adaptation Horror of Dracula and Frankenstein adaptation The Curse of Frankenstein (1958 and 1957, respectively, and both starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing); the 1950s Steve McQueen–starring monster flick The Blob; the werewolf colony tale The Howling (1981), from director Joe Dante (Gremlins, Piranha): director Robert Wise (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) unleashing ghosts on Julie Harris and Claire Bloom in 1963’s The Haunting; The Exorcist author/creator William Peter Blatty writing and directing 1990’s The Exorcist III; and Paul Schrader, director of Taxi Driver and Cat People, summoning demons in 2005’s Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist.
Programming ends in the early morning hours of November 1 (the Day of the Dead!) with the return of Vincent Price in a double feature: House on Haunted Hill (1959) and the vampire-apocalypse The Last Man on Earth (1964; based on the famous novella I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson).
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at Freeform’s programming. Stay tuned!
If you live in a big city, you know how dangerous trick-or-treating can sometimes be, with dodging speeding cars and trucks while you’re trying to make the rounds of your favorite candy-giving haunts—even in the daytime!
In 2022, New York City took steps to try and make trick-or-treating a much safer event, by instituting “Trick or Streets,” an expansion of its “Open Streets” initiative that closes certain streets to vehicular traffic so that NYC residents can walk and bike on them without fear of injury. (It’s a popular program that started in May 2021 as a result of the pandemic lockdown, so that people could finally get out of their homes and apartments to enjoy fresh air.)
Continuing the tradition, today kicks off Year 5’s Trick or Streets 2026: a two-week festival during which a number of streets will be closed off in all five boroughs, allowing you and yours to hit the pavement and celebrate the Spooky Season with “live music, fun activities, interactive performances, and more.” (Keep an eye on local weather forecasts, though, so you can dress accordingly.)
For more information on the city’s Halloween plans and a list of family-friendly events being held, head over to the Trick or Streets website.
Have a fun and safe Halloween!
(Photo © Steven A. Roman)
The 2026 NBA season has officially begun, and even though last season’s champions, the New York Knicks, lost their home opener last night the timing is still perfect for this Halloween setup I recently came across in Pan’s (and StarWarp Concepts’) home neighborhood of Sunnyside.
I think it’s meant to commemorate Knicks forward OG Anunoby’s famous tip-in basket during the 2025 Finals. If so, it’s part of a Spooky Season trend this year, with similarly themed skeleton hoop dreams on display—but hey, when you’re a sports fan and your favorite team becomes (in this case) NBA Champions, putting a Halloween spin on an outstanding moment is sort of expected.
Tricks In Five!
Halloween is just four weeks away (although if you’re a horror fan, you might have been celebrating it year-round), so what better time to get in the mood for tricks and treats than today? Here’s some ways to spark your inner ghoul:
Horror movies and TV shows! AMC Fearfest, Turner Classic Movies, the SyFy Channel, Movies! TV Network, Freeform, and Svengoolie (on MeTV) are just some of the cable stations chock full of Halloweeny programming during October, most of it kicking off today, and streaming sites like HBO Max, Tubi, Apple TV, Netflix, and Pluto are constantly adding horror movies to their lineups. There’s a lot to see before All Hallows’ Eve, so check online listings for more information.
The new Resident Evil movie (for you zomboids) and Practical Magic 2 (for you witchcraft fans) are still in theaters, and this year’s mega–box office hits Obsession and Backrooms are currently available for streaming. Clayface, a body-horror origin picture for one of Batman’s most grotesque villains, opens on October 23. And Crystal Lake is a prequel series to the Friday the 13th movie franchise that stars Linda Cardellini as Jason’s mom, Pamela Voorhees, and is set to debut on Peacock on October 15.
Countdown to Halloween is an annual collection of blogs (mostly horror-themed) that commit to posting daily entries every day of the month, on a wide range of topics from comic books to toys, classic horror movies to to music, even wanderings through local cemeteries.
How about some music? The ghoulish deejays over at Halloween Radio and its five channels (Main, Soundtracks, Atmosphere, Oldies, and Kids) stream tunes 24/7, 365 days a year—perfect for when you’re looking for background music to play while you’re decorating your home or apartment, carving pumpkins, or working on your costume.
But the true meaning of horror can be found on the Hallmark Channel, which is set to debut The Spirit of Halloween, an actual Halloween-themed romance movie, on Saturday, October 10! Taking its inspiration from the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, it involves a Halloween-hating businesswoman who learns the true meaning of the holiday (Is it candy? Cosplay? Monsters?) after a visit by three ghosts.
(Actually, it’s pretty well known that horror and Hallmark have a weird relationship. For all the counter-Halloween programming they do, Hallmark does have a following for their Christmas movies among horror fans, and then there’s the fact that not only have a number of horror writers and directors contributed to the yuletide filmfests (Fred Olen Ray, David DeCoteau, Michael Varrati), but even horror icons like Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead), Natasha Henstridge (Species), and Patricia Velasquez (The Mummy) have starred in them!)
Whatever it is you do to get ready, have a fun time doing it!
(Header art © True Touch, courtesy of Shutterstock.)
That Lord of the Undead, he sure likes to celebrate. Back in February, we noted that Valentine’s Day marked the 95th anniversary of the cinematic debut of Dracula, the 1931 Universal Monsters classic starring Bela Lugosi in his most iconic role. And today is another special occasion: the 2026 edition of World Dracula Day!
World Dracula Day was launched in 2012 by the Whitby Dracula Society 1897 (which is based in Whitby Abbey, England), to mark the day in 1897 when Bram Stoker’s seminal novel was first released by publisher Archibald Constable & Co.
So, what’s the best way to celebrate the occasion? Well, you could read Dracula, of course, or binge a movie marathon of horror flicks starring the count—there are certainly enough of those to watch, not to mention this year’s US release of Dracula: A Love Tale, from writer/director Luc Besson (The Professional, The Fifth Element).
Or you could purchase an entry in StarWarp Concepts’ Illustrated Classics line…a book that helped to inspire Stoker in creating the count’s unforgettable debut—especially when it came to the presentation of his vampiric “brides.” In fact, it’s a book that’s been ranked a “Best of #BookTok” title!
Carmilla is J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 19th-century classic vampiric tale of love gone wrong. Laura is so desperate for a friend that when a young woman named Carmilla practically turns up on the doorstep of the castle owned by Laura’s father, she thinks her prayers for companionship have been answered. But as she comes to realize, Carmilla isn’t as interested in making friends as she is in spilling blood…
Regarded as the one of the earliest female vampire tales—if not the first—Carmilla was an influence on Stoker’s Dracula, and remains a popular character in fiction to this day. SWC’s special edition contains six exclusive illustrations by the super-talented Eliseu Gouveia (A Princess of Mars, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1).
“With a cover that looks like it belongs on the paranormal romance shelf in a bookstore and half a dozen illustrations provided by Eliseu Gouveia, this edition stands a good chance of tempting some younger readers to pick up this classic vampire tale…. I wish I’d picked this book up in seventh grade instead of slogging through Dracula.”—The Gothic Library
Carmilla is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page for ordering information.
Hey, lovers of vampire fiction and supernatural romance, did you know that it was 95 years ago—on Valentine’s Day, of all days!—that the 1931 screen adaptation of Dracula made its theatrical debut? It’s true!
Directed by Tod Browning (Freaks, London After Midnight), with a screenplay by Garrett Fort (adapting the Bram Stoker novel and the then-popular stage play written by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston), and starring Bela Lugosi as the count, Dwight Frye as his crazy minion Renfield, Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing, David Manners as John Harker, and Helen Chandler as Mina Seward, the film proved to be a major box-office success and made Lugosi a household name.
Still, it’s not really a romance—Dracula’s interest in Mina is more along the lines of a predator stalking its prey than a love story; he’s a monster in human form. But maybe it works in a tainted love, psycho-stalker, Lifetime Movie sort of way? Whatever it is, and however you look at it, you do you, Cupid…
So, what’s the best way to celebrate this special Valloween occasion if you’re a horror fan? Well, you could read Dracula, of course, or have your own movie marathon of horror flicks starring the count, starting with the Bela Lugosi classic (or the Spanish-language version, released the same year, starring Carlos Villarias and using the same sets!) and leading all the way up to the most current screen adaptation, Dracula, written and directed by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), and starring Caleb Landry Jones and Zoe Bleu as the count and his love interest, Mina Murray.
Or you could purchase a book that helped to inspire Bram Stoker in creating the count’s unforgettable debut—especially when it came to the presentation of his vampirie “brides.” In fact, it’s been ranked a “Best of #BookTok” title!
Carmilla is J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 19th-century classic vampiric tale of love gone wrong. Laura is so desperate for a friend that when a young woman named Carmilla practically turns up on the doorstep of the castle owned by Laura’s father, she thinks her prayers for companionship have been answered. But as she comes to realize, Carmilla isn’t as interested in making friends as she is in spilling blood…
Regarded as the one of the earliest female vampire tales—if not the first—Carmilla was an influence on Stoker’s Dracula, and remains a popular character in fiction to this day. Our special Illustrated Classics edition contains six exclusive illustrations by the super-talented Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City, A Princess of Mars, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1).
“With a cover that looks like it belongs on the paranormal romance shelf in a bookstore and half a dozen illustrations provided by Eliseu Gouveia, this edition stands a good chance of tempting some younger readers to pick up this classic vampire tale…. I wish I’d picked this book up in seventh grade instead of slogging through Dracula.”—The Gothic Library
Carmilla is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.