A Halloween Miscellany

A handful of things that aren’t enough for separate posts:


If you still have time to make things, Evil Mad Scientist has a number of ideas for the technogeek in you. I’m especially fond of making “specimen jars” using unusual foodstuffs. With creative labeling, tapioca pearls (for example) can become “Eggs: Origin unknown”.

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2011/halloween-projects-from-evil-mad-scientist-laboratories/

Author Peter Watts has an interesting take on vampires, which he presents as a parody Powerpoint presentation. He used this version of vampirism to good effect in his novel Blindsight.

http://www.rifters.com/real/progress.htm

The webzine Cracked.com does “listicles” the right way, by actually writing about the items in the list. Their collection tagged “horror” provides you with more real-world creepiness than you can imagine.

http://www.cracked.com/horror/

At OverthinkingIt.com, Shana Mlawski explains how It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is the scariest movie ever.

http://www.overthinkingit.com/2008/10/30/its-the-great-pumpkin-charlie-brown-the-scariest-movie-ever/

The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency may no longer exist, but thanks in part to the efforts of a former regional director, a “tribute” website to the FVZA is still maintained. Read about important historical cases, learn about the biology of the undead, and study the effectiveness of various weapons and tactics against them. I’m partial to the “interactive cases” that put you into some actual incidents from their files.

http://www.fvza.org/index.html

Before the ubiquity of television, people got their chills from the radio. Thanks to all the Old Time Radio fans, and the Internet Archive, dozens upon dozens of episodes are available for download. At rarely more than half an hour in length, they make for ideal listening at any time.

Lights Out: http://archive.org/details/LightsOutoldTimeRadio
Quiet Please: http://archive.org/details/QuietPlease_806
Suspense: http://archive.org/details/OTRR_Suspense_Singles

And finally, no one does trailers like Alfred Hitchcock:

 

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