WSB's Halloween Favorites

Destiny

Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams in Addams Family Values (1993)

While I love nothing more than snuggling up in my Ouija board blanket and binge-watching my favorite Halloween-appropriate movies—classics such as Addams Family Values (1993) and Beetlejuice (1988)—what truly gets me ready for the spooky season is pulling out the decorations and (hopefully) buying new ones for the house. Although this could be largely attributed to me purchasing my own home this year, it’s long been one of my favorite parts of living out what I consider a month-long holiday—sometimes two.

There’s just something about decorating your space to reflect your personal interests and setting up creepy, interesting décor that, unfortunately, is otherwise not-so-appropriate year-round. While I’m sure it can be for some people, the opportunity to let my collection of pumpkins, window stickies, figurines, and more shine for these brief moments just brings me a type of unexplainable joy that I grasp onto before the seasonal depression really sets in. Of course, with the visual decorations also comes scents and sweaters galore. You cannot really immerse yourself in such a wholesome and meaningful holiday unless all your senses are satisfied, right? So, in addition, the fall-scented candles are LIT and the pumpkin-spice flavors are overflowing. No shame, no regrets, just Halloween. 

Ande

It may be a little on the nose, but nothing gets me ready for the Halloween season like a healthy stack of horror films. Of course, horror fans aren’t likely to discriminate when it comes to the calendar and our willingness to pop in a chiller, but the month of October makes our obsession a little more...palatable for our friends and family. That means that not only are you more likely to convince granny to watch a perennial favorite like Hocus Pocus (1993) or The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), but your more tempered friends are less likely to cringe and walk away when you can’t stop offering up your favorite new releases for them to stream, like Fear Street (available on Netflix), Censor (Hulu), and Violation (Shudder), not to mention those ones that are yet to arrive in theaters, like Antlers (2021) and Last Night in Soho (2021). It’s always exciting to try to come up with recommendations for people whose interests (and limits) vary so wildly and there’s nothing quite like introducing someone to their new favorite movie. And thinking of another Halloween tradition not to be forgotten, I also join in on movie-watching challenges like Cinemonster’s annual “Hooptober” challenge on Letterboxd, which inspires a near Christmas-like atmosphere in an already tight community. In short, Halloween is a season of more of the same for me, with the hope that I can draw at least one more poor soul into my addicting web of terror.

Laura

Getting into the Halloween spirit this year has been tough for me. Caught between the paralyzing fear of how much time the pandemic has taken from all of us and personal uncertainty, I’ve had to push myself to capture at least some small part of Halloween magic for myself. And this year was certainly a success in the ways that mattered: a trip to the pumpkin patch, buying too many pumpkin-pie-scented candles, stocking up on year-round Halloween décor that fits in perfectly with my home, and, most importantly, spending time with a friend I haven’t seen since before the pandemic. Using a TikTok tie-blanket trend as inspiration, we started our own tradition this year: making Halloween friendship blankets by going to JoAnn’s and each picking out our own favorite spooky fleece pattern. 

This year, I also picked up a hobby of collecting Halloween-themed horror fiction, with anthologies like October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween and The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories, among others. I hoped to read my sizable stack throughout October, but it turned out that saving the experience for multiple seasons fits the bill much better. And you just know that Halloween night is going to be a time for pizza, candy, and an all-day marathon of my favorite holiday horror movies with my partner. So if you’re finding it difficult to get into the spooky season spirit this year, know that you’re definitely not alone: Celebrate (if you want to) in the ways that fit your energy and time.

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Article written by The Academic Horror Writers League

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