31 Days of Horror - Day 7

When it comes to Halloween costumes, I'm a firm believer that homemade costumes are the only way to fly.  Sure, they're a lot of work, but they also require a lot of love.  The love shows in the final product.  As a kid, you have a costume made by your mom, nine times out of ten your friends are going to be jealous.  After all, it doesn't take much to out-do a plastic smock and mask.  As a teen, you begin to dabble in costume making on your own.  You still lean on mom for help when needed; she's mom, she's good at that kind of stuff.  But now you're starting to work with your own ideas, your own vision.  When adulthood rolls around, I am adamant in the thought that grown ups should still dress up for Halloween.  IT'S HALLOWEEN! Why would you not?

As a parent, I still practice what I preach.  For years now, we've worked at making our own costumes, for young and old alike.  Sure, you still buy some bits and pieces from the costume store, but the majority of it is a home grown affair.   For years, we have helped my daughter make Halloween costumes of some shape or form, and we've had a blast.  Even when they didn't come out quite as envisioned.  Now sure, we bought a costume for her from time to time; she's a kid, she gets to choose what she wants to be.  If she wants to be Batgirl, my daughters' going to be Batgirl.  At the age of 14 though, she's fully on board the build your own costume train.  Even if I have no idea what it is she's wanting to dress up as. 

Growing up, I was blessed to have a mom who was pretty damn creative.  Whatever I decided I wanted to be for Halloween, she'd figure out how to make it.  Mamaw even helped out with her granddaughters costumes from time time, which were always great as well. Despite what some asshat at Distractify may think. (My Daughter is Scooby Doo in picture #1, that's our living room!)  

Most years, I had fantastic costumes.  Except for one.  I don 't remember what year it was, but I was determined that I didn't want a homemade costume that year, as I had to be X Wing Pilot Luke Skywalker that year.  I had to be.  It was imperative.  Now, this was the typical boxed costume that came with a crappy printed vinyl smock and a plastic mask with elastic to cover your face.  Even at that age, I knew my mom was disappointed, but what could you do?  I was ecstatic, because "Star Wars" was pretty sweet.

In northern Indiana, it could get pretty chilly at Halloween time if mother nature put her mind to it.  This year was no exception. So of course, I had to wear my plastic X-Wing suit over winter coat and boots.  It was horrible, as you can imagine.  It wasn't thirty minutes into the nights adventures before the elastic band broke on my mask.  That was traumatic in its own right.  Plus, but the end of the night, the plastic suit was shredded. Because it was cheap.  And it was plastic.  My spirits were crushed and the only thing that could raise my spirits at the end of that Halloween was the promise of a trip to the hospital so I they could x-ray my candy.  You know, to make sure there weren't any razor blades in it.  No, I'm not kidding.  They let you keep the x-ray! At 7 or 8 years old, that was a major deal! 

Now the irony of that years temper tantrum of having to have a "Star Wars" costume is strong to me now.  You see, my mom was fully capable of making a pretty major-rager "Star Wars" costume of her own. She was a mad wizard at papier-mache, so the sky was the limit if you wanted a costume that was large, round and rigid.  Just a few years before that fateful Halloween night, she had made me the R2-D2 costume to end all costumes.  It was head to toe papier-mache and it lowered over my head and hung to my ankles.  I was a four foot tall R2-D2, and I was the coolest thing walking the streets on that Halloween.  There was one miscalculation though; the entire suit was rigid, and covered my knees.  I was a four foot tall R2-D2 that couldn't bend his legs.  I did a lot of waddling that year, yet I didn't mind.  I was R2.  Hills were a challenge, as you can imagine.  I refused to let my mother lift the suit off my head on the first hill, so after I tipped over and rolled to the bottom of said hill, I was fine with taking it off for any other hills. The beauty of it though?  Mom made costumes so durable, that suit didn't even chip when I rolled down the hill.  It was amazing, and it sat in my bedroom for at least a year after the holiday was over. 

So as you can see, I'm pretty partial to homemade costumes.  They're fun to make, fun to wear and as an adult, they're a blast to make kids scream.  The Mrs. and I will be out handing out candy in full regalia as we always do, though we'll be in different costumes this year.  I myself am thinking that it's finally time I tackle Jason Vorhees, the Mrs, she has her own ideas in mind. 

Do you have your own grand costume plans for this Halloween season?  Tweet us a pic over at our BGHorror Twitter, and we'll share them out for the world to see!  Heck, maybe we'll even compile the best ones for the final post of 31 Days of Horror! 

Tuesday's movies were a little sparse, but don't worry; I still managed to sneak in some good ones. 

Frankenstein

Frankenstein's Monster is my favorite monster, bar none.  I consider him my spirit monster, to tell the truth.  I haven't quite articulated why, but I love this film, but not quite as much as I love Karloff's Frankenstein's Monster.  He's misunderstood, he can't articulate his feelings very well, and the poor guy is lonely and confused!  Can you really blame him for being a Monster?  Of course not. 

Now, as great as Colin Clive was, I have to admit something here; he's not my favorite Doctor Frankenstein.  No, that honor goes to Peter Cushing who played the roles in a large number of Hammer classics.  Peter Cushing is an amazing actor and he really shines in the role.  Christopher Lee however, (and the other subsequent monsters) have nothing on Mr. Karloff. 

Care to hear more in depth thoughts on why I love Hammer's Frankenstein flicks?  Be sure to check out the back catalog of my other podcast, 1951 Down Place.

The Bride of Frankenstein

Now, she may not be my wife's spirit monster, but in my mind, Mrs. Casey is the Bride to my Monster, for certain.  I know for a fact she likes her a little bit though, because she lets me collect Frank and Mrs. Frank artwork and actually hang it in the living room!  (Yeah, my wife's pretty cool.)  "The Bride of Frankenstein" is another classic, and a must see companion to the original Frankenstein.  It gets a little weird with the little people that the doctor is inventing, but what can you do?  Plus, with as little screen time as Ellsa Lanchester actually got in this film, she owned every second of it.  She was pretty fantastic as a dead guy's dead wife.  She was so pretty, too! 

Annabelle

I will not go super in depth on my thoughts on "Annabelle"; for that, you'll have to stay tuned for the next episode of the Bloody Good Horror Podcast.  I'll give you a teaser though; I was not a big fan. Who would buy that ugly ass doll for their baby?  I am not altogether surprised by my feelings towards "Annabelle", as I wasn't a very big fan of "The Conjuring" either.  But, you can't win them all. 

The movie count for October's 31 Days of Horror now climbs to 24 films! My brain is beginning to grow a bit spongy, but I'm still having fun and keeping my nose to the grind stone.  Be sure to tune in tomorrow as we go for Day 8 in our little article marathon, and as always, I hope you enjoy! 

If you'd like to reach out and say Hi, call me a knob, or just talk about horror flicks?  Be sure to follow me on twitter at CaseyBGH.