The Buzz

Hello fellow Buzzers and Happy Halloween.  If you’ve been following my Twitter or my Instagram (@sctrvt) then you know I’ve been celebrating Halloween all day.  This is something I’d usually do for the entirety of the month of October leading to the greatest day of the year, but this year it just didn’t happen.  Maybe it was getting old.  Maybe it’s not that special to me as a holiday anymore.  I’m sort of a purist to the holiday, and I believe that the scary, horror theme should ring true to everything about it.  Not dressing up as a cutesy theme with friends.  Not being this year’s “it” costume (that probably being replacement refs, that South Korean PSY guy, or Bane).  I believe in horror, gore, and the scarier the better for celebration.  And that spirit has died in our culture, it seems.  Also, the new batch of horror movies are boring me to death.

But then I realized I’ve been missing out on my part of the holiday and I really did miss it.  Watching horror movies and playing horror games, all things gore related.  Thus, I bring to you the probably overly detailed chronicling of my day of Halloween.

First order of business I started out by firing up the Xbox and throwing in Left for Dead 2.

Best zombie game ever. Don’t Argue

I freshly downloaded the newest map, Cold Stream, the night before and was ready to watch the parts fly.  And damn did I miss playing this game.  For those of you who haven’t played the game, not only is it the best zombie game out there right now, but it’s easily in the top 3 co-op games of all time.  There is no going alone.  You have to work together in order to survive.  I’ve spent countless hours on this game but have neglected it for too long.   But playing this also reminds me of how frustrating trying to play with others can be.  You expect the same level of cooperativeness from your teammates as you try to give, but sometimes you get the players that think they can play it Call of Duty style; i.e. running ahead and ignoring others as they are in peril. I. Hate. These. People.  Running off on your own = immediate danger for not only yourself but for others.  A horde will come if you do that.  A horde always f-cking comes.  If you play like that, good job.  You lack the ability to play a game the only way it’s meant to be played. [/rant]

Anyway, the game is not only extremely fun but can be really scary, and puts you in the perfect mood for Halloween.  I tried to keep up the theme with other games, thinking that a cool Halloween update with other games would be available.  I tried Mass Effect 3′s supposed update.  Turns out it was just some lame challenges.  I read on Twitter a few days back about Uncharted 3′s multiplayer update, but it turns out it was only available until October 29, which makes perfect sense since that’s two days PRIOR to the goddamn holiday.  But I think the most scary thing about that attempt was the extremely ridiculous updates that Playstation likes to grace its games with.

Well that seems reasonable

That does it for my tries video gaming in the Halloween spirit.  Mostly due to being a cheap bastard.  I could’ve downloaded something via Xbox Live Arcade or used Steam’s Halloween Sale, but instead I opted to move on.  Maybe later tonight I could do something better than that.

Moving on to the next portion of my Halloween trek, I figured I should do something a little more engaging.  I don’t usually include books as part of my normal Halloween ritual, and trying to read a whole horror book in one day is ludicrous, but a couple short stories is always a good way to get into the mood.  My author of choice was none other than H.P. Lovecraft.

Cthulu calls

The two stories of choice were short and to the point, “The Tomb” and “Dagon.”  I kind of wish I chose something that wasn’t so early in his career due to his nature of being overly dramatic, but these two stories did their job very well.  They kept the creepy factor high, and shows the quick descent into madness of the narrators, which is something Lovecraft does quite often.  He has a flair for ending his stories on a really silly note, kind of like a “GOTCHA” type of ending, leaving the reader with one last image as a way to scare them.  It might have worked 100 years ago, but today it’s actually quite hilarious.  Still, I loved reading these stories.  I should’ve read Call of Cthulu, as I’m sure you all will tell me.

Now to the important part- the movie.  Everyone watches at least one horror movie for Halloween.  Some, including me, try to watch as many as possible leading up to the day.  But since I didn’t give myself that luxury, I had to choose one.  Ok I lied.  I tried to watch one movie leading up to Halloween, and it took me forever because it is so damn slow and boring.  The Fog.  I know you hate me now but Jesus Christ the movie never picks up till the last 15 minutes.

Seriously, this is past the half way point and only one thing has really happened.

A lot of people watch a “Halloween” Halloween movie, one that either has a Halloween as the day or one with Michael Myers.  My go to “Halloween” movies are going to get me lynched by horror purists.  I prefer Rob Zombie’s vision to Carpenter’s, and the sequels that spawned from it.  But which of his two films should I choose?

I can feel the torches and pitchforks coming as we speak.

Not only am I watching a Rob Zombie Halloween, I’m watching the one people despise.  But I truly think this one is the best.  Zombie’s vision is dark, grimy and is angry, which seems to embody Myers more than the other ones.  The sequel especially feels darker and meaner.  Michael is pissed.  He grunts as he brutally destroys humanity.  There’s no trying to understand him, he is violent and pure evil something you don’t feel as much in Carpenter’s version.  ”But why not the remake?” you ask, and not the sequel no one likes?  Well mostly because most of it is a shot-for-shot, even with Zombie’s vision splattered across it.  Also, I only own the unrated version, which changes his escape from something more plausible and gory to something pointless and stupid.  Instead of Michael killing guards and leaving the psych ward that way, he escapes when two workers pointlessly rape a girl in his room.  It makes no sense and is just a reason to show rape.  So dumb.  Gah it makes me angry just thinking about it.

I’m not saying Zombie is exempt from criticism.  His characters are underwritten and some of his lines are just plain stupid, especially when he tries to write dialogue for teenage girls.  Plus it’s only fully of hillbillies. Aside from that, Halloween 2 feels like Zombie was able to make the Halloween movie that he wanted to make, fully his vision.  The first one had to be a remake and be somewhat faithful.  This one shows what Zombie can do on his own, with his own story and man is it great.  I await my death now.

Lastly I’m making a Halloween playlist on my iPod.  I love listening to Halloween themed music on late night walks in October and this year I dropped the ball, which is sad.  To close out my overly long Halloween chronicling, I’d like to share some songs with you for when I take my dark, long, haunted walk.

Crimson Ghosts

Misfits

Cradle of Filth

Muderland

ICP