Horror Report

Tag: halloween

  • You can FEEL these images! The most important scenes from the Halloween movies had nothing to do with Michael Myers

    You can FEEL these images! The most important scenes from the Halloween movies had nothing to do with Michael Myers

    The Melancholy of Halloween: Why Halloween 4 and Halloween 3 Still Make us Glow!

    There are certain things about Halloween that never quite leave you.
    When you’re younger, it might be a family party, trick-or-treat night, or the excitement of dressing up for school. Maybe it’s the sound of leaves scraping across the pavement, or the cool autumn wind beneath a sky that can’t decide whether it’s sunny or gray.

    It’s melancholy.
    It’s nostalgic.
    It’s Halloween.

    And for many of us, two particular Halloween movies bring that feeling back stronger than anything else.
    Not because of scares or kills.. not even the music, despite that setting a certain tone to the films.

    Maybe you’re one of those people .. maybe you feel it too.

    The Opening of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

    The fourth installment movie begins not with screams or murders, but with a quiet, haunting montage of rural Americana. There’s no Haddonfield, Illinois because that town doesn’t exist .. but the landscape during the opening scene of the film feels like it could be anywhere in your back yard or field nearby. In this case it was actually filmed in Corinne Utah..

    Cornfields. A lone scarecrow. A rusted fence line. A jack-o’-lantern sitting in the dusk.
    All of it set to Alan Howarth’s mournful score and the sound of wind whispering through half-bare trees.

    I promise you cannot watch this and NOT feel it in your bones…

    Before Michael Myers even appears, the tone is already perfect. It’s not about the horror — it’s about the feeling. That sense of October. That moment when daylight fades a little too early, and you can smell the wood smoke in the air. For many fans, that opening sequence is Halloween. It captures the essence of the season better than any pumpkin-spice latte or store-bought decoration ever could.

    A few years ago, a Halloween website actually gave us a “then vs now” scene by scene of the opening sequence.. times have changed. And that is why this scene brings back to much..

    x x x

    The Beauty Within Halloween 3: Season of the Witch

    Then there’s Halloween 3: Season of the Witch — the most debated entry in the franchise.
    Some fans love it. Others can’t stand that it doesn’t feature Michael Myers. But beyond its odd plot about a mask-maker’s deadly plan, there’s something poetic hidden in the chaos.

    As the Silver Shamrock jingle plays and the movie cuts to shots of kids across America — trick-or-treating, laughing, wearing those creepy masks — it taps into something universal. For a few brief moments, the film isn’t about terror at all; it’s about childhood, innocence, and the fragile glow of Halloween night.

    And then, there’s that breathtaking final image: three silhouettes walking into the orange-gold horizon, the sun setting behind them.
    For a film so divisive, that single scene is pure cinematic beauty — a quiet, haunting symbol of the season itself.

    Nostalgia in the Shadows

    We all have our own movies that summon that peculiar Halloween nostalgia — the ones that make us feel ten years old again for just a moment. But for many of us, it’s these two films — and these two scenes in particular — that stir something deeper.

    I don’t know if movie makers envisioned it.. but beneath the Shatner mask and the famed John Carpenter music, Halloween has always been about more than fear. It’s about the passage of time, the changing light, the melancholy of autumn itself. Samhain….

    So as the season of the witch arrives once more ..
    Don’t forget to be in front of your television set for the big giveaway.

    🎃 Silver Shamrock. 🎶

  • People seem to like a fan film of Michael Myers more than HALLOWEEN ENDS

    People seem to like a fan film of Michael Myers more than HALLOWEEN ENDS

    Does that mean this movie is great? Or Halloween ENDS is so bad?

    Bloody Disgusting Spotlights Fan-Made Halloween: Aftermath Film

    The website Bloody Disgusting has recently showcased a fan-made Halloween movie titled Halloween: Aftermath. The setting falls between Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, filling in that eerie gap of time in the saga.

    At the time of this writing, the film has already pulled in well over a hundred thousand views on YouTube. Clocking in at 135 minutes, it’s not a short watch — but for die-hard Michael Myers fans, that might just be a good thing.

    The story is set in October 2020, when Michael Myers has once again vanished. A lucky survivor of the 2018 massacre is trying to heal and move on, unaware that the voices — and the evil — still linger nearby. The film was produced by A63 Pictures and GrimNox Productions, with James Grim directing from a script by Cole Tatham.

    Grim recently posted on Facebook about his film getting attention from one of the biggest horror sites in the world, calling it both surreal and exciting. But with that attention comes judgment — and the horror fandom has plenty of opinions.

    Many viewers have criticized the movie for being a little slow or drawn out, while others praise it for its high production quality, especially for a fan-made project. Even critics admit that, visually and technically, it’s a level above the average YouTube fan film.

    What everyone seems to agree on, however, is just how divisive Halloween Ends remains. Few films in the franchise have sparked as much frustration as that one — and comments under Aftermath echo the same sentiment.

    Over time, perceptions of other Halloween entries have shifted (Halloween III went from hated to beloved, and Halloween 4 and 5 have both found new appreciation). But it’s hard to imagine Halloween Ends getting that same redemption arc anytime soon — many fans still find it to be a disappointing finale.

    As for Aftermath, some viewers have noted that while it captures the atmosphere and charm of a classic Halloween movie, the long runtime and slower dialogue sequences may test patience. Still, considering this is a fan-made feature that feels remarkably professional, credit where credit is due: James Grim and his team delivered something ambitious, bold, and worth talking about.You can watch Halloween: Aftermath for yourself on YouTube — and decide whether two hours and fifteen minutes with Michael Myers is worth your time.

  • Happy Halloween. Have a nice trip. See you next fall..

    Happy Halloween. Have a nice trip. See you next fall..

    Halloween is here.. And the media is once again using the opportunity to scare parents about the season of the witch.. no spells. No ghosts.. no goblins.. Not even Michael Myers lurking behind a bush.

    No, the UPI instead of using the seasonal topic of bad luck that may befall your child..

    Trips. Toxic masks.. an visibility..

    From their hard hitting piece on something to make your parental situation even more nervous:

    Avoid tripping hazards. Costumes that are too long or baggy can easily cause falls. Hem hand-me-downs or homemade outfits so they don’t drag on the ground.

    Stay visible. Add reflective tape to costumes, give kids flashlights or choose light-up treat buckets so drivers can easily see them.

    And if you thought they would not bring up the candy situation> Think again!!

    Lastly, after trick-or-treating, sort through candy before kiddos dig in. Watch for hard candies that pose choking risks for children under 3, and avoid homemade or unwrapped treats that could contain allergens or other hazards.

  •  Checking the chocolates: The real Candyman of Halloween 

     Checking the chocolates: The real Candyman of Halloween 

    Every year, when you sort through your children’s Halloween candy, you’re doing it for two reasons.
    First, probably to steal the best ones before they notice. But second, because you’ve heard the stories: knives in apples, poisoned chocolate bars, and cyanide-laced sweets handed out by strangers.


    Guess what? Here is the tough news to consider…
    It’s not really true and there may be no real logical requirement to keep doing this.. (though we all still will )

    There is some history on the origin for this candy fear..

    The first report of Halloween treats being tampered with in North America was in 1959. That year, a California dentist named William Shyne distributed 450 laxative-laced candies to children — 30 of whom fell ill. He was later charged with “outrage of public decency” and “unlawful dispensing of drugs.”

    Another high profile case made headlines in 1964, when a 47-year-old mother from Greenlawn, N.Y., named Helen Pfeil handed out bags of treats containing arsenic-laced ant traps, metal mesh scrubbing pads and dog biscuits.

    And just a few years ago in Pennsylvania, cops warned parents to check their kids stash for THC-laced Nerd ropes..

    But the real fear began with one man, in Texas, nearly fifty years ago.

    The night he came home


    On Halloween night 1974, a father named Ronald Clark O’Bryan, later called “The Candyman” by major media that loves naming killers for pop culture and sales purposes, laced powdered candy with cyanide. He was also called the The Pixy Stix Killer but that name didn’t seem to stick …

    O’Bryan didn’t lace candy to poison his neighborhood in Pasadena, Texas. He did it to kill his own 8-year-old son, Timothy, for life-insurance money.

    That is the horrid truth behind this urban legend.. It was real in a sense, but it was disgustingly personal for O’Bryan.

    O’Bryan, a 30-year-old optician from nearby Deer Park, joined his children and neighbors for trick-or-treating. One house was dark; no one answered the door, so the kids moved on. O’Bryan lagged behind for show, then caught up holding five giant Pixy Stix, about 21 inches long, sealed with staples. They were tampered with– by him.

    He explained to the children they were lucky: The “rich neighbors” were handing out expensive treats. Each child got one. Later, he gave one to his five-year-old daughter and another to a ten-year-old boy from his church.

    That night, Timothy ate a few spoonfuls of the powdered candy, complained it tasted bitter, and collapsed. Within minutes he was dead.. he was poisoned by his own father.

    The Investigation

    O’Bryan claimed a mysterious neighbor had handed him the candy. But the man he blamed, Courtney Melvin, was at work as an air-traffic controller on duty that night and he had more than 200 coworkers confirming his alibi to law enforcement.

    Detectives soon learned O’Bryan’s life was a complete train wreck. He was more than $100,000 in debt, behind on his mortgage and car payments, suspected of theft at work, and had held 21 jobs in 10 years. In the months before Halloween, he quietly took out life-insurance policies totaling up to $60,000 to $100,000 on his children!


    At trial, witnesses testified that O’Bryan had asked about buying cyanide and even discussed lethal doses. His sister-in-law told the court that at Timothy’s funeral, he spoke excitedly about collecting insurance money and taking a vacation.

    Prosecutor Mike Hinton told jurors: that the only inescapable conclusion you can draw is that this man killed his own child for money.

    The case seemed as air tight as people can desire.

    It took the jury 46 minutes to find O’Bryan guilty.

    The Candyman’s Final Trick

    O’Bryan maintained his innocence for nearly a decade. On March 31, 1984, he was executed by lethal injection. His final meal: steak, French fries, peas, corn, salad, rolls, iced tea, and for desert a Boston cream pie.

    Outside the prison, protesters wearing Halloween masks chanted “Trick or Treat!”


    It was both macabre theater and a grim bookend to the legend he had created.

    The root of fear


    O’Bryan’s crime transformed Halloween. Parents no longer saw candy as harmless; they saw potential danger. In the years that followed, rumors spread nationwide .. tainted treats, razor blades in apples, needles in chocolate bars.

    By the 1980s, police and hospitals offered X-ray screenings for candy. Families examined every wrapper under bright kitchen lights.

    John Carpenter hated making a sequel to his hit 70s movie, but he used Halloween II to slip in a brief scene of a child bleeding from a razor in an apple.. It was a cinematic echo of the new paranoia.


    But sociologists later confirmed the truth: aside from Timothy O’Bryan, children are not poisoned by Halloween candy..

    To this day, continued stories occur each Halloween season in which people report tampering of candy to cops.. such as this from 2015 in Kennett Square PA, when parents complained to police about needles in treats.. which turned out to be a hoax.

    The Legacy

    The Candyman’s story became the template for America’s Halloween anxiety. It was a true crime that birthed a thousand false ones..

    Every October, parents still dump candy onto the dining-room table, sifting through it like forensic scientists. It’s ritual now, a strange inheritance from 1970s.

    Because even though the candy isn’t poisoned, the fear still is there..

    According to Professor Joel Best, there have been approximately 80 reports of sharp objects inserted into Halloween treats since 1959. The great majority of those reports turned out to be hoaxes

    Don’t feel guilty about checking the candy.. you know, just in case.

    And while you’re looking through, maybe just throw away those candy corns that ruin teeth and don’t taste good anyway.

  • Without Warning remains the best WORST Halloween made for TV movie of all time

    Without Warning remains the best WORST Halloween made for TV movie of all time

    This time of year always brings a certain melancholy reflection and a lot of nostalgia. For me, one of the oddest and most memorable parts of that mix is an old made-for-TV movie that somehow manages to be both terrible and fantastic at the same time.

    You’ll probably think I’m crazy for saying it, but I’m talking about “Without Warning,” a CBS television movie from 1994.

    It aired on the anniversary of Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds broadcast — the one that scared the space aliens out of America in 1938 when people thought aliens were actually invading. CBS promoted Without Warning heavily, making sure viewers knew it was fictional. Still, that didn’t stop some people from calling the police that night, convinced that history was repeating itself .. another alien invasion, right on early 90s prime-time TV.

    The 1990s Were the Perfect Time for This Kind of Weird TV movie

    Let’s rewind to the great 1990s. Seriously, they were pretty great. The Clinton administration was just getting started. No one had heard of Monica Lewinsky yet. The economy was taking off (despite NAFTA and GATT which would eventually kinda sorta ruin everything).. And in the background, the paranormal was quietly creeping into pop culture’s bloodstream.

    Shows like Art Bell’s Coast to Coast AM, Sightings, and Unsolved Mysteries made the supernatural feel just a little more believable. It was the perfect atmosphere for a movie like Without Warning .. a fake news broadcast about the end of the world.

    The entire film was presented as a series of breaking news segments. Sander Vanocur, a respected journalist at the time, played it completely straight. The first reports came in of mysterious asteroids striking the planet .. there were three impact sites, three disasters. But as the “coverage” went on, it became clear that these weren’t asteroids at all. They were intelligently controlled… and they were angry.

    Then we were joined by mom from Malcolm in the Middle!! Long before Malmolm..

    In the movie, the U.S. government (under a fictionalized version of the Clinton administration) launched nuclear weapons in a last-ditch effort to intercept the incoming objects. That, of course, made things worse. Soon, radar screens filled with hundreds of unidentified craft closing in on Earth. Cue the faux-emotional poetry, the panicked anchors, and the eerie fade-out that left everyone wondering if the end had already begun.

    CBS was ready.. they were knew that WAR OF THE WORLD caused panic.. so they thought they would devise a nifty course of action and tell people the show was fake every commercial break…

    That should work, right?

    NOPE.. it didn’t.

    Terrible… but Terrifying for a lot of people!

    The reviews were brutal.. But 14-year-old me? I loved it.

    I remember sitting there on Halloween night in 1994, too old to trick-or-treat and living in an area with few kids anyway. I was ready for Without Warning like it was the Super Bowl. When John B. Wells’ voice kicked in for the opening narration, I was hooked.

    Even today, I still sometimes throw it on YouTube as background noise though I almost hesitate to mention it, since no one has claimed the copyright and I don’t want to jinx it. It’s oddly comforting in that late-night, static-on-the-screen way. I hope this Youtube video with ORIGINAL COMMERCIALS FROM THE TIME doesn’t go away..

    Each time the movie returned from commercial break, a voiceover reminded viewers that this was not actually happening. Despite that, many people still believed it was real — a modern echo of Orson Welles’ panic nearly six decades earlier.

    Even with the warnings… even with the constant “we are fake” promos, hundreds of people called television stations in various cities and states in panic!! Reports at the time said some of those calling in were in tears.

    When Fiction Feels a Little Too Real

    What makes this worth bringing up now, 31 years later, is how eerily it ties into today. Right now, we have 3I/ATLAS passing near Mars .. an interstellar object that some, including Harvard’s Avi Loeb, speculate might not be a comet at all. Maybe it’s something… different.

    Could it be another visitor from deep space? Maybe even a kind of mothership?

    If that’s the case, if someone or something out there really did hear our old radio signals and decided to drop by to see what we’re about, then Without Warning might not just be a cheesy relic of ‘90s television. It might be a glimpse of how it all begins.

    Wouldn’t that be one heck of a way to end 2025?

  • Horror trivia: William Shatner played Freddy Voorhees from the Halloween on Elm Street The 13th movie

    Horror trivia: William Shatner played Freddy Voorhees from the Halloween on Elm Street The 13th movie


    At this point, it’s not even trivia anymore—everyone knows that William Shatner’s face became the face of Michael Myers in Halloween. Horror fans have repeated this story for almost half a century: John Carpenter’s low-budget film needed a mask, so the crew went to a store, grabbed a William Shatner Star Trek mask, slathered it in white paint, widened the eye holes, and—voilà—the Shape was born.

    So, last night I stumbled across a nostalgic TikTok clip of William Shatner himself talking to Conan O’Brien back in the ’90s about this very thing. What should have been a fun exchange quickly turned into a painful mess. Shatner and Conan mixed up Jason and Freddy, the audience shouted out Friday the 13th when the real answer was Halloween, and Andy Richter, joking about being a “slasher movie connoisseur,” still couldn’t get the facts straight.

    In fairness, this may not have been as WELL KNOWN in the 90s–perhaps it was more of obscure trivia compared to the amount of knowledge people have today of horror and the Halloween films.. but when your face is the base for a horror icon, you’d think you would have gotten it right? (This aired in November 1997)..



    The whole segment is a horror fan’s worst nightmare—not because of Michael Myers, but because of how wrong everyone managed to be. It’ll make you wince, but it’s worth a watch..

    For some more reading, check out our October 2022 post about the aging Shape.. the fate of the original Myers mask and how it looked then.. It is falling apart..

  • A new Halloween game coming out in 2026 looks incredible

    A new Halloween game coming out in 2026 looks incredible

    Now this looks like an amazing game coming out next year.

    The world premiere trailer has revealed Halloween: The Game—an immersive, stealth-based horror title based on John Carpenter’s 1978 classic. The game is set to release in 2026 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

    Of course, the internet wasted no time weighing in. Some critics are already dismissing it as just another horror title recycled from familiar mechanics seen in other games. But for Halloween fans? That hardly matters. This could finally be the Halloween game we’ve all been waiting for.

    We do have one small criticism, though. Michael Myers doesn’t look like the infamous William Shatner mask. Instead… he looks a little too much like Spock from Star Trek.

  • Clowning around on Halloween

    Clowning around on Halloween

    The rumors are true: Art the Clown will ring rhe closing bell on Wall Street today, Halloween 2024..

    Is this historic? Weird?

    Or a huge in your face to the other clown who flopped at the box this fall?

    Terrifier 3 studio and distributor Cineverse (Nasdaq: CNVS) said in a press release that it will celebrate the box office success of the shock horror movie in New York City on Thursday when Art the Clown rings the closing bell…

    From their press release:

    “Art the Clown and Terrifier 3 took on The Joker at the box office and won, and now are taking on the street,” Cineverse Chief Legal Officer Gary Loffredo said in a press release. “As our company marks one of the most exciting phases since it began being listed on Nasdaq nearly two decades ago, it’s only fitting that on Halloween we are joined by the iconic character, from our number one movie, to ring the closing bell.”

    According to the release, Art the Clown will be joined by various Cineverse executives and guests, as well as representatives from the movie…

  • Halloween just ain’t what it used to be

    Halloween just ain’t what it used to be

    Here are the top costumes in 2024..

    Here are this year’s top 25 trending costumes, according to Google Trends:

    1. Shrunken Head Bob, from “Beetlejuice”
    2. Raygun
    3. Catnap
    4. Delores, from “Beetlejuice”
    5. Pomni, from “The Amazing Digital Circus”
    6. Envy, from “Inside Out”
    7. Red, from “Descendants”
    8. Dr. Doom
    9. Sabrina Carpenter
    10. Lady Deadpool
    11. Chipotle burrito
    12. Anger, from “Inside Out”
    13. Disgust, from “Inside Out”
    14. Wolverine
    15. Anxiety, from “Inside Out”
    16. Delia Deetz, from “Beetlejuice”
    17. Gambit
    18. Dune
    19. Minion
    20. Shadow the Hedgehog
    21. Joy, from “Inside Out”
    22. Peely, from “Fortnite”
    23. Lydia Deetz, from “Beetlejuice”
    24. Soulja Boy
    25. Godzilla

    MEANWHILE..

    Trunk or treat is here to stay (no matter how much you may hate it) *

    Great article that debunks all of those fears over trick or treating.. razor blades in apples.. tainted candy..

    But regardless, cultural shifts and endless fears of fakery and trickery have caused us to be comfortable accepting candy from decorated car trunks in parking lots across America..

    Lest we forget: Malls were the ‘place’ to trick or treat for years..

    Until malls shuddered across America. Shifts occur.. maybe one day soon we will just accept ‘virtual’ candy on social media for Samhain…

    The Atlantic laments: Halloween has changed..

  • Keeping this Halloween spirit a little longer.

    Keeping this Halloween spirit a little longer.

    This is probably a brilliant move. Imagine the Spirit Halloween store closes down and immediately the spirit changes to Christmas.. a store opens up with ugly sweaters. A Santa Claus .. and maybe some Nightmare before Christmas socks and door nats?

    It’s apparently going to happen. A few tests pop-up stores are coming.

    https://www.spirithalloween.com/content.jsp?pageName=spiritchristmas&fbclid=IwY2xjawFwItNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZziuuT1c_4oZt63lO87QmNkdDsdMF9gsWH3gX3S5dOCvFsNx0m1n0mFsA_aem_hBSgF50B2V0T-3_UecmTrg

    Spirit Halloween is opening a couple test run.. at this point, these stores will be in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

    And they are going to work!!

    Honestly, we’re hopeful of some form of a mixture of the scary and supernatural along with the bright and cuddly imagery of Christmas.

    At this point, the spirit store may as well just keep ongoing with spirit, New Year’s and Easter, and then while we’re at it. Spirit, fourth of july?Let’s make this a year round thing

    There’s plenty of retail space to house it and most likely at least with Christmas. A number of customers that can make it work.