Last year, after Halloween, Jimmy Kimmel had parents troll their kids for cheap laughs by telling them that they had eaten all their candy. While many observers,
including some Mefites, felt that lying to your kids in this way was being willfully-mean, it garnered 34 million hits on YouTube, so naturally, he did it again.
Whether you think this is funny or not is definitely debatable; but if you're an old curmudgeon, like me, perhaps
3 year-old Madeline might just restore your hope for humanity.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy
on Nov 3, 2012 -
124 comments
In 2010,
1st grader Katie Goldman was the bullied kid at her school for being a girl who was into Star Wars (which is, of course, only for boys).
Geeks and fans across the net rallied to give moral support to Katie ("
The Littlest Jedi") for standing up for who she wanted to be.
Katie and her mother went on to lead an anti-bullying effort at Katie's school (which now observes December 10th as "Proud To Be Me Day") and Katie became a
symbol of
geek pride and anti-bullying, standing up at a birthday party for a boy who wanted to have his nails painted like the girls were getting. The experience became the source of book
Bullied. In 2012, it was Katie's turn to show geek solidarity. The
501st Legion/"Vader's Fist", who had been so supportive when her story went viral, were now among those
being taunted online for their cosplay geekery at a con, and Katie wanted to be a stormtrooper for Halloween to show her support. When the troopers heard that, the 501st's
First Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment came together to raise the funds/materials/expertise and
build a full-on custom-fitted set of proper stormtrooper armor ('77 movie specs and all), with just days to spare before Halloween, as a gift for the little girl whose courage inspired them so much.
[more inside]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey
on Nov 2, 2012 -
61 comments
In the spirit of Halloween and scary movies: a remix of Mr. Sandman set to a supercut of some of the spookiest scenes from horror cinema:
Full-On Lovemaking. Warning, NSFW. Further warnings for the squeamish below the jump.
[more inside]
posted by codacorolla
on Oct 26, 2012 -
18 comments
"What is a cult film? A cult film is one that has a passionate following, but does not appeal to everyone. James Bond movies are not cult films, but chainsaw movies are. Just because a film has become a cult movie does not automatically guarantee quality. Some are very bad; others are very, very good. Some make an awful lot of money at the box office; others make no money at all. Some are considered quality films; others are exploitation movies. One thing cult movies do have in common is that they are all genre films - for example gangster films or westerns. They also have a tendency to slosh over from one genre into another, so that a science fiction film might also be a detective movie, or vice versa. They share common themes as well, themes that are found in all drama: love, murder and greed." - of the British TV film slots accompanied by an introduction perhaps the
most celebrated is
Moviedrome, running between 1988 and 2000 and presented first by Repo Man director
Alex Cox and then film critic
Mark Cousins.
[more inside]
posted by Artw
on Aug 3, 2012 -
88 comments
What can neuroscience teach us about zombies?
A pair of neurology blogs go over nine common symptoms:
Aggression,
Lumbering Walk,
Memory Loss,
Aphasia,
Capgras-Delusion,
Impaired Pain Reception,
Locked Attention,
Flesh Addiction,
Insatiable hunger,
Conclusions.
posted by empath
on Oct 31, 2011 -
45 comments
"
This Halloween, give somebody a scary book, to read. That's it. That's the idea. It's going to be a tradition." It's
an idea Neil Gaiman came up a year ago. It's called
All Hallow's Read, with a website and everything, which has
book recommendations of all sorts, plus
stickers, bookmarks, cards, and a small story you can print off, as well as
a poster contest for next year's event.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Oct 31, 2011 -
22 comments
in 1994, Gary Larson's
Far Side came to life on television in the form of an animated Halloween special like no other.
Tales From The Far Side only aired once, and the television version differs from the not-easily-located DVD version. You can read more about this dark and hilarious animated classic
courtesy of Vinnie Rattolle's, and find a copy of the television version for your very own holiday viewing.
posted by hippybear
on Oct 29, 2011 -
28 comments
Just wait till we're alone together. Then I will tell you something new, something cold, something sleepy, something of cease and peace and the long bright curve of space. Go upstairs to your room. I will be waiting for you... As a rare October blizzard drifts a blanket of white across the Northeast just before Halloween, what better time to settle in and read (or watch)
Conrad Aiken's most famous short story,
"Silent Snow, Secret Snow." About a small boy who increasingly slips into an ominous fantasy of isolation and endless snow, it could be viewed as a metaphor about autism, Asperger's syndrome, and even schizophrenia before such conditions even had names. In addition to the 1934 short story, the tale has also been adapted as a
creepy 1966 black-and-white
short film (also at
the Internet Archive) and as a
Night Gallery episode (
1,
2) narrated by Orson Welles. Or for a more academic take, see the essay
"The Delicious Progress" examining Aiken's use of white as a symbol of psychological regression.
posted by Rhaomi
on Oct 29, 2011 -
9 comments
"For the last two weeks, people have been like, "talk about sluts on Halloween!" And at first I didn't even really want to make this video because you, my friend, are talking to a slut on Halloween. But because people kept bombarding my social media platforms with requests for me to do a video on sluts on Halloween, I'm gonna do a video on sluts on Halloween. But I'll tell you one thing right now: you're not gonna like it."
(nsfw language, her avatar is a lingerie pic, plus it's a single-link vlog post)
[more inside]
posted by juliplease
on Oct 28, 2011 -
146 comments
Horror movie blog
Arbogast on Film is counting down the days of October with studies of
31 cinematic screams. Considered thus far: shrieks from
The Tingler,
The Pit and the Pendulum,
Two on a Guillotine,
Macchie Solari,
The Black Cat,
Monster House,
The Silence of the Lambs,
She Demons,
The Thing,
L'Amante del Vampiro,
The Nesting, and
Witchcraft.
[more inside]
posted by Iridic
on Oct 12, 2011 -
17 comments
H'ween parent filter Halloween is for little kids, but it's also for scares. I found this to be helpful in determining when it's appropriate for the twixt to meet.
posted by Straw Cab
on Sep 23, 2011 -
34 comments
