The Halloween episodes of “Roseanne” are probably some of the best moments on the series and very much a part of the tradition of ABC sitcoms to embrace Halloween as a fun and festive holiday. In the nineties, many ABC shows had Halloween specials. “Full House” had a few, “Family Matters” had some, and of course, “Home Improvement” often rivaled “Roseanne” in the Halloween department with their own hilarious specials celebrating the Halloween holiday. “Roseanne” however had a more home grown atmosphere toward their Halloween episodes, and most of them are absolutely entertaining. Much like the entire series, as the Halloween episodes go on, they utterly diminish in quality, but they’re still a wonderful tradition of the series.
Tag Archives: Halloween
For The Love of the Scare: A Short Word from a Born and Raised Horror Fan Boy
When I was a kid, my mom would always sit us down to watch whatever cartoons or action movies were on, while she went off to cook or clean. Back then, we didn’t have cable, but we did have many VHS movies, and most of them were horror movies that my mom kept in a chest in her room, away from us.
My mom would make it a stern rule not to watch these movies. Which is weird considering they never cared when we saw violent action films, or gory science fiction films. And wouldn’t you know it? I never killed anyone in my life. Good parenting goes a long way, folks. As you can guess, she had a library of the classic horror films. You know the classics I’m talking about. But, she’d trained us to be horror fans, and to quench our thirst for the frightening, we’d watch stuff like “The Monster Squad,” and “Goonies.”
The Bad Cookie (2010)
Director Drew Daywalt’s short “The Bad Cookie” is something of a twisted dark comedy and horror story that is really almost impossible to peg down but is nonetheless very entertaining and goofy in some instances, it’s that classic horror story of pure evil born out of hatred, and the romance between a woman and a her cookie. Daywalt comprises a genuinely entertaining and simultaneously ridiculous fantasy horror film about a young woman named Denise who is something of an angelic young woman prone to many hobbies, one of which is celebrating Halloween with horror movies, and baking cookies.
Community of the Dead
If you’re one of the many TV viewers right now being disappointed, you’re not alone. Most of the returning shows are horrible this year, and FOX Television has been pulled from Cablevision subscribers thus most of the television now is a drab affair. Every year Halloween comes down on our doors, and every year many shows are up to the task to create something inventive. Sometimes they ignore it altogether (Shame on you “The Big Bang Theory”) and sometimes they’re up for some fun.
A Love Letter to Trick 'r Treat
A shimmering pumpkin lit from the inside as if illuminated from the fires of hell, a young trick or treater with a sack over his head braves trick of treating the night of all Hallow’s Eve as we’re treated to glimpses of Missing posters hinting at the rash of disappearances across the town our young trick or treater is perusing. He manages to visit a few houses and is met with a mysterious figure who sucks him in to the darkness and after splashes of blood and sounds of beating, minutes later the small trick or treater emerges from the darkness of the alley with the body of his attacker in his sack. The mask this young trick or treater is not an elaborate mask built from a sack, but instead his face upon which he gazes back at the audience with an evil grin welcoming us in to the world of Halloween.
The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology [Paperback]
Christopher Golden assembles a myriad of assorted tales about the walking dead, all of which combine to form one of the strongest combinations of excellent authors and variations on zombies and the undead. While the entire book isn’t a complete success in adapting visions of the walking dead with engrossing characters, “The New Dead” will make a great time filler with some truly strong stories and mini-epics in one compendium. I had a great time sifting through each story and I think most fans of the walking dead will, too. These are only a few of the ones we thought warranted mentioning.
For the first story John Connelly offers up his twist on the Lazarus pit with “Lazarus” the story of a man who dies and is kept in a cave only to be brought back to life a few days later thanks to the will of his loved ones. When he discovers he’s completely lost his place in a world he’s left, he longs for death in the face of loved ones he barely recognizes anymore. Connolly’s writing is vivid and awfully sad and makes for an interesting look at the undead in more tragic form.
Night of the Demons (2009)
I’ll be the first to say that a remake of “Night of the Demons” is pointless. While it is considered a mild classic among horror geeks who remember the video age, that’s about as far as we can go from calling it a classic. It’s a fun party movie. This inane 2010 remake is more brand name exploitation than a remake. Sure it’s called “Night of the Demons,” and features some rather forgettable nods to the original (Diora Baird does a memorable variation of the lipstick-nipple scene, though), but it’s not entirely a remake. In the end though even admirers of the original 1988 horror film (all five of you!) may be able to gladly place this as a companion piece to the original and have some fun with its eighties trash horror comedy style that is never afraid to poke fun at itself but is also never above creeping the audience in to submission.