Halloween Memorial for John Wolfe: Season of Shadows

I have been very blessed to know some amazing bloggers, but one who was very dear to my heart was my good friend, John Wolfe. He ran the blog Season of Shadows and embodied all things vintage and true Halloween. He would begin early in the year designing elaborate home haunts and sharing on video how he went about designing them. He did lots of volunteer work and was always available for anyone. He sought to understand the spiritual and the other side. In fact, as he was dying, he said he would contact me through EVPs. And, he asked me to write his memorial which I did and he read it and approved of it before his passing at much too early an age in his 30s. Each Halloween, I will post his memorial here. Halloween is his season, his paradise, and I miss him something awful every October. I'd like to share him with you now -

Ladder to the Golem: Scary Legend

Some legends go under the radar and the public might not get wind of it. It's a shame, because some are really intriguing. One such case is the Ladder to the Golem - 

Horror Movie Theme Nights and Drink Pairing

It's that magical time of the year and you want to hunker down in the dark with some candles and drinks and enjoy a thematic series of movies that dip you deep into whatever places or situations that you are craving. Here, I've paired your drinks with your 3-movie marathon for the evening depending on your proclivity. There is a more extensive chapter about this in my book ADULT HALLOWEEN: TAKING BACK THE SEASON!  Enjoy! 

Descriptions from IMDB.

Amazing Yard Haunt Light Shows!

Halloween house dressing has become the real competition for Christmas. Each year, new technologies and innovative homeowners come up with more and more chilling presentations for the delight of their neighborhood. Let's take a look at some really amazing ones -

Abandoned Neighborhoods

Sure, there are abandoned buildings here and there, even sections of towns, but the closing down of an entire town is an unusual circumstance and quite creepy.

In the Mood: Creepy Short Videos and Halloween Horror Shows

Horror shorts hit the spot - give you mood and story but in a short time so you can move on with your day or perhaps, like I enjoy doing, soak in a bunch in a row! And Halloween-themed TV shows are a blast. Some sitcoms did noteworthy ones. And, then, there are the vintage ones... ENJOY! 

First Attempt at Dirty Car Art

My first attempt at dirty car art - a little zombie scene. 

Traditional and Gothic Halloween

There are two Halloween styles that exude horror atmosphere without screaming it. Some folks might enjoy their zombies and severed bodies, but a bigger audience of people enjoy the traditional Halloween and autumn elements and the Gothic ones. Let's have a look at these styles - 

A Positional Trick To Feel Deceased Loved Ones' Energy

I am going to share a tip for those who miss a loved one who passed on.

The Rules For Horror Sequels and Remakes: Upcoming Horror

For some movies, sequels were the kiss of death. 

Mom Saw Dead People and I Attract Dead People

Sorting through the family photos, one can sometimes uncover the family ghosts....

The Urban Sasquatch Journal: Additions?

This is the reporting by a Bigfoot researcher of an ongoing study in the Southern part of the United States in a very large park area near homes and urban setting.

Link to the series

Dozens of Halloween and Horror Memes

Horror Movie Watching With Your Man

If you want to share a horror movie night with your man and show him you understand what he wants to see - these are my top choices. These are all also very chilly-themed movies with very amazing atmospheres and moods - ideal for blanketing together!

Review: Fear Farm Glendale Arizona

I went to Fear Farm in Glendale Arizona last Thursday and I was very excited to go. The reason this particular event was my choice this year is that it covers serious acreage with much of the entertainment outside. In Phoenix, where we don't get cool nights this time of year or the feel of autumn, being able to feel Halloween outside - it's that extra edge we need! 

My Personal Autumn Kitchen

I live for autumn. I truly do. I'm sharing my own personal recipes for the season - 

Scariest Halloween Practices: How Brave Are You?

The season brings out the troublemaker and avid horror lover in all of us. As kids, we performed many kinds of mayhem, but even as adults, we can't help playing chicken with the unknown. Here's just some of the scariest Halloween practices to explore again - 

Things That Scared Me as a Child

Every kid has their "I'm creeped out" threshold - here's some of the things that I recall terrifying me as a kid .... 

Ray Villafane: Jack O'Lanterns and Scarecrows!

There are few people who embody the season of Halloween better than artist, Ray Villafane. Villafane Studios has put out some of the most extraordinary pumpkin carvings ever seen. And, thankfully, Ray has branched out into sand sculptures in the summertime and my personal favorite, scarecrows!

Phone Calls From the Dead

A widely reported phenomena in the realm of communicating with the dead are phone calls from the deceased. 

Halloween Nostalgia: 1970s Halloween

Were you born in the late 1950s to mid 1960s? Then, 1970s Halloweens might be some of your best memories. It was the peak of Halloween antics, popularity and back when kids could still trick or treat without the adults, rushing through neighborhoods with pillowcases until midnight!

Evil Pumpkins

Admittedly, pumpkin carving has taken these gourds to a whole new level of chills and thrills. I am still really more uncomfortable around the old-fashioned carved ones. They fascinated as a child and to me they scream "Halloween!" Let's have a look at the variety of horrors pumpkins have become - 

Helltown Ohio: Scariest Abandoned Town

A perfectly once-pleasant town called Boston, Ohio had no idea what its future held. Today, the abandoned area is referred to as "Helltown" and with good reason!

Halloween Nostalgia: 1960s Halloween

If you were a kid in the 1960s, your Halloween was getting some serious momentum. The 50s started the craze, the 60s fortified it, ensuring that the 70s would be the last great decade of panhandling door to door for candy.

Apples: Halloween and Autumn Uses

Autumn and apples - a match that is divine! A crisp, organic, locally-grown apple has a flavor that no store bought apple from some other state can compare to. If you can just get some locally grown ones to eat, you will feel rewarded beyond belief. But, apples aren't just for eating at this time of year. Let's see what you can do with a bushel  - 

Halloween Nostalgia: 1950s Halloween

I'm covering the nostalgia of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s Halloweens in these three days' of posts. Today, let's talk about those who recall the 1950s Halloweens - 

Dirty Car Art

We are all used to seeing someone writing something funny in a person's car dirt, but what about art? This is an interesting trend and may be a real blast this Halloween - 

Chickosaurus Revisted! Need Ornithology Input From University or Museum!

*This is a guest post by researcher, David Claerr. David has posted on here several times some very interesting posts! Be sure and check them out in the search bar on the right. His links are below* 

Mirrors: Portal To Other Worlds?

"I love mirrors. They let one pass through the surface of things."

Claude Chabrol

Mirrors have always held a love/hate relationship for the humans that covet them. A mirror can be a reflection of what it outside of it, but some have long wondered if perhaps they reflect also something held within; other realms, the dead, evil, and dead souls. 

The Urban Sasquatch Journal: Paint Spray?

This is the reporting by a Bigfoot researcher of an ongoing study in the Southern part of the United States in a very large park area near homes and urban setting.

Link to the series 

Long Island Bigfoot Report #7

This post is a guest post by researcher Karl Sup and part of a series. The entire series can be found on the right hand side in the favorites posts (LINK). 

Gillman Jack O'Lantern: Easy Cleanup Carving

Here is a video showing my less messy, easy cleanup way of carving -

Autumn-flavored Healthy Smoothies

It's that time of year when amazing flavors come into our crockpots and ovens, but it's also a great time to think about making smoothies more autumn flavored items that are in season and bursting with tons of nutrients. Here's just some smoothies - 

TONS of Vintage Halloween Photos

Get ready to see Halloween from the Victorian Era to the 1970s - in all its genuine creepiness. 

My Haunted Childhood Estate: Chilling Finds

I was born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia in an estate that was of historic significance as a field hospital. The wood floors were still stained with blood and the grounds were full of artifacts we kids would dig up with a metal detector and display in mom's showcase. 

30 Horror Movies With An Autumn Feel

You know you want it. You've had enough heat and humidity and are glad to be releasing the kids back to school. Now, you're getting that nesting instinct to make soups and chili, sip hot cocoa, watch the leaves turn, and get creeped out by the Halloween season. So, go for it! Get your spook on! 

Dale the Doll and October Possession

Those who have followed the blog many years are aware of my sidekick, Dale the Doll. In October every year he is possessed by the spirit of an evil dead magician. He causes lots of trouble and I have to try to keep him in place. His playlist (LINK) on YouTube shows what life with Dale is like. Here's what's up this year - I decided to gaslight him in response to his troublemaking....

Cheap and Easy Halloween Decorations

You don't need cookie cutter out of the box designs from Halloween shops and big chain stores. Try and make some of your own Halloween decor that suits you, your personality and the layout of your home. Here's just some ideas.

An Overly Sensitive Society

Let me simply explain something here. We are a very sensitive society that believes anything listed online is for us personally. It's not. It's for a huge population of people in which some will be informed, moved or entertained. For some, it will miss the mark. For those who are sensitive about what they read online, do like most grownups, and move on. 

Scariest Places on Earth TV Show

All of us that love creepy locations and ghosts and scary music, haunting narrators, and people screaming in the dark, remember the sreies "Scariest Places on Earth.

Clowns and Other Masked Figures Tormenting the Public!

Recently, clowns have started showing up in cities with a renewed fervor. Of course, we are coming into the Halloween season, but there is something very unsettling about someone in a mask with a questionable agenda near our kids. 

Expedition Unknown - Yeti Continues Tonight!

Josh Gates is continuing his search for the yeti on tonight's episode of "Expedition Unknown." Last week's season opener was so awesome, people are still talking about it. If you didn't see it, they are reshowing it tonight on TRAVEL CHANNEL before they show this second part episode. 

Josh is accompanied on this trek by expert Adam Davies, a knowledgeable and likable companion. I'd actually like to see him be a regular sidekick - he needs someone to work with to get that conversation going back and forth on the discoveries.

I have to say, tonight is a popcorn evening for sure! 

The Stalker Between the Worlds: No Animals Are Safe

*Warning: Photographs and information in this ongoing series might be upsetting to some readers. Discretion advised.*

This is an ongoing series chronicling a few years' worth of encounters with bizarre, horrific, and taunting interplay between one innocent citizen and a stalker that defies description (at least in our known world).

This was an exceptionally well-documented series of events that may at times be too graphic or horrifying for some readers, but it is our hope that by sharing this experience, someone out there might recognize a set of circumstances that are similar.

We have advice to be given to anyone encountering what I am at a lack of words to accurately describe, so henceforth refer to it as…the stalker between the worlds.

Halloween Candy Tampering: Legends and Horrors

October 31st is noted as All Hallow's Eve or Halloween. It's believed Christians took this festival concept right from pagan origins of the Celtic Samhain celebration. There is much debate on how this holiday began, but it has become a most popular time for children to get candy and adults to put on costumes and watch scary movies. 

The Halloween basics are the same; scary decorations, costumes, parties, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, Jack O'Lanterns, apple bobbing, trick or treating, and horror themes. America has done Halloween up more than any other country, celebrating it full force with horror movie marathons to Haunted Attractions and huge parties.

There is, however, a much darker side to Halloween - like the tainted candy fears that peaked in the 1970s.

I don’t know about ya’all, but my Halloween’s as a kid were totally wild and free orgies in which the children ruled the streets. We carried pillowcases `cause we were cocky son-of-a-bitches and we figured it was going to carry our enormous amount of loot. In my area we knocked on doors until midnight and covered miles and miles of the suburbs. Whoever reached the apartment buildings knew they had done a huge haul because they were on the periphery of the subdivision.

(here's a crate of those nostalgic 1970s candies)

Even though we were allowed to travel far and alone knocking at strangers’ doors and getting candy offerings from them and sometimes coins or apples (why even answer your door and waste both our time?) we still had to go home and have the candy examined. Then, the kids would begin with all the urban legends of razor blades in apples and ground glass in Bazooka bubble gum and poison injected into Tootsie Rolls. Ironically, it did not stop us from nibbling on the way home. Every candy the parents tossed out that had a loose wrapper caused a sigh of disappointment. Oh, why couldn’t it have been the candy corn, why the Snickers?



The most famous case of actual tampering came from the murder of an 8-year-old named Timothy in the mid 70s, who was actually killed by his father who laced his Pixie Stix with cyanide. And, just as people need to realize, we actually are at more threat by our own family more than strangers (which is why persons of interest are pretty much always a family member--comforting, huh?). This evil man also gave the candy to his daughter and some of her friends, but they hadn’t eaten the candy. This was apparently motivated by an insurance policy on the kid.




A woman named Helen Pfeil in 1964 was tired of older teenagers showing up for free candy so she handed out ant killer poison buttons to those kids. The packages contained steel wool, dog biscuits, and the ant buttons and were marked “poison” and with a skull and crossbones. She told the kids it was a joke and no one was hurt, still she was charged for potential harm.

A great deal of this legend comes from hysteria. Some years, fear of strychnine poisoning made companies and stores destroy packages, but once tested nothing unusual was found. Some children getting sick around Halloween sparked fear of poisoning. Children coming down with infections or dying on that particular day became linked to Halloween and more rumors began.




It’s not to say we shouldn’t continue to look for tampered candy and even better, do like I did and stand at the end of the sidewalk and wave to the person handing out the candy as a show of “I remember you giving my kid candy…”

Still, I have to admit that wicked scene in Halloween 2 where the kid and mom come into the hospital with the kid holding a cloth to her mouth with a razor blade sticking out of the tongue was pretty bad ass and gave me chills. I never did eat those apples on Halloween (but that’s probably because I had a pillowcase filled with candy)!
On a happier note - Halloween was official when this played on TV -



If you're feeling in the mood for the trick or treat theme, try these movies - 

"Shattered Silence" (aka "When Michael Calls): A classic 1970s Halloween-based movie that makes you feel nostalgic. 

"Halloween 2": For an actual movie on Halloween night with party goers and the like, this one actually is more Halloween-feeling than the first movie in the series.

"Trick R Treat": All scenes happening on Halloween, creepy and captures the magical night.

"Hocus Pocus": Great Halloween feel and adorable.

Werewolf Transforms Before Congregation! New Real Accounts Book Relelased

A new book from one of my favorite monster researchers just hit the shelves!