By Troy Brownfield

Welcome all! I've been a little late this year with my Halloween notes, but I plan to make up for it. What I'm doing this time is a look back at some old Halloween columns to see what's happened since. Here's a bit from 10-11-99.

Post-Ironic Horror (10-11-99): I hope you've noticed that honest horror is making a comeback. For a while, we longtime, hardcore fans were subjected to a flood of ironic, somewhat-humorous films that mocked horror films. Actually, and more appropriately, they mocked slasher films. Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and their ilk traded on the horror genre with young stars, big breasts and witty quips to rake in bucks. However, as with any trend, it began to feed on itself and die. Good. Now that much of that is being tossed away as the stars return to their TV shows or the next wave of teeny-bopper movies (this past season, it's been the makeover movie), honest horror can comeback. And boy, has it. Look at The Blair Witch Project. Then The Sixth Sense. There's Stir of Echoes. Stories firmly rooted in the supernatural with sharp, ADULT characters (never mind that Sense and Echoes both feature kids; they are little kids and display more smarts and poise than many of the teens, much like Stephen King's preteens in 'Salem's Lot and It). I'm glad that Hollywood and small studios alike are making movies like this that (especially in the case of Blair and Sense) focus on the psychological aspect of the story. It's about time.

Update: I was half right. This past weekend, the highest grossing film in the nation was the intelligent remake of the Japanese film Ringu, titled simply, The Ring. Also, the genre-busting Dog Soldiers is about to land on U.S. DVD. However, I hear that Wes Craven is doing a werewolf movie that will "do for werewolves what Scream did for slasher movies!" Ack.

Harry Potter, Halloween in Schools, and Why Some Parents Just Plain Suck (10-17-99): I don't know how much you've all followed the news lately. It almost seems that the only reason I watch anymore is to see what stupid person did what to whom this time. Going with that theme of stupidity, yet another cultural tempest-in-a-teapot is brewing, this time over Harry Potter.

Who's Harry? Harry is the hero of a series of children's books. Harry has magickal powers (and looks uncomfortably like Tim Hunter from DC Comics' Books of Magic.). Children like these books a great deal. Some adults don't like that, mainly because Harry uses magick. Stop me if you think you've heard this one before.

That's right. The big, ugly Beast of Book-Banning has risen once more from its Victorian-age, First Amendment-ignoring cellar to bug we Americans that don't mind thinking. I can't get over how often certain people babble on and on about protecting the family, then announcing that the way to do it is by destroying art.

This Harry Potter business is no different than similar squabbles raised in past years over Huckleberry Finn, The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings or The Catcher in the Rye. Even The Chronicles of Narnia have been banned by Bible-thumping groups in some places, never mind the fact that they were written by a noted Christian scholar.

My question is: why does this keep happening? I know that the law says that a community can govern its own standards, but let me drop you a hint: there will never be such a thing as a community standard. You have some parents that read to their children, discuss the books, differentiate between real and make-believe, and use that time to bring parent and child closer together. You have others who point at a passage from a Harry Potter book (like one did on NBC News) and say, "That speaks clearly to me of drug use." Some parents find Harry delightful. Others find the books "dark and evil." With such disparity, there's only one fair thing to do: leave the books alone.

This brings to mind for me also how we've crushed Halloween in schools. Remember when you used to dress-up for Halloween in grade school? Most schools don't let you do that anymore. It's either offensive to someone or seems too evil to others.

Well, it's true that Halloween was a "pagan" holiday. But it's fun. The current American Halloween is built on old myths and legends that few, if at all, take seriously. It's generally not like Christmas, where people look to one day as the center of their faith to the exclusion of other faiths, which also have their own holy days.

The truth is, Halloween should belong to the kids and those who keep childlike wonder alive in their hearts. What's wrong with letting kids play dress up and pretend? For some parents, I'm sure that they strongly, albeit strangely, believe that Halloween is evil. But maybe, just maybe, part of it is that they're jealous that they can't be so carefree anymore that a simple plastic mask with a rubber band can turn you into a monster or a hero for a day. I'm sure that if they could shelve their programmed pretense and their vain struggle of imposing opinions, that they might be able to see Halloween for what it can be: Magick. The good kind.

Update: Well, I still feel exactly the same way. It's funny though that the books continue their runaway success, the first movie was a record-breaking hit, and it duked it out at the box office last year with the film version of another series that I mentioned. And just to underscore the point, both the second Harry film and the second Lord of the Rings film are due in mere weeks. Excellent!

What's Wrong with Horror on TV? (10-24-99): No, I'm not going to be taking cheap shots at Angel, Buffy or The X-Files. In fact, I'm not going to address series TV at all. What I want to know is what's with the lack of horror fare that's being run on network TV during the week of Halloween?

In the past, you used to be able to find horror movies on the tube with some frequency. It seems like ABC ran The Fog a hundred times while I was a kid. However, this year, Halloween looms and the only thing you might find relating to the holiday is Charlie Brown and some lame sitcom set-ups [Not that there's anything wrong with ol' Chuck. -Ed.].

Basically, I'd like to see some of the networks step up to the plate and schedule some classic horror fare to go with the week. NBC makes a huge deal out of showing It's A Wonderful Life around Christmas; why doesn't some network put Frankenstein and Dracula on back-to-back?

Granted, a lot of cable networks show horror flicks a lot. Turner has MonsterVision and shows many things in the late-night hours. What I'm looking for is for NBC, ABC, CBS or Fox to assert themselves with some classic material. Think of it as clever counter-programming to the World Series. Embarrassingly, CBS is showing a feel-good Touched By An Angel-style film, The Soul Collector, this week when it could be showing any number of grand old flicks.

I guess my point is that the mainstream tends to "ghettoize" horror as a genre. There are many intelligent works out there, and some would achieve more familiar status if programmers had a bit of imagination. It just takes some effort.

Update: Last year really turned that corner. Cable was all over Halloween, with TCM, AMC, the regular Turner stations, Sci-Fi and more jumping on the bandwagon. After all the trick-or-treaters had gone and the lights were out, my wife and I spent some truly fun time skipping up and down the cable dial trying to catch every film at its best moment. The Jewish vampire attacks Roman Polanski! Click. Three more days till Halloween, Halloween, Halloween! Click. Enter freely, and of your own will! Click. Midnight, the 21st of April! Click. For some, that might sound dull or crazy, but for this Midwestern guy who grew up on Sammy Terry-hosted Hammer films, that's as close as it comes to childlike joy.

Boy, I love clip shows! I'll be back soon with some *gasp* original thoughts. Also, I've been doing a bunch of Halloween-related comics items at Comicon.com. You can find 'em. Later, and remember, the monsters are out there.

Troy Brownfield is the Editor-in-Chief, but Neil Wright is the President For Life of the Warriors of the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse®. Email Troy at psikotyk@aol.com

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