How to Halloween
Lucas gives some tips on how to get in the Halloween spirit, particularly as a college student.
Lucas gives some tips on how to get in the Halloween spirit, particularly as a college student.
Hello everyone, and happy Day 22 of Halloween!
As we all know, Halloween is a 31-day holiday, and it can consequently get a little hard to feel like you’re really, adequately celebrating the occasion each and every day. This is something I, too, struggle with, so I figured I’d share my recent ideas. . .
Watch some movies
I’d recommend John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Not only is it a perfect piece of suspense horror and as appropriate a movie as you can find for this holiday, but it’ll also prep you for the new one. It’s also called Halloween, and apparently it’s actually pretty good!
If you want something a little darker, try Hereditary. I have to warn you, it’s not exactly fun to watch, but it is an extremely artful piece of horror that manages some genuine originality — a rarity for the genre these days. I can’t promise you’ll have a good time, but it’s a good choice if you’re a Hardened Scary Movie Buff longing to feel that cold rush of terror once again.
Or there’s always The Nightmare Before Christmas, the groundbreaking stop-motion classic that features, in my opinion, one of Hollywood’s all-time-great scores. It won’t scare you, but it’s an option you can watch as a family without feeling guilty. It’s certainly good for The Halloween Mood.
Watch some shows
The classics — Twin Peaks, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files — are obviously recommended. Recently, Stranger Things has been a big hit, and rightly so. Returning to (somewhat) niche, surreal, psychological, and disturbing territory, Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal is an underrated gem you should visit if you’re at all a fan of the Lecter canon and like your television slick and serialized.
Something more overtly Halloween-y, though, would be The Haunting of Hill House, a recent Netflix drop that’s probably in the process of becoming a cult phenomenon. It’s an elegant series that manages to be both fun and unsettling, marrying a modern aesthetic with classic genre sensibilities to unique effect. It uses horror as a conduit for drama (and vice versa), and is simply a good time that’s successfully kept my recent October days on the spookier side.
Listen to music
This is an easy one. Hit up Spotify (or Apple Music, Tidal, or, heck, even YouTube), find a Halloween playlist, and enjoy. It’s really easy to get excited and sentimental with the classics.
Podcasts. Podcasts count as music, right? Probably not, but I just realized I should probably name-drop Lore, Unexplained, and Welcome to Night Vale here, too, so. Consider them dropped.
Branch out
There are so many other ways to honor the current season. You could decorate your dorm! I haven’t, because once I do, I will be going all out, which takes planning. My friend Holland has started, though, and it’s beautiful. She’s ahead of me in the paying-fealty-to-the-Great-Pumpkin process. Her loyalty to the season has surely not gone unnoticed.
Or you could triple-amputate a gingerbread cookie with your mouth. My mom blasphemously left one in my room last week. It’s not nearly Christmas yet, Mother! Be sure to leave said cookie out in your room for days, not because you forgot and you’re a disorganized college student who has better things to do than worry about silly needs like basic human hygiene or anything, but because you want to make sure the Halloween Gods get to observe your devotion to their glorious dark reign. Of course.
Or you could buy some soap. No, really. Fun smells and glitter win me over way too easily, so when I was at the Mall of America last weekend, I found myself making a stop at Lush virtually against my will. There I was delighted to discover that even the shop had joined in the fun! Take a look at these awesome Halloween-themed products.
I nabbed the lil ghost soap bar because it literally glows in the dark. There’s no saying no to that.
Anyway, I hope this helps. I wish you all great Halloweens!
Lucas is in his freshman year at Carleton, bringing with him a passion for all things nerdy and a talent for overthinking and awkwardness (and self-deprecation). He hails from Pasadena, California, and yes, he realizes it gets cold out here. Currently wildly undecided, he can see himself attempting a Physics and Cinema and Media Studies double major, although Chemistry, Economics, and Computer Science (among many other subjects) have been tempting him as well. He misses his bearded dragon.