Welcome to day two of Fortnight of Fright over here on Books Take You Places! Fortnight of Fright is an event hosted over two weeks, by myself and Brittany from The Book Addicts Guide, we will be featuring some fabulous posts on all things Halloween!

Today we are featuring a pretty awesome post from my dear friend and fellow blogger, Heidi from Bunbury in the Stacks! Run with it, girl!

I am not cut out for horror. I am so not cut out for horror, that I can’t even say it. When I first told my boyfriend “I don’t like horror movies,” his response was, “What? Like Pretty Woman?” Yep. Pretty much. (I have since worked very hard to pronounce horror as a two syllable word.)

When I was a teen I tried to pretend that I liked scary movies because it seemed like all of my friends did. I went to see The Blair Witch Project in theaters and stared at a spot on the wall just below the screen the entire time so that I didn’t have to actually see any of the movie. After I went to see The Ring, I had to drive home with my cab light on in my car and left my T.V. running through the night for about a month. That’s why I’ve seen Master and Commander more than any one person should–it was HBO’s favorite middle of the night selection at the time. By the end of watching Carrie at a friend’s house I collapsed into hysterical tears and had to be comforted by her little brother who rubbed me on the back while reading his Calvin and Hobbes books to me. After that I pretty much quit pretending and just swore off the genre.

Knowing this, it should come as no surprise to hear that Halloween is not my favorite holiday. Heck, I didn’t even like Trick-or-Treating growing up. It always snows on Halloween in Wyoming, and believe it or not there are only so many costumes that you can wear over a snowsuit. I was a pumpkin. At least twice. I learned pretty early that Easter is a much better candy holiday. There’s no gross peanut butter taffy, and it’s far less work to go through the house/yard (again, depending on level of snow) and find eggs than it is to walk from door to door in a state of humiliation.

These days, I’ve discovered that a slightly disturbing sense of humor has allowed me to embrace certain books and movies that are perfect for the Halloween season. I still shy away from strait up scary for the most part, but blend me a cocktail of scary, funny, and gory, and you have one satisfied Heidi. Heck, I’ve even learned that if the story’s good enough, I occasionally really like scary. I’ve found that magical balance, and so, I have come here today to share with you the awesomeness with some diagramming (inspired by the awesome Flannery). If you like to be a little (but not a lot) scared, enjoy some blood and guts (but not slasher porn), and like some good humor or snark thrown in, check out some of my favorite books and movies for the Halloween season and let me know what you think, and of course, let me know what I’m missing!:

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am about this post. I laughed so hard when you stated that you try very hard to say “horror” as a two syllable word. I LOVE the show American Horror Story (which we will get into on a later post) and my students make fun of me because I am always saying “HOR-ROR” with perfect enunciation!! I think you hold your own with the scary books and movies, and I am sure a lot of people agree that we need a certain balance to fully enjoy something out of our comfort zone! Thanks so much for being part of our Fortnight of Fright event, I will certainly be adding some of these books to my pile!

What do you guys think? Do you like having the pants scared off of you or do you prefer the lighter side of Halloween?

Welcome friends! Today is the kickoff for A Fortnight of Fright over here on Books Take You Places! Fortnight of Fright is an event hosted over two weeks, by myself and Brittany from The Book Addicts Guide, we will be featuring some fabulous posts on all things Halloween!

Today we are here to showcase some of our favorite Halloween movies. Now most of you should already know that I really love scary things, therefore scary movies are my favorite and I am one of those gals who isn’t scared easily. That being said, there are some seriously disturbing movies out there that actually happened to get into my head so I want to talk about those today in addition to those Halloween moves I watch every year (or every night) that aren’t really scary but still fit into our Halloween theme.

After taking a peek around here, make sure you head over to Brittany’s blog to read about her favorite Halloween movies!

First, let’s talk about the scary ones…

*I’m just going to add a little side note here and mention that the scariest movie in the whole wide world is It, based on the novel by Stephen King, starring Tim Curry. I have a MAJOR clown phobia and therefore can’t make this part pretty with PICTURES or BLURBS because I will be too scared to come on the blog ever again. Ahem..moving on..

The Hills Have Eyes (2006) – 

“Wes Craven produces this remake of his 1977 classic of the same name, about the Carters, an idyllic American family travelling through the great American southwest. But their trip takes a detour into an area closed off from the public, but more importantly from society. An area originally used by the U.S. Government for nuclear testing that was intended to be empty…or so they thought? When the Carter’s car breaks down at the old site, they’re stranded…or are they? As the Carters may soon realize that what seemed like a car casually breaking down, might actually be a trap. This trap might be perpetrated by the inhabitants of the site who aren’t pulling a prank, but are out to set up a gruesome massacre.”  – That’s right, mutated, incestuous humans are the horror in this film. I can’t deal. Honestly, this movie is quite possibly one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. I just realized that Belle Emile de Ravin from Once Upon a Time is one of the main characters and now I’ll never look at her the same.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) –

“A group of friends passing through are stalked and hunted down by a deformed killer with a chainsaw in order to sustain his poor family who can only afford to eat what they kill.” – Yet Another group of inbred psychos.  *Spoiler: There is one part where the guy is brought out to a dinner table only to find his girlfriend there with ALL OF HER TEETH PULLED OUT OF HER MOUTH. OH. EM. GEE. I DIE. Let me just say that I frequent haunted houses and trails every Halloween and I am okay until the chainsaw comes out. After that, forget it, every man for himself!

The Ring (2002) and The Ring 2 (2005) – 

“A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it.” – “SEVEN DAYS!!!” EVERY single time I fall asleep with a movie on and it ends and the tv gets the static? I FREAK OUT. Seriously, I can’t move fast enough to turn off that tv. Also ghost children are always the SCARIEST THING ever. For those of you who have seen The Ring 2, how kick-ass was Naomi Watts when she shuts Samara up with “I’m not your f***ing mommy!!” Made the movie. 

Creepiest thing ever.

I’m not sure what it says about me that these are all remakes of older horror films but to this day I can’t even think about them without freaking out. I honestly had to delete pictures off of this post because every time I checked my post I felt a little pukey. Seriously, might not be sleeping tonight.

Now for the FUN Halloween movies!

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Have any of you ever been to a RHPS event? In which you get to throw and scream things at the screen? Because it’s awesome. This website provides all of the pertinent info you need if you are looking for one of these events and it even gives you tips on what to do if it’s your first time going to a show! I highly suggest you take the time to see this movie in theaters but if you can’t find a show near you, rent it and give it a watch anyway. It’s quite the experience!

Oh, Tim Curry ❤

The Addams Family (1991) and The Addams Family Values (1993)

– Raul Julia was def one of my teenage crushes.

“How long has it been since we waltzed?” “Oh, Gomez…hours.”

The cast of these movies is amazing, though I am a bigger fan of The Addams Family Values, Joan Cusack and Christopher Lloyd? Epic. Not to mention the fact that I’ve always felt Wednesday was severely misunderstood. Had I been sent to summer camp and forced to play Pocahontas, I would also plan quite a coup. I can’t mention these movies without reminding you of little Amanda Buckingham’s response to Uncle Fester marrying the nanny: “Get OUT of the cabin! I mean, I’ll kill myself! The help?”

Young Frankenstein (1974) – One of my favorite movies of all time, I don’t even know if I can technically call it a “Halloween” movie as I literally watch it every night before bed. Madeline Kahn, Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman are amazing.

“Taffeta, darling.”

Madeline Kahn at her best!

Beetlejuice (1988) – Do I even have to explain? Michael Keaton? Alec Baldwin? Tim Burton?! Oh yeah! Haven’t seen it? ABC Family, 10/21 at 8pm. Get on it!

Hocus Pocus (1993) – Another OBVIOUS one, when we put the question out regarding Halloween movies we had TONS of responses, almost everyone agrees that Hocus Pocus is THE movie to watch around Halloween time. The movie makes you laugh, and cry. Oh Thackery Binx ❤ I will never stop loving you. Head over to The Book Addicts Guide and see what everyone has to say about this one!

Other notable mentions that I am not going to get into here because I plan on doing a longer post later in the fortnight: ALL THE DRACULA MOVIES!! Including Dracula Dead and Loving it! Oh yes!

For those of you lucky people who have a Netflix account, I suggest you go check out the movie line up they have available for Halloween, they have scary, funny and classic ones available! Also, ABC Family rocks and will be kicking off 13 nights of Halloween on Friday, October 19 with The Addams Family!