the Ghost of Halloween past

So, I feel as though I've let another October pass me by! I'm all theory, no execution. That's my problem. I make all of these big plans and either overwhelm myself or just flake out entirely. Although I must say I was pretty good about sticking to my horror marathon. I still have 9 hours or so left of October and so far I've watched 57 movies, only a few slipped through the cracks. For instance, the Invisible Woman, is actually more of a romantic comedy with a gimmick...who knew? Witchfinder General was pretty disappointing, especially considering a lot of people say it's one of Vincent Price's best roles. I actually think that's a pretty insulting statement towards such a fantastic actor. He has some good moments in it, as he does in EVERYTHING, but I can honestly say it's my least favorite Vincent Price movie I've seen so far. It was very dry but violent. That's my least favorite kind of violence. It turned out not to be a horror movie, which is fine, but it was definitely below my expectations.

I've decided to stay in for this Halloween. Last year I said I was going to do that but I ended up doing a really amazing face painting job on myself and at the last minute decided to go show it off. I had been encouraged by the restaurant I worked at to come by for the employee costume contest, threw on an outfit to match my paint job and called myself a luchadore. Not exactly what I had intended but my face looked more like a mask so it worked...

I ended up losing to three really shitty costumes. As my cousin would call them "slutty blanks". You know the type 90% of the female population seems to gravitate towards these gimmicky stripper-esque costumes (slutty fairy, slutty Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Slutty cat girl, slutty zombie, slutty _____ [fill in the blank, get it?]). I have no problem with sluttiness, it's the lack of originality that gets me. I myself was even guilty of the slutty zombie when I was fresh out of high school and had just seen that Japanese movie "Stacy", and in all fairness even with my bout with slutty blank, I hand tore my costume and liquid latex-ed myself from head to toe. But I don't expect a truly fantastic costume to lose to a *shutters* store bought costume. It sort of killed my Halloween spirit. It's not the first time I've lost a contest, and yes, I know winning isn't everything, but that time it really made an impression on me. It said a lot about the kind of costumes people want to see, but more so the kind of place I was working (thank God I ended my tenure at that shithole). It put me in a funk and made me think about my past Halloweens. A lot of amazing costumes I came up with at the last minute with literally NOTHING but some acrylic paint and whatever I pulled out of my closet. But the Halloween's themselves are vague memories due to drunkenness and mayhem. The first Halloween I remember after I stopped trick or treating was the first time I really had a horror movie marathon. I watched all of the Friday the 13th movie on Monster Vision, although now they're really not my favorite, that was a very significant year. I had so much fun by myself eating super buttery popcorn and my grandparents candy for the trick or treaters that never came. After last year's buzz kill and wishing I had stayed home I want to take this year to finish my horror marathon, eat pizza, attempt to carve Peter Lorre's face in a pumpkin and stay sober! Is it lame that I'm excited about this?