A quick round-up of Halloween-related pop-culture worthy of attention …

I recently finished reading Nicholas Rogers’ Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night–a slim, well-written text that still manages to cover a wide range of topics and provide tons of interesting facts and figures. For example, Halloween is actively celebrated by 65% of adults who spend around $5 billion a year on party accessories and costumes. (Halloween is the second biggest retail holiday after Christmas). Rogers’ main thesis is that Halloween, a holiday that continually reinvents itself, continues to provide “a space for transgression and parody,” even as it is appropriated to fit the social and political needs of the culture. Rogers explores this thesis by examining the origins of Halloween, its history in Britain and North America, its similarities to Mexico’s “Day of the Dead,” urban legends and popular reactions to the holiday, its representation in Hollywood, and current trends in its celebration. He ends with a few guesses and questions about the holiday’s future:

Admittedly, Halloween time, like festive time in general, is fleeting, transitory, and precarious, generating spaces that are themselves decentered and highly individualized. And admittedly, the dominant tropes of Halloween, humor and play, tend to parody power and mock its pretensions rather than subvert it in any fundamental way. But will Halloween lose even this social edge as it increasingly becomes big business?

On the TV front, I usually don’t go for the “made-for-TV” movies that pop up around this time of year, but I like the kinds of programs that blend fantasy with documentary: Family Channel’s Scariest Places on Earth, SciFi Channel’s Ghost Hunters, and Travel Channel’s Most Haunted. The History Channel always offers some informative programs about the holiday, too, and they have a great website. Finally, CW’s new series Reaper has started out with a nice mix of humor and horror that’s worth following. Of course, nothing has even come close top topping Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The only horror film I’ve had any interest in lately is 30 Days of Night, which I saw on opening night. I’ve read the negative critiques, but I have to side with the thumbs-up crowd. It was scary, gory (Gorey?), survival horror fun, based on the equally fun/disturbing comics by Steve Niles. (I have no desire to see Saw IV.)

The best dark fantasy film I’ve ever seen, though, is still Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (official site here). It doesn’t have any of the traditional Halloween overtones, but it’s a magnificent film that if you still somehow haven’t seen, you definitely should.

Next, my favorite horror books. I’ve always enjoyed H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction, of which the S. T. Joshi annotated editions are the most helpful, and the Library of America edition the best single-volume introduction (though Joyce Carol Oates’ paperback intro is cheaper).

Anthologies are usually the best way to find good horror, as the genre tends to work best in the short story form. I look forward each year to The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology, as it always proves to have a great collection of stories and poetry and comprehensive summaries of the noteworthy novels, films, comics, and other media in the genres. It was in this anthology that I found my favorite Halloween story: Glen Hirshberg’s “Mr. Dark’s Carnival,” about one man’s quest for the perfect haunted house attraction. A few other anthologies worth finding: Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, The American Fantasy Tradition, American Gothic Tales, The Dark Descent, and October Dreams.

The two best horror novels I’ve read in the last year are Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian and Scott Smith’s The Ruins. Kostova reinvents the Dracula legend in the context of a travelogue, and Smith paints a bleak and strangely claustrophobic setting that reminds the urbanized world that nature still just wants to eat us.

And finally, if you like keeping track of news-related stories of the weird, I’d recommend adding Cryptomundo, Professor Hex, and Unexplained Mysteries to your blogroll.

So that’s my Halloween media potluck. If you have any Halloween or horror-themed favorites, leave a few suggestions in the comments … and happy Halloween!

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