Books for Halloween with Cameron Chaney of “Library Macabre”

Conversation transcript, edited from an automatic transcription. Minor transcription errors may remain; not checked word for word against the audio. Advertising and separate introductory promotional material omitted. Speaker changes are not individually labeled.

Hello, my spookies. And you want to say your intro? I want to hear it in person. I'm so excited. Hey, my name is Cameron. I've just totally forgot about it because we're recording. Well, the correct answer was, hey, creeps. Hey, creeps. My name is Cameron. Welcome back to Library Macabre, where I talk about books, movies, writing, and all things spooky. And yeah, we're really in the spooky world. We're in the spooky universe here together.

And this is the crossover to end all crossovers. Like, get lost, MCU. This is the Ohio horror nerd crossover. For those who have not had the fortune to be introduced to the Library of Macabre, it's one of my favorite booktube channels. And I mean that sincerely. I'm a massive, massive horror, young adult horror book nerd. And I had no idea there were others until just a few years ago. Right here. And then for you to live like 20 minutes away is truly bizarre.

And for those who don't know me, my name is Henrique Couto, and I host Weekly Spooky, a podcast all about horror literature, featuring a brand new scary story every Wednesday. And we decided to sit down and join forces, like a Megatron kind of thing, to talk about some of the best books to get you in that cozy fall Halloween mood. I can do that. I was telling you before the show, you introduced me to the concept of media being cozy.

And now it's the only descriptor I use. Right. Like I told you, when you're sick and you put it on the TV as you're home from work, that's cozy. That's what you turn to. And when I crack open an R.L. Stine Fear Street or a mysterious Christopher Pike book or Diane Ho or any of those, I feel this warm blanket feeling makes me very, very happy. Yes, I feel the same way.

Yeah, I can tell. I mean, I've watched damn near all of your videos. I actually, I want to say I reached out to you during COVID or during the lockdowns was the first time I reached out because I was watching a ton of your videos. And then I was like, wait, Fairborn, Ohio, as in nearby. Right. Yep. And at the time you were on a hiatus, but you were very nice to write me back.

And it turns out we'd crossed paths in passing before movie marathons. Big surprise, horror movie. Right. Right. So, but so when it comes to Halloween, which I would assume it's safe to say is your absolute favorite time of year. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that makes me too. I mean, I'm, I'll admit this only here. Christmas is a smidge higher for me, but I, but they're close together. Yeah. Christmas and Halloween are my favorite thing in the world.

So when it comes to Halloween, what's a, what's one of your first go-tos? Like, what's a book that just gets you to feel like you're like you just bit into a fresh jack-o'-lantern? A fresh jack-o'-lantern. All right. I like that analogy. That would be The Haunted Mask. Goosebumps. Of course, everybody's heard about The Haunted Mask. Hopefully, it's not too glary because I have it in a protective cover because I am a nerd and it's a first edition.

But this is my go-to. It always has been. It even still has the Halloween mask inside, which I can open it up here and show you. Oh, man. I don't want you to hurt yourself. Oh, no. It's okay. It's all right. Yeah, the book and the TV episode are by far my absolute favorite Halloween story of all time. Love it. So this is my go-to. However, I love Halloween. There's an immense amount of wonderful Halloween of them around.

There is no shortage. But, of course, that book has the power of being on Halloween. Yes. And being about a Halloween mask. Yes. And that's one that I definitely read as a youngster because we have about seven years older than you. So which is why I'm so blown away that you're so into this stuff, because when I was a kid reading Fear Street, people were like, you're reading Fear Street. That's like five years ago.

So I've never been trendy. So that's fair. So I've yeah. You know, I grew up with older sisters. so i i would read all of their books and you know by the time i did get old enough i was still reading it so uh yeah like i said i was always a little bit behind because i'm like this stuff's cool because my older sisters did it and it's like no that was that was years ago i had the i had one older sister who was about nine years older than me and there was a xerox box full of stuff that she didn't really want anymore that i was just gnawing up chris pike books rl stein books like the boyfriend and the girlfriend yeah those were big influences on me in just about every way uh the last vampire by christopher pike which totally got the school to call my mom because i wrote a book report where i included the part where she was she was buried alive waiting for aids to kill her i guess a little intense for third or for fourth grade yes i guess i i liked the book uh the funny thing is i remember they were like he has great reading comprehension that's definitely above his level.

Not sure about the appropriateness. My mother was like, my son reads what he wants to read. That's good. Oh, my mom's tough broad. Yeah, that's good. She would kill me if she heard me say broad. I didn't mean it, Mom. In fact, I'm such a nerd for this stuff. When I was sprucing up the set earlier, I literally found a copy of R.L. Stine's The Girlfriend. It was just hanging around. And this is mine.

I believe this is the one that I got from my sister because it was used she got it from a friend named Amy they would trade books that's awesome because a lot of my Goosebumps books came from my sister Chelsea's friend Allie so her name is in all my Goosebumps books my favorite is getting them used because I mean you're getting them used most of the time and like the order page being filled out with like the dreams of a child yes yeah the Scholastic Book Order I love finding those in books That is the best feeling.

And that's it. I always love it because I read that. I'm like, oh, I remember when I was a kid and I would fill those things out but never had the money. So it never actually come. But I got to sit there and read the Christmas list of some kid I'll never meet. Yeah. You know, like, oh, man, they really wanted some more Chris Pike. Or if you find the Scholastic Book Club bookmarks that you'd get at the book fairs, the really gaudy, ugly ones that I love.

The only bookmarks I want to use. I love this stuff. And I mean, it's such a nostalgia hit. And that's why I wanted to do this show was in particular because I now, I've always been, and this is where you and I are going to differ a lot. I have always been a very weak reader. I have problems sitting still. I have problems focusing. I always have. Whenever I've read a book all the way from beginning to end, I've definitely had to dedicate myself to it.

And I'm not complaining. I'm just saying, like, that's always been a part of me. And when I started Weekly Spooky, one of the special elements was that I had this like I had to sit down and read like three to five thousand words out loud every single week. And I've become a better reader. Yeah. The more you read, the more practice you get. Yeah. And I still find that, too. If ever I take a break from reading for whatever reason, life gets busy.

I come back to it. It takes me so long, literally like a month to kind of get back into the groove of it. When I've watched your books, what would you call them, like the reading vlogs? That's what you call them. Yeah. And when I watch you talk about it, I'm always like, man, he reads fast. And then when you have one where you're like, well, today I didn't really read much of it at all.

I'm like, that's me. Yeah. That's me every day. No, the first couple days, it's all good. And then a whole week will go by and I'll be like, I haven't updated this thing. I'm sorry. I mean, life happens. That's the thing that fascinates me about BookTube. And that's something that I'd love to explore because I only know so much about it. And I know you've permeated yourself in that space. This fascination that so many people have with what other people are reading, what books are out there and fun to read.

It's a cool space. It makes you feel plugged in. Yeah. And I remember when I first thought about it, I was like, oh, what do I care about what somebody's reading? And then I get into it. I'm like, oh, yeah, they like that book. Maybe I'll go. Yeah. And I'd be lying if I didn't say that I've watched some of your videos on a Sunday morning and then skedaddled over to eBay and bought something I maybe shouldn't have.

Yes. I am a bad influence in that way. I know this because people tell me all the time. I have bought at least three point horror books because you were just looking at the covers. And so that's a good segue. One of my favorite things is the covers. half of my collection desire yes is the artwork these are the exploitation movies of the book world yes it's like walking into a video store yeah it's the same feeling and the only difference is a lot of these are for young people as well although i mean in the 70s and 80s there were i mean i'm sure you've read paperbacks from hell oh yeah it's one of my favorite i've read it like five times it's incredible like the the amount of uh of the woman looking back in the house with one light on in the background.

Those gothic paperbacks, yes. I love that there was like an era of style. Thousands of them. Yeah. Thousands, yes. And they're all the same. Yeah. But they're all there. Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? And that's the other thing is like when I started collecting these, they were pretty much overall considered just garbage. I mean, not garbage, but trash. They were disposable. Right. so i would buy 20 30 young adult books for 20 bucks now people are starting to appreciate them nostalgia has become a major part of life and i guess that's just part of getting older is that nostalgia kind of becomes it everybody wants to remember when they were kids everybody wants to have that thing that you couldn't have when you were a kid i think that's a big part of it uh is Is there a book that you've scored as an adult that you always wanted as a kid that you couldn't believe you got or that you couldn't wait to get once you had cashola in your pocket?

It's actually I didn't actually buy it. I did own it when I was a kid. Okay. When my parents divorced, we moved house. Everything got kind of disrupted. I had this. Let's go back to Goosebumps. It was a Goosebumps haunted library. It was a promotional item. and you would get the books and boxes of cereal and then if you filled out the order form, you would get this little cardboard foldout and you could put your tiny little Goosebumps books inside of it.

There were three of them. And I had this when I was a kid, but then it got lost in the move and I hadn't been able to find it ever since. A friend of mine blessed me with a pristine copy of this thing and I'd always wanted it again and now I have it. it goes for like $200 online. Crazy. Yeah, that was my one holy grail that I didn't think I'd ever get, and now I have it.

Well, I mean, I think that you, at this point in your booktube career, I think you've gotten a lot of holy grails. Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes. I've had a lot of luck because I obsessively look for this stuff constantly, like all the time. Yeah, I'm the same way. My girlfriend likes to call it, I'm like, I stalk things I like. Like I just hunt them and wait outside the apartment of like a microphone I want to buy until the price is just right.

Yes. Or it's just now available. Because I was showing you when you first came into the Casa here that I have all these posters for movies that very few people appreciate other than me. And apparently you, when you went, oh, my God, a Night of the Scarecrow poster. I was like, homie, you're in the right place. Welcome to your home away from home, nerd. because I love the things that make me feel cozy.

Yeah, I look at these and I'm like, man, I remember being at the video store when I was a kid and seeing box covers to movies that I never got to see at all. Oh, yeah. And your brain fills it in. Yes. And it's the same with a lot of these paperbacks. I would see them and never get to read them. So in a way, you just kind of make up a story in your head of what that's about.

And that's almost even cozier because it's like, yeah, that's the exact horror story you like. Right. You actually made it up. You made it up. Yeah. No, I had the same feeling. When I would walk to a video store as a kid, my mom hated horror films. It was not allowed to watch. I was allowed to watch Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? It was about it. At least there's that.

Yes. Because those were hugely influential. That was that was my thing. Later on, I got into like Universal Monsters because that's tame enough. But I would walk down the horror section and I'd see all of these covers and I'm like, oh, my God, I want to rent all of these. No, I wasn't allowed. I got away with like coming up to my mom and being like, here's Return to Oz. Can I rent this?

Sure. It's Oz, of course. And then getting home and crying my eyes out because I was terrified of the witch without her head. And she was like, OK, so, yeah, you definitely can't watch these movies. that so my my uh mother was bizarrely willing to just let me watch whatever i wanted within a realm of reason totally the opposite my mom my mom she would i would be at the video store and as long as i picked something that didn't just look like porn she'd be like sure you know like i would want to grab like um out like which one of the witchcraft movies and my mom would be like Are you kidding?

Nah. Yeah. But then, you know, I would pick up a Halloween four and she'd be like, yep, go on. Freddy Krueger. I had Freddy Krueger tapes when I was so young. It was really inappropriate. And my mother's attitude was always like, well, he knows the difference between reality and fantasy. So he'll be fine. I did not know the difference. I was seven. I was a smart enough seven-year-old to convince my mom to let me watch the movies, but not smart enough to not be scarred by them in some ways.

And also, we were notorious cable stealers, so I had an obscene amount of access to Cinemax. It all makes sense. but the biggest influence talking about like cozy horror memories was and this i i know was before your time but do you are you familiar with saturday nightmares uh no i don't think so okay so it ended in like 94 or something usa it was on usa okay i've heard of this but i was oh sure i mean i'm sure you've talked to people who oh yeah who remember that well or i'll go on a binge on youtube and you'll see the intros and outros right well i would my my mom and my step dad and me would all be in the living room and it would be a saturday night i'd be getting tired and my stepdad really nice dude and he um he would have he liked to have a few cervezas you know and uh he was from mexico and he liked to have a few cervezas he liked to have a good time and he what he didn't like to do was get up once he was settled in on a saturday night because he worked in contracting and he was tired you know yes yes so we we would all be on the couch and i'd be like little i'd be like crevassed right between them and i would be like my eyes would be like whatever and my mom was like we better put him to bed and he'd be like he's falling asleep who cares let him sleep and then i would just lay there eyes open watching like uh friday the 13th part eight all the way through at like six that's great and i just remember him always going fall asleep he'll fall asleep it's fine he'll fall asleep i was never gonna sleep i remember how scared i was the intro was this like cheesy CGI hallway that had like movie scenes and television scenes because they would show the hitcher on there.

I mean, they would show the hitchhiker TV series on there. That's a good one too. They would show Friday the 13th movies. They would show Poltergeist the series. They would show all kinds of stuff. And I remember just being scared of just the intro because it would have this like 80s tonight on Saturday Nightmares, a man gets more than he's bargaining for in Creepshow, followed by another episode of The Hitchhiker. And I would just be like pretending to be asleep so I could one eye open, just watch that shit.

Golden age. Oh my gosh. It was so good. But it was like, there was such a recklessness with media. And it definitely formed who I was, but I definitely am not saying it's the best parenting advice in the world. Yeah, I wanted to see Scream because when I was in kindergarten, you know, when that movie came out, and all my sisters would talk about it, and they'd tell me what happens in it.

And I'm like, wow, that sounds amazing. I want to see that. And my mom was like, no. And then I would go to the, like, we'd go to Meyer or something. I go to the video section, and I'm just holding the VHS of Scream in my hands, and she's like, no. Ain't happening, kid. Ain't happening. And then when I did get old enough to see it, I was like 13 or 14.

I'm like, oh, my God, this is terrifying. I know why now. Why? She told me no. See, and so for context, although I wasn't in kindergarten when Scream came out, I remember being on a road trip with my mother and my sister going to Alabama and renting Scream to the hotel room and everybody else going to sleep. And I'm like nine or something or eight. And I just sat up and watched Scream.

And it looped because, you know, it was like the old pay-per-view. so i watched the whole thing and then caught like 45 minutes of it again before i finally fell asleep it's one of those movies you want to put back in oh yeah the beginning oh yeah well plus i had access free access to it it was mine everybody else was asleep i had my little can of soda and let's do it so but uh so to more to other cozy things more related to books god this is the most dangerous meeting of the nerd minds so when it comes to halloween what's your next pick for a cozy halloween book to read i actually i have a whole bag i i noticed i i was i was just gonna play coy yeah well you know going to rl stein yet again i do have things besides rl stein yeah but stein's a classic fear street you know they just did the movies recently i'm sure a lot of people who didn't read these books probably saw the movies yeah they're good but the original books are fantastic.

And this is not my favorite, but it's fantastic. It takes place at a Halloween party in a gothic mansion with a cemetery in the front yard. Someone's been murdered. I'm sure you've read it, right? I have read the Halloween night, but I've not actually got the Halloween party. Halloween night's cool. Halloween party is better. Wow. Love this book. It's very cozy. That one, I would be shocked if I don't have it in my collection.

I'm going to dig that one out and if you don't i probably have a dupe of it somewhere and you can have it i will keep that in mind because you never know what you have to like i'm really bad you have this incredible library and i am a cob library if you will yes and i have just plastic bins full of ya novels just like everywhere in my in every storage space it's almost more fun because you know when you get the the itch to read some why or you just dig through your bins it's like oh my god i didn't realize I had this.

Or more likely, I buy them on eBay because you talk about them, and then I'm going through the bins and I go, why did I buy it? I had it! That happened several times. Yeah, it happens to me too. And I have them all on shelves, organized and cataloged, and it still happens. Those shelves are custom made, right? They had to be. I will buy them from Walmart or Amazon, and then I will customize them from there.

A little bit of both. I mean, we're talking floor to ceiling. Yes. I mean, an incredible amount. They don't go up to the ceiling when you buy them. I had to build them up because I need that extra space. Don't go away. Weekly Spooky will be right back. What if one small scoop today meant more Saturdays chasing that same ball, more mornings up on the couch beside you, and more years of that tail thumping when you walk in the door?

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Roughgreens.com. Give your dog the nutrition that helps keep the good years going. Tired of juggling sales tools or spending hours on prospecting just to book a few meetings? Meet Apollo, the go-to-market platform for finding leads, connecting with buyers, and closing deals all in one place. Apollo gives you access to over 210 million contacts and AI that handles all your busy work, finding leads, drafting emails, and even prioritizing your day. So stop paying for five different sales tools when one does it all. visit apollo.io and sign up free today i try i try not to be too much of a collector but like i have like i have like 700 movies adorable it's all of my friends who are actual collectors are just like oh bless your heart you know uh but like even that i'm like man i just don't have the space um especially not with my horrible poster addiction which takes up all of the walls yes and i have 45 posters not framed.

It's a problem. I have a problem. No room for shelves. That's one of the hard things is that I can't ever have enough shelves. Constantly in need of shelves. I just bought like three bookcases and I'm like I guess I have to go back to Target. I gotta get another bookcase. So and speaking of cozy books, I want to also mention you have, you are an author. Yes. And I read your first book Autumn Crow.

Thank you. Really enjoyed it. It's a short story compilation, which would appeal very much to the weekly spookies out there. You should check out Autumn Crow on Amazon. Please do. I mean, they love short fiction, and that's what it is. So definitely check out Autumn Crow. But you have the first installment of Autumn Crow High. Fresh hell. Yes. Which, by the time you're saying this, is out right now for you to buy.

It is kind of inspired by Fear Street. But, of course, it is a spinoff of my first book, Autumn Crow. So, Autumn Crow takes place in a spooky town where they pretty much celebrate Halloween year-round. They're a little bit obsessed with it. It's a little bit of like Foy's here in Ohio. Oh, yeah, the Foy family up in Fairbourn. Yes. But on steroids. Right, yeah, on steroids. It's a broader setting. It's like over an entire town.

It's nestled in this valley. And, of course, it attracts a lot of tourists. People love to come there and celebrate Halloween, but there's a dark side because there's evil in the soil. And if you come to Autumn Crow, you may not leave with your life. So and if you want, would you mind giving the audience a taste of what is what do they have to to expect from Autumn Crow High Fresh Hell?

This is a young adult series. And like I said, it's very much inspired by Fear Street. So but, you know, instead of having Fear Street, it's the school is kind of the hub of evil. So each book is going to follow a different character as they make their way through senior year 1994. And I didn't realize it was in the night. Yes, it is set. The first book is set in 1993 at the beginning of the school year.

And it follows all these teenagers all throughout the year. And it's a question of whether or not they're going to make it to graduation or even prom. I mean, see, I went to a non-cursed high school. I still make it to graduation. So I didn't even I didn't even go to high school myself. I did. But I started homeschooling like eighth grade year of middle school. I was like, no, I've had enough.

I can't do this. Were you bullied? Yes. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I was like, I'm not going to survive this. So I guess this is kind of what I pictured high school probably was. Oh, that's a fun way. That's really cool, though, because that's a fun way to stretch that imagination muscle. Yeah. You know, of just imagining what high school would be like in an awesome universe instead of the real universe where it's horrible.

It's terrible. Because, gosh, imagine that. A horror movie book nerd bullied. Yeah. What kind of world are we living in? Right. Plot twist. If you don't mind, where'd you go to school? I went to the school of Tecumseh. Tecumseh. Oh, Tecumseh. Okay. Yeah, I went to West Carroll, which is just like right down the road. And I don't really recommend it. No, Decauze was a horrible experience. That's pretty rural, right? Yes.

Yeah. So, I mean, you know, it's like you have less people, but the jerks are really loud. Yes. In places like that. It's the worst. Well, if you ever need, for future Autumn Crow High books, if you ever need some heartlessly brutal stories. high school life i'm happy to share yes i've got trauma for days baby oh me too man but i i'm thrilled that it's finally out i'll be getting a copy immediately no need to send one because i want to buy one thank you i mean i know how believe me i know how important it is support means everything so that one little notch to the algorithm that's on me i got you thank you but uh I think that it's super cool, and I can't get over the fact that you're a local person.

I'm here. That blows my mind. I know. When you rang my doorbell, I was like, holy crap, it really is him. It really is Cameron. He's here now. Well, okay. Yeah. 20 minutes away. You're crazy. He's petting my dogs. But, yeah, make sure you check out Autumn Crow High, Fresh Hell. We're not doing this show entirely just to promote it, but it doesn't hurt either. Yeah, I appreciate it. It's brand new.

It's brand new. And the folks listening to this over at Weekly Spooky, folks, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, it's the kind of thing you like if you like that kind of thing. Yes. I modeled it for people like us. Yeah. No, I'm all about reading it. I'm going to have to read that and then read Halloween Party. Yes. Kind of back to back. Just a forewarning, though, to anybody who did grow up on Fear Street, this is a lot darker.

So I imagine that's probably a good thing to a lot of you. Yeah. No, I would have to agree. Well, so I've not written a book. I've published a bunch of books. I work with authors, especially people who I do weekly spooky with and stuff like that. Very, very talented folks. And an author named David O'Hanlon and I teamed up to do the Babysitter Massacre books, which are spinoffs of the cinematic universe of Babysitter Massacre in book form.

He's back in pog form. But those are literally Fear Street, but with violence, sex, mutilations, the devil. You know, it's just all the things you knew should have been in it, but weren't. So I can appreciate that, too, the mentality of like, it's like Fear Street, but it doesn't have to pull the punches. Right. It's a lot darker. It's a lot more violent. It is still young adult, so don't expect, like, anything too overly gruesome. uh no sex but i do pull a couple punches you get a couple of wax yes yes so all right so now that we've we've gotten that out of the way which by the way you just slip the 20 under the table um so uh what else is in your sack of magic cozy halloweeny oh let's see well this is actually a newer book and it is totally a middle grade book uh so don't expect anything too dark with this one.

But if you like The Haunted Mask and the Goosebumps series, this is part of the Monster Street series. It's called The Halloweeners by J.H. Reynolds. This is the second book in the series, but they're all like goosebumps. You don't have to read them in any kind of order. This is about a bunch of kids who are trick-or-treating on Halloween. They eat some Halloween candy and they start to turn into their costumes.

So it's basically The Haunted Mask, but it's got all of the cozy Halloween vibes that you want. It's really, really good. And I like the other books in the series, too. Actually, Carnival, which is the third book, is extremely dark for a middle grade book. But this one's very fun and very cute as well, if you like cute. I mean, I like a little cute in horror every now and then. And I wasn't expecting one so modern.

That's a good one. So we're basically saving you all the trouble of your reading list. We're helping you. This is a public service. You're welcome. so uh before we get into another another recommendation do you have a book that when you first read it maybe when you reread it as an adult or because obviously you've reread a lot of them as an adult that when you read it you couldn't believe it was a young adult book you couldn't believe that you had sat and read it when you were like a teen in hindsight you were like whoa okay it's a good question uh there are a couple of uh christopher pike books that i read as a kid all of my answers are christopher yes or as a kid like i knew it was a lot but i didn't realize just how much till i got older i'm like wow was it slumber party a slumber party is actually a kind of mild compared to in my opinion um but like i was reading uh the midnight club which is a very sad book.

I love the Mennonite book. Yes. And it's not really horror, but it's so dark. So dark and so sad. When the Netflix miniseries was announced, everybody was like, oh, this sounds interesting. And I was like, do you know what that book's about? Yes. Because I'll tell you what that book is about. It's about terminally ill children. Yes. Who are terminal. Yes. I love that book. It's so, so good. and it has so much to say about grief.

There's also all kinds of weird kind of messages in there, and you're not really sure what he's trying to say, which I feel like is the case with a lot of Christopher Pike books. Some people are like, oh, I didn't like this because it was trying to say this. I'm like, well, I don't know if he's trying to make any kind of point. He just kind of puts it all in there.

It's like, you come up with it. Well, and he had the benefit of, number one, a pen name, which never hurts to have the freedom of a pen name. But number two, just the sheer demand for his work. So he could just write one. And then if he wasn't sure if he did it right, he'd just write another one that was kind of like it. But he could experiment. He could try new things.

He can publish all kinds of stories. Yes. And just get them out into the world and see what happens. And that's one of the reasons I like these books, too, is they were kind of written to be disposable. But they're not disposable to losers like us. No, no, no. We read them again and again. Yes. And actually, so my two were Midnight Club and Slumber Party as far as like I read them again and I was like, whoa, I was reading these when I was 11.

Yes. Holy crap. Slumber Party is one of my favorites. I mean, just the, the, there's a part where a girl has to pee on her hands to warm her fingers enough to escape, which I just thought was like, not necessarily inherently, you know, wrong or, or, or bad, but just like, okay, that's a choice. Yes. It's a choice that you can make. but also the ending where uh where the sister one of the sisters uh spoiler area if you haven't read it in 30 years it's been out burns alive the way they described like her face as she's like being engulfed in flames i'm just i'm just sitting there as a at that point like 19 or 20 year old and as a 19 or 20 year old i'm like oh okay then um i mean woof um and of course we mentioned the Last Vampire, which I mean, that's a movie.

That's a book about a vampire in a world ravaged by AIDS. Yes. It's dark stuff. It's incredibly dark. And I don't think it seems like R.L. Stine actually got a lot of the controversy with Goosebumps because he was just a bigger name. I feel like Christopher Pike was a little more underground and he was able to get away with a lot more without a lot of stink being raised about it. And he stayed in the YA space too.

Yes. He did very little for children as to where R.L. Stein went into with goosebumps. And it's like, this is for little kids. But they were always fun. You know, I mean, I was going to say nobody got hurt. No, there were some where people definitely. Yes. They got hurt. Yeah. And it was permanent. Well, he likes to say that, you know, there's not a lot of harm. There's not a lot of violence.

No one actually dies. It's like, well, it's there between the lines, though. When I was when I was first revisiting young adult books, I actually wanted to do this was before I realized that there was just no way I could do it. I wanted to have a blog about YA horror books, and this was in 2009, so it would have been really ahead of the time. Yes. And I wrote one blog, which was about the first book in the Babysitter Nightmares series.

Okay. I have those. I've not read them yet, though. I've read the first one, which off the top of my head, I can't remember the title, the name of it but it was good but the author has no other credits and his my favorite thing about reviewing that book was i dissected the dedication because it had references to like thanks to like lemmy for the good gig and then it was like the key to oh and then in the it was the author uh bio at the end it said like he believes the key to good life is uh is like coffee rock coffee rock and roll and lots of yab yum and all this stuff so i looked up yab yum that's a sex act from the kama sutra like this dude my my imagination was like this is some like drifter guy who just like wrote this book for a paycheck to buy more peyote and gasoline to drive further you know like it's kind of weird that that got by through the publisher i mean i mean they didn't have google so maybe they just punched it into their encyclopedia britannica they didn't know any better and it wasn't there but so but so i wrote an article about that one but then i realized like oh my god i'm just such a slow reader and if i make myself have to do this it won't be fun you know but uh but i i i i always wanted to talk about those more and uh yeah that was a really fun one and i wanted the ones that nobody remembered and there's a lot of them too yeah the more you dig the more you turn up oh yeah and and like i remember uh when i discovered nightmare hall what a fun series with the the book where you open it and you get a bigger picture step back yeah yeah yeah the the front cover has a hole in it so you see like a framed image and then when you open it you get the whole image i really wanted to do that for autumn crow high but there's just no way to do it self-publishing no no i mean not without a great deal of expense yes and yeah that's the same thing with like doing foil and oh yeah foil covers and stuff you you're going to spend a lot of money back in the day it was on every book and they were always printing like 5 000 of them yeah and when you're printing like or 20 000 or 30 000 or 100 000 when you're printing that many the cost difference is just they deplete and deplete and deplete when i worked in the dvd business in 2005 2006 like we would make 10 to 20 to 30 000 dvds at a time so if it was a double disc set it was like three cents additional because we were making so many already it just didn't matter.

I've heard that about Steelbooks too. They're so expensive, but I've heard that they're super cheap to produce. I still go out and get each one that comes out. I just got the Tigers Are Not Afraid Steelbook. Have you seen that? I haven't seen that movie, but I've heard about it. It looks very good. It is excellent. It will shatter your heart into a thousand That's why I want to see it. I want to be heartbroken.

I want that. Let it break your heart. I loved it. I'll mention that for everybody. That's a good Halloween one. that's not even a horror movie really but tigers are not afraid it's about cartel orphans people who are orphaned because their families are killed by the cartel in little mexican villages and you follow this young girl who like avoids those kids because they're unwashed you know they might steal sometimes to survive and then one day she comes home and her parents are gone because the cartel something happened she didn't know about it and now she has to go to those kids and be like, can I sleep near where you camp?

Because I have nothing anymore, just like you guys. But it becomes cartel versus child folklore. Wow. And that's where it gets really special, and that's why I'm recommending it. I got to see it. I didn't realize there was a steelbook of it, though, so maybe I'll pick that up. Somebody sent it to me for my birthday. Awesome. And I was, well, not somebody, it was my buddy Andrew. and he put happy birthday and he was like though you won't be happy if you watch this on your birthday and i was like you don't tell me when i'll be happy gringo i yeah yeah but uh but okay so what do you what else you got in that magic sack of halloween codes oh let's see i don't even i put all this in here yesterday so i don't even remember oh that's even more exciting here we go this is a good one so this is actually new as well newer it's if you guys end up reading autumn crow and you like this this is pretty much the same and i it didn't mean for that to happen this came out the same time as autumn crow um that this is greetings from moon hill by anthony j rapino and it is short stories set in a town called moon hill where it's basically halloween all the time all right kind of joint lots of uh cool illustrations and designs and things inside the author sent this to me for review and when i read the synopsis i was like dude by the way I'm literally about to release a book called Autumn Crow.

It has pretty much the same plot. Don't think I stole your book because I've not even seen it in person yet. He was like, no, it's okay. But he's been a big supporter of mine too. Really good book. Like really, really good Halloween horror. Like horror. It's called Greetings from Moon Hill. Greetings from Moon Hill. And it's cozy, but it does have lots of gruesome stuff in here as well. And it's a thick one.

It's like a six by nine. Yes. And it is. It's loaded. It's a thick book. So that is like a solid amount of Halloween reading. Yeah, it could take you all a month if you just wanted to read little bits at a time. So how many words, give or take, is Fresh Hell? It is 73,000. That's pretty thick. It's a novel. Yeah, I'm sure. When I first set out to write it, I thought it was going to be more like Fear Street, around like 40,000 words.

It just kept going and going and going. we tried to keep the babysitter books around about that 30 to 40 000 word space it's a good range yeah especially for you know stuff that's trying to be like fear street or whatever it's a nice range and you know it's just thick enough if you make it an eight by uh whatever i'm talking now i'm talking about the details of publishing but it's just thick enough you know but uh wow okay it's a thick boy no one yes it took a hot minute to put it together i know this has been absolute passion for you yes so i'm trying not to it's so weird to nerd out i watch i watch this guy just talk about his favorite books like every week or so and i i love it thank you but then when you talk about movies it's like i'm like you're just like and i got this box of movies from vinegar syndrome you start open them i'm like got it yeah got it got it there's nothing new to learn that i got it weekly spooky will be right back after these quick messages i worked very briefly in film restoration oh wow so uh i i i oversaw some film scans and stuff and uh so i'm always like i'm always fascinated to see the newest remaster me too i'm a big huge nerd for that kind of stuff so that's very cool you just watched killer laugh or was it killer laugh evil laugh evil laugh yes did you like it i enjoyed it i thought it was it's it feels more like a comedy than it does a horror but i thought it was very funny my best advice watch the making of if you haven't already i did and it's great it makes you love the movie even more yes i bought an original one sheet off of uh ebay of that which is just laying around in the pile of them where there's nowhere to put them it's a great poster i when i bought it i was looking at it And it was signed by the producer.

And I was like, whoa, signed by the producer? That's who was selling it on eBay. It was the producer. Of course. So I was like, well, then it would make sense that it would be signed. So I just signed it when you mentioned that on your show. I was like, I love. That was one of those I was not expecting to love so much. It was very, very funny. There were times where I'm cracking up.

Not because, you know, it's like, it's cheesy. Yeah, yeah. It's literally funny. Yes. It's got really great comedic timing. I loved it. and like you said the documentary and just the things that they had to do to get the film made and the hoops they had to jump through it's endearing when you realize that like these were all actors who wanted to do something they would all enjoy doing so they like pulled their money together to pay for everybody's food and for the film stock and yeah and all of a sudden i was like okay before i thought this movie was okay but now i'm rooting for these people even though it was 1988 or whatever and i was two years old when they did it i'm doing my part now yes so ah man There's so much horror media to enjoy.

So much. I get overwhelmed with it. Of course you do, dude. I mean, are you kidding? I can't imagine. I mean, just the sheer amount of stuff sent to you, I'm sure, is incredible. It's a blessing and a curse because it's amazing. And then you're like, I got to read this. And I live the your favorite thing is now a job every day. And there are easier days and there are harder days. uh-huh well yeah like you're saying things are sent to me which is awesome and i'm so grateful but after you know certain point it starts to just pile up and i'm like i can't read all of this i'm going to eventually but it's it's going to take me years well you're very transparent about the fact that like i try to be i'm pretty packed on whatever so if you need this in a rush don't send it to me yeah don't and a lot of times people still do just because they want to see it in the library which is very cool yeah well they want somebody who will appreciate it to inevitably appreciated.

Yes. That makes sense. Which I do. Like, even when I'm not reading the books, I still want to, like, go and look at them as if I'm, like, in a video store. Oh, yeah. Well, the first thing I did when we got in touch was I sent you some Babysitter Massacre books. Yes. Because those covers are dope. Yes. And I don't know if I told you the artist on those. Uh-huh. I can't name him.

Um, but, long story, but he did many of the artwork on Vinegar Syndrome Oh, really? Yeah. That's awesome. Well, that explains it, then. I'll tell you what they are off the air. so i'm looking forward he has a professional career so like the really sleazy stuff he has to use a fake name so and my stuff damn right is the sleazier stuff right so what else is in this magic bat oh i'm digging through yours to see if you have any of the ones i would put and if you don't then i'll bring up mine let's see what we got oh here we go it's another modern book i have a lot of modern books and that's awesome yeah because uh you know vintage stuff there's not a whole lot of like halloween themed books it's just horror yeah but lately all of us all of us weirdos have come together and made a lot of really cool halloween books so this is another uh anthology uh it's a collection of stories from a bunch of different authors so you get a little taste of a bunch i actually originally sent a story to this hope hoping to get published in it they turned me down but i'm still giving them a shout out because it's a great book you're a mensch and a class act Doorbells at dusk.

Really, really good. Just a celebration of Halloween. All kinds of different things in here. There's some melancholy. There's a lot of gruesome horror. Some really dark stuff. Funny. It's a nice mix. And it's another thick one, too. So that'll get you through the season. Yeah. There's a lot to read. It's a trick-or-treat bag. I love that. And kudos to you for being not petty. Because, boy, is it easy to be petty.

I, you know, I I'm in circles with a lot of different authors and editors and I'm always sending my stories out and sometimes it just doesn't fit, which is fine. Yeah. So and I want to also mention you've done a lot of what are called like horror tube anthologies. I noticed those when I yes, I followed your your author thing on Amazon. Yes. So do you want to mention any of those that stand out that would be worth bringing up?

I have a story in their book called Served Cold, which is like a winter themed. I bought that one. Did you? It's got a story called Karakon Kolos that I wrote. It's actually about it. It's a Christmas cryptid. It might be a little bit of a spoiler because it's not totally centered around that until you kind of get to the end. But anyways, I had a lot of fun writing that story.

It's another one that's a little darker. and then at the end of the rope was in local haunts, which was all of the authors could model their story after a local haunt or a local legend of some kind. So at the end of the rope is about the one-eyed dog, which lives in a forest in Autumn Crow. These are both Autumn Crow stories. Of course, yeah. But it's actually an urban legend that I accidentally started at my elementary school that there was a one-eyed dog that haunted the woods because there were all these dog houses, like dilapidated dog houses in the woods bordering my elementary school.

And kids were like, why are those dog houses there? And I'm like, I'll tell you. It's because there's a one-eyed dog that haunts these woods. And from then on, kids started seeing it in the woods. They'd come into class, they'd be like, oh my God, I saw the one-eyed dog in the woods. And the teacher's like, what are you guys talking about? And I'm just sitting in the back of the room like, And the teacher's just like, is there a gas leak in here?

What are these kids talking about? And then I got out of elementary school, went into middle school, totally different school. And my sister would come home. She'd be like, I saw the one-eyed dog. I'm like, no, you didn't because I invented that. That's mine. She's like, no, you didn't. I'm like, yes, I did. See, that's where you and I differ because I'd be like, if you really saw him, you wouldn't be here.

Right. No one ever survives. so when i was growing up did you have a lot of ghost stories growing up that were like family tradition or anything like that um i guess i was the one though who told the stories i would read like scary stories to tell in the dark or haunted ohio and i would published in beaver creed yes yeah she chris chris woodyard i've not met her before but she was like my idol growing up i loved those books so so much so if she is happens to be watching this please reach out to me because i want to meet you shoot if you're watching this reach out to me too because i want to talk to you too yeah i just recently bought all of them like just one by one i just found them all yes and every single one it was like published by i forget the name of the company they went by but then it said you know beaver creek ohio i was like that's even closer to me than where you live yes yeah they're great books uh so i would read those and it's you know just local haunted houses and buildings there's like a thing in there about sinclair community college um so i would read those and i'd be like oh you know this ghost story about sinclair apparently their theater is haunted everyone's like what to interpret them to people oh you're such a stinker i was a kid you're like i was a kid i was 24 yes see when i was growing up i uh my first of all my mother's from in uh from kentucky she's actually born in hazard kentucky oh wow you can't make that up kids and she would tell me her favorite ghost story growing up which was golden arm have you ever heard the woman with the golden arm or golden arm it was it was actually made famous by um uh what's his name um mark twain okay he told it as he told the version that an uncle like not a real uncle this is so terrible because it's like talk about a world apart a slave uncle so it was it was a somebody that he considered an uncle but they were a slave of sorts and uh he it was this ghost story about a woman who i'll paraphrase it because it's kind of a long story but basically this woman got injured in a small town by a rich person, like got run over by a horse or something, and it smashed her arm.

So the rich person felt so terrible about it. He was like, I want to make concessions. So not only will I get you a new arm, but it's going to be made of gold. And I'm just going to, when you get older, I'm going to give you an arm that fits. It's going to be made of pure gold because I'm so sorry. Like I can never actually give you your arm back.

So that's a pretty wild contrition story. You know, it's like, I'll give you an arm made of gold. But on top of that, she then gets married. And it's living kind of a normal life. But the way my mother told it, eventually the farm falls on hard times. And her husband comes to her and is like, if we sold your golden arm, we could buy oxen and cows and get the farm going again.

And she's like, absolutely not. You know, I'm not selling my golden arm. And he's like, okay, fine. So it doesn't go full EC Comics. It doesn't kill her or anything. but the next summer she falls ill which of course was a thing in the 18 in 1850 or when it started she fell ill and passed away and he debated and debated and debated and finally in the version i heard he dug her up and stole her golden arm and sold a town over then at night as he's trying to go to sleep he hears you know give me back my arm so the way it starts is who it starts as uh where's my golden arm where's my golden arm and the next day he's like accusatory he thinks that like the jeweler he sold it to who promised he wouldn't tell anybody had like told somebody and it was her family trying to get revenge or it was the guy who paid for the arm trying to get revenge or whatever it was then he keeps like trying to find who's doing it and eventually it changes to who stole my golden arm she's on to you bro so then he sees this like figure off in the distance that looks like his wife in the clothes she was buried in saying who stole my golden arm And the hook of the story is Twain would tell this story in a room full of adults with one candle lit.

And who stole my golden arm? Was it you? And they'd all jump. Which just, what is more joyful than that adults used to sit in a room with other adults and be spooked by a guy reading in front of a candle? Now, this is a lot like the big toe from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I think it's been translated probably many different times. Oh, yeah, definitely. There was another one in Scary Stories 3, I think, where it's the coins on her eyes.

Somebody steals their coins. Stealing from the dead is a very classic trope. Don't do it. I wouldn't recommend it. But I would bring my Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books with me to camp out. It's like I went camping when I was in middle school. So we're all sitting in a circle in the middle of the cabin, and I'm reading from it. And I did the same thing where I'm like, you have it.

And everybody about pissed themselves. It was great. I once told that on a first date. Scared that poor woman so bad. Oh, no. We only dated for two years after that. Kind of reminds me of that. I think it's from Ace Ventura where Jim Carrey's talking about the dream he had. About the dog. Oh, it's perfection. I took that as a kid and I did it to everybody I knew. It scared everybody.

It was great. The version I always did was you drive out to like a middle of nowhere road. Crybaby Bridge. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, around here, we would go. You would go out to Farmersville because there's just like a lot of nothing out there. And you would say like, oh, on this road, there's there's known to be a ghost car and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you just wait until a car passes, which could take 20, 30, 40 minutes.

Yes. And you're like, oh, when the car comes by, you're like, if you look right at it, when the car passes, you'll see a skull. driving it, you know, a skeleton driving it. And then when the car passes, right as it passes, you just go, ah! You scream in their ear. Or you could have your buddy come driving along in a skull mask. That would be... Bold of you to think I had friends when I was that young.

I clearly didn't based on what I would do to them. But the most formative scary story for me is one that none of my friends, for the most part, have in common, which is La Llorona. I did not grow up with the boogeyman. I grew up with La Llorona and La Llorona scared me so bad that I would sit in bed debating peeing myself instead of risking getting up and going to the bathroom.

And my favorite was that my stepdad, I mean, he was 100% Mexican. So, you know, I would be like, La Llorona is not real. And he'd be like, of course she is. Don't say that. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite part about his telling of La Llorona is he would be like, and if she finds you, she'll take you to the stream like the one behind our apartment. And she'll drown you like her little boy.

It took me years to realize there's no stream behind our apartment either. It was just screwing me. Oh my gosh. That's great. But now whenever friends are like my daughter's this way or that way, I'm like, do you want me to go tell her La Llorona and get her to straighten up? Because I will. I'll leave her scared. Forever scared. Did you watch Curse of the Crying Woman that's in the Mexico macabre box set?

Oh, no. I haven't had a chance to. It is fantastic. Just like the perfect gothic horror film. It's very much, it feels very much to me like a Universal Monster movie, but instead you've got La Llorona. Oh, my God. I love it. It's really good. I still am afraid of La Llorona. Like part of me is still like, maybe she'll get me though. It's, yeah, it's one of those legends that feels so real.

What? When you're told it almost every night before bed? Yeah. It is basically real. It is. Yeah, you're living it. Yeah, it was his version, which I found out when I researched it later, is not written down anywhere. His was like that you hear the wind and then it becomes a song, a beautiful song. but then when you get closer it's not singing it's weeping like it's like he had this whole thing that i i've never seen anywhere else report it like that it's very chilling i mean he was born in mexico and his parents brought him to california and of course like anybody he's in dayton air force so that's how he ends up in dayton so uh but my gosh like uh i've been sharing that a lot on weekly spooky because whenever we talk about like the things that give us those scary chills i'm always He's like, well, that's La Llorona.

La Llorona is everything fear-based to me. And somebody asked me, because I don't write a ton of stories on Weekly Spooky. I've written two out of 209 stories. So I don't write a lot of them. But somebody said, like, you should write a La Llorona story. And I was like, I'm not going to sit up at night writing about La Llorona. Are you crazy? That's how some of the scariest stories are born, though.

Because a lot of my stories, I have, if I'm writing something scary, which I don't always write scary horror. But when I am. Sometimes you write the fun horror. Yeah, I like fun and cozy. But when I am writing something scary, I don't really get scared. So I have to turn off all the lights. I have to light a candle. I have to play some spooky sounds or something. One story in particular, when I lived with my dad, this was years ago, he lived across the street from a cornfield.

So I was like, you know what? They were out. They were out somewhere. I don't know. It was late. I was like, I'm going to go to the front deck. And it's dark outside. I'm not going to turn on the patio light. I'm going to write this story across the street from this cornfield. So I'm sitting out there and damn it, I was getting myself creeped out. It didn't take very much.

And I feel like it did influence the writing a little bit. I did something similar when I did my first scary stories readings before I had the podcast. I got tired of doing them just into a microphone with some scary music. So I took a portable recorder and went to that cemetery right over there. You saw it when you came in. I'm sure it's not big, not a huge cemetery. But, you know, at night, it's big enough.

Yes. And I gave myself the creeps reading a story. Like, I had my phone in one hand to read the story, and then I had my recorder in the other hand. And I'm just sitting there reading it out loud, and it was a story about a graveyard. And by the end of it, I was like, okay, time to skedaddle home. It's an immersive experience. But I'm not scared. It's not that I was scared.

It was just cold out. It was just cold. I just want to warm up. I just need some cocoa and some blankets to be held and be told that it's okay. Nothing crazy. Mommy. Grown man. I don't know if you've ever been in Browse a While Books in Tip City. No, no. It is a really great store. There's lots of great vintage horror in the basement, which is a very creepy basement.

It is considered a haunted bookstore. Wait, wait. You said a roundabout books? Yes. No. I'm going to say Browse a While. Oh, Browse a While. No, I just thought for a second, because it's the only store I know near Tip. Yes. That's why I thought you might have. Yes. Then there's a roundabout books, which is very, very close. They have very similar names. It's easy to get them mixed up, too. That's why I was like, I want to make sure because I've been to a roundabout books.

Browse a while is in Tip, and they have all kinds of ghost stories. They've had ghost hunters come there and investigate. So I've gone there in my book shopping vlogs to go down in the basement to look for horror books. And I'm like, sometimes it's fine. It's cool. Don't feel weird. But there is one video in particular where I'm down there for five minutes. I'm like, you know what? I'm done. I got to go upstairs because I just had these chills all over me.

You got to peace out a little bit. It's like, I don't even know if all these stories are real or not. But when you're down there alone in this creepy basement and you feel like eyes are on you, which they probably have security cameras. That's probably why. But it's enough. It's not worth it. I'm going to leave. Well, and being afraid in those ways doesn't have to be logical. Like, yeah, I am not a religious person, but when I watch The Exorcist, I become Catholic.

Yes. Just just long enough for the film to run its course. You know, I become I become mortified of the devil for that movie because it's so well done and it pulls you into that world that's so interesting. So, yeah, I feel that. But that's and I think that that's where at the end of the day, where a lot of my my love of this, like, short horror fiction stuff comes from is just like being terrorized. by my mother and my stepdad with their two really scary stories that I would beg my mother to tell me golden arm again and again.

Because mainly because unlike La Llorona, the woman with the golden arm wasn't going to get me next. That wasn't a part. She just wanted her arm, man. She just wanted her arm. You don't have her arm. What have you heard? So what's next in the Sacco mystery? Let's see. Oh, here's a good one. The Chicano's helping you. Yeah. Good boy. You're not safe yet. Weekly Spooky. We'll be right back. This one is, it's not vintage, but it actually is a little bit older.

This came out in 2006. Okay. Which, I mean, we might not want to think is old, but. I would rather not. It's been a while. This is Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge. Now, there is another version of this. This is like the fancy limited edition, but you can get the regular paperback. and Barnes & Noble, which has, you probably have seen the cover. It's got like a pumpkin head dude on the cover.

But anyway, this takes place on Halloween night. You've got this small town. I think his name is the Pumpkin Man or something. And all of these young boys between the ages of like 8 and 18 have to go out on Halloween night and try to find the Pumpkin Man and kill him. It's almost like a lottery by Shirley Jackson kind of situation. but there's something much much darker going on involving the pumpkin man I don't want to spoil it but it was a really good twist now this is a lot more literary so if you like Ray Bradbury's like Halloween tree which is also a great book this is like the adult version of that and it's so good the dark harvest yes so and man I'm fascinated I love that you were the you were like the crypt keeper of the folklore to your friends and family yes um did you ever scare someone so bad that you felt guilty now i have a habit of i i am a little bit of a prankster and i like i said i grew up with lots of siblings so i'm always i was i spent most of my childhood hiding under beds hiding in cabinets waiting for hours hours for somebody to come along so i could reach out and grab them so I've got all kinds of stories and so do my siblings but they often tell me you know what I'm not afraid of anything anymore because of you you desensitized me well that's a statement you know and now if I try to scare any of my siblings they're like Cameron I know you're here I'm like damn it just imagine how often they say that when you're not there right they probably do it's just a mechanism in your brain is to walk into a room and go Cameron I know you're here Yes.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three. Okay, I guess he's not. I think the only time I felt bad was when I was very, very young and my sister was going to bed and I had snuck into her room and I hid under her desk, which was at the end of her bed. So her desk, there was this little slip between the bottom of her bed and the bottom of the desk. I was hiding under there and I'm looking through.

So she had turned off the lights and she's watching TV and she looks down at me and she sees my eyes peering out at her and she screamed. and my mom came in and my stepdad and i got in so much trouble i hadn't really gotten in trouble before then i felt bad you felt bad because you were in trouble yeah it's not because of any morality it was just like you were busted i was busted yeah i mean i didn't i've never scared anybody to the point of their hair turning white so ah see and here i was about to start respecting you and then you and then you tell me see i could not play pranks on my sister because she just beat the crap out of me she was much older yes um yeah in fact my entire childhood was like was like a constant mantra of like you better stop that because one day he's gonna keep growing when you've stopped you know because my sister turned out to be like a five foot four hundred and ten pound girl and then i turned into like a five foot eight two hundred pound 16 year old and she's like okay i guess i can't bully you anymore i'm like yeah you can't yeah my my siblings they they didn't pound pound me into the earth thankfully but maybe they should have yeah i gave i gave them a lot of opportunities to do that i was a little bit mischievous and i still am in some ways but i feel like i've gotten better and i channel that into my writing instead i i'm a unrelenting and unrepentant prankster yes i i my favorite thing about about having a relationship is to have someone to play jokes on um i once had a girlfriend when i lived in new jersey tell me uh tell me you know you're not supposed to just play pranks on your girlfriend every day right and i was just like huh what is that what what do you mean i know what those words mean but not in that order so i was i was the worst i loved hiding in closets and just jumping out oh man i i i've spent hours hiding under beds just waiting like somebody's got to come along eventually and then i throw myself out that level of patience is what truly makes you damaged as a human being so what else is in that magic bag i don't even know how much is in there but it seemed like it It was pretty full.

Yeah, it's pretty full. What else do we got here? Oh, this is a good one. Another newer book, but this is actually published by Kensington, who used to do Zebra. Oh, okay. The old Zebra books. So they're still publishing. This is called Red Harvest, Patrick C. Green. If you like trashy horror, this has a lot of that, lots of gore. But it also takes place in a small town on Halloween. So it does have the cozy leaves in the street and needing to go down the street to get a coffee because it's so chilly.

But this also has tons of gore and violence. And it's just a crazy bonkers ride, especially toward the end. Now, this is the first book in a trilogy. I've not read books two and three, but this was a really strong start. If I recommend any of them, I think this one's one to grab. Red Harvest. Red Harvest. Okay. No, this is fun. this was like my my thought was like we'll just sit down and talk about halloweeny books i'm trying to think of one of my favorite kind of halloweeny books i mean i always liked halloween night the rl stein one um especially we're talking about specifically halloween um but i also really like the silent night books the fear street silent night those are super fun yeah those are some of my favorite fear street books i think it was was it number two it just has all the mannequin heads that's three oh that's three that's three that's such a eye-catching cover box uh or cover box see i'm thinking movies yeah but book cover it's just all these mannequin heads with santa hats and this girl in the middle yeah it's very very creepy and it's one of my favorite fear street covers oh it's it's chef's kiss yes i so that's a favorite cozy one of mine that i i always dive into at least one of them at christmas time don't always finish them but that's okay um oh i watched was it ski week or red see i'm thinking movies i read ski weekend yes that's a fun one yeah that one was great had a lot of good twists and turns yeah that was such a whodunit you were just kept thinking like well it's obviously these people there nope okay no well then it's these people nope of course you know it'll never be topped by it'll never top um uh beach house where there's time travel spoiler but yeah there's time travel which came kind of out of nowhere but you go back and read it and then it kind of starts to make sense but it's also just so weird and if you want one if you want a version of beach house that's not quite as weird just read beach party which is written like right around the same time by those were steins yeah those are both stein i've actually not read that one really but uh yeah i read because i read beach house and i was like is it is this the same as beach it's much more subdued and more what you would expect and it's a lot shorter too yes because beach house was pretty pretty lengthy yeah and all i remembered was it was i reread that as an adult and as i was reading all these young adult books i thought it was funny that it was like leave it to stein to out and out kill someone because there's an out and out murder in it yes because i was reading all these young adult books especially like the babysitter nightmares and stuff which are not that known and we're not that successful and i'm reading those and it's always the thing where it's like somebody dies and then it's like well they were unconscious and now we're in the hospital with them you know they did that a lot and i get it for younger kids you don't want murder and death and all this or or you know like there's a bloody box and it turns out that it was painter yeah uh stein was really good at weaving like no no it was a practical joke i'm so sorry i didn't mean to make you think somebody was dead yeah lots of cop outs oh well and i get that like the idea is that like if somebody played a joke on you with fake blood it's like they had no idea there was an actual murderer yeah a murderer out there.

So whoopsie doodle. I was just having some teenage fun. I had no idea. But yeah, they're cop-outs. Yes. I love them. I think that's part of what makes them so cozy and predictable. Because as soon as something starts to happen, it's like, this isn't the real one yet. That's why when I read Beach House, I'll never read. They kept describing that she had like an O-shaped mouth. She was pale with her mouth looking like a permanent O of a scream.

And I'm just saying, I read it and I'm like, leave it to Stein. Just a corpse. Yep. Just a dead girl. Period. But what I'll always remember the most from that book is the one character who liked to dip her French fries in the bottle of ketchup. Okay. That was just one thing that never went out of my mind is that she liked to take a full bottle of ketchup and dip her fries one at a time.

Let's just hope she's not a double dipper. I imagine she just brings her own bottle of ketchup everywhere because I can't imagine that would be I think that'd be frowned upon even at Bennigan's I'm sure she does I've been to an IHOP once and someone had their very own bag of flour and I never forgot it I don't know why bag of flour? yeah it's stuck in my mind so much that I'm mentioning it right now I would remember that too I'm like do they have their own bag of flour it wasn't even like the bag you'd buy in a store it was a Ziploc bag Oh, that's not flour, homie.

No, no, no. It was flour. I swear to God. They were pouring it on their pancakes. I'm like, I don't understand, but okay. I think that might have been powdered sugar then. Maybe. Or better yet, cocaine. I mean, some people need a little zip pick-me-up. It's like, I don't drink coffee. I just sprinkle cocaine on my iPod. I don't know. I don't know. And it definitely stuck in my mind. I would never forget that.

That is truly bizarre. It's pretty weird. So what else you got in that magic sack? Oh, let's see. I'm getting close to the bottom here. Let's do some nonfiction. Oh, okay. Have you ever been to Salem? I have not. Me either, but I don't have to because I've read this book. This is called A Season with the Witch, The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts. so this is basically a travel guide but it's a lot more fun because it's telling you and not just the history of Salem but like all the cool stuff you can do like if you get there it's really overwhelming apparently but there's all kinds of like cool like haunted houses really weird things that you can do this just basically he lived there for the Halloween season and wrote all about it to the point where I read this and I felt like I was there yeah so eventually when I do go, which I would love to one of these days, this is like the best starting place.

It's so much fun. So much fun. Well, I mean, and for it to be like almost like a travel guide, but it's very thick. I mean, it is covering a lot. It is, but it actually goes really, really quick. I don't, I'm not like much of a nonfiction reader, but this just had me totally invested. So I loved it. See, and that's, that's one thing about me. You give me a nonfiction book if I'm vaguely interested and I cannot stop reading them.

I don't know why. That's just like the way my brain is. Yeah, but fiction, I have to really invest myself or I fall out really quickly. I guess I don't know why that is. But like, yeah, you give me—like, give me the most boring book about Roger Corman. I will read it eight times in one day. Well, we're talking about Paperbacks from Hell. Like, I, I read it and I started back from the beginning and read it again.

And then I was like, okay, well, now I need to listen to the audiobook. So then I listened to that. I'm like, well, now I want to see the pictures again, so I read it again. I, I read it and then listened to the audiobook afterwards. It's a great audiobook. It is. It's phenomenal. And I loved the, uh, when they talked about why haunted houses caught on, that it was because, uh, everybody was heading to the suburbs to buy houses.

Yeah, and after having—I bought a house about 11 months ago, and it's scary. Yeah, like, uh, like about a month ago, there was just a wet spot on my carpet. And I was like, oh no. No. Yes. Is my foundation cracked? You know? And then I was like, is this gonna end my life? That's the real horror of house buying. No, when I, when I read a horror story, I'm like, I'm like, I hope it's a ghost and not the foundation.

God, you have any idea how much a foundation'll cost? Like, the Catholic Church won't send somebody to fix your foundation, man. They won't do it. I ask. Yes, but, but I love the idea that there's like this sense that the anxiety of home buying, which is very real and lots of people experience it, could—is what kind of jump-started the world of haunted house books. Real-life horrors. Yes, horrors beyond all human comprehension.

Yeah, uh, those, those two words you're terrified of, uh, you know, uh—well, not two words, but, uh, multiple words. It's just, uh, “The inspector didn't catch this.” Yes. Uh, “We're sorry, Mr. Couto. It's the plumbing.” Oh no. No, I'm too scared to sleep tonight. Uh, being in your 30s and, and loving horror. Yeah, yeah. It's like, okay, decapitate all the people you want, but like, I can't handle “the plumbing's bad.” I'll take a ghost.

I'll take, I'll take a ghost any day of the week, man. I—so, have you, as an adult, has anything scared you so bad that, like, you couldn't believe how scared you were? Because I am a giant scaredy-cat. People assume that because I watch horror movies all day long and I make a lot of horror movies and I, and I publish horror stories, that I am, like, desensitized. And nothing could be further from the truth.

I am a little, little princess and I get scared. That's why I love it, though, because I do react by being scared. I don't, I don't go, “That was kind of scary.” Like, I get really scared. Like, I was watching this movie on Netflix, you know. Did you see The Last Shift? No. Oh man. So it's about a, a woman who just joined the police force, and it's the last night the old precinct is open before they close it and officially open the new precinct.

And it's haunted. It's haunted by, like, the worst ghosts there are, like ghosts of violent criminals who want revenge against police. And it's very scary. I made the mistake of falling asleep during it. I was just tired, and I woke up right as a jump scare happened, and I just, like, sat up on my couch. And I was like, um, you know, I'm just gonna turn on every light in the house.

Do you ever record yourself watching horror films? That could be very funny. For the rest of us. For the others. For the not you. For the not you. I do occasionally record myself playing horror video games. Oh, there you go. That would be fun. I am notorious for being like, this game is too scary. I'm going to make my girlfriend play it while I watch. And she's tough as nails, so she's just like, whatever.

I'm not afraid of ghosts. And I'm like, ah! Well, you see, I I can handle a lot of horror films, and it takes a lot for me to get scared, but horror video games are completely different. Because it puts you right in there, the point where I'm like, I can't do this. And I throw it at the nearest person. I'm like, you do it. You do it. I can't. I just can't.

Have you ever played a horror VR game? No, and I don't think I could. You can't escape it. I don't think I could. I played Don't Knock twice, and this demon baby crawls across the wall, and you literally turn away from it and realize you're just going to see more of the room, pal. Oh. Sometime when you really feel brave, you hit me up and be like, hey, could I play with your PSVR?

Can I come by? And you hook me up. I will let you be the most terrified you've ever been in your life. Whenever I play horror video games, not VR, I'm just like inching. Every step is just an inch. Is there anything there? Is anything going to jump out? No? No? I can't even imagine. I would be a nervous wreck. I'd probably end up smashing a TV or something, running into something.

Yeah, no, I definitely recommend if you play horror VR games, be seated. Yes. Because you will definitely, at the very least, you'll fall over. actually you might fall over even if it's not a horror game honestly yeah i play some like shooting vr games and it's so freakishly real like you're just like like it like if somebody jumped out of your side you're like so yeah i try to stay in a chair yeah um that way my my ass is already planted it doesn't get replanted yes but uh i've watched videos of people just like flat running into a wall or smashing a tv oh yeah i'm like man i can't imagine if i were watching or playing a horror vr game what i would do have you played like until dawn or the quarry uh no those are like have you heard about them yes oh my god i've heard of until i've not heard of the quarry well it's the it's the one from it's the newest one from those people it's like it's like got david arquette and lynn shea and it's like their big budget newest that sounds awesome to me but i'm also scared dude i am too i made my girlfriend play it when i watched um so they have this thing called the dark pictures anthology and it's video games that are about two hours three hours four hours to play through so the games are only like 30 bucks but you could play on a bunch because you know you have all these different choices to make and things like that but they have a host and everything so it's like it's like it's like an anthology series but it's of choose your own adventure games so every now and then when you're playing and you're making choices it'll go to the curator is his name and the curator will be like interesting choices you've made.

So it's like Tales from the Crypt. Yeah, and then he'd be like, but he'll be like, do you want a hint? Or do you want to continue on your own? And then you'll choose like hint or continue on your own. If you choose hint then he'll tell you like a poem that like tells you kind of like, you know, be aware that things underground must often remain there. You know, and you're like, uh, and then the next level it's like, do you want to go down this basement?

And you're like, well, the guy told me not to. But you have to. Absolutely. I'm going down to that basement. So is this VR? Oh, no, no, no. These are just regular video games. I may chance it because it does sound very good. It's awesome. So the one that I played most recently was called Man of Medan, and it takes place on an abandoned World War I ship. Uh-huh. And at one point, as you're walking through the halls, like as you go through a door, there's just like a woman standing there.

But like not a creepy woman. She's like a woman in a sailor cap that looks like all happy, big smile. and you go like, wait, what? And then when you walk back through, she's not there anymore. And then you realize that earlier you saw a poster of a woman that looked like that and now she's just there. That's creepy. And then there are pirates on the ship as well. So there's like real threats, but also this like supernatural threat.

It opens in World War I like with why the ship got abandoned and everything. It's good stuff, man. That sounds good. But it's really scary. I recommend forcing any and all romantic partners to play it while you watch. okay that's what i do works out awesome for me that's great and i get to sit there going no no no no no go left square square i can't do that she's just like you told me to play this leave me alone let me play she mostly just goes and swears really loudly and i'm just like oh come on and then and and the other thing is like when you play until dawn or the quarry if you choose just right, everyone lives.

And if you choose completely wrong, everyone dies, and there's everything in between. So it can end with like four survivors, or one survivor, or six survivors. So whenever it ends, I always tell her like, good job killing those teenagers. And she's like, I didn't want them to die. And I'm like, whatever you say, Al. That's so cute. Yeah, no, you didn't want them to die. That's why you shook your controller when the werewolf looked at you.

Okay. more scares to come after these quick messages well you're asking about horror films that have scared me as an adult there have been a couple okay even though even though i it does take a lot to get under my skin it's different things sure sure um but that movie terrified the spanish film oh yeah scared the shit out of me that kid at the dinner table like when he turns around just made my skin crawl like whenever anybody says that i'm like what's that feel like i knew at that moment this is what it feels like for my skin to crawl oh yeah no i i love when a movie gets me and and i like i said not a hard audience but some flicks really freaked me out uh last shift really freaked me out damn near every scene in event horizon oh yeah scares me to death yeah that movie is very intense and um um in the mouth of badness i saw that one when i was like 13 on amc fear fest and i was i don't know there's always there's that trope of where everybody and that it's invasion of body snatchers kind of thing where everybody's off everybody's wrong yeah you know invaders from Mars.

He wakes up and his parents are not who they say they are. Everybody's pretending. That freaks me out. A whole town where everybody starts to form together and chase after you. Panic. In the Mouth of Madness definitely gave me that. There's that moment where you're like, is everybody crazy? Maybe it's me. Man, is it me? Am I insane? I knew it. I feel like that's always the answer. I'm insane. yes no and and the more i watch it the more i appreciate where it goes because it just keeps pulling that's a movie that pulls the rug out from under you and then pulls another rug you didn't know was even there you're like how is there a second rug i don't understand how do you pull one rug and not the other doesn't friction make them go together no no no you're gonna fall over again pal magic of carpenter carpenter that was bad i excuse me i'm gonna call the police real quick just uh yeah yeah it's Cameron Chaney yeah um no you can just shoot him i don't care just make it quick nice and quick put me out of my misery and uh oh here's one that scared me legit have you seen wind chill i heard of a movie called the wind which was like a western-y thing on netflix a christmas a christmas horror movie i want to say emily blunt is in it it's from like 2008 i recall like seeing that in blockbuster and stuff but i don't i never watched it's really scary wow so these two people are on a road trip from college they're they're um They're not friends, but they're carpooling.

And they're driving on this back road, and they end up stuck in the snow and everything like that. But it turns out that this stretch of road is haunted by lots of stuff. Like, it turns out that, like, there was a crooked cop that used to abuse people who got murdered on that road by people who were tired of being taken advantage of. There was a house full of monks who were burned alive in their sleep in the cabin just off the road. so there's like ghost monks ghost cops all of these things but the best part is the ghost cop is the evil ghost like the deeply evil ghost and the way you know he's coming is even if the car is off the radio turns on and plays rocking around the Christmas tree so they'll be like asleep and they'll be rocking around the Christmas tree and they're just like looking around because they know that means he's coming and he's in it it's one of my favorite types of ghosts time loop ghosts he doesn't really interact with you he just says so where are you headed and then they say but boy he's like okay but what are you carrying and then you realize like he always says this it doesn't matter what you answer he'll just eventually get to like I don't feel like you're helping me right now maybe maybe we should take you in you know like every time they talk to him it's this loop because he's not really there anymore sounds great it's so scary do yourself a favor this Christmas This Christmas, you will thank me.

Yeah, that's one that slipped through the cracks, because I've told you, like, I love Christmas horror. I've never, I didn't realize that was a Christmas movie. It's one that fell for a lot of people that slipped through the cracks. Did you ever see Dead End? No, but I have heard of that. That's Lin Shay, right? Yes. And that's, they're both like a perfect double feature, because they are the same concept of like a haunted road.

And they came out about the same time. But completely different. And Dead End's a lot lower budget as to where Windchill is like massive snow sets. And I think George Clooney was like a producer on it or something. It's got a lot going for it. But they're both great. Dead End is more outrageous and fun. And Windchill is a lot scarier. But they both have really scary moments. So highly, highly recommend those.

Yeah, Dead End was one that got put on my radar from I think like Shockwaves podcast or something. And I'm like, I've never heard of this. It's so good. Lin Shay's character goes insane in it, but like in that perfect Lin Shay way. I love her so much. That's me in t-shirts that say Lin Shay way. Yes. That's great. That's her martial arts training, Lin Shay way. But okay. So back to books.

Okay. I am getting close to the bottom, but I do still have a couple. So we'll just grab this whole thing. I've got two more. All right. Lots of short story collections. Halloween's the best time for short story collections, I guess. I agree. That's when everybody listens to the show. I mean, like, we have our regulars, but we go up, audience can go up six to eight times in Halloween because people want their scary, spooky little stories.

Yeah, me too. Every Halloween, everything just spikes. Yep. Halloween Store and other stories of all Hallow's Eve by Ronald Kelly, who has written a lot of the vintage horror books. He's very, very well known. He's been writing since, I think, the early 90s. So not too far back, but he's got some really good books. This is newer. It does have some of his older stories, but he also wrote some new stories in this.

Really great cover. This is a story. Human jack-o'-lantern. Yes, this is a story in the book. It does appear, and it's really good. Nothing beats a human jack-o'-lantern. So the first story, it felt kind of juvenile to me, and I was like, I don't know about this. But every other story in the book, I loved. I loved. So this is really good, and it's short, unlike my other books. It's a little on the skinny side, which is good for people who are in a hurry or what have you.

So, and then, oh, this looks like a classic. This is great. Legends of Sleepy Hollow is a lot like A Season with the Witch. So you've got in the first part of the book the original Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, which is a great story that I recommend everybody reads at least once. It's very short. But the rest of it is about the true story of the Headless Horseman. And did he actually exist?

Are these legends based off of somebody who actually died in the war and lost their head? You have to read the book and find out, but it's extremely fascinating. And this book is great. It's got all kinds of photos and illustrations, and it is short. And like I said, how I'm not the strongest reader, I do like when I can finish something in a night or two. Yes. It can motivate me quite a bit.

Man. Of course, Legend of Sleepy Hollow is old, so it's a little bit dense. Even though it's short, it does take you a little bit of time. But once you get to the nonfiction stuff, it speeds by. Which, like I said, I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but it's pretty good. When you do, it's got to be spooky. It's got to be spooky. It's got to be about horror films. It's got to be anything like that.

The Loch Ness Monster. The Mothman. Oh, yeah. We have a story on Weekly Spooky. It was one of our earliest ones called I Had Mothman's Baby. highly highly recommend that one it is uh twisted wow it's it's a disgusting uh and hilarious and scary story about all right the realities of having a baby with mothman sounds terrifying i would have to agree and i can't even have a baby and i'm like nah well actually i mean mothman could probably lay eggs wherever he pleases yeah all right we're getting on to a topic i don't think we need to but but let's just yeah we'll move away from that and uh so before we well i mean as we wrap up um i i don't want to put you on the spot too hard but like top three halloween movies that take place on halloween that aren't halloween yeah shot that one down night of the demons yes which you showed at one of your horror movie marathons at danbury and everybody chose that movie, I believe.

Yeah, that was the audience selection. I was there screaming at the top of my lungs because I wanted so bad to see it on the big screen and it got chosen. I was so happy. So, and funny story about that night, Octobers, I think you and I share this, Octobers are really rough because they're just so dense with so much to do. Not just putting out content, but like little events, movie screenings, or what have you.

There's just always so much to do. And trying to find time to just do simple things like going to a pumpkin patch or a corn maze or something like that takes a whole day yeah no it does or like a buddy of mine was trying to get me in for a haunt and i tried to warn him i'm like dude yeah once october starts i'll try yeah but it's it's hard because like and this year weekly spooky is putting out like this is one of like 25 pieces of content we're putting out we're trying something new where since the audience is massive at Halloween, we're giving them everything we got.

And... Yeah. Don't take a deep breath. But that being said, that night at Horrorama, when we voted on a movie, I was so happy because Night of the Demons was one of the only films of the season that I hadn't gotten around to. So I was so happy. I was like, oh my god, I am going to get to watch Night of the Demons this season. So you hadn't seen it yet?

Not that year, I mean. No, I watch it every single year. Yeah, I was going to say. And this year I have all of the 4K Steelbooks pre-ordered for 1, 2, and 3. I've always loved 3. I've not seen 2 or 3, so this will be my first time seeing them. 2 is directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, who, in my opinion, should be most known for taking the Leprechaun to space. Oh, right.

He has a good time. The man knows action, and you'll have a great time with it. 3 was shot in Canada cheaply. and in my opinion, it looks and sounds like the sleaziest episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark ever made. It even has some actors from Are You Afraid of the Dark? Are you serious? Just Canadian character actors. That's going to be a big treat for me. It's amazing because it's garishly lit all blues and stuff and then there's a kid character saying blah blah blah blah but then it cuts to a guy and a girl and the girl takes her top off and you're like...

Oh yeah, this is Night of the Demons 3. It's not an Are You Afraid of the Dark episode. That's how I feel about Hello Mary Lou Prom Night 2 which has a lot of Are You Afraid of the Dark vibes in it which apparently a maker on Are You Afraid of the Dark was like the set designer or something. Oh, was it Rial Prolux? It may have been. I can't remember his name.

I only remember that because Rial Prolux, first of all such an odd name and number two, they're on every single episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark so I noticed after a while that I saw the same name over and over and over and over and over. Apparently that's why. You know, every single time I watch the movie, I'm like, this really is like, are you afraid of the dark? And then I found that out.

I'm like, well, now it makes sense. It all starts to make sense. But there's just something about that, like, almost made for TV, cheap production values, except it's a Night of the Demons movie. So it's got sex and drugs and violence and demons and decapitations. All the things Are You Afraid of the Dark, you know, wanted. Yeah. But couldn't have. No. So, but OK, so Night of the Demons is your number one.

Well, no particular order. It's in there. It's in there. It's in there. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how I would even be able to rank them. Oh, yeah. Ranking is too hard. That's why I went with three instead of five. That way it's just off the top of your head and then move on. So you've got Night of the Demons. What's your next one? Probably a safe one that everybody counts is Trick or Treat.

Okay. Yeah. Of course, I love short stories and anthologies. And this is an anthology film, but they all tie together. And it's an anthology and a horror film about Halloween. not about a night on Halloween but about the traditions and the spooky nature and the scary folklore that makes Halloween Halloween which is what made that movie stand out to me personally it takes place in Ohio as well near Youngstown doesn't it?

Michael Doherty is from Ohio there you go, you should have sent Godzilla King of the Monsters in Ohio missed opportunity he would have a very easy time stomping down all the little houses it's just a nice flat go for it I can run through here. So you've got Nine of the Demons, Trick or Treat. What is your last of this random three? And that's where it gets hard because it's like, oh, God.

Yeah. You're going to leave something out and everyone's going to judge you for this. Yes. I only got three. I wanted to keep it simple. That way we're not, you know, racking our brains. It's like I just want the emotional choices. I want to say Hocus Pocus, but I can't say Hocus Pocus. Okay. That's the one that everybody watches, and it's not a horror film per se, but I grew up with it, and I watched it not just at Halloween, but literally every other month I would watch it when I was a kid.

See, I'm more of an Ernest Scared Stupid than a Hobbit Snickers. Oh, you see, that's another one, though. That's another one. Oh, see, it's too hard. But yeah. Oh, Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow, that's a good one. Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. That's another amazing movie. The one with Johnny Depp. Yes. Obviously, yeah. He said Tim Burton, so it's like, obviously. Yes. So you heard it here. The only movies worth watching at Halloween are...

No, no, no, no. You're like, please stop. Let me think about it for like three days and get you a comprehensive list. Whenever people say, like, what are your three favorite movies? I'm like, ah, I mean, like, that depends on what I ate today, what time I got, how much sleep did I get. Yes. Did I have a good day? Did I have a bad day? Was I thinking about taxes? They all affect it.

So I'll give you a top three off the top of my head just to relieve some suffering for you. Murder Party. I've never seen it. You've never seen Murder... Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. You've never seen Murder Party. No. You've seen Green Room, right? No, I've heard of Green Room. You've never seen Green Room either. Blue Ruin? No. You've never seen Blue Ruin? No. Wow, well, you've never seen this guy's work.

It's really good. Okay. And Murder Party was his first film before he made it huge with Green Room. It is about – it takes place in New York City. And there is this group of artists who are throwing a murder party in a nondescript warehouse in New York. And this guy, this random guy, finds an invitation and goes there. And it turns out that the plan is to murder him for an art piece.

Uh-huh. but everyone is so self-absorbed and selfish and rude and petty that it kind of never happens but maybe it does but not in the way you think so this isn't like a murder mystery dinner party no it's it is the best part one of the best parts is he like shows up and they're all like surprised and when they tie him up and stuff it's like are we really gonna kill him he's like hey anybody who's dumb enough to show up to a murder party deserves to die because the note just says You have been invited to a murder party.

Wow. Murder party. Phenomenal. You could grab the DVD for like eight bucks. Okay. That was a random rental at Blockbuster. I made one in like 2006 or 2007. Blew me away. Really fun. It's got chainsaw food. It's got all kinds of craziness. I'm sold. And you'll never guess what happens next. And that's the best part about it. It's just like it unravels. Just let it unravel. That sounds great. That is one for the love of God.

Okay. I'm on it. You'll enjoy it so much. You'll send me a message and be like, dude, how did I live without murder party? And I'll be like, I don't know. Maybe you've just been born. So, so murder party. Um, oh gosh. See, it's hard. I know it. That's why I made you go first. Uh, hmm. Okay. So we got murder party and you, you already got night of the demons. i'm not going to cop out with a night of the demons sequel i'm going to be better than that oh man this is super duper hard because you got some of the best ones um a movie that always makes me feel halloweeny but isn't necessarily on halloween is the night of the living dead remake the 1990 which is very good which is super good and that one always makes me feel like halloween um i think because it was on tv a lot during halloween and then one year when i first got my first roku box i had crackle you know that that kind of cheesy Tubi before Tubi thing.

But they had Night of the Living Dead 90 on there and that was when it was like completely out of print. So I remember watching it on Crackle and being like, hey, I love this movie. And it was around Halloween. So that one always makes me think of Halloween. I don't know if that's a cop out. Well, I think Night of the Living Dead, the original, it always plays on Halloween as well.

Public domain. Right. Well, sort of. And then if anybody is watching a movie on Halloween in a movie, it's always Night of the Living Dead. Yeah. Public domain. Oh, yeah. No, they always watch it. Or Carnival of Souls, which has nothing to do with Halloween at all, but they're always watching it in horror films. I love when I spot Carnival of Souls in the background. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

That's a great film. It is. It's genuinely great. It's full of existential dread. Have you seen Messiah of Evil? Not yet, but I am dying to get my hands on that 4K box set that they're going to put out because I missed out on the other one. I did, too. It's very like... like uh they're similar in some way i've seen the cinema scene where she's in the movie theater and i was like just more like carnival of souls yeah no it's super good yeah it's super good i i can't recommend that one enough um so i if i go with a cop out of night of the living dead 90 um yeah and then i guess see and i know a bunch that i love but i don't know if i call them my favorites like i love how like i have a poster for the fear resurrection which is alternate title is the fear Halloween night because it takes place on Halloween night and they have a costume party.

Even there are like six of them and they all know who each other are. And it's like, have you seen hack a lantern? Of course I've seen hack a lantern. What kind of operation you think we're running here, man? That was a great one. I love hack a lantern. That is full of Halloween goodness. Flesh eater, that unofficial night of the living. That has a Halloween party. And that is just stupid fun.

It is. It is nothing but fun. Yes. I've had to explain to people how wrong they are when they say it's a bad movie. I'm like, no, no, no. That is pure entertainment value. And you watch your tongue. If you like this job, don't go away. Weekly spooky. We'll be right back. But I don't feel like it's not Halloween without those movies. Right. And then there's all of the Halloween specials as well.

Oh gosh. Which are endless. Dig and dig forever. I am. I reached the bottom. Very partial to the Mark Summers Halloween special with Lance Burton, the magician on it. I don't think I've seen it. It takes place at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. Oh, wow. Where basically Mark Summers is for some reason driving a car with children that are not his. Like there's three kids. One of them is Jonathan Brandis.

Oh, really? And they're driving a car. It breaks down. They end up outside of a building, which turns out to be the Magic Castle. And they need a phone. But all these crazy things happen where there's like a sword fight and Lance Burton, the magician, is there and he like sword fights with the guy in a mask. But then when the guy in the mask stabs Lance Burton, Lance Burton falls down and then the guy in the mask is Lance Burton because it's all magic stuff.

That's great. It's super fun and silly. You can find that on YouTube. It's ridiculous. And there's no good copy either. So you're going to watch one with everybody's with their commercials still in it and stuff. Which I think is great. I like the commercials. Oh, I love just going on YouTube and just typing in, like, 90s Halloween commercials. Yes, me too. Because it's like Duracell, but with Frankenstein. Everybody had a Halloween commercial back then.

And now, like, back in the day, I'd record the X-Files or Buffy off the TV. I was always trying to cut out the commercials and pause it at just the right spot. And now I'm like, damn it. I should have kept all those commercials. In the what used to be tape trading space, but now is, like, the closed BitTorrent area. area now they're closed bit torrents there's like a big movement for like monster vision with joe bob briggs project metal beast and then it says with commercials buzzwords it sells it and i'm not gonna lie i was like i'm i want to see that one slim jim commercial 80 times you know again there was a segment that elvira hosted on mtv where she was like sharing all of her favorite spooky dark music videos and you can find it online with all of the music videos and all the commercials and it's like four hours long just put it on in the background and just let it play that's sweet sweet nostalgia um i'm i'm copying out what what is the last one i mean i honestly i think i might have to go with earnest scared stupid and that way it's a great that way we also both have a family friendly one yes in our list because earnest scared stupid is pure halloween fun yes and uh i love it and i love that intro too with all of the uh the old 50s B movies.

When I saw it when I was a kid, I was like, I want to watch every single one of these and track them all down. But I am going to replace Night of the Living Dead 90 with an actual Halloween movie, though. This is one I always watch that a lot of people don't. Satan's Little Helper. Yes. I have seen that movie twice. Do you have the Blu-ray? Yes. It is so good.

It's so much better than it used to be. It was all blurry before. When they were authoring the disc, Don May at Synapse sent me a screen cap. He took a picture of the screen because the little kid all grown up, he looks like me. He's got really long hair and a goatee beard and thick glasses. So Don May took a picture and was like, I didn't know you were the little kid in Satan's Little Elber.

Wow. I was like, there are a lot of things you don't know about me, sir. I live a very interesting life, you see. Yeah, that's a good movie. I love Amanda Plummer as well. She's wonderful. And she's wonderful in it. Because she's like, she's such a, and I mean this with love, she's such a wackadoo. Yeah. And in that movie, she gets to be like that charming, wacky mom. And I love charming, wacky moms.

Yes. She's the best one. She's also in a Tales from the Crypt episode, which is wild. Oh, God. I don't have to say anything about it. Just go watch it. Now, and this is not a trap before I let you out of here. Have you seen Babysitter Massacre? My Halloween movie. I'm sorry to say I haven't but I'm going to well you're going to leave with a copy of it oh really it sounds like I planned this I didn't but I have I have them so I'm going to hook you up with a blue of it because it is my Halloween opus and the sequel that we are in production on finally after all these years is at Christmas it's going to take place three months after the events of the first one or two months after the events so it's going to be like immediately after the Christmas version that's great and so no I will hook you up with a copy of the movie I made for people to put on at Halloween time.

And you can tell me what you think of it. I will let you know. I hope you'll enjoy it. So before we get out of here, I just want to remind everybody to check out your book, your brand new book, Autumn Crow High, Fresh Hell. It's here. And it's available on Amazon and probably BarnesandNoble.com, right? Probably so. But Amazon's probably the easiest way to go. And we get the biggest cut if you buy it on Amazon.

You know what? You can say what you want about Amazon, but Amazon completely reinvented self-publishing to make it more friendly to authors. So in that way, mazel tov. It's made it a lot easier. And, you know, Amazon is evil in a lot of ways, but makes it a lot easier to publish because, I mean, otherwise it's so expensive. Yeah. So and so for the people who are listening to this who may not know you, check out your website, but your YouTube channel. it's library of macabre of library library macabre that's right of macabre you can search my name as well Cameron Chaney which is a great name and your real name that's my real name yeah mine too i have people think my name's fake because yeah too it's the cheney although i went to school with like two or three cheneys there's a lot of cheneys out there yeah so but but yeah it makes you think of lawn cheney but no no it's Cameron Chaney i used to love to think that I was related to Lon Chaney.

In fact, I have two uncles who are twins, Lon Chaney and Ron Chaney. Lon Chaney and Ron Chaney. Which Ron Chaney is Lon Chaney Jr.'s son. Oh my God, that's awesome. So yeah, I was always like, yeah, I'm related to Lon Chaney, senior and junior. NBD, just me. I'm not. That's okay. There is no one famous with the last name Kuto, so I am not related to them, obviously. It's not as common as Chaney.

No, no, it's not. And for those who are watching this on your channel, if you want to check out Weekly Spooky, where we publish true crime stories on Monday, we publish literary stories on Wednesdays, and Fridays are a wild card. Sometimes we do spooky movie reviews. Sometimes we do Edgar Allan Poe readings. We do all kinds of stuff. Just go to weeklyspooky.com or punch Weekly Spooky into whatever podcast app you like.

And I know a lot of my audience loves podcasts, so they're gonna come and check you out and i know my audience loves to read so i really hope they check out library macabre i hope so too so look at the synergy we got going here man so uh until next time i thank you all so much for listening and to have the last word you're my guest or i'm your guest they're all they're all good thank you guys for watching i hope you enjoyed it uh don't forget to give a like and subscribe uh there we go all right it covers both platforms Thank you.