Holiday horror is wonderful, isn’t it? I haven’t watched this year’s Better Watch Out yet, but I have spent many years appreciating yuletide terror.

These are my favorite:

• Gremlins

The best trivia about Gremlins is that Steven Spielberg forced Hollywood to create the PG-13 rating. It was rated PG and I guess little kids were traumatized by Gremlins and the Indiana Jones movies. That’s awesome. Also, there’s just nothing better than watching a frantic Phoebe Cates pour beers for dozens of Gremlins in a dive bar. Nothing.

• Rare Exports

I accidentally had Rare Exports on the TV when my boyfriend’s mom was over at my house. There were definitely Elf butts and wieners. Woops. It’s such a good Santa movie though. Finland just looks cozy. Doesn’t Pietari’s cottage look so cozy!?

• Black Christmas 70s and 2000s

The original is absolutely the best, and it’s one of the first slasher movies. But there’s nothing wrong with the 2006 remake. I happen to like Michelle Trachtenberg.

• Treevenge

My all time favorite. Jason Eisner’s cautionary tale of vengeful Christmas trees. It’s so campy I have to watch it in a sleeping bag. Watch the entire short film below:

• Elves

Grizzly Adams stars in this 80s horror about evil elves. Side note, my mom used to give us presents “from Santa’s elves” but she would write: “From Elvis” instead of elves.

• Frozen

It’s not set during Christmas, but it is a solid survival horror set during a blizzard. Wolves, yo.

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 31: Trick ‘r Treat

My favorite – and maybe only – 31 Nights of Horror tradition continues for the sixth year with Sam and the gang. Only a couple days ago I saw an awesome Trick ‘r Treat themed FX clip that you could project onto your front door for Halloween and it was super gnarly. Hopefully one year I’ll get to review the sequel on this blog, but as for now I bid you all farewell until next year with a Happy Halloween and a big “Trick ‘r Treat”!

Goblins and ghouls, here’s your official 2017 Halloween playlist:

1. “In a gadda da vida” – Iron Butterfly. Creepy by itself, iconic when Jessica Lange dances.

2. “Red Right Hand” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Because, obviously. Also fantastic in Scream.

3. “Country Death Song” – Violent Femmes. As described here.

4. “Skully Gully” – Bobby “Boris” Pickett. A fantastic and cool alternative to the Monster Mash.

5. “Demons” – Sleigh Bells. Because you need a song where you take a bunch of shots.

6. “I Fink You Freeky” – Die Antwoord. Because after you take a bunch of shots, you’re gonna wanna dance.

7. “Evil” – Interpol. The classic romance between two serial killers, Fred and Rosemary West.

8. “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” – 30 Rock. A good breather to catch a laugh.

9. “Call of the Zombie” followed by “Superbeast” – Rob Zombie. This shit scared me so much when I was 12.

10. “Disintegration” – Monarchy. Because you need to dance again. It’s best if you’re able to play the video while the song plays because WOW Dita Von Teese.

11. “Heads Will Roll” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs (A-Trax Remix). Let’s keep dancing!!

12. “Time Warp” – Rocky Horror Picture Show. The original and nothing else.

13. “Pet Sematary” – Ramones. Because the Ramones are always cool.

14. “Boogie Monster” – Gnarls Barkley. As described here.

15. “Purple People Eater” – George Thorogood. The happiest George Thorogood has ever sounded.

16. “This is Halloween” – A Nightmare Before Christmas. Classic. Marilyn Manson or movie version, you can’t go wrong.

17. “Hell” – Squirrel Nut Zippers. Remember when swing dancing and zoot suits were a thing in the 90s?

18. “Dracula’s Wedding” – Outkast. Spooky, cool jam.

19. “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” – Napoleon XIV. Trippy video.

20. “In Heaven, Everything is Fine” – Eraserhead Soundtrack. You’ve got your good friends, and I’ve got mine.

21. “Disturbia” – Rihanna. Close the party with this banger.

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 29: Cult of Chucky

Three sentence review:

At the very least, it’s cool that Dan Mancini has done all of the Chucky movies. The latest entry has some great gore, classic Chucky one liners, and cinematography that benefited from a bigger budget. Could not get into the plot though and found myself doing the dishes without feeling like I was missing much.

Hosting a Halloween bash can be stressful. There’s lots of details to plan, playlists to make, cleaning to do, and by the time you get everything ready you can feel like it’s time to hit the ol’ coffin. Moreover, there’s a lot of stuff happening on Halloween weekend. People get invited to lots of fun parties and every bar, brewery or club is throwing down.

That’s why this year my boyfriend and I decided to keep it simple by hosting a small Halloween Un-Happy Hour with family and close friends only. It was a fun way to see my favorite people and still have the flexibility of going out and doing something else later in the evening.

We chose an early start time – 5 pm – and made it clear on the invitation that cocktail hour would be done by 7. The gathering also served a dual purpose as a casual house warming party for our new place.

Instead of planning a rager and worrying if we had enough alcohol, we bought one case of beer, a red and white wine, and an easy rum punch that was more than enough for the dozen guests we had.

Party food was on theme, of course, and we didn’t stress over making everything from scratch. We served:

• Cocktail meatballs: the classic grape jelly/chili sauce blend
• Pumpkin face pizza bites: I took a can of pilsbury pizza dough, cut it into strips and baked it with cheese, sauce, and pepperoni in a silicone pumpkin face mold
• Mummy dogs: simple and fun
• Ghost cakes: Halloween themed cake pans are my jam
• Pumpkin puking guacamole: with cheese dip on top of course
• Veggie tray: $5 at Kroger and displayed in a 99 cent plastic haunted house tray
• Pecan Pie from O’Charley’s: because my boyfriend ordered a slice of pie for lunch and they accidentally gave him an entire pie?!

We had a great time dressing up, eating and drinking boos. It was so nice feeling relaxed and not worrying about whether or not someone was gonna puke all over my bathroom. Getting older isn’t a bad thing, ha.

After the un-happy hour ended we went with our neighbors to a Halloween party at a local brewery a couple blocks from our house. They had a GREAT, weird band called League of Space Pirates who had the most badass robot that sang along with them and told jokes. It was pretty rad.

So if you’re thinking you want to host more parties but really don’t want the chaos of a full fledged bash, I highly recommend a good, spooky happy hour. Because life’s too short to tire yourself out from trying to be Martha Stewart.

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 27: I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

Three sentence review:

It’s not easy watching exploitation movies like I Spit on Your Grave or Last House on the Left. Though the women or families thereof are successful in their revenge, the unspeakable horrors they must first endure hit too close to home with too many women – and men! Still, I must admit there’s a quiet satisfaction in watching Jennifer systematically take down her abusers one by one.

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 26: Lights Out

Three sentence review:

I think if I had not watched Green Room and Don’t Breathe first I would have liked this movie much more. I think darkness is pretty scary in general and I thought the super short film of the same name was TERRIFYING, but I wasn’t feeling this one. Maybe I just felt bad for the Mom and wanted her to have her friend.