FILM FOCUS: THE AMERICAN SCREAM

 (2011)

I first discovered The American Scream last October and really enjoyed this documentary about “home haunters,” aka Halloween fanatics that transform their yards into haunted attractions.  I remember finding it unexpectedly poignant at the time though I couldn’t exactly recall why so it was with much anticipation that I sat down to re-watch it this year.

Our setting is smallish town in Massachusetts where almost everyone has a strangely soothing New England accent.  The documentary focuses on three local men and their families who go all-out decorating their yards.  Victor Bariteau is the perfectionist whose lavish and professional looking walk-thru haunted attraction inspires everyone.  Manny Souza is the rough-around-the-edges working man.  And finally there is “peculiar” Matthew Brodeur and his father, part-time clowns whose displays are the most basic but whose enthusiasm matches their more polished neighbors.

Victor & Family

Each storyline plays out over the course of October as the men (I was disappointed that a woman didn’t share one of the central roles but I suspect that, as with Christmas light displays, home haunting is dominated by men) and their families prepare.  Victor is on the verge of being downsized at his job and throws himself into his Halloween plans with zeal.  Manny gets the least amount of screen time but is shown recruiting his wife and kids in things like cutting down cornstalks.  Matthew and his father have a Grey Gardens vibe going: they live together and are best friends, alternately bickering and caring for one another.  It’s hard to determine if they both suffer from some sort of social disorder or are just misfits (or perhaps a bit of both).

Manny & Family

I enjoyed the voyeuristic peek at everyone’s lives (and homes) plus you get footage of scads of store-bought and homemade decorations.  Despite a relatively trim running time things do start to drag; the filmmakers spend too much time following Matthew and his dad as they somewhat haphazardly construct decorations and (mildly) argue with one another.  But just as things get a bit boring Halloween night arrives and the documentary springs back to life in a big way.  Everyone experiences a form of total joy that’s exhilarating to watch, along with the excitement and screams of their visiting neighbors.  You never get a full walk-thru of any of the three haunts, which is a shame, but you get a great montage of the men totally in their element and enjoying the fruits of their labor.

Matthew models a mask.

But then things take a turn and get really emotional.  As with my first viewing, here I was once again on the verge of tears.  Victor starts to talk about how supportive and amazing his family is and gets choked up and I did too.  Look, I can relate to a level of passion for the holidays that others (maybe even most) might find weird or hard to understand.  Not only do I feel a kinship with these weirdos but also a tender affection for their patient wives and friends as they come together to help them.  When Victor starts explaining why Halloween is so special, how it brings people together… well, just pass me the Kleenex.

The American Scream isn’t a perfect documentary but it’s well worth watching and captures an often difficult to pinpoint x-factor that makes holidays what they are.   It’s about people and their passions and what makes life worth living—and enjoying.

COSTUME CONTEST

The Office

Season 5 (2010)

Nothing can beat The Office’s first and best Halloween episode but “Costume Contest” once again captures the awkward joys of celebrating the holiday in the workplace.  The premise is that the stakes have been raised for the Dunder-Mifflin (or is it Dunder-Mifflin-Sabre something?  Things got so freaking complicated on this show) Halloween party, as Pam has purchased one of those local coupon books as a prize for the costume contest.  A running gag throughout the episode is that everyone thinks the prize is actually worth $15,000 (rather than the $15,000 in savings that it promises), leading to some fiercer than normal competition.

Michael as MacGruber.  And an awesome black & white jack o'lantern.

Unfortunately the costume contest is actually a subplot and the main storyline is less interesting, concerning Michael feeling betrayed by Darryl after he goes over his head with an idea for corporate.  Layered on top of that is yet another storyline about Jim and Pam working with a guy Pam briefly dated (Jim and Pam’s journey from adorable to insufferably smug is one of the reasons I quit following the show; unfortunately they are in their smug “married with kids” phase here).

But back to the good Halloween stuff!  My favorite costume on display is a giant, creepy mask worn by secretary Erin.  Throughout the episode she’s seen sitting at her desk or in the background wearing her normal clothes and going about her normal business yet with this freaky mask on.  I find it way more hilarious than I probably have any right to.  I also got a kick out of seeing Gabe run a meeting while dressed as Lady Gaga, and we get a handful of creative costumes referencing other 2010 pop culture luminaries such as True Blood, Nicki Minaj and Sonia Sotomayor.

Don't ask me why I love this so much.  I just do.

Erin is robbed of her Best Costume award as Oscar ends up winning, despite having ditched his costume in favor of appearing as “The Rational Consumer” in an effort to remind everyone that the prize isn’t worth fighting for (a closing montage shows the varied reasons why everyone ended up voting for him despite his lack of costume).

Friends don't let friends apple bob.

The costumes and the comedy are the real draw here but you get a fairly long Halloween party sequence, complete with a good bobbing for apples bit, that will definitely help get you in the mood for your own upcoming awkward office shindig.

Halloween Quotient: 3

See It, Skip It, Own It?

The creative costumes alone merit a look-see but this is a genuinely funny episode with a lot of Halloween cheer.  Definitely worth a watch!

HELLOWE'EN

Friday the 13^th: The Series

Season 1 (1987)

Friday the 13^th: The Series has nothing to do with the horror movie franchise of the same name; the title of the show was just a shameless cash-grab. Rather than a hockey-masked camp killer this show (which lasted a surprising three seasons) was centered around a cursed antiques shop inherited by two young relatives of a man who made a pact with Satan.  Aided by mentor-occultist Jack (think of a D-list Dr. Loomis), Micki and Ryan try to undo evil Uncle Lewis’ legacy by tracking down the cursed objects he sold and sealing them in the shop’s vault.

Here's a pretty awesome promo to set the scene:

In this episode the trio throw a Halloween party in the store to try and win over their neighbors.  Two of the party guests then accidentally summon the spirit of Uncle Lewis.  While a trick-or-treater distracts Jack, Micki and Ryan are duped into giving Lewis an amulet that gives him a chance to transfer his spirit into a new body by sunrise (of course; it’s always by sunrise).  Meanwhile, in the show’s scariest moment (seen in the promo above), the trick-or-treater reveals herself to be a little person demon name Greta.  Greta and Lewis then head off to the morgue to find a fresh body while the bumbling trio seeks to thwart them.

Every family has a vengeful ghost Uncle Lewis.  Or is it just mine?

The first few scenes of this show are like a campy 80s slasher flick and I mean that in the best way possible.  The only thing worse than the acting is the special effects (a lot of fog and glowing lights) but a fun sense of imminent horror pervades the party scenes.  The costumes and decorations and overall low-budget 80s feel of the proceedings set a perfect Halloween mood. 

More please!

Sadly, once the ghost of Uncle Lewis actually shows up and the partygoers run screaming into the night the story falls apart.  Horror movie characters are notoriously stupid but these characters are truly too stupid to live.  Supposedly worldly magic-user Jack allows himself to be randomly led around the city by a young girl for what feels like 15 minutes.  He keeps saying “I’m on to you!  I’m not following you anymore!” and then continues to follow her, eventually into a cage.  Micki and Fred meet the ghost of their evil uncle and then hand him over a powerful mystic amulet just because he asks for it. 

The show really drags as the hapless heroes chase around the villains.  Every time someone enters a room they conveniently shut the door behind them so whoever follows has to stop and re-open it.  Seriously, we get three separate scenes of three different characters picking the lock of the same door.  Outside of the party scenes Greta (who is referred to as both a “midget” and a “dwarf” since the politically correct 90s hadn’t quite started) is the best part of the episode.  She’s pretty scary and then has a memorably bad death scene in which she trips and essentially throws herself onto a knife.

Don't mess with Greta.  She's got gloves!

The entire thing recalls good-bad horror movies classics such as Troll 2, though it’s not quite up to that level of awful-goodness.  But truly the 80s were a wondrous time, having brought us so many shows and movies of this type, as well as being responsible for Micki’s hair, which is approximately three sizes bigger than her head.

In the 80s everyday was Halloween.

Halloween Quotient: A 5 for the first half containing the party scenes and a 2 for the rest.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

Watch the first 15 minutes or so but don’t feel guilty for changing the channel after that.  Or maybe fast forward to Greta’s death scene and then call it a night.

THE LYIN', THE WATCH AND THE WARDROBE

Ugly Betty

Season 1 (2006)

Watching this Halloween offering from Ugly Betty, I was surprised by the weird tonal shifts of this show.  I guess it makes sense, as it was adapted from a telenovela, but I was expecting more of a straightforward comedy than a soapy melodrama.  I think it would have worked better as a half hour sitcom than an hour-long mishmash dramedy.

“The Lyin’, the Watch and the Wardrobe” starts promisingly enough, with snarky Mode Magazine employee Marc dressing in drag as Betty for Halloween.  I wish he had stayed in costume for the entire episode but sadly he’s quickly ordered to change by his imperious boss (played by Vanessa Williams).  The real Betty, meanwhile, is pestering her dad about his immigration status (one of the episode’s many tacked-on dramatic subplots) while the poor guy is just trying to have a good Halloween, wearing vampire fangs, mixing up a batch of homemade blood and pretending to sever his hand while carving a pumpkin (as we all do). 

Sadly this doesn't last long.

Betty later shows up to work in a butterfly costume only to learn no one actually wears costumes to work.  After this the Halloween aspects of the show dwindle down to near nothingness as Betty (clad as a butterfly for the rest of the episode) runs around trying to retrieve her boss’ missing watch while he grills his alcoholic mother about some extremely complicated plot involving his father and his murdered mistress. 

Butterfly Betty is also fed up with this tangle of storylines.

Eric Mabius, who plays Betty’s boss, has the screen presence of a piece of toast soaked in milk so I nearly fell asleep during every scene he appeared in.  Also, the scene in which his alcoholic mom, played by the delicious Judith Light, is checked out of rehab and then he trades her a glass of wine for information was genuinely disturbing and not for the usual “Boo! It’s Halloween!” type of reasons. 

In the end this episode was kind of a bummer.  I felt bad for drunk Judith Light.  I felt bad for Betty.  And most of all I felt bad for Betty’s dad who, like me, just wanted to enjoy the holiday and forgo all of the drama.

Recurring Themes: Betty falls for the classic No One Else in Costume trick.

Halloween Quotient: There is just enough Halloween here to earn itself a 2.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

Skip it and, if this episode is any indication, you can skip the entire show as well.  Admittedly this was an early episode from Season 1 so maybe things got better.  

CRAZY FOR YOU

Home Improvement

Season 3 (1993)

After the excellent "The Haunting of Taylor House" Home Improvement continued its tradition of top notch Halloween episodes with Season 3’s “Crazy for You.”  This episode relies on the Prank War trope, which I’ve never been all that keen on. Maybe it’s just because pranks and practical jokes were never part of my personal All Hallow’s oeuvre, but this type of storyline always feels better suited to April Fool’s Day than Halloween.  But the good far outweighs the bad here so let’s delve in!

Zombie Tim ponders his options.

After years of Halloween scares at the hands of husband Tim, Jill engineers the ultimate prank, convincing him that he has an obsessed fan named Rose.  With the help of her knockoff Rosie O’Donnell friend (it was the 90s; every female film and sitcom character had a friend who looked and acted like Rosie O’Donnell), Al and even neighbor Wilson, “Rose” sends Tim threatening notes and slowly ups his paranoia, culminating in a confrontation at another lavish Taylor family Halloween party. 

A red-veiled "Rose" creeps up on Tim

Once again my enjoyment of this episode is less for the story than for the awesome party scene.  The Home Improvement set decorators do not disappoint!  Some of the highlights include a giant minotaur, a dummy dressed like the homicidal wheelchair-bound grandfather from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a decapitated head wine bucket.  There is also a cute Halloween doormat hung on the wall for decoration, which is a great idea. Really, I need to develop some sort of “I Spy” game for the backgrounds of these Home Improvement episodes; I could spend hours studying the decorations!

At one point in this episode Tim asks a phone operator the number for 9-1-1. Tim Allen does the exact same joke in The Santa Clause.  I love it when Halloween and Christmas overlap!

Ignore the Taylor boys (all dressed like Moe from the Three Stooges) and check out the fun witch towel and pot holder set instead!

Recurring Themes: Jill and Tim engage in a Prank War.

Halloween Quotient: While I’m not the biggest fan of the whole “prank war” subgenre there are plenty of Halloween goodies to enjoy, so this gets a 3.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

Definite fun for the Halloween season, so see it and enjoy!

SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT: HALLOWEEN IS GRINCH NIGHT

Among the sacred texts of my childhood is the aforementioned battered VHS tape (now thankfully transferred to DVD) on which was recorded a quartet of Halloween specials, all taped off TV back in the early days of the Disney Channel in the 1980s.  My sister and I would watch the tape twice a year: once at Halloween and once during the summer as part of our “Halloween In August” celebration (a nice compliment to our annual “Christmas In July”). 

The first special on the tape was Halloween Is Grinch Night, a little known animated sequel to How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  Although not quite up to par with its' yuletide predecessor, many of the same elements are here: the Seussian wordplay, great day-glo animation and a smattering of surprisingly advanced vocabulary.  One year while watching Grinch Night I remember calling into the kitchen to my mother, AKA The Human Dictionary, for the meaning of the word “euphemism”, which remains one of my most beloved and overused keywords to this day.

The special, which was originally aired in 1977, bring us back once more to Whoville, which looks strange denuded of snow and all of the Christmas geegaws.  It is a placid autumn evening, that is until the “sour-sweet wind” starts blowing, leading to a series of complicated rhyming events that all herald the Grinch’s imminent arrival.  The Whos take shelter while the Grinch, up atop Mount Crumpit, hitches up his sad-sack dog Max to the “Paraphernalia Wagon” and makes his way down to presumably do something horrendous to the Whos.

An ill wind is a blowin'

On the trip down we get an EXTREMELY melancholy song in which poor Max laments his position as the Grinch’s slave.  This was always my least favorite part of the special, a real downer.  Here’s a sample of the lyrics:

Why am I the slave of this grinchy old crock?

And I say how I wish I could turn back the clock

And have the fine future I had once before

And again be an innocent puppy once more

It gets even worse, with the Grinch taunting Max about missing his dear “Auntie Woofy-Woofoon.”  This version of the Grinch is much more of a bastard than his Christmas incarnation: in addition to whipping Max he destroys flowers, chases an endangered species (which looks like a living, pink Hostess Snowball) and does all sorts of other horrible things.

Meanwhile a young Who with the oddly Biblical-sounding name of Euchariah has been swept away by the sour-sweet wind during a trip to the Euphemism (AKA the outhouse).  He ends up in the path of the wagon and seizes the opportunity to prevent the Grinch from arriving at Whoville.  The Grinch first attempts to scare Euchariah by singing an impossible to transcribe song (something like “oompah doompah deepah da”…. or something) while his detached eyebrows turn into a bird-like creature and fly around.  Trust me, it gets weirder.  Euchariah is un-phased and bonds with Max so the Grinch pulls out the big guns, opening up the door to his wagon and unleashing… some stuff.

Flying eyebrows = tip of the iceberg

Now things gets REALLY trippy.  Imagine M.C. Escher on acid and you’re somewhere close to the musical head trip that follows.  Euchariah is chased around by a large variety of Seussian creatures of all shapes and sizes: giant, headless feet creatures, gnashing, disembodied teeth, stained-glass eyes.  Amid all the sheer weirdness there are some creepy moments but this is as about as Halloween-like as the show gets.  All of this set to a maddeningly infectious song that has been stuck in my head for the last twenty plus years: “Euchari-AH/Euchari-AH/Grinch is gonna get YA/Grinch is gonna get YA!” 

In a word: Yikes!

Euchariah emerges unscathed and points out to a dejected Grinch that he’s managed to stall long enough to get the Whos through Grinch night.  He then departs, with a grateful Max in tow, while the Grinch vows to make his return on the next Grinch night.

Whew!  There is a lot to digest here and I bet a shrink could have a field day interpreting all of those wacky creatures (some blue wriggly things look suspiciously sperm-like to me).  Continuity-wise it makes no sense, as Max runs off at the end, suggesting that How The Grinch Stole Christmas took place before this, meaning that the Grinch didn’t stay so sweet after his turnaround at Christmas.  Sort of disappointing, no?  And here the Grinch displays all sorts of weird powers: able to change his size and make his eyebrows float off his face and fly around.  Even at a young age I suspected the use of psychotropic drugs went into the making of this cartoon; it was the 70s, after all.  And it is called a paraphernalia wagon, as in drug…. it’s all making sense.

As you can also tell, this special does not have the usual Halloween elements, with nary a jack-o-lantern in sight save in the opening titles, substituting for the “O” in Halloween.  And not even a mention of the actual word Halloween the entire time.  I actually appreciate how offbeat and different Grinch Night is; it was always the opening salvo for the more traditional Halloween specials to follow. 

Halloween Quotient: Despite a lack of traditional Halloween elements this scores major nostalgia and creativity points, earning a 4.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

Own it and make it a part of your annual holiday viewings.  It’s currently up on YouTube and available for cheap on a Seuss compilation DVD. 

HALLOWEEN WARS

Season 1 (2011)

I never thought competitive cupcake making would make for such enthralling television but I am a big fan of Cupcake Wars.  I therefore have been dying to watch Halloween Wars, a seasonal spinoff, but due to our lack of cable until recently never got the chance.  Luckily the Cooking Channel ran a marathon this weekend in anticipation of the Season 3 debut this past Sunday.  The show met my expectations and then some!

Unlike Cupcake Wars, which consists of self-contained episodes, Halloween Wars is a tournament in which one team is eliminated per week.  Each team of three consists of a pumpkin carver, a baker and a candy maker (sadly, they do not rub-a-dub-dub in a tub).  They are given a theme and tasked with making elaborate Halloween displays made entirely out of, you guessed it, pumpkins, cake and candy.  It’s a simple enough premise but the displays are incredibly impressive and it’s great fun to watch what a little spun sugar and fondant can add up to.  One of the most impressive was a Sleeping Beauty who never woke up:

What I wasn’t expecting was the high level of drama that this show delivers.  The most exciting thing to happen on Cupcake Wars is the occasional overcooked cake but Halloween Wars is operating on a whole other level.  To give you a sense of how intense things get, two contestants quit within the first two episodes!  One of the two had a full-on meltdown, fleeing the set and then literally running from the cameras before snapping at the judge when her work was questioned.

The judges are pretty unremarkable and the quality of the guest judges varies.  There were a couple of boring actresses but I was thrilled when R.L. Stine showed up.  And then he name-dropped his book, Weirdo Halloween!  I live for interconnectivity that like.

A swamp-themed display.

During one challenge “trick-or-treaters” were brought in to sample sweets that were created as part of the displays.  One of the kids was the single most obnoxious child I’ve seen on screen (“It’s Veruca Salt,” said Nick). Dressed like a cat, she stampeded her way to each sweet and “bantered” with the host (it’s a good guess that she’s his niece or something).  There is nothing I hate more than precocious children.  One of the other kids, dressed like a cowboy, was more my speed.  “It’s gross,” he stated flatly about one of the candies.

Vampire Marie Antoinette vs. a zombie.  

On-screen freakouts, amazing edible artwork, rude children: this show has it all!  I will definitely be watching the new season, currently airing on Sunday nights on the Food Network, as well as catching up on Season 2.

Halloween Quotient: 5

See It, Skip It, Own It?

This is perfect holiday viewing and here’s hoping that new seasons continue to crop up every year!