Our traditional Hallowe'en Turnip

Most people these days go with the much handier (and prettier) pumpkin for their seasonal carving, but this year I thought I'd go old school and go with the turnip. Well, it was more to do with pumpkins being sold out already...but! A lot of people don't realise that the simple, ugly-looking turnip was the traditional vegetable of choice in Ye Olden Days in Ireland, when we didn't have things like pumpkins (pumpkins only became traditional when we fled to the states, and found something much less awkward to use). Sure, you'll rip your hands to shreds trying to hollow them out, but sure what's Hallowe'en without a little pain and bloodshed? me and my friends used to go straight for turnips for years, but I'd been getting soft in my old age, so was nice to go back to how it was originally done this year. Hope you all have a great Hallowe'en!

Soundtrack Spotlight: Inferno - Keith Emerson

Argento's follow up to his near-instant classic, Suspiria, was never going to be easy, and like many viewers, it took me a long time to warm to Inferno. When I first saw it in the late 90's, it felt like a watered down version of the earlier film, lacking many of the spectacular set pieces, nasty violence and sheer bonkers nature that set the original apart from the rest of the crowd. I kept coming back to it though, and by around the 3rd viewing it finally clicked with me, and I saw the film for the flawed beauty that it was. It had an incredible visual style that was signature Argento, and the dream logic he was pushing hard in his films never seemed to work quite as well as it did here. Those set pieces were there; they just didn't revolve around bloody murders and instead worked to slowly chip away at the reality surrounding the characters.

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Deadly Blessing (1981)

"In the rolling hills of a sinful farm community, untouched by time, a gruesome secret has been protected for generations."

We've discussed Craven's career a few times here at The Nostalgic Attic (recently enough actually, with Swamp Thing) and while many of his minor films have flown below the radar, one that seems to get forgotten about completely is Deadly Blessing. Falling into that grey period between The Hills Have Eyes and career re-launcher that was A Nightmare on Elm Street, is it worth digging out of the vault for a re-evaluation?

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Halloween - Vintage Holiday Graphics by Taschen

For those who don't know, the ideology behind Halloween (or Hallowe'en, if you want to be particular about it) is about the one night of the year when the souls of the dead can wander among us, and by dressing up as something ghoulish it would keep them from bothering you, as they believed you were one of them. Ok, I'm not sure if the last part was added in later, but it's an old pagan tradition that is still well loved and cherished in places like Ireland, bonfires and all (even if the old beliefs are no longer followed), and has largely become a fun festival around the world that most people enjoy these days.

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Within the Woods (1978)

There are some films we are so familiar with that it seems pointless even writing about them in any way at all. It's why I seldom cover bigger, well-loved genre films here, and tend to focus on the less championed entries. The likes of The Evil Dead has been spoken about so often on blogs, websites and books that you'd be hard pressed to say anything fresh about it, and if you can't do that, why bother? We know how influential it has been, and how great the sequels are, and how much fun Bruce Campbell is. But what we don't hear about too often is the film made to secure the funding for The Evil Dead, called Within the Woods.

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Video Sleeves: Then and Now (part two)

It has been a few months since we last looked at the ever-changing face of video artwork, so seeing as it's October, lets do a full horror entry. Some of these are subtle, while some are downright appalling. I guess the art department has to justify their salaries too, but I just wish they could have been a bit more creative in what they do.

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Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

"Listen sister, if I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you."

For myself growing up in secluded, 1980's Ireland, I never really understood what the whole 'Elvira' thing was about. We didn't have horror hosts on our native TV stations, and seeing her presenting her well-loved show certainly wasn't a possibility. I have vague recollections of noticing some sort of 'Elvira presents...' series on VHS, but the only real exposure I had to her cult phenomenon was from staring/drooling at the VHS sleeve above. Sadly, I knew, there was no way my mother was going to let me come home with that one. Even worse was the alternate sleeve (below) which really went for the more obvious sex appeal for the meat-head males out there. So, being deprived of her charms in my youth, just how well does her persona hold up today?

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My Top Ten slasher films (that aren't Halloween or Friday the 13th)

It's that time of the year again: the weather has taken a turn for the colder, the evenings are getting shorter and the trees are looking that little bit barer. Yup, October has finally rolled around, and so our horror-hungry eyes look towards Halloween. I'm a big slasher fan, and this is usually my favourite month to re-visit some classic (and lesser appreciated) titles. So in putting together this list, I decided to leave out the usual heavy-hitters; no Carpenter's Halloween or the much loved Friday the 13th series, I'll even go as far as omitting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Why? Well, I kinda figured that nearly everyone (casual and hardcore horror fans alike) has seen these titles already; we all know they're awesome, and are the obvious choices for not just slasher lists, but 'Top Ten' horrors in general. I've also left off the more serial killer-orientated entries (such as Maniac, Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, etc) just to keep things a little bit more traditional. So, lets get stuck in!

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