This Is Halloween

Q&A With Shay Every Other Sunday

Happy Halloween! Time to get spooky for this week’s Q&A.

Q: Favorite Halloween movie?

A: Hocus Pocus, of course!

Q: Favorite horror movie?

A: The Exorcist. But it’s also terrifying. I saw it for the first time when I was eight…my older sister enjoyed scaring me.

Q: Favorite horror novel?

A: I don’t really read horror that often, but I don’t dislike it. I suppose I don’t have a favorite so instead I’ll state the obvious and say my favorite horror author is Stephen King, of course. I have not read nearly enough of his books.

Q: Favorite costume worn?

A: My favorite was probably when I was much younger, maybe around 10, I dressed as “Mrs. Frost.” I always made my Halloween costumes myself and never bought a full costume at the store, and sometimes I made up characters altogether (like the year I was a “sleepy bear” because I happened to have a bear mask laying around). I also really liked my murderer costume in college.

Now, my favorite costumes are the ones I put on my dog, Bernie! Enjoy all the Halloween photos of him throughout this post.

Q: Favorite Halloween memory?

A: My best memories of Halloween were always going trick-or-treating with my best friend and our other childhood friends. As fun as costumes and decorations and scary movies and Halloween parties can be, Halloween was much more exciting as a kid and I’ll always cherish those times.

Q: Favorite haunted house?

A: The one that always used to scare me the most was called Camp Pa Qua Tuck on Long Island. I used to go to it every year when I was younger and I’d be terrified, particularly by the dark corn maze, but then I went a few years ago and it didn’t seem as scary. There is another one on Long Island that’s also quite creepy, and when I lived in New Orleans there was an extremely weird one that I went to, but I’d expect nothing less from New Orleans.

Q: Carving pumpkins or painting them?

A: I think I’d enjoy painting them more than the actual gutting and carving process because it’s so long and messy and laborious, but I only ever carve them! There’s just something so fun and spooky about illuminating the carving in the dark when it’s done.

Q: Favorite Halloween decoration?

A: I’ve never decorated that much for Halloween in the past, but it’s a goal to one day have one of those amazing yards with a million decorations that people drive past and marvel at! I love looking at houses decorated for Halloween. We decorated our house a little bit when I was in college, but we also left our Halloween decorations up the entire year. My favorite was the skeleton we had hanging in the hallway that we named Regis. We also walked into it all the time because it was literally right in the middle of the hallway.

Q: Michael Meyers, Jason, or Freddy?

A: Michael Meyers, of course.

Bonus: A short Halloween playlist for you this evening:

“Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett
“Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Mason
“I Put a Spell on You” (I like the Bette Midler version because Hocus Pocus, of course)
“Creep” by Radiohead
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson
“This is Halloween” from The Nightmare Before Christmas. My favorite is the Marilyn Manson version.
“Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell
“Zombie” by The Cranberries
“Monster” by Lady Gaga
“Psycho Killer” by The Talking Heads
“Heads Will Roll” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
And finally: The Halloween theme song! by John Carpenter

Wishing everyone a happy and frightening Halloween! What are some of your Halloween favorites?