Once again, Brianna and I set out for the annual Haunt the Zoo trick or treating extravaganza at the Oklahoma City Zoo.  This year, we were joined by Jessica and James, who were celebrating their daughter Theda’s first Halloween.  Brianna dressed this year as her idol, Hannah Montana, and I managed to get a mad scientist costume together.  As I told Brianna, a white lab coat is just about the single most versatile piece of costuming gear you can own.  Theda came as the most adorable little devil, and used her powers of cuteness to get attention the whole night.

We came away with a great haul of candy, and finished the evening off by swinging by the Little Shoppe of Games for Lane’s Halloween party.  Sadly, my battery was completely dead by then, so I wasn’t able to get any pictures.  A couple of games of Zombie Fluxx were just the thing to cap off an excellent Halloween night.

0.9 Bolls

Take, for instance, his story “Cool Air,” written back in 1926.  It’s a good little story, tightly written, that could have supported a short film of some kind (which, as I look now, it did back in 1999).  Unfortunately, it is also the inspiration for the unspeakably awful Chill.

Spoilers ahead….

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What this means for you is that if you are leaving an anonymous comment (that is, if you are commenting without logging in), you will see a box below the comment form similar to this one:

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Overall, I thought The Strangers was pretty well done, with one really glaring exception.  From the very beginning, the director of photography eschewed the use of any kind of tripod or camera mount.  I can only imagine the director thought he was making some kind of edgy decision to make the scenes scarier or more suspenseful by shaking the camera like it was a camcorder the whole time.  That can, and has been, very effective in small doses.  When the whole movie is like that, it destroys any kind of immersion in the film, and a good horror movie absolutely relies on such immersion to terrify the viewer.  Instead, too many otherwise genuinely creepy and suspenseful moments get reduced to cheap jump scares.

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While this has been a rough month for me both in terms of disposable income and costume inspiration, I did manage to get something together.  I suspect I am the only one in my building wearing a costume today.  Here I am, your local mad scientist, member of the Guild of Calamitous Intent.

Now I must get back to work on making a half-pony, half-monkey monster.  I have a captivefriend that should please….

 

TRACTOOOR!

I know what side I’m on.

A big thanks to zombienought for posting the link.

Here’s the full text of the poem:

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As it turns out, I may have been wrong….

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