Haunted Happiness

Now that I have just turned 28, and have a four year old son of my own, it's ME who's giving out the candy, while he gets to go and GET IT. I long for the good old days when I was a kid and I dressed up as a Pink Elephant or a California Raisin. We'd go up and down the neighborhood and get a variety of goodies from your average mini candy bars to your silver dollars and combination of mini bag of chips and can of soda. The air was crisp and smelled of fall. That smell that tells you you have a few weeks left before winter will rear it''s bitterly cold head. Then we'd get home and plop in front of the tv and watch The Disney Channel's "Halloween Treat" or any other channel that showed our favorite Halloween/scary stories themed movies. It seems today the specials are so scattered about (probably with the increase in zillions of different channels to watch over the past 20 years.) on random premium cable channels that it's hard to find them all and we often miss them. Well many of those beloved favorites are available on dvd. Others however, have fallen into obscurity and are no longer in print. Some of the more obscure ones have been posted on You-Tube. Thank goodness for You-tube.

Here are a list of my favorites and their plot summaries.

It's The Great Pumpkin ,Charlie Brown. - Of course, who's Halloween would be complete without watching this classic? Premiering in 1966, this classic has aired on regular tv (NBC, CBS, ABC one of the three) every year. Linus convinces Charlie Brown's younger sister Sally to wait in the Pumpkin patch with him for The Great Pumpkin, the Halloween version of Santa Claus, in hopes of getting great treats. As they sit and wait all night in the Pumpkin path, Charlie Brown and friends go out for "Tricks Or Treats" where Charlie Brown keeps getting rocks put into his candy sack while others get candy and gum. Will the great Pumpkin EVER come?

The Worst Witch- This 1986 film starring Tim Curry, Fairuza Balk and Charlotte Rae (Mrs Garette to you Different Strokes and Facts Of Life fans) was shown every Halloween on the Disney Channel for a number of years. It's about a young witch named Mildred Hubble who, much like Harry Potter, attends a prestigious witching/wizard academy. She has a hard time fitting in and doesn't seem to have any talents. She is often clumsy and always gets things ALMOST right. She is tormented by many classmates and is constantly accidentally getting into trouble. She decides to run away. This is a great movie with wonderful music numbers by Charlotte Rae (Who plays double roles) and Tim Curry.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure- In this 1985 tv special, Garfield decides he wants to go Trick Or Treating, and that in taking Odie with him, he will get more candy. (He just plans to eat all of Odie's candy to, except one piece that Odie will have earned by helping Garfield Trick Or Treat. Ah Garfield, never selfish.) They run into ghosts and ghoulies and find themselves in a scary Haunted Pirate house.

The Halloween That Almost Wasn't- In this cute 1979 tv special, Dracula (Judd Hirsch, "Taxi") calls together his fellow monsters when he is troubled with a rumor that has been spreading around the news. That rumor is that Halloween has been canceled. It turns out that one of his fellow monsters, The Witch, has decided not to take her yearly flight across the moon (if she does not, Halloween can't happen) because she feels no one respects her anymore and that she is considered a joke, as well as her fellow monsters. Can Dracula, Igor (Henry Gibson "Charlotte's Web"), The Wolf Man, a Mummy, Frankenstein and the others convince her she is loved? Or will Halloween be canceled?

Witch's Night Out - In this 1978 classic, children are turned into REAL monsters to haunt the night. Say goodbye to traditional costumes!

Mr Boogedy- This 1986 movie really used to scare me. It's a family movie but man, it sure got to me! Starring Kristy Swanson, John Astin, David Faustino, and Richard Masur, Mr Boogedy is about a family that moves into a large, creepy looking house in New England. They are startlingly warned to beware of Mr Boogedy. Mysterious and creepy things begin to happen. Far off sneezing noises, blue lights, rocking chairs rocking by themselves..

These are just a few of my favorites. I'm sure there are more out there. If you have a favorite that I haven't listed, be sure to contact me so I can add them to my personal list!