Countdown to Halloween 2022

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, THIS is the most wonderful time of the year! The next 30 days will be dedicated to all things spooky. And if 31 days on one blog aren't enough to get your fix, head over to the main Countdown to Halloween site where you can find a list of 60+ other Halloween fiends partying all October long.

I don't know about you, but I'm kicking off celebrating this month going to a local production of Little Shop of Horrors!

Before I forget, the Countdown has a shirt this year! Designed by none other than Chad Savage, this design is available on a variety of swag on Threadless. All profits are going to Haunters Against Hate so pick something up to support a great cause!

As I usually do every year, I'm having a little Halloween contest! 

1 Grand Prize: Halloween care package

3 (ish?): Runners Up: small treat package

10 (or so): a postcard mailed from Salem, MA (above winners also get a postcard)

 

The Grand Prize pack includes a copy of Funko's Pumpkin Showdown card game featuring characters from their Boo Hollow line and other fun stuff!

 

 

Deadline to enter is midnight Friday 10/7.

Contest only open to US residents (Sorry!)

Contest has ended.

The good/bad news is only 7 people signed up so you're all getting at least a postcard!

There is one grand prize winner and two runners up.

Keep an eye on your mailboxes for spooky surprises!

 

Click below to visit the main Countdown site to see all the participating blogs.

Haunted Mansion Giveaway

What better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Disney's Haunted Mansion than by giving you a present? You can win this official Disney Parks Haunted Mansion light up ornament featuring Madam Leota.

But that's not all, you'll also get some other assorted goodies to make your Halloween season a little spookier. I also have a handful of postcards from Salem, MA that will be given away as runner-up prizes. Not only are these postcards from Salem but they'll be mailed from there as well.

All you have to do is use the form below. The only mandatory entry is leaving your mailing address. It makes it easier for me to get everything out if I don't have to chase people down for their address after the contest.

The contest is only open to US residents (sorry!) and entries end at midnight this Friday.

UPDATE!

Winners have been posted below.
Who won the big prize?
You'll have to check your mail to see!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you decide to visit the other Countdown to Halloween bloggers, be sure to bring your Death Certificate and click below.

Halloween Giveaway Contest

How about a little giveaway?
(This is only open to US residents, sorry! )

Winners will get a little magic straight from the Witch City!
These will be postmarked from Salem MA.

I have about 13 up for grabs but will try to accommodate if a few more people enter.

The photo does not show all the designs so you may get a surprise!

And if enough people enter, let's say...13? I will pick 3 people for a Halloween treat bag.
It's nothing to get majorly excited about, just sending some extra Halloween your way.

You can comment with the type you'd prefer.
If your preference isn't available, you're at the mercy of the helper goblins.

 

Salem (top & bottom rows) 
The type of touristy ones you'd expect showing notable landmarks from around the city.

Art (middle row, Left & Right) 
These are by New England artist Maryanne Piro

Sleepy Hollow (middle center, read more about that tomorrow!)

Please, please use the widget to enter even if you're only commenting on the blog.

It makes it much easier for me to pick the winners.

You can get extra entries by sharing the contest on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to Trick or Treat at the participating Countdown blogs by clicking below!

October Awfulness - Terrible Two

It should come as no surprise that Religious Pamplets won their bracket. They were a strong contender from the start and beat down Veggies/Fruit by a 2:1 margin.

The big shocker is that the Orange/Black wrapped Peanut Butter Kisses eeked out a victory over Circus Peanuts by a mere one vote!

These are your Terrible Two!

VS

Don't forget to vote for your pick. 

As we can see from Circus Peanuts' defeat, every vote counts!

Round Three Leaderboard

20 points

Beverly

18 points

Mike, Richard

16 points

John

15 points

Chelsea, Vanessa

14 points

Jolene, Shad

13 points

Sam, Scott

12 points

Amber

10 points

Hellen

8 points

Chris, George

3 points

Mason

Be sure to visit all the participating bloggers by clicking the link below!

October Awfulness - WTFour

Wrapping up Round Two, these Fearsome Four are moving on!

Religious Pamphlets

Veggies/Fruit

Orange/Black Wrapped Ickiness (Kisses)

Circus Peanuts

This round's matches weren't nearly as close as last week. Although Veggies/Fruit completely shut out Pretzels I think we know they're no match for Religious Pamphlets. Or are they? Your votes will decide!

Here are your October Awfulness Round Three Matchups

As I was compiling the leader board for Round Two, I noticed there were some bracket submissions that came in after I had started last week's tallies. They have been added below with their scores for both rounds.

Round Two Leaderboard

16 points (perfect!)
Beverly

15 points

Vanessa

14 points

Mike, Richard

12 points

John

11 points

Chelsea

10 points

Jolene, Shad

9 points

Sam, Scott

8 points

Chris, George

6 points

Hellen

3 points

Mason

Be sure to visit all the Halloween houses by clicking the link below!

October Awfulness - Unwanted Eight

Alright, Trick or Treaters, we've got the results of the first October Awfulness round.

Advancing to round two are:

Toothbrushes

Religious Pamplets

Veggies/Fruits

Pretzels

Those Orange and Black Abominations

Bubblegum

Circus Peanuts

Mint Candies

Most of the face-offs were won in a landslide. 

The closest race was bubblegum and lollipops at 58% to 42%.

Here's the updated bracket going into round two.

What will come out on "top"?
You decide!

Round One Leaderboard

8 Points
Beverly

7 Points
Vanessa

6 Points
Amber, Jolene, Mike, Richard, Shad

5 Points
Sam, Scott

4 Points
Chris, George

3 Points
Mason

2 Points
Hellen

Round Two competitors are posted on the right sidebar so cast your votes, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell the voices in your head!

We'll see you next Friday for Round Three!

Visit all the Halloween bloggers by clicking the link below!

The Countdown Begins with October Awfulness

Happy October!

In case you're unaware, the annual Countdown to Halloween is upon us. Bloggers from around the web will be filling up your treat bag all month long, so be sure to check the list of participants over at the Countdown site.

To kick this year's festivities off with a bang, I'm having a contest!

You've heard of March Madness?
Well, this is October Awfulness!

October Awfulness is a bracket style showdown of the things nobody wants in their Trick or Treat bag at the end of the night. If you want to play, take a look at the bracket sheet and enter your picks in the form below before October 6th. Voting is open every week to determine the "winners". Every Friday I will post the updates and current leaderboard. 

Voting will be in the right sidebar.

NOTE
The Big Prize will only be awarded to a US shipping address. If someone outside the US wins, they will get a postcard from Salem MA and the top US score gets the Big Prize.
Voting is open to anyone, anywhere, even if you're not submitting a bracket!

You will get points every week for correctly guessing the winners of each bracket.

1st week - 1 pt ea (8 pts total)

2nd week - 2 pt ea (8 pts total)

3rd week - 4 pt ea (8 pts total)

4th week = 6 pt

Perfect prediction = 30 pts

And what will you win? In the spirit of Trick or Treating, you won't know until you get it!
But I promise it won't be anything this bad.

This will not work without participants so I'm asking to share this far and wide. Not everyone has to submit predictions but I think it'll be more fun the more people are actively voting. If it doesn't seem like we're getting enough votes by Friday, this will be scrapped and I'll figure out another contest.

Here are your October Awfulness "Sinful Sixteen"
It's the "Inedible Eight" vs "You Call That Candy?"
You can get a printable pdf here.

Click to enlarge

Make your predictions below!
Be sure to scroll down to fill in all fields.

Picks must be submitted before midnight Thursday, October 5th.

Be sure to visit all the participating bloggers by clicking the link below!

Box O Stuff Winner!!

Drum roll please...

 

Was it you?

Well, unless your name is Kevin of kapgar.com, nope!

Congrats to Kevin and thank you everyone that stopped in for the contest.

6th Blogiversary & Box O Stuff Giveaway

July 13th marks the sixth year this ol blog has been...uh, blogging? I totally forgot about it last year which is too bad because as a society we're obsessed with nice round numbers. You hit a five year anniversary it's all cake and fireworks. Six years? Eh, let me know when it's 10.

Astute readers will not it is not yet July 13th. This is going up a day early because tomorrow night I will be rocking out to Boston and Joan Jett!

Since I missed the big 5-iversary, I'm doing a giveaway to thank the readers. But we'll get to that in a bit, or you can just skip down. First, I want to share some totally meaningless stats.

Here are the most viewed posts over the last six years.

Shockingly, Andy Gibb has dropped to the second spot! 

For the longest time, that was the most viewed post.

Here are the most searched terms that lead people here.

People love Andy Gibb!

Now on to the good stuff.

GIVEAWAY!

What am I giving away?

A box o stuff!

Can you be more specific?

It will contain items from Loot Crate and other things.

How do I know I'll like the stuff?

A: It's free

B: You can throw me a couple of keywords and I will try to put related stuff in the box.

How do I enter the giveaway?
Leave a comment below with your keywords. It's as easy as that. Leaving congratulatory words and/or well wishes will not increase your chances of winning neither is it discouraged.

If you're into horror movies and/or random geeky t-shirts that are Men's XL (never worn, don't worry!) mention that as well.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: make sure I have a way to contact you from your comment. If your email is linked to your commenting account, you're good. Otherwise, include an email, Twitter, or GPS co-ordinates in your comment.

Also, and I'm sorry to say, contest open only to US residents.
Unless you want to pay shipping for a box o stuff, then join in!

Winner to be determined on Monday, July 17th.

Tron Run/r Game Review & Giveaway

A Back on February 16, a new Tron game was released via the Steam platform that I had no idea was coming until about a month ahead of time. Apparently it started off as an Early Release which means Steam users got to purchase an in-progress version at a discount.

Now that it's officially launched, the basic version is $20. While most sane people (myself included) would balk at paying $20 for an endless runner, I'm all in when it comes to Tron. That's why I splurged and coughed up the not sane $40 for the Ultimate Edition. This includes the base game, season pass DLC, soundtrack, and a giftable copy of the base game.

So, let's boot into the Grid and break it down.

Game Play

There are three game modes: Disc, Cycle, and Stream. At the start of each game, you can choose an avatar which includes Tron: Legacy style generic male/female or classic characters like Tron, Yori, or Sark (no Flynn?!?). You can also choose their color. None of it makes any difference in the game, but it's nice to have the options.

Then it's on the power-up screen where you use bits to purchase weapon enhancements or programs to increase your game performance. If you've played an endless runner before, you'll recognize most of these. However, these power-ups only last for your next run, so make sure you're grabbing those bits!

Game Modes

Disc mode is a series of levels where you have to make it to the finish. The first few levels teach you the basic moves you'll need to survive. While playing a runner on a mobile device is pretty intuitive and straight forward, playing with a controller is a whole new world requiring the use of multiple buttons. You'll have to jump, slide, throw your disc, quick dash, wall run, rail grind, and glide while avoiding data walls, grid bugs, and probably some other hazards I haven't encountered yet.

We're off to see the Wizard!

 Cycle mode is another series of levels where you have to race to the finish. You're not just battling against AI lightcycles, but the clock too. There are gates you can, no, have to pass through to extend your time if you want to see the end. You get bonus points for executing tricks after hitting a ramp and you can whack other riders with your disc to get them out of your way.

In these two modes, it's all about racking up combos to increase your score. Each level has three stars that can be earned based on your score. I've heard rumor that earning all the stars in a batch of levels will unlock content. I know I'll never see it myself! I'm still trying to master the basic controls, never mind pulling off combos.

The last mode is Stream, which combines Disc and Cycle mode into an endless test to see how long you can survive. It's kind of nice to have the game switch from running to cycles to break it up.

Game Worlds

As you can see from the screens, the Disc run world is a gorgeous electric 80s neon nightmare, if I can use gorgeous and nightmare at the same time. It's definitely more a child of what was seen in Tron Uprising than either of the movie worlds.

The Disc world and Cycle world are about as different as could be, unfortunately. Where the Disc runs are full of color, the Cycle tracks are bland. I guess I'd say the Disc world is like being in the big city and the Cycle tracks are driving country roads.

Soundtrack

The included (if you can call paying $40 to get it "included") soundtrack is made up of four songs being remixed a few times to give you a total of eight tracks. I'd definitely call this more of a game soundtrack than a movie score. I imagine it's the type of music the teenagers that inhabit the Tron universe listen to.

End of Line

Overall, I like the game, even if I'm finding the controls for the running parts a bit challenging. Like a runner, it's a game I"ll pick up when I have a short amount of time to play something. There seem to be some things that still need to be ironed out. For example, when playing Stream mode and letting the game randomly select the music, there is a noticeable wait time. Maybe it's the game setting up your randomized course, I don't know.

We know there's DLC coming. When the game officially launched, they accidentally released some of the DLC content and pulled it back. This included avatars from Tron Uprising and the ability to customize your color and style of lightcycle.

Giveaway

Time will tell if I'll ever feel like the whole package is worth what I paid for it, but if you'd like to try the game without paying for it, I do have a giftable copy to give away!

*** You MUST have a Steam account in order for me to send the game to you. ***
(It's free to create an account and download the client)
** This is a PC version of the game. **

 To enter, use the Rafflecopter widget below.
Winner to be drawn on March14th.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Santa Strikes! Creepmas Contest

You can always count on artist Brad McGinty for some festive freakishness every year. This year, not only does he have a new set of groovy 60s themed holiday postcards but he's reproduced a set of trading cards that are perfect for Creepmas!

In 1965 GLORP Gum rushed to produce the nightmarish Santa Strikes! “Looking Card” set, created to terrify children out of the laps of the popular Coca-Cola Santa and into the arms of their newest creation, Cool Daddy Christmas. This plan backfired, as many children were so scared they refused to celebrate Christmas ever again. 

These limited edition packs perfectly recreate the look and feel of the original Santa Strikes! “Looking Card” sets. Each pack includes five 2”x3” Santa Strikes! trading cards that tell a complete story, all packaged in a specially recreated wax-pack replica wrapper! 

If you want to peep what the cards look like, head over here.

 I have two packs of these five card sets to giveaway to you fine folks as part of a Creepmas Scare Package.

At the very least, leave a comment below with an email address, twitter handle, flare gun, or some way to contact you if you win. If you feel ambitious, there's an additional option to tweet about this contest that will net you 2 entries.  

Even if you just leave a comment, please use the Rafflecopter form below to register your entry. This is how I will randomly pick the winners!


Contest Winners
Creepy Glowbugg & Amber Terry!

Salem Postcard Giveaway

It just wouldn't be October if I wasn't doing a Salem postcard contest!

 Read on to see how you can win one of these postcards.

There are 13 postcards up for grabs and I will be picking a grand prize winner to win a Mystery Halloween goodie package as well!What's in the Mystery Box? There's a reason it's called Mystery Box! But I think any Halloween fiend will be very happy with it.

Not only are the postcards from Salem but they have also been stamped/cancelled at the Salem post office. All you have to do is use the widget below. At the very least, you must fill out the form with your mailing info. No address, no postcard. I am the only one that will see your info and it will be deleted when the contest ends.

Contest open to US residents only.
Deadline for entry is 11:59pm October 17th.

WINNERS!

Halloween Mystery Box

Amber T.

Postcards

 Aaron M

Amanda M

Belinda B

Brenda S (Hi!)

Eric B

Erick B

John G

Kisah M

Leanne M

Melissa P

Rhonda L

Stacey L

Steph K

Congrats everyone! Thanks for joining in the Halloween fun and reading the blog.

Before you head off to your next house, swing by Halloween Mixes.

They're posting a themed mix album every day of the month!

And of course, check out all the other folks participating in the Countdown to Halloween!

Mailbox Invaders - Movies, Movies, Movies!!

So what seems like a very long time ago, but in reality was probably late March, I somehow found out about an incredible contest being hosted by Cult Movie Mania. Entry was about as easy as it gets: fill out a simple form on their website. The prize?

On February 10^th, 2014 we put $1,000 and three cult movies into the box you see below. Each week after that we will add another three cult movies until May 10^th, 2014. By the time May 10^th rolls around, there will be $1,000 and AT LEAST 36 movies in the box. Why do I say “at least 36 movies”? That’s because we may put more than three movies per week into the box, depending on how many people sign up. The more people who sign up, the more movies we’ll put in the box.

 Like most contests, I submitted my entry and totally forgot about it, because odds. 

Fast forward to May 10 when I get a tweet from Trash Man asking me if I just won the contest. So I check my email and there's the email that went out to all subscribers to Cult Movie Mania's mailing list announcing the winner.

Scroll down, scroll down, scroll down...

The winner is...

my name!

I let out some kind of exclamation from the couch which caused my wife some concern from another room. I showed her the email and we're both thinking there's no way, it must be someone else with my same name. A couple hours later I got a direct email from CMM confirming I did in fact win. Whoa!

I didn't actually count them, but according to the announcement, there were 47 movies spread out over DVD, BluRay and VHS(!) when all was said and done!

And that wasn't everything. There's also a t-shirt from the movie Brainjacked, a CD from ScreamerClauz, and the Ultimate Collector's Set of Herschell Gordon Lewis' The Uh-Oh Show. That is a prize in itself! It includes the movie, a making of DVD, 3 exclusive buttons and a set of 6 lobby cards. On top of all that, one of the lobby cards is signed by Lewis and has a piece of screen used costume and gore on it (upper right)!

 Needless to say, I've got a lot of cult movies in my future! There's some great stuff that I've seen before and a whole lot more that I've never heard of. I have to check if my VCR is still hooked up so I can watch "There's Something Following Me" which is set on Halloween.

A huuuuge thanks to the folks at Cult Movie Mania for holding this epic contest!

Please check out Cult Movie Mania's site where you can sign up for their mailing list.

You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter if you're into weirdness.

October 2013 Loot Crate: Survive!

Happy Halloween, folks!

Sometime last night we passed 100k page views and people like to celebrate round numbers, so to thank all you weirdos that come by, there's a contest below!

Before I dig into this month's Loot Crate, I have to show you what the Great Pumpkin dropped off last night...

Thank you, Great Pumpkin!!

October's Loot Crate theme is "Survive!" Can you make it?

Disclaimer 1: This Loot Crate was provided to me in exchange for a review
Disclaimer 2: Potato Head monster is not part of the Crate, he just wanted to help out.



First up we've got a chewy eyeball. Mmmmm, grape, my favorite eye flavor! Next to that is an adorable zombie card. He looks like he just needs a hug. Won't you hug him? The inside of the card says he also likes you for your brains.



Here we've got the Loot Crate mini-mag that details all the goodies in your Crate and shows off the Looter community. It's also got a little interview with Max Brooks, author of World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide. Below that are temp tattoos that let you declare your allegiance: infected or safe. Then there's a trio of vintage video game inspired zombie buttons: a crossbow, health kit and a hand breaking from the ground. On the right is your official Loot Crate Zombie Hunter license! There's spots on the back to fill in all your info.



Your very own copy of the Zombie Survival Guide! This book is essential for zombie fans, hardcore or casual.I already have a copy of this in my monster hunting library so if you need this, I will send it to you if you pay shipping.



Lastly is this awesome Star Wars and Walking Dead mash-up shirt. I love it and I think I'll be wearing it today. At least until the sun goes down.

If you're still reading you either like the site or you're just here for the promise of a contest. Either way, I won't judge you! The fine folks at Loot Crate want to give you a one month subscription to their awesome box o stuff. Honestly, I don't know why they didn't call it
Box O Stuff to start! Haha.

All you gotta do is leave a comment below answering my Inside the Actor's Studio-ish questions.

What do you hope to get while Trick or Treating?
What would you get that would cause you to egg a house?
(this is purely hypothetical, so even if you're not the kind of person that would egg a house, it's ok to answer it)

Be safe out there tonight, and most importantly, have fun!!

Doctor Gasp Show & CD Giveaway

The day after getting back from vacation I found out that local musician Doctor Gasp (aka Dan Blakeslee) was playing in Salem. I make it a point to never miss one of his shows because he's a cool guy and his music really embodies the New England Halloween vibe.

It also happened to be the release of his second Doctor Gasp album: Vampire Fish for Two.

He always brings a pumpkin patch of retro Halloween lights to decorate the front of the stage. And dig that tentacled guitar!

Gasp and the Eeks actually played two short sets. Between the sets, another band took the stage. Their name? Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion! I'm glad I stuck around to watch them because they were really good! Go check out that link and show em some love.



Here's one of two videos I took of Doctor Gasp. The quality is better on the other one because I was closer, but I think you'll recognize this tune!



Like I said, there's another video and there's also a few more photos if you'd like to see them, head over to Flickr. After the show I went over to say hi and pick up the new CD. I also picked up a second copy to give away to one of you! The CD is the handmade limited version on this page. It's also signed and hand numbered 25/1000.



To enter, just leave a comment below on what you listen to to get in the October mood..
As Halloween is just a week away, the entry period will end at 8am EST 10/26 so I can get it out in time for you to listen to it. I'll also toss in whatever other spooky swag I can cram in a small flat rate priority box.

Hey! What's that?!
It's Countdown to Halloween and Blog-O-Ween!

Halloween Retail Ranting & Contest

Dear Target, what is up with you and Halloween this year?

By this time every year, I can usually count on you to be in full on Halloween mode. Costumes, candy and seasonal exclusives should be vying for my attention come mid-September, and yet, they're not. Back to School went out at the end of July. It should be gone, you know, when the kids are back in school. But you know what will happen? Christmas stuff will be out a week before Halloween.

It's not to say you're not trying, but try HARDER. Halloween is not something you should be half-assing. I've been checking my stores since the start of this month and it seems every week a little more (very little) is out on the shelves. While you may associate Halloween with creeping, merch should not creep on to the sales floor week by week, it should appear like I just said Candyman three times in a mirror.

 I did manage to find some of the retro General Mills monster cereals this weekend (below). Almost every box had some manner of ding, dent or crush damage. Probably nothing to the average consumer, but is the average consumer the person these boxes are meant for?

And while I'm ranting, you also killed one of my favorite things about Halloween: the Target exclusive Hot Wheels set. Honestly, I"m not sure if I should be directing this loathing at Target or Mattel. Long time readers may remember my unhappiness with the 2012 set. At least that one had an awesome deco for of the cars that I couldn't pass up. This year? The set has gone down from 5 cars to 4 cars. Know what didn't change? The price! 

I can go buy 4 single cars for less than this "exclusive" "Halloween" set.

So pissed off about this, I didn't waste the time to take a good photo.

If the Skull Crusher (top) was unique to this set, I might have been persuaded to buy it. Guess what? You can buy it on a single card. Not only that, but the white one below it, Bad Raditude, is also on a single card and is black/red instead of white/blue. It's a black car with a (black) cat head on it! I'd been on the fence about picking it up but now I think I will just to spite this junk pile. Luckily for me, Shawn from Branded in the 80s found me some real Halloween Hot Wheels at his Kroger. Those will get loving posts!

Whew! Well, I sorta apologize for my rant there. But really, the only people who will understand my pain are people that follow this blog, my kindred spirits. I should mention I did find some epic items in their dollar spot but those are being saved for October.

On to the fun stuff!

If you blog and love Halloween, check out Countdown to Halloween where they've just posted this year's blog badges. And also Crooked Ninja Turtle's Blog-O-Ween.

I've been getting asked if I'm hosting the Great Pumpkin Exchange like last year. While it was probably an overall 85-90% success, I won't have time for it this year. The first week and a half of October I'll be visiting DisneyWorld and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

What I will be doing again this year is postcards!
I'll randomly pick winners to receive a postcard from Salem MA with an October cancellation on it. They won't go in the mail til the second week of the month, but you should get them in plenty of time for Halloween. Don't worry! These won't be the vanilla postcards you can get anywhere with Salem slapped on them. I take special care picking them out to fit the season. As an added bonus, since I have the opportunity, I'll pick a few random souls for Haunted Mansion postcards too. You may win one or the other, or both!

The contest is only open to US residents (sorry!). Actual number of winners will vary dependind on how many people enter. To avoid winner notification emails getting lost in your spam filters, you'll need to fill in your mailing info in the form below. The info is only seen, and used by, me. Once the winners are picked, the collected info is deleted.

Please be sure to select the option in the Rafflecopter widget
to say you've added your address!

a Rafflecopter giveaway