What Halloween Means To Me '14 Day 3: Nicole Gould

Today on the countdown we've got probably the most badass horror chick I know, Nicole Gould.  I refer to her and Leah (yesterday's entry) as "The Celluloid Sisters."  She's my con buddy (check out episode 6 of The Son Of Celluloid Show to witness our trip to the GunTOWN Mountain Haunted Hotel on the way back from DOTD Indy), camerawoman, fellow fixture on the Atlanta horror scene, damn good makeup artist, and a like minded sick fuck.  She's also the only person I've ever seen purchase a Golden Girls lunchbox at a horror convention and one of the only other people who TRULY gets the deep meaning of #snackpack.  So, Nicole, what does Halloween mean to you?

"When my mother was a kid in the 50’s, her and her sisters would turn their basement into a haunted house. They dressed up and jumped out from dark corners, did the peeled grapes/eyeball gag, rigged skeletons to pop out of closets, and charged the neighborhood kids a nickel for the experience. Somehow they managed to do this without my grandmother being aware, as she apparently rarely ventured into the basement. She was eventually tipped off by one of the kids’ parents who called to complain after her child returned home terrified and urine soaked. Evidently it was a lot easier to pull off a scare back then. These were some of my mother’s fondest memories of her childhood, so when I was about 7 or 8 we started doing haunted house scenes in our living room. The first year we kept it small; two dummies, a dick load of cobwebs, several homemade props, all centered around the bucket of candy. Before we knew it we were building guillotines, staging 7 dummies and one or two live “dummies” (my dad mostly) and creating huge elaborate scenes to lure the kids in and make them navigate for the prize of delicious free candy. We scored dry ice for bubbling cauldrons, made some crazy glow in the dark toxic as fuck margaritas, and we always used the innards of the pumpkins in the absolute grossest way we could think of. It was when I started dabbling in make-up effects.

I learned a lot from trying to make my parents look as gross and terrifying as possible. Word quickly got around about our house and we had people trick or treating from all over town and even neighboring towns. We got HUNDREDS of little trick or treaters every year. A lot of our neighbors hated us because we drew so many kids to the neighborhood and they had to give out a ridiculous amount of candy. But quite a few of them dug it and would try to get in on the action, putting up their own elaborate decorations, though never anywhere near as cool as our house. One year, just before Halloween my mother fell and broke her arm and her nose and bashed her face all up. I was somewhere in my teens, maybe 13-15ish and fully in my ‘My parents are ruining my life, they know nothing and I hate them’ phase. My mom announced that our Halloween would be canceled that year because she was all fucked up and couldn’t handle the work involved. My friends and I were all appalled. Our Halloween was an institution. Kids all over were expecting it. We were expecting it! You can’t cancel the only holiday that matters. So my friends and I took the reins and did the haunted suburbs on our own and we rocked it. I made my mother up and costumed her to hide her cast and sat her in the scene so she wouldn’t have to move around too much. I don’t even remember what the theme was that year but I remember it was a huge hit. We kept up the extravagant Halloweens every year until I found myself knocked up and my parents decided to divorce in the same freaking year. They sold the house and everyone went their separate ways. Sorry about the super depressing ending to the warm fuzzy family time story. Side bar: I can not imagine the first Halloween for that poor family that bought our house. All those kids expecting a haunted house and getting a fun sized butterfinger instead.

So, what does Halloween mean to me? Everything. I’ve always been a spooky little fucker, obsessed with horror films since age 5 when I saw the made for TV movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) and it terrified and thrilled me and blew my little pop tart mind. I read my first Stephen King at age 10 when I realized I could check them out of the library and sneak them into my room while my folks were working (latch key kids represent!) Once my mother caught up and realized I was a full-fledged budding weirdo she arbitrarily forbid me from watching slasher flicks. It was the 80s and slasher movies were responsible for teen pregnancy, pogo balls, and the cold war. So even though she literally and figuratively created the monster that I was with cheesy scary made for TV movies and Halloween murder in the living room she attempted to save me from certain annihilation by preventing me the glory of Jason Voorhees. Consistency is important in parenting.  So I had a neighbor that had a huge collection of bootleg movies (really unusual in the 80s) and virtually no parental supervision. It was there that I saw my very first slasher, My Bloody Valentine. It was one of the most perfect moments of my life. But of course, I’ve wandered off on a nostalgic tangent.

Halloween takes everything I love and rolls them up into a beautiful package of strange, scary, joy. October is the one month that feels made for me. The air smells like burning leaves, and it’s gloriously cool and crisp. Everything is dying and reinventing itself. People everywhere embrace their inner weirdo and decorate their houses like mine. There are few things that I love as much as scaring and being scared and that is what Halloween means. It means being scary. Not slutty versions of everything ever (slutty Chinese takeout. This is an actual costume). It is the night that the veil between the worlds is thinnest, and we don masks to blend with the ghosts and ghouls.

So that’s it. That’s what Halloween means to me. I’m not anyone famous, just your average weird chick that you’ve probably seen at a con or a movie a few times. I’m just a loyal Celluloid Sister, gore hound, and die hard horror devotee. Halloween is tied to most of my best childhood memories and it marks the time of year when I am at my happiest. I bring the weird and it all works this time of year. I look forward to horror movie marathons and being chased by chainsaws at haunts while I scream like a girl and eating too much candy and doing make up for my friends and scaring little children. Every year around September I start to get this jumpy itchy feeling inside that is definitely NOT crabs. It’s just finally Halloween! 27 DAYS TIL HALLOWEEN, SILVER SHAMROCK!"

Hey, wait a minute.  That whole "Silver Shamrock" thing is my line.  Dammit!

What Halloween Means To Me '14 Day 2: Leah Smith

For the next few days I'm going to be featuring my horror homies from both the Atlanta horror scene and online, and it's only appropriate that we start with Leah Smith.  Aside from myself, there's no one else who has contributed more or is as vital to the existence of Son of Celluloid.  She's my primary camera woman, blood sprayer, assistant, external hard drive, co-set constructor, and sometimes partner in crime; but most importantly, she's been my best friend for a decade and a half and the person that I've spent the most Halloweens with.  So, Leah, what does Halloween mean to you?

"For me, Halloween is a season. It begins with the autumn equinox and fades with the winter solstice (though it stays in my heart all year long). When the summer heat fades into the crisp autumn nights and the leaves change from various shades of green to hues of gold, orange, red and browns is when I feel most alive!

I’ve been into all things “scary” since I saw Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ on screen at the local movie theatre when I was 5. I grew up on the Classic Disney Halloween Cartoons, ‘Garfield’s Halloween Adventure’, ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’, “The Worst Witch’ (with Fairuza Balk and Tim Curry), Disney’s ‘Mr.  Boogedy’ and ‘Bride of Boogedy’ . . .  and still begin each and every Halloween adventure by watching those movies.

I miss the ‘old days’ (wow, that makes me sound old) when trick-or-treating was still trick-or-treating! When your parents helped you get dressed up, handed you that plastic pumpkin bucket or pillowcase, and unleashed you on the neighborhood –unsupervised – to go knock on strangers’ doors and beg for candy. I miss seeing the streets covered in a sea of mini-monsters, witches, superheroes, princesses, and whatever else the imagination could concoct. I, personally, was one of those who did not stop trick-or-treating until I was seventeen – the last age where a person could go trick-or-treating and it not be disturbing or illegal.

I have always been jealous of my sister’s birthday. While she wasn’t born on Halloween, she was born close enough to have awesome costume parties. One of the earliest photos of one of her Halloween-themed birthday parties was back in 1987:

(That’s me on the far left.) 

She still gets to have some of the coolest birthday parties. Last year was probably the biggest and best birthday party she has ever had, and some of my closest friends and pack members were there to enjoy the festivities:

(Yeah, I’m the one with the boobs falling out of her costume.)

I was fourteen when I went to my first haunted house . . .Blood Oaks; an actual haunted house that the Jaycee’s turned in to one of the most intense haunts in the area at the time. I remember walking through and being okay until I came upon the room that was covered in fake spiders with strobe lights going so fast that they seemed to be crawling everywhere. I’m a HUGE arachnophobe and was TERRIFIED! It was, also, the first time I was introduced to the chainsaw! I remember the big scary guy chased me around the parking lot until I fell flat on my back and he stood over me with the saw inches from my face for several minutes while I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Little did I know that 10 years later, I would be working at one of the top haunts in the world . . . Netherworld Haunted House.

(Selfie time behind the ticket counter at Netherworld Haunted House.)

Over the last 10 years, my Halloween Season has been primarily consumed with working at the haunt, scaring and selling tickets to the thousands of people that turn up each season. I love Netherworld Haunted House and my fellow Netherspawn. It’s not an easy job, and we all have become a family there . . . at least, those that survive the full six weeks of insanity.

My all-time favorite make up from the haunt was from 2009. I take Halloween night off each year. When I can, I go to the haunt to drop off goodies to a select few. That year, I was actually attending a Halloween party at a friend’s house. I had my costume and my vampire fangs . . . but no makeup. I was getting ready to leave the haunt, from dropping off my annual goodies, when Roy Wooley asked me where I was going. When I told him I was going to a party, he said, “Not like that you're not!” He motioned for me to sit down in his makeup chair. Less than a minute later, I looked like this:

It was the best Halloween makeup I had ever had!

Originally, I would take off Halloween night because I would go with my sister to take my nieces trick-or-treating. When my long-time BFF, the Son of Celluloid, moved back to Atlanta from Savannah, we began our annual Halloween Adventure, where we try to go to as many haunts as possible on Halloween night. He’s also been my makeup artist the last 4 Halloweens. This was one of my favorite makeups he did back in 2010:

 In 2011, after the Son of Celluloid hit the horror scene in Atlanta, GA., we began the "Official Son of Celluloid Halloween Adventure, where we were joined a couple of outstanding ladies:

(Son of Celluloid Halloweeners 2013.)

Halloween has always given me some of my fondest memories. I’m looking forward to what this Halloween season has in store: the haunts, the costumes, the shows, this year’s Son of Celluloid Halloween Adventure . . . and, whatever it is the Atlanta Horror Scene throws at us!

LONG LIVE HALLOWEEN!"

29 days 'til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. 29 days 'til Halloween, Silver Shamrock!

What Halloween Means To Me '14 Day 1: Laurence Harvey

Feel that chill in the air?  See the bonfires burning bright and pumpkin faces in the night?  Smell the greasepaint and fog juice?  That's right folks, Halloween is right around the corner.  You know what that means around these parts... it's time for the third annual What Halloween Means To Me countdown.  Every day until the 31st, I'll be bringing you personal recollections and musings on the happiest, horrificest (shut up, it is too a word) holiday by your favorite genre celebrities, the best online horror media personalities, and my horror homies.  Let's start this party off with a bang, shall we?

Today's entry comes from the man responsible for one of the creepiest horror villains of the last decade (at least).  As Martin Lomax in Human Centipede 2, Laurence Harvey made your skin crawl and chilled you to the very core.  Through talking to him at various Days of the Dead conventions, however, I discovered that Mr. Harvey is an awesome guy.  I've been trying to get him on the countdown since last year, and the stars finally aligned for him to offer his thoughts.  So, today we're gonna spice things up with a little international flair and learn how one beloved family movie changed Halloween forever.  Laurence, what does Halloween mean to you?

"Nowadays, Halloween means work. Being booked into conventions, film festival appearances, being asked to attend screenings, appear with bands, etc. Even if the months on either side of Oct 31^st are barren, work-free deserts, I know that the end of October will be busy even in the years to come. I’m now used to the costumes and pumpkins that make-up the traditional US celebrations, but it wasn’t always so…

I grew up as a child of the 70’s, and it was interesting to see the changes wrought upon British society by one film and the envy felt by every child in Britain for the child protagonists of this 1982 release. Yes we were all jealous of E.T.’s Elliot and his friends and siblings. Whilst he may have had an extraterrestrial in the closet, it was the way the adults in their life indulged them in the carnevalesque spectacle of begging that was ‘trick or treat’. All the masks and costumes seemed to spring from the back pages of Fangoria.  These were quality latex items, not dodgy knock-offs from Woolies.  And they were going from door-to-door in expectation AND ACTUALLY GETTING FREE STUFF!!! What madness was this? I know it was only a movie, but such culturally inbred generosity seemed alien to this Northern lad whose neighbours would probably just close the door with a firm “No thank you, none today” and the kind of warm greeting usually reserved for Jehova’s Witnesses and gypsy knife-sharpers. How my 12-year-old self scoffed at such sheer fantasy!

Noooo. Growing up in the UK, our Halloweens were more in touch with the country’s pagan roots as part of a tryptich of festive nights culminating in Bonfire Night on the 5^th November. Mischief Night often tended to occur the night before Halloween. It was a time for children to play pranks and make nuisances of themselves. This ‘mischief’ would range from ‘tap-and-go-run’ through to arson, vandalism and joy-riding. The exact date of Mischief Night could vary from town to town, region to region, or (as in Appley Bridge where I grew up) not really happen at all (although I doubt that it was because we were all too well behaved).

I should also explain (for the colonial audience) that Bonfire Night, five days after Halloween, is a celebration of James I surviving a catholic plot to blow up Parliament (with him in it). So now the tradition is to build bonfires around the country upon which to burn effigies of Guy (Guido) Fawkes - the most famous of the plotters (yes, even if you are a Catholic)- and set off fireworks. The festivity has lost most of its sectarian overtones, although some places in the UK burn effigies of the Pope, the US president, or other current hate-figures (including an effigy of a caravan of Gypsies, including ‘children’ at the windows, in one particularly outrageous incident of recent years). Anyway, for most people today Bonfire Night involves attending a ‘Health & Safety’ approved organized firework display and bonfire whilst standing around eating toffee apples, treacle toffee, parkin (a treacle-based sponge cake often eaten with butter/spread). But Halloween…. Halloween was always a combination of media-driven celebration of horror (readings of the Robbie Burns poems Halloween and Tam O’Shanter,  TV channels cramming their schedules with Halloween-themed programs, a chance to dust off a couple of old Hammer/Universal/Amicus films, and radio stations vying with one another how many times they could play The Monster Mash in a single day) and hang-over from the pagan festival of Samhain.

As I said above, before E.T. there was no such thing as ‘trick or treat.’ Children only got dressed up as ghosts and ghouls if they were going to a fancy dress party. It wasn’t until E.T. explained the notion of ‘going trick-or-treating’ that I realised the improbably rich kids on US TV sitcoms probably weren’t heading off to preternaturally urbane soirees peopled by similarly privileged kids in their expensive costumes.  No, they were leaving their improbably huge apartments overlooking Central Park in order to beg from their neighbours and doormen. At least E.T. showed working/lower middle-class kids going out and explained the notion of ‘trick or treat’.

We’d watch TV, play games, and maybe go out to a fancy-dress party (although very few people bothered to do more than don a cardboard mask). I remember one such party when my sister and I went with our friends next door to their grandmother’s house. As a child I lived in Skelmersdale before moving to Appley Bridge/Wigan, and our neighbours were similarly from Skelmersdale (or Skem). Skem was a newtown built in Lancashire for the overflow population of Liverpool. The neighbours’ grandma was a tough, hardy woman who fostered children and made a big fuss of events like Halloween. When we arrived, it was exciting; all these strangers, the house decorated with Silly-string cobwebs and cardboard skeletons hanging from the door, rubber bats swinging from the ceiling. We’d brought along the lanterns we’d made by hollowing out small turnips (yes, that’s what Halloween lanterns are traditionally made from here), carving a devilish grin in them, and placing a thick candle stub inside. We put them on the mantelpiece alongside the others people had brought. There were decorated cakes, Dracula ice lollies (black with a red raspberry centre), bowls of Monster Munch (over-sized corn-snacks in the shape of clawed feet), gummi snakes, and gingerbread in the shape of vampire bats. The place was full with us, the grandma’s current foster children, and teenagers that she had fostered in their earlier childhood. Other than masks and horror-themed T-shirts, I can only remember one person in fancy dress. They were wrapped in rolls of toilet paper as some sort of Kleenex-sponsered ‘Mummy’. There was music – The Monster Mash (of course), The Addams Family theme tune, The Big Purple People Eater, etc. And then the games!

The games were traditional Oct 31^st fare. Ducky Apple in which apples were placed in a bowl of water, and the person whose turn it was would, blindfolded and with  hands tied behind them, bend over the bowl and try to take one of the apples using only their mouth. Obviously this would involve dunking one’s head in the water, so someone would have a towel to hand. Similarly, there was Bobby Apple (it WAS Skem after all, most people had a scouse accent, so most nouns had a ‘-y’ added to the end of them) where the player (similarly hindered as in Ducky Apple) had to eat an apple dangling from the ceiling on a length of string down to its core, without using their hands. Obviously this was all before ’50 Shades of Grey’ came out, so no-one saw anything kinky about blindfolding and binding children. Both games also seemed to harken back to the witch-hunts of the Middle Ages; dunking the suspected witch in water to see if she drowned (if so she was innocent, and dead) and hanging being punishments for those found guilty of witchcraft. I’m not sure that there was a ‘tying an apple to a wooden stick and burning it’ game, but who knows?  It may well be the origin of ‘toffee apples’ and their crispy hard candy shells.

Things didn’t immediately change with the release of E.T., but by a couple of Halloweens later  there were teenagers out in twos and threes going around (not in fancy dress, just hoodies and shell suits) knocking on doors ‘trick or treating’, and year by year it gradually became more enmeshed in British culture (as legislation around safety and fireworks tightened, restricting the celebrations of Bonfire Night). And now, we’re all expected to stock up on sweets and chocolates to have in a container by the door as mums and dads walking their children around the neighbourhood begging."

 30 days 'til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. 30 days 'til Halloween, Silver Shamrock!

Horror Business Episode 7: James Bickert

We're back with a special 90 minute episode of Horror Business featuring my interview with director/drive-in historian James Bickert. We're talking Dear God No!, Drive-Invasion, bondage, porn, beer, BBQ, video stores, piracy, the Oath of Green Blood, and a whole lot more. Don't miss it...

EPISODE 7 LINK

Horror Business Episode 6: Ask The Son Of Celluloid

Episode 6 of Horror Business is now in the archives.  What do you do when a guest bails on you?  You make the mistake of asking the Cellmates for questions, that's what!  I talk about my horror history, which horror starlets I want to do dirty things to, vampire fights, my former life of crime, ectoplasm as lube, my theories on the genre, and much more.  Download or stream it here...

EPISODE 6 LINK

The Horror Business Archive

I know it's been a while since the blog has been active, Cellmates, but I assure you that I am still alive and well.  Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  I've just been insanely busy with a multitude of other projects.  One of those projects has been my new podcast, Horror Business.
Horror business is a show all about the untold stories of the unsung heroes of the horror community.  The folks that may not get all of the press, but deserve a turn in the spotlight.  The ones who exhibit the kind of passion that makes me proud to call them my horror brethren.  It airs live every other Monday at 10pm on the FDTC Network.  There will be a link at the bottom of this article.  Horror Business alternates weeks with my other show, Missing Link Mixtape.  On MLMT I play two hours of killer tunes from all genres.  They all have a theme that ties them together, and if you guess that link, you could win fabulous prizes.
Until now, if you didn't catch the shows live, you were screwed.  Fortunately, that is no longer the case.  I can't archive Missing Link Mixtape for legal reasons, but Horror Business is now available to stream or download whenever you want.  Listen to them at work.  Listen to them in your car.  Listen to them while you mow the lawn.  Get some sneaky earbuds and listen to them when you're pretending that you're paying attention to your girlfriend.  Whenever you need a horror fix, enjoy the dulcet tones of the Son of Celluloid and his various guests.  I'll be posting the links to future episodes as they happen, but here are the ones that are currently available...

Episodes 1 and 2 - Brad Slaton of the Picking Brains Podcast

Brad is a podcaster and interviewer extraordinaire, one twisted bastard, and the guy responsible for getting me into podcasting.  We discuss our show, interviewing everyone from Penn Jillette to Glen Danzig, controversy, and the podcasting game in general.  Play the Horror Business drinking game and attempt to do a shot every time Brad says "fuck."  Spoiler: You would die within the first 15 minutes.  As an added bonus, episode 2 contains my epic "torture porn" rant. 

Link: Episode 1

Link: Episode 2

Episode 3 - Ryan Cadaver of The Casket Creatures
Ryan is the front-beast of Atlanta's ghoulrock juggernauts The Casket Creatures.  We discuss running a haunted house, the state of horror punk today, the writing process, crazy shows, and the Count Chocula/Chuck E Cheese conspiracy.

Link: Episode 3

Episode 4 - Stephen Biro of Unearthed Films
Stephen Biro is an author, filmmaker, and owner of Unearthed Films.  Join us as we chat extreme horror, the Yakuza, God and Satan, and the American Guinea Pig Series as well as some EXCLUSIVE announcements regarding upcoming Unearthed releases. 

Link: Episode 4

Episode 5 - James Balsamo of Acid Bath Productions
Filmmaker James Balsamo is no stranger to long time Cellmates.  In this interview we talk 
boobs, blood, slashers, science, boobs, horror legends, physical media, 23 hour shoots, Dave Brockie stories, and boobs.

Link: Episode 5

Every Monday Night at 10 you can...
TUNE IN ON THE WEB AT: http://fromdusktillcon.com/radio
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