“Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn’t you like to see something strange?
Come with us and you will see
This, our town of Halloween”
I remember very vividly the first time I watched Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was sitting on my parents’ bed with my legs tucked under a cozy blanket, staring at a dark screen, not knowing what I was supposed to expect. My father hit play on the bedroom TV and stood close by as the movie started. It was October; I don’t remember the year. The famous “This Is Halloween” song started playing and my eyes just couldn’t look away, even if I wanted them to. I’d never seen stop-motion animation before, so watching it for the first time blew my mind in a way I can only describe as magical. The spooky Jack-o’-Lantern approached me from the darkness, its arms stretched out with the sign “HALLOWEEN TOWN” carved over its head. The spookiness of it all, through the blending of cartoon horror and surrealism, made me shiver. It was amazing.
I was born on October 22, so Halloween culture has been a part of my life since the beginning. My family were never big fans of this spooky holiday, but would let me dress up and ask for candy at the mall when they were in the mood. Birthday parties used to be my favorite! My parents used to invite family and friends over to sing “Happy Birthday” and, although it wasn’t a big, expensive celebration, they would decorate according to the interests I had at the time. Regardless, the thing I was most excited about each year was the costume.
Yes, the costume.
It was Halloween season, so Party City had all the costumes you could ask for, from creepy to cute, disgusting to silly. To make my birthday even more special, we’d buy the costume of the main character from the party’s theme so I could dress up for pictures. During my 4th birthday, I was obsessed with Brave and dressed up as Merida, including the big, bold, orange curls. I thought I looked so stupid and started crying, wanting anything but to step outside where my family was waiting for me. Now, when I look back at the pictures of my puffy eyes, I laugh; since I’m older, I’ve realized that it was one of the most special moments of my life. The tradition followed me throughout my childhood and was later diluted when I entered my awkward teenage years.
Something I looked forward to each year was Disney Channel’s “Monstober” specials. This was a Halloween-themed marathon in which Disney would air either a movie or a special episode of one of its television series with spooky, supernatural, or creepy themes. After school, I would run, throw myself on the sofa, turn on the TV, and stay glued to it for almost three hours. I remember watching movies like Girl vs. Monster (2012), Halloweentown (1998), Invisible Sister (2015), Twitches (2005), and My Babysitter’s a Vampire (2010), but what I loved most were the special episodes of my favorite shows.
Disney’s Monstober “Spooktacular” special in 2015 was the peak of my obsession (and the best year of Monstober). That year, Disney made crossovers between characters from different shows, like Liv and Maddie, Austin & Ally, Girl Meets World, K.C. Undercover, Best Friends Whenever, I Didn’t Do It, and my beloved Jessie. I used to watch all of these, and seeing my favorite characters interact with each other blew my seven-year-old brain into tiny pieces.
Apart from the Monstober special, these shows had separate Halloween special episodes. The episode that freaked me out the most was “Ghost Bummers,” the first episode of the third season of Jessie. In it, Emma and Luke, two of the protagonists, are possessed by evil spirits at their Halloween party and are in charge of opening a portal for Mrs. Chesterfield, who turns out to be Zorag, an ancestral demon. Their creepy red eyes, dusty skin, and distorted voices haunted me for days; but instead of being scared in the way kids usually are, I was fascinated. Later on, I found out it was supposed to be a parody of Ghostbusters (1984).
As I grew up, my interests evolved; however, I always had a thing for the spooky. When I turned 13, Junji Ito knocked on my door with Uzumaki, and I found myself immersed in the world of horror literature. My father introduced me to Stephen King’s novels, and I read Carrie for the first time. With my parents, I watched The Apparition (2012), starring Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen from Twilight) and Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes from Marvel), and I was terrified. After watching that movie, I was unsure whether I was ready to watch anything scary again and if I really liked that kind of thing. I watched Stranger Things on Netflix, along with a few conspiracy theory videos and true crime documentaries, but it wasn’t until I turned 15-years-old that I gathered the courage to watch R-rated horror movies on my own.
Now I’m a horror movie fan, and anything that makes adrenaline pump through my veins is a must for me to enjoy the film. Slashers, ghost stories, and even web series exploring analog and liminal horror, make me feel alive. Recently, I’ve watched The Evil Dead franchise, followed by Final Destination and Scream. Films with classic slashers like Jason and Michael Myers were also in the mix.
I’ve come to the realization that my love and appreciation for this genre was not chosen. The excitement I felt as a child for each birthday celebration was always mixed in with Halloween decorations and horror media. Being an October baby, I was surrounded by the fall air (even in a tropical island, there’s a certain chill to it), and it came naturally to share the excitement between the two celebrations. Halloween grew up with me and serves as a little reminder that the things that frighten us can also transform into things we love.