Trying this again, Day 1 of 365

Hello to all my Halloween-loving friends out there on the interwebs. Once again, I am planning to launch this website to discuss all things Halloweenish throughout the year. This time, to keep from getting bogged down, I am going to randomly generate my topic for any given day. Today is vaguely different because I would like to restate my mission statement.

Halloween is, of course, my favorite of all holidays. The reasons are myriad but let me see if I can sum them up succinctly. First, there is the emphasis on horror, one of my favorite genres. As the weather turns cooler (thank god) and the fruits of the Earth recede for the winter, our thoughts can't help but turn to the cycle of aging and death that we all must endure. Horror lets us experience the thrill of an untimely death without any harm. I recently watched an Australian horror movie called The Dead Room (decent enough, solid C rating). In it, a professor trying to convince a colleague to stay in a haunted house gives a pretty good explanation for the horror genre. I am paraphrasing here but he describes ghosts as "harmless beings, they can't hurt you, they can only scare you." Horror, of course, gives you all the thrills with none of the damage.

Of course, the other usual suspects apply: candy is delicious, you can be whoever you want to be for one night, magic feels real, etc. For the sake of my sanity, this blog will mostly be little reviews of movies, the occasional examination of what makes horror scary and an exploration of general phobias. Embrace life by staring death in the face and flipping it off! This is the Halloween 365 way.