Recommended in this episode

Poems

* Zombies

* The Corpse Less Taken

* Extraterrestrials

* Mermaid

poems by Jamie Gower

Movies/TV

Lockwood and Co. (2023) Spooky, some menace and jump scares; stream on Netflix.

One Lane Bridge (2020) Spooky, some jump scares, grown-up discussions of grown-up problems; stream on Acorn, AMC+.

Wednesday (2022) Spooky, some jump scares and violence, including a pretty upsetting attack on Thing. Mostly surprsingly sweet, though. Stream on Netflix.

Books

Dracula Daily Like it says on the newsletter, “Get the classic novel Dracula, emailed to you in real time as it happens.” Also bound in a beautiful annotated print edition.

Peeps (Scott Westerfeld) Vampirism as a sexually-transmitted parasitic infection. Spooky, sometimes scary—especially in the alternate chapters, which chronicle the queasy life-cycles of real-life parasites. The book is on back-order, but is available on Libby.

In a Class By Itself

The Bat Woman (1968) Oh, migosh, this is amazing. About as scary as the Adam West Batman, although there is a fish-man who might be scary if you’re under 11 years old. Stream on Tubi, rent on Amazon Prime Video. Also, the New York Times did a wonderful article about the movie and its star, Maura Monti.

What next?

We had a great time doing The Four Weeks of Halloween, and are wondering: should we do more? Not Halloween-specific, obviously (at least not until 2024!). But maybe we pop up for specific holidays, or on a regular monthly or quarterly cadence? What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

And as always, we’d be ever so grateful if you could recommend us to a friend. We’ve even arranged wee gifties for you if someone uses your signup link. So we hope you might be able to help.

Either way, and always, you’re the bee’s knees in our book. We hope you have a fun, safe, and delightfully spooky Halloween.

Recommended in this episode:

Poem

Dear Dr. Frankenstein by Jericho Brown. From his book The New Testament, published by Copper Canyon Press

Movies/TV

Young Frankenstein (1974) Spooky? Possibly? Maybe?; stream on Max, buy the DVD to hear Mel Brooks’ commentary (prepare to have your heart broken when he reacts to seeing his departed friend Madeline Kahn on screen again)

Werewolf by Night (1999) Legit scary, especially in the first half, but ultimately surprisingly sweet; stream on Disney

The Wild, Wild, West (1965-1969) Occasionally spooky, although the spooky element almost always turns out to be a ruse by the villain (like the steam-powered Kraken tentacle that was destroying shipping in the San Francisco Bay—seriously, that was an episode)

also mentioned:

Eureka (2006-2012) Not even spooky, sometimes tense, mostly amiable romps

Books

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (at times scary, due to examples of the real consequences of super-hero level violence; also on Libby)

Music

What’s He Building in There? by Tom Waits (spooky, in a fun way; listen on most music streaming services)

And we recommend searching for Halloween on any music streaming service—there’s a lot of stuff!

also mentioned:

Skullcrusher Mountain by Jonathon Coulton (spooky, also in a fun way; we’d recommend anything by Mr. Coulton)

Podcasts

Limetown (spooky, some scary descriptions of violence; available via most podcast players—also a TV series on Peacock, and a prequel novel)

also mentioned:

Welcome to Night Vale (spooky, maybe a little scary?; available via most podcast players—and is the nucleus of an entire spooky media mini-empire)

Recommended in this episode

Poem

The Haunted Palace by Edgar Allan Poe

Movies/TV

Into the Woods (2014) Spooky at worst; stream on Disney, rent on most services

Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) Not even really spooky; rent on Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu

Books

The Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare and Beyond blog (be sure to search for “Halloween“)

His Face All Red by Emily Carrol (spooky; also on Libby)

Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore (spooky, with swearing and discussion of “sexy times”; also on Libby)

Podcasts

Strange Studies of Strange Stories (discussion of spooky, the scary, and sometimes horrifying stories and novels from the first half of the twentieth century and earlier)

Old Gods of Appalachia (spooky, sometimes scary, occasionally briefly horrifying)

also mentioned:

Camp Monsters (spooky, sometimes really scary)