Halloween Favourites from The DHR Team - Part 2
Happy Halloween from everyone at DHR!
We asked our team to share some of their favourite things about Halloween and the spooky season, so if you’re looking for what to dig into this year, check out their answers below, including a link to our Halloween Party Playlist.
Part II
Halloween Party Playlist Song
Check out our Spooky Halloween Playlist here to listen to our contributor’s choices.
Dee
Spooky Scary Skeletons: written by Andrew Park
Spooky: performed by the Classics IV
Classical pieces:
Night on Bald Mountain: composed by Modest Mussgorsky
Danse Macabre: composed by Camille Saint-Saëns
Gnomus: composed by Modest Mussgorsky
The Aquarium: composed by Camille Saint-Saëns
Dai
Anything by Oingo Boingo or Creature Feature is a good shout, and there’s so many iconic horror film and TV soundtracks I could mention. If I had to pick a single track, I think I would go for Big Black Witchcraft Rock by The Cramps.
Madison
“Pet Sematary” by The Ramones
Kayla
Lose Your Soul by Dead Man's Bones, Holes In Your Coffin by Phildel, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (and for my goofy Halloween playlist to make people groan: Anything Can Happen on Halloween by Tim Curry from The Worst Witch, and Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim)
Cat
Werewolf Barmitzvah (sorry, lol, but this is just true.)
Elle
I’m sticking with the classics – This Is Halloween, Monster Mash, Thriller. But I’d also throw in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Monster Mash homage, The Cringe.
Favourite Spooky Podcast
Dee
Esbat: A Bookish Podcast
Dai
I don’t often find the time to listen to podcasts at the moment, but an old spooky favourite is Fireside Mystery Theatre, which produces standalone short audio dramas recorded in front of a live audience. They don’t update often, but they’re worth checking out.
Madison
The Lurking Transmission feels like an audio version of a pulp horror magazine: each episode features original fiction (ranging from pulpy otherworldly action to occult dread, with a strong Weird bent), musical interludes (often hip hop and black metal), and occasionally a Robert E. Howard poem.
Kayla
Old Gods of Appalachia, Spooked, and Pod Mortem
Cat
Killer Mediums! If we're talking fiction podcasts, probably the NoSleep podcast.
Elle
Calling Darkness. My favourite podcast and absolutely brilliant at blending horror and comedy.
Favourite Halloween Memory
Dee
Marching in Halloween parades or going to haunted house/ hay rides!
Jason
Making a mummy costume out of ripped up clothes as a kid and thinking it was legitimately accurate. I just looked like a homeless child.
Dai
When I was in primary school I was a member of a local drama club, and during the autumn half-term they organised a five day Halloween drama workshop. I had a great time through the whole thing but I remember particularly on the last day they brought in professional makeup artists and made us up in gory realistic prosthetic wounds. I was given a massive bloody gash on my cheek, which I refused to remove for two days because I was enjoying the reactions it got too much.
Madison
Taking Rocky Horror virgins to their first screening, complete with props and callbacks. My local indie theatre brings in a fabulous shadow cast and they subject the newbies to a little hazing.
Kayla
I grew up in the boonies of rural Oklahoma, so I couldn't really go trick-or-treating. Most of my little cousins (on my mother's side) couldn't, either, so my grandparents started throwing Halloween parties every year so the kids could have something. fun to do. We had party games and costume contests and the decor was really cool, including Bernie. Bernie was a button-down shirt and overalls stuffed with newspaper and a gorilla mask on top. The first year they had him down on the patio bench and we all took pictures with him, and he became a staple after that. One year, however, Bernie died. That year, we were to go pay our respects to Bernie, who my mom and grandparents had set up in my grandpa's quilt room, like a viewing? They even made a big elaborate casket and had all these fake candles around. We went in one at a time so we could all say our final goodbyes--except my dad, who was really quiet back then and worked a lot, so no one really noticed when he subtly snuck out of the party and into the Bernie costume in the casket, ready to jump up and scare the ever-loving shit out of us one by one. It was masterful.
Cat
All my favorite Halloween memories are of sneaking out of bed after Trick or Treating and watching the scary movie marathons on the Sci-fi channel, binging on little chocolate bars all night.
Elle
As a kid, dressing up with any costume you could make out of a binbag. We’d get small bits – horns, hats, fangs, then work the costume around it. When I was really little, I’d be a witch and my brothers were vampires, then one year I insisted I wanted to be a vampire too, and there’s a photo of me somewhere as a devil, complete with a red plastic pitchfork and horns, and a drawn-on moustache. With a black binbag as a cape. It was very rare the bags made it home intact.
Favourite Halloween Treat
Dee
Pumpkin roll or nut roll
Apple Cider based cocktails
Jason
I hate to be basic, but Reese's are still #1
Dai
It’s got to be toffee apples. I love the novelty sweets as much as the next person, but toffee apples are the old classic, can’t be beaten.
Madison
I’m a sucker for the chocolate bars with Halloween designs. KitKats with black cats on the packaging, “Coffin Crisp,” “Scaries” (spooky Smarties - that name isn’t as clever,” though)
Cat
Halloween Oreos. They say it's a fun color with the same great taste, but the Halloween absolutely taste spookier. This is the hill I will die on.
Elle
We don’t really have Halloween ‘candy’ here like the US does, but there’s more and more companies doing Halloween sweets and treats now. But when I was a kid my aunt would throw little Halloween parties for us and my cousins, and she’d made all sorts of ‘spooky’ food for us with a creative use of dye.
