Halloween

I celebrate Halloween for two months. Since 2010, I've also blogged the Halloween Season, chronicling the spooky sites I visit, the traditions I maintain, the movies I watch, and my attempts at exploring new ways to celebrate this whole ball of Halloween and Fall. One day, these will all be combined into a PhD thesis.

Halloween Season 2023: Can Halloween Save J.W. Ocker?

Wandering a Gray and Yellow Halloween Season	Salem on a Soggy Sunday	Fall Road, Falling Rain, Fallen Mood	A Profile from the Pit
Frankenfish and an Amaretto Sour	The Pumpkin Shards of the Bad Halloween	October Firsting the Hell out of October First	Silver Screaming into the Black Void
Saved by the Giant Plastic Bones of a Monster Skeleton	These Are the Days of Our Deaths	Maybe My Cursed Objects Book Was a Bad Idea	Spooky Movie, Spooky Popcorn, Spooky Fanta, Spooky Us
Chasing After Jason	Haunted Overload: More Than a Haunt	Hallowasted and Halloworn-out	The Creepy Contentization of Halloween
Spaulding Memorial School Bat	The October Ocker	Two Photos, Two Decades, One Salem	There are FOUR Jack-o-Lanterns!
Ichabod Crane'd Have No Chance in Today's Sleepy Hollow	The One Candy You'll Never Get in Your Trick-or-Treat Sack	Annabelle Doll	Westford Poe Bench
Happy (???) Halloween 2023

Halloween Season Blog 2021

2021 OTIS Halloween Season Intro	My Headless Horseman Head	How We Spent Our COVID-ween	Hitler Cemetery
On the First Day of Halloween	Part of This Complete Spooky Season	The Augusting of Halloween	Hightower Mansion Ruins
The Ghosts of My Wife	Home for the Howl-idays	Halloween at the Strip Mall	Three Sleepy Hollow Things
First Road Trip of the Season, Part 1	First Road Trip of the Season, Part 2	Brooksbrae Brick Factory Ruins	Chasing the Harvest Moon
Church Cemetery	Cover Reveal: The Black Slide	Gin and Boris and Abbott and Costello	The Black and Orange House
International Haunted House of Pancakes	The Devil and Anthony Bordain	October is Here!	Home, Home on the Midway

Halloween Season Blog 2020

2020 OTIS Halloween Season Intro	10 Years of OTIS Halloween Seasons	Grave of Julian Beck	Halloween Die-ary: September 1
Seekonk Monster Mini-Golf	Halloween Die-ary: September 3	Halloween Die-ary: September 5	Halloween Die-ary: September 7
Halloween Die-ary: September 8	New Hampshire Magazine Interview	Point of Graves	5 Movies Inspired by Real Cursed Objects (Quirk Blog)
Halloween Die-ary: September 13	Blue Vampire Santa Claus	10 Things About "Cursed Objects"	Halloween Die-ary: September 16, Pt. 1
Holy Land USA	Halloween Die-ary: September 16, Pt. 2	Halloween Die-ary: September 19	Retro Autumn Road Trip
Bonus "Cursed Objects" Material: Cursed Words	Graves & Gravestones of Cape Cod, Pt. 1	Bonus "Cursed Objects" Material: The Red Room	Halloween Die-ary: September 25
Halloween Die-ary: September 26	Graves & Gravestones of Cape Cod, Pt. 2	A Season with the Witch: A Reading	Bonus "Cursed Objects" Material: "Atuk" Screenplay
Halloween Die-ary: October 1	Halloween Die-ary: October 2	Headless Horseman Bridge	Halloween Die-ary: October 3
Bonus CURSED OBJECTS: Born Under a Bad Scion	Halloween Die-ary: October 7	Doc Mock's MonsterTime!	Smashed Man Cover Unveil
Nashua in Hubie Halloween	Halloween Die-ary: October 11	Halloween Die-ary: October 14	Halloween Die-ary: October 15
Sacred Cat Rug	Hillside Cemetery	J.W. Ocker & Sam Weller	Salem Witch Trials Exhibition
Haulin' Ass to Western Mass	Halloween Die-ary: October 25	Old Durham Cemetery	Bride of Boogedy This Way Comes
Shade Swamp Sanctuary	Dutra's Market UFO Abduction	Halloween Die-ary: October 29	Halloween Die-ary: October 30

Halloween Season Blog 2019

2019 OTIS Halloween Season Intro	Muddy Brook Cemetery	Halloween Die-ary: September 1	Halloween Die-ary: September 2
Halloween Die-ary: September 5	Halloween Die-ary: September 6	Halloween Die-ary: September 7	Halloween Die-ary: September 8
Halloween Die-ary: September 9	Halloween Die-ary: September 10	Halloween Die-ary: September 11	Lollipop Cemetery
Halloween Die-ary: September 14	Halloween Die-ary: September 15	Halloween Die-ary: September 16	Halloween Die-ary: September 17
Halloween Die-ary: September 20	Halloween Die-ary: September 21	Witch Path	Halloween Die-ary: September 23
Halloween Die-ary: September 24	Bleeding Gravestone of Rocky Hill	Halloween Die-ary: September 26	Halloween Die-ary: September 28
Halloween Die-ary: October 1	Halloween Die-ary: October 2	Halloween Die-ary: October 4	King's Chapel Crypt
Halloween Die-ary: October 5	Halloween Die-ary: October 6	Sleepy Hollow Cemetery	Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze
Sleepy Hollow Experience in Sleepy Hollow	Halloween Die-ary: October 11	Halloween Die-ary: October 12	Halloween Die-ary: October 14
Tom Devlin's Monster Museum	Herman Munster's Grave	Halloween Die-ary: October 17	Halloween Die-ary: October 18
Halloween Die-ary: October 19	Halloween Die-ary: October 20	Chester Village Cemetery	Halloween Die-ary: October 22
Large Marge's Grave	Halloween Die-ary: October 24-26	Ponemah Bog Pitcher Plants	Halloween Die-ary: October 27
Halloween Die-ary: October 29	Halloween Die-ary: October 30	Halloween Die-ary: October 31

Halloween Season Blog 2018

2018 OTIS Halloween Season Intro	Sleepy Hollow, Illinois	Santa's Village	September 2
September 3	September 4	September 5	September 6
September 7	September 8	September 9	Sleepy Hollow, Wyoming
September 10	September 11	Head of the Dusseldorf Vampire	September 12
September 13	September 14	September 15	September 16
September 17	Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum (Wisconsin Dells)	September 18	September 19
September 20	September 21	September 22	Wolf Death Site Marker
September 23	September 24	Old Dunstable Cemetery	September 25
September 26	September 27	Ten Things About "Death and Douglas"	September 28
September 29	September 30	October 1	October 2
October 3	October 4	October 5	October 6
October 7	October 8	October 9	October 10
Shirley Jackson Sites	The Mystery of Devil Boy	October 12	October 13
October 14	Hall Pass to a Haunted Hallway	October 15	Lake View Cemetery
October 16	October 17	Buckland Museum of Witchcraft	October 18
October 19	October 20	October 21	October 22
October 23	MoPOP Scared to Death Exhibit	October 24	October 25
Forefathers Burying Ground	October 26	October 27	October 28
October 29	October 30	October 31

Halloween Season Blog 2017

2017 Halloween Season Launch	IT Filming Locales	Pumpkin Wine, Poltergeists, and Poltergeist	Old Burying Ground of Halifax
Spooky Spokes-King	Molly Maguire Monument	Shores of Horror	AtmosFX Digital Decorating System
Houdini Bridge	Grave of Martha Keyes	Wax Museums of Salem	Monster Mini-Golf
25 Links to Halloween 2017	Blocher Mausoleum	Halloween Fang Shui	Centaur Excavations at Volos
Gin and Boris II	Psycho, She Wrote	October in a Weekend	Kirk Hammett's "It's Alive"
Strange Stuff From My Study 6	The Last Trick-or-Treat in the Old 'Hood	Irving Place and the Headless Horseman	Nightmare New England
Friday the 13th Tower	25 More Links to Halloween 2017	My Most Important Halloween Photo	Guesting on Beyond the Darkness
October in a Weekend II	Spooky on the Outside	Collecting Ray	Kinderhook Washington Irving Sites
Haunted Overload	Garfield's Halloween Adventure: The Book	"Let's Scare Jessica to Death" Sites	Fright Kingdom's Hardly Haunted
Happy Halloween 2017	2017 OTIS Halloween Die-ary

Halloween Season Blog 2016

2016 Halloween Season Launch	The Exorcist Steps Plaque	Trick-or-Treating the Web: 25 Links to Halloween 2016	Eternal Silence, Graceland Cemetery
Chillermania	Bookmarks of the Beast	Grave of Corey Haim	Ray Bradbury's Ravine
Ray Bradbury's Waukegan	Thoughts on the Ray Bradbury Statue	Ray, Halloween, the Witch, and Salem	Strange Stuff from My Study 5
Depressed by Halloween Decor	Hell, Michigan	My New Book: A Season with the Witch	Skeleton Key Interview
Anoka Halloween Festival Beer Cans	Souvenirs of Salem	In the Mouth of Madness Black Church	In the Mouth of Madness Asylum
A Season with the Witch: The Abridged Version	PsychoBarn	Sodden in Salem	Beetle House
Live From Salem, October 2015, Part I	Live From Salem, October 2015, Part II	Halloween Chained to a Desk	Witch of Newbury
Salem Pioneer Village 1630	Trick-or-Treating the Web II	Nine Years of Visiting Witch City	Gin and Boris
Sleepy Hollow Experience at OSV	Salem Leftovers Fit for a Feast	Which Way for Witch City? (via The Guardian)	Candyman
Ed Gein Sites	Gouging Gourds Again	Not-So-Happy Halloween 2016

Halloween Season Blog 2015

2015 Halloween Season Launch	Livermore Ghost Town	Devil is the Centerfold	Halloween-iversary, Part I
Props to Horror	Halloween-iversary, Part II	Tomb of William Stoughton	Hey, Hey, We're the Monsters
Halloween Dog Food	Jerry Was a Hearse Car Driver	Strange Stuff From My Study 4	Devil's Hoofprints
Frankenweenie on a Sheet	Falling at 65 MPH	Trick-or-Treating the Web: 25 Links to Halloween 2015	Book Announcement: Salem, MA
Burger King's Halloween Whopper	Transylvania Transformer	Officially a New Hamspshirite Now	Fort Monroe Pet Cemetery
Salem Haunted Happenings Parade	Jack Skellington Grave	Which Witch?	An Interview with Paul Clemens
The Horseman Restaurant	Trick-or-Treating the Web 2: 25 More Links to Halloween 2015	Salem Time Machine	Horror Movie Graveyards
Salem at Night	Pee-Wee's Halloween Adventure	Halloween III: Season of Our Discontent	Salem at Random
Requiem for The Good Son Well	Plaque of Zombies, City of Witches	How I Became a Horror Movie Fan	Which Way to Witch City
Salem at Random II	Salem's October Crowds	Happy Halloween...Three Days Late

Halloween Season Blog 2014

The 2014 Halloween Season	The Witch Grave of Yazoo City	My Study, My Sanctum	First Road Trip of the Season
The Debut of Poe-Land	St. Louis Exorcist Sites	Trick-or-Treating the Web: 30 Links to Halloween 2014	Grave of Alferd Packer
Halloween at the Christmas Tree Shops	Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis	The Ultimate Poe Trip (for Roadtrippers.com)	In Memorium: Venus Flytrap
Tracking Poe's Raven (for AtlasObscura.com)	Rock Creek Cemetery in DC	Open Haunted House	Panic in a Casket
Up Yours Vermont	Nostalgia for Nightmares	Grave of John Bellairs	Living Dead Room
Picturing Poe	Strange Stuff From My Study 1	Trick-or-Treating the Web II: 31 More Links to Halloween 2014	Our Salem Saturday
Poe Revere'd in Boston	Listen. Children. Night. Music. Make	Ray Bradbury's Grave	Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery
St. Louis Vincent Price Sites	The Christmas Creep: A Halloween Story	OTIS in Berlin	Poe-Land in Poe-Land
The Saw is Matrimony	Woodchuck Cidery	Skull in the Family Reunion	Halloween in the Germ
A Family of Jack-Os	Graves of the Brothers Grimm	Strange Stuff From My Study 2	Happy Halloween 2014

Halloween Season Blog 2013

The 2013 Halloween Season Might Kill Me	The Ghost of Ray Bradbury	The Ghost Town of Dana	Skull, Crackle, Pop
Bonaventure Cemetery	Sleepy Hollow'd Out or Sleepy Hollow-lujah	Halloween P. Lovecraft	A Burger King Halloween
Milford Cemetery	Trick-or-Treat Trepidation	Happy 20th, X-Files	Charles Dickens Mirror
Trick-or-Treating the Web: 30 Links to Halloween 2013	PEZ Visitor Center	Our Halloweenest Halloween Nest	Metropolitan State Hospital and Metfern Cemetery
Twelve Hours in Vermont	Hocus Pocus Filming Sites	Classic Monster Graves	Kool-Aid Vampires and Cheetos Mummies
Johnny Eck Sites and Artifacts	Skull in the Family	Re-Animated for the First Time	50 Spooky Sites in New England: My Piece in the Boston Globe
Happy Death Day, Mr. Poe	Medfield State Hospital and Cemetery	Jeffrey Combs...Poe's Moustache	Bowman Mausoleum
Looking for the Lords of Salem	Knight's Spider Web Farm	Diary of an Autumn Day	The Length of Mass
Trick-or-Treating the Web II: 30 More Links to Halloween 2013	Not Too Far to Fall	Authors Ridge	Roger Williams Park Zoo Jack O' Lantern Spectacular
Abominations of Sugar	2013 Keene Pumpkin Festival	Salem 2013	Creamed by the Corn
A Caramel-Colored Halloween	Taking a Poe Day	The Edgar Allan Poe House	Look at the Stems on Those Gals
Untermyer Park and Gardens	Random Halloween Photos Without a Good Title	Happy Halloween 2013

Halloween Season Blog 2012

BONUS PRE-SEASON POST: Is It Halloween?	Stretching Out on a Deathbed: The 2012 OTIS Halloween Season	Arthur Kill Ship Graveyard	Shopping's a Hellish Experience
Edgar Allan Poe's New York	Harbingers of Halloween	Ferncliff Cemetery	Hiking a Monster: New Hampshire's Frankenstein Cliff
Jekyll and Hyde Club and Pub	That Time Vincent Price and Joe Piscopo Were Colleagues	Brooklyn Mummies	Stopping by a Haunted House: The Walloomsac Inn
Monuments to the Fox Sisters	Trick-or-Treating the Web: 25 Links to Halloween 2012	Woodlawn Cemetery	Salem vs. Sleepy Hollow, Part I
Ripley's Shrunken Head Collection	Salem vs. Sleepy Hollow, Part II	Tahawus Ghost Town	Onward, October
I Have Such Sights to Show You: The New York Grimpendium	Happy Hassleween: The Knight Rider Halloween Episode(s)	Interview with a Vampublisher	Wilder Brain Collection
Veering into Vermont	Skull and Noose of a Murderer	Ouija Board Gravestone	Rolling Hills Asylum
All's Fair	Disappointed by Cancer: My Cancer Story at The Atlantic	Haunted Barn Movie Museum	Hey, People...Hay People
Rod Serling Sites	Never Raised Hell	Lloyd Kaufman and Tromaville	Trick-or-Treating the Web II: 30 More Links to Halloween 2012
Ghostbusters Filming Sites	White Lions and Witches: Lowell Cemetery	Pumpkins of the Gods	From Diapers to Dracula
Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt	Day of the Dead Altar	Blazing Pumpkins	Sleepy Hollow: More Macabre Than I Knew
Not a Review of Garfield's Halloween Adventure	The Most Autumn Places on the Planet	Bag of the Red Death	The Jack-O-Lantern Is My Favorite Metaphor
Salem Before the Storm	Halloween Triops	Eating E.T.	Happy Halloween 2012

Halloween Season Blog 2011

Blogging Halloween 2011	Time to Deathorate	Famous Graves	8 Things From In the Mouth of Madness Worth Making a List Over
An Autumn Road Trip in Summer	Shelving Halloween	Vincent Price Has Risen from the Dead	Trick-or-Treating the Web: 25 Links to Halloween 2011
Edgar Allan Poe's Boston	The Ramones Wanna Be Buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery	Burke & Hare & Jack-o-Lantern Cocktails	Medium? Well...Part 1
Medium? Well...Part 2	Pretty Fly for a Fright Night	Tim Burton Exhibit	First a Scent, then a Season
Poe-phenalia	Does the USDA Know You Have an Octopus in Your Corn?	Fear of a Black Cat	Grave of the Vampire's Clasp
Thank You, Thing	Trick-or-Treating the Web II: 25 More Links to Halloween	Hey, Hey, Hey...It's Halloween	Rue York
8 Things I Learned from The Nightmare Before Christmas Commentary Track	Molly Dyer Stone	Grave of Ichabod Crane	Spirit Saved by Spirit
New Hamster Wheelin'	Old Granary Burying Ground Skeleton Art	Crummy Cardboard Casket	Same Salem, Different Halloween
Ouija Bored	Grave of a Werewolf	Remembering the Halloween Fallen	The Short, Sad Life of Rotbert the Pumpkin
Return to Sleepy Hollow	Headless Horseman Chase Route	Knife, Candle, Jack-o-Lantern!	Archer-Gilligan Murder House
Oct-snow-ber	Walking in a Wicked Wonderland	Buffy the Halloween Celebrator	Scared Out of Our Wallets
Happy Halloween 2011

Halloween Season Blog 2010

Blogging Halloween 2010	Halloween D-Day	That New Halloween Smell	Something Wicked This Way Comes...Every Year
Cellar Cinema	Dazed and Corn-Mazed	Last Year's Halloween Treats Are Not Stale	Been on Fire with Sally Field
The Price of Invisibility	Exeter UFO Festival	Fall is for Wandering	Trick-or-Treating the Internet: 25 Links to Halloween
Halloween Has Gone Commercial...and It's Awesome, Part I	Halloween Has Gone Commercial...and It's Awesome, Part II	Return of the Pumpkin People	Mt. Washington Auto Road
Scarecrow and Mr. Durning	Rocky Horror Witch's Brew	Fair Autumn Fare at an Autumn Fair	The Halloween Tree: More Bradbury Than Bradbury
Mt. Auburn Cemetery	A Special Type of Pumpkinship	The Official Dog of Halloween	The Addams Family vs. the Forces of Blandness
The Halloween Landscape (Landscare?)	Barn Attic Amphitheater	Bela Lugosi's Grave	Trick-or-Treating the Internet II: 25 More Links to Halloween
How to Turn Willy Wonka into a Halloween Movie	Stephen King Movie Filming Sites	Salem + October = Crazy	My Rotting Jack-o-Lantern Smile
What Would the Headless Horseman Wear?	This Is Halloween	Happy Halloween 2010