Forsaken Stars

It’s been a great month for horror fans of all ages. With films like ParaNorman, Paranormal Activity 4, Hotel Transylvania, Sinister, Silent Hill: Revelation, Frankenweenie, House at the End of the Street and Resident Evil: Retribution, there’s been no lack of films to spook and thrill at the theaters. And on television, Haven, Supernatural, Fringe, Grimm, and even Once Upon a Time are delivering scares and keeping us on the edge of our seats. Over at our Halloween Edition of our Open Mic at the Clovis Book Barn we had some spine-tingling reads from local talents, as well as a few romantic ones. Then, this last weekend, my buddy Ryan set up a party at a friend’s place and it turned out to be pretty awesome. Here are some photos from that party and a few submitted by friends via facebook and email. Enjoy, and I hope you too had a great Halloween.

The adorable beyond words Ali dressed as a Mama or Papa Emperor Penguin (since it’s usually the Papa that carries the baby, she couldn’t decide). Her mother Rita helped create the costume. I went in a costume inspired by Gaff from Blade Runner, but used mostly black and gray coloring and a black and gray checkered bow tie, so she and I matched up pretty good!

Sam, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen–ooh, that sounds bad, doesn’t it?–baked some out-of-this-world delicious gingerbread cookies in the shape of ghosts and things. Fun fact: she celebrates Halloween every day of the year.

Ryan, dressed as a Confederate soldier–it’s Civil War Re-Enactment Season, dontcha know?!–carried an authentic bayonet on his belt throughout the evening. He left the rifle at home–it was too heavy. If you look carefully, in the picture below, you will see an orb floating just above Ryan’s head. A ghost perhaps? Maybe we should have performed an EVP session.

As a sign of the times, our host, Nick, above, dressed as an unemployed person. I could never really be sure he was joking, but he went to such lengths as to not wear any shoes. Just socks… creepy.

So though the party this weekend was pretty kickin’, actual Halloween night was pretty kick back. Ali caught up on some homework while I watched the sci-fi horror flick The Objective, and occasionally checked my facebook and twitter feeds to see people post their photos of what they were wearing while trick or treating. Christie, who was my recent inspiration for a vampire sketch, posted this:

Quite a change from the fang-bearing vampiress from the previous year. 🙂

And, after I put out the call to friends to send me their costumes for this post, Rob P. sent me this shot of himself as a kind of manic, Grouch0-esque carnival Barker:

And today, Michelle posted her wonderful take on Edward Scissorhands:

So that’s it! A Halloween that just keeps on giving, even into November. After all, today was Dia de Los Muertos, as beautifully illustrated in this post of Fernanda, made up by  her sister Jessica.

So keep scaring and being scared, and feel free to post your costumes in the comments section below! Happy haunting!