Roderick Pullum

Well done, Angry Angry Skinless Skull Warrior!

The Oak Lawn Block Party and the many nightlife events that explode out of Halloween always produce innovative costumes across Dallas and the universe. This year was no exception.

See also:
- The Costumes of the Oak Lawn Halloween Block Party 2012
- The Awesome Costumes of the Halloween Block Party 2012 (Part Two)
- The Maxim Halloween Party and Costume Contest

There was Girl With Unzipped Dead Face, Jack in the Box Guy With Crapped Pants Look, and the always ubiquitous Hell Clown! All great costumes. We're picking our favorites, in no particular order. Except Binders Full of Women. That's probably near the top.

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Put the fun in funeral. Send your remains skyward in a fireworks display.

Halloween seems like as good a time as any to talk human remains. Namely, what are you going to do with yours? I've always dreaded the eerily claustrophobic concept of spending eternity six feet under. Plus, there are the bugs. I can't deal.

If imagining your cremated remains tucked inside an inevitably tacky urn on someone's mantel is equally unsettling, here are some more innovative options to consider:

Put a ring on it.
Diamonds are forever. Unfortunately, life is not. Which is why the folks over at LifeGem will help your loved ones turn your cremated ashes or a lock of hair into a timeless diamond.

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In The Parent Crap, Alice Laussade chronicles life as a mom in Dallas. Worried you're screwing up your kid? Tweet questions to @thecheapbastard and she'll confirm that, yes, you're screwing up your kid.

Choosing the perfect Halloween candy to pass out to trick-or-treaters is extremely important, if you ever want your neighbors to think you're cool. Is quantity more important than quality? Is getting a bag of real eyeballs to hand out to toddlers really worth the hassle? What about cucumbers?

See also:
- Why Are We Dressing Our Adorable Kids Like Douchey Adults?
- Dear Dallas Parents: This Halloween, Try Not to Dress Your Kid Like a Hooker

Want to know exactly what the Halloween candy you're choosing to hand out to trick-or-treaters says about you? Good.

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http://www.danielduval.org/

Estes Cemetery during the day. Real fright-seekers venture out at night.

If you're craving a true fright this Halloween, check out these five allegedly haunted graveyards. We recommend bringing a support system and at least one Ghostbuster.

Estes Cemetery in Grand Prairie (above)
If a mix of innocence and fright calls you, Estes Cemetery is right up your alley. Visitors have reported seeing strange blue lights and hearing the laughter of women and children -- the cemetery's permanent residents.

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buycostumes.com

*Advice for dudes. You wanna get laid this Halloween, ladies? Show up.

Sure there's the parties, the drinking, and the overwhelming desire to piss every time you get your goddamn costume on. But Halloween is about much more than that. According to scholars, All Hollow's Eve initially incorporated traditions from pagan harvest festivals, at which everyone wore the sexiest foliage they could find and tried like hell to get laid.

See also:
- Dallas' 20 Best Halloween Events And Parties
- The Ten Best Costumes From Comic Con Fan Days

That, of course, continues to be tradition. But guys, you can screw up without saying a word before you even get a chance to screw up by being lousy in bed.

Here are five costumes that will guarantee you go home with your hand and some Lubriderm on Halloween, and some much better alternatives that might get you a shot at a real live woman.

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All photos by Samantha Guzman

Halloween night at the Texas Theatre, I Heart Cinema threw up a 35mm screening of the 1988 Lance Henriksen gem Pumpkinhead. There was Pumpkin Ale, a "Pumpkinhead" cocktail -- made with bits of real human heads (editor's note: not true) -- and a screening of Trick 'R Treat. There were, something we're sure Mixmaster contributor and I Heart Cinema-runner James Wallace will agree on, great costumes.

After the jump, check out our favorites from the bunch. They'll definitely get the wheels spinning for 2012 Halloween costume ideas.

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We've done it. A complete 31 fun-filled days of Horror. Some have made us laugh. Some cry. And when we're talking about this genre, those two reactions usually carry completely different connotations!

We appropriately kicked this thing off with John Carpenter's Halloween and Nick, Merritt, and I attempted to take you all over the genre, including everything from Slashers, Zombies, Ghosts, Monsters, Demons, Creepy Kids, Sharks, Asian Horror, Found Footage, Horror Dramas, Horror Comedies, Horror Sci-Fi, Foreign, Domestic, Classic, Instant Classic, Award Winners, B-movies, Indies, old school, new school, and everything in between. Bringing us to where we are today, October 31st. Halloween. And we end it with ... Pumpkinhead.

Yeah, that's right, I said Pumpkinhead!

Not exactly what you'd expect but, upon further examination, it's all too fitting. This 1988 B-level cult classic, starring genre icon Lance Henriksen as a man who conjures up a giant pumpkin patch-birthed demon in order to seek vengeance on the teens that murdered his son (inspired by an original poem by Ed Justin), is special to many for as many reasons. The first of which being that it's the feature-film debut from by Horror/Sci-Fi effects legend Stan Winston (Winston has, in fact, only directed one other full-length feature outside of Pumpkinhead, entitled A Gnome Named Gnorm starring Anthony Michael Hall. So bad it's scary). Without the magic of the wizard Winston, many if not most of our previous 30 films would not have been the films they were as you know them, whether due to his actual work or influence.

So, if you've never seen this masterpiece of the macabre or maybe you have and it happens to be one of your faves (as it is mine), you're in luck! You have a chance to see it in spooky style.

The Mixmaster and I Heart Cinema are throwing a Monster Mash Pumpkin Bash Halloween Party at the Texas Theatre tonight, featuring a 35mm print screening of the film, paired with Halloween & Trick 'r Treat in the lobby along with a bunch of other ticks, treats, eats, drinks specials, giveaways and more.

It's going to be so much fun it's scary!

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Elaine Liner

Hell painting at Curiosities

Need new décor for your coven? Something to camouflage the bloodstains on the basement wall? Local thrift and vintage stores are well stocked with affordable, terrifying pieces of art depicting death's heads and visions of hell.

We found some thrilling, chilling pictures (and one creepy pillow) at Dolly Python, White Elephant, Curiosities, Ferguson Thrift and the little Goodwill on Lower Greenville. Last time we looked, most of these were still on the shelves, priced from a few dollars to the low three figures.

One imagines that these things ended up in the resale emporia because their owners couldn't live with them a moment longer.

Treat yourself to a piece of art and when the eyes follow you around the room, remember, we warned you.

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All photos by Stephen Masker

More photos in the wicked good slide show

First of all, Happy Halloween. Secondly, let's talk great costumes. It's pretty well known around these here parts that the Oak Lawn Halloween Block party, which opens up Cedar Springs for the costumed roaming, is one of the great Halloween parties.

Our contributing photographer Stephen Masker patrolled the area with his trusty camera, and came back with a whole heck load of great shots. We whittled them down to, we must say, our favorite costumes of the night. Surely there were more great costumes floating around, to which we say--let us know! We're saying: if you have photos or links to great costumes, put 'em in the comments.

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IMDB

Of all the horror films in our countdown, Ti West's The House of the Devil (2009) is the most unpredictable and inspiring homage to the genre. The film is set in the 1980's, and if you didn't read anything else about the film before popping it in your Playstation--you'd think it was shot in the 1980's (yay, no cell-phones!). West's style is an homage to the low-budget films of the 80's in the way Shaun of the Dead was a nod to Romero's zombie films--and just as genuine.

The movie's plot is simple: a college student is looking to buy a house, so she takes a baby-sitting job. The twist is: the gig is on the same night as a lunar eclipse. Oh! And the house's owners are members of a satanic cult. Exciting, straight-forward horror filmmaking.

Ti West, who's gathering some buzz for his new horror film The Innkeepers, keeps the story neat and focused. There's rarely any blood, there's rarely any cursing, and it's 95 minutes. Tom Noonan--who you'll recognize as "that-guy-from-a-bunch-of-films"--gives a frightening and subtle performance. Definitely recommend for group, late-night-pizza watching.

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