The Trick or Treating Zombie Horse of Christmas, Mari Lwyd

One Christmas tradition that has always intrigued me is the Welsh wassailing folk custom centered around Mari Lwyd. This Welsh tradition is reportedly over 3,000 years old and is focused on Mari Lwyd ("gray mare" or "Blessed Mary" in other translations), a macabre figure of a skeletal horse head mounted on a stick, decorated with ribbons and jingling bells, and draped in a flowing white sheet (to hide the handler/puppeteer of Mari Lwyd). The eerie equine represents Death, and the only way to defeat the specter is to beat it in a battle of rhymes.

Christmas Horror Movies to Stream Now

'Tis the season for some killer holiday horror movies! I love browsing streaming services this time of year for seasonal horror flicks, and this year we have quite a few to choose from on Hulu, Shudder, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. Below I've rounded up some that are available on these streaming platforms now or are coming soon to stream. Don't have these streaming services or prefer physical media? No problem, as I've included links to each film's Amazon when possible.

Check out the Christmas Horror Movies to Stream Now:

Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film Exhibit

This past weekend I was lucky enough to check out Scared to Death, a horror exhibit at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington. This installation at MoPop features over 50 props and costumes from horror shows and movies like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Walking Dead, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Frankenstein, Hostel, Blair Witch, and many more. I was so incredibly excited to get to see this exhibit, and it didn't disappoint! I got to geek out over the props and costumes from some of my favorite horror films, watch video clips of well-known creators talk about notable horror films, and immerse myself in the delightfully macabre atmosphere of the exhibit.

So, you start the exhibit (which is tucked into the back corners of the Museum of Pop Culture), by descending down a staircase bathed in red, wallpapered with faces of people screaming. You enter into the exhibit and are immediately met with a body-bag maze to your right and a zombie quarantine zone to your left. Around every corner you may come face-to-face with a xenomorph, or Jason, or a bloody severed head, or a nook to sit down and watch short interviews with notable horror creators discussing the influence of specific films. You can enter into a cathedral dripping with blood highlighting vampire lore and props, holler your heart out in the sound-proofed Scream Box (which will take a photo of you as you scream), and of course take advantage of the interactive photo-ops.

Take a virtual walk through of the Scared to Death horror exhibit below:

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man Maze Coming to Halloween Horror Nights 2019

Universal Studios announced another maze for their Halloween Horror Nights events in Hollywood and Orlando, bringing back their iconic Universal Monsters! Hollywood will see a showdown in the new "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" maze, while Orlando will see all of the classic monsters come to life.

I am really excited to hear that Halloween Horror Nights is doing these two Universal Monsters-themed mazes! I am stoked that I'll get to experience Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man at Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood! Check out more details on these two mazes from the official press release below:

Watch Now on Netflix: Diablero (2018)

In this Netflix series from Mexico, a young priest enlists the help of a demon hunter and a paranormal expert to search for a kidnapped girl in the underworld of Mexico City. The trailer made it look like a high-octane version of the Supernatural TV show, full of demons, car chases, fun characters, witchcraft, and action, so I was intrigued. As soon as I started watching, I was hooked!

10 Creepy Christmas Monsters That Aren't Krampus

While I love Krampus and am tickled that he has gained so much popularity here in the U.S. in the past few years, I think it is high time some of the other holiday monsters get the spotlight. In case you didn't know, there are many other creatures stirring in European folklore that are every bit as frightening as Krampus. Let's look at a few, shall we?

Spooky Christmas Sweaters

Looking for some spooky Christmas sweaters for the horrordays? Nowadays it is so easy to find Christmas sweaters adorned with bats, skulls, skeletons, monsters, and your favorite horror characters! Every holiday season I love hunting for new Creepmas sweaters (I've found some incredible ones in past years - check them out here, here, here, here, and here!), and every year it seems we have more and more scary sweaters to choose from. I especially love the ones I found this year, some of which are gorgeously gothic and others that are just creepy-cozy.

The Fifth Annual Spook Show Halloween Festival

This past Saturday Halloween Club in La Mirada, California hosted their fifth annual Spook Show Halloween Festival, a celebration for fiends who celebrate Halloween everyday! I look forward to this event every year, since it is like having Halloween in March! This was my third time attending this event (you can check out recaps from past years HERE and HERE!), and every year I've been it keeps getting bigger and better! If you haven't heard of Spook Show, it is a fun outdoor event that brings together a wide variety of vendors selling Halloween and horror merch, as well as booths from upcoming Halloween and haunted events, plus food trucks, a hearse show, and live entertainment! It is put on by the Halloween Club (which is where the event is located), a huge Halloween warehouse that is open year-round (and has huge sales for this event). Read more about Spook Show and check out more photos below!

Watch Now on Netflix: I Am Not A Serial Killer (2016)

I Am Not A Serial Killer is a film based on a 2009 book by Dan Wells of the same name. The book is the first installment of the John Wayne Cleaver trilogy by Wells. I haven't read the book, but have watched the film, now available streaming on Netflix, and I can't recommend it enough! 

The synopsis: A teen whom everyone thinks will grow up to be a serial killer must connect with his dark tendencies as he tries to solve a series of grisly murders in his small Minnesota town. 

Guillermo del Toro's At Home with Monsters Exhibit

Angel of Death from Hellboy II greets you as you enter the exhibit.

I was finally able to get over to LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to enter the world of Guillermo del Toro through his "At Home with Monsters" exhibit. I love many of del Toro's films and other projects he has been involved with including Cronos (1993), The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Hellboy (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and Crimson Peak (2015). His influences range from the Victorian era, to sci-fi and comics, to horror to his own tumultuous childhood.

The "At Home with Monsters" exhibit boasts works of art from del Toro's own personal collection as well as props and items from his films and is broken into different sections that reflect his influences. The exhibition begins with a section on "Childhood and Innocence," before moving through the galleries "Victoriana," "Magic, Alchemy, and the Occult," "Movies, Comics, Pop Culture," "Frankenstein and Horror," "Freaks and Monsters," "Death and the Afterlife", and there is even a "Rain Room" with storm clouds projected on the ceiling and rain beating against some gothic windows while lighting flashes. The visit was enthralling, and to be surrounding by so much gorgeous artwork was exhilarating!

Tickets for the special exhibition were $25 (which included admission to the other parts of the museum as well, barring their special rain room exhibits) and though the weekend crowds were a bit much at times, I took my time to absorb all of the wondrous art exhibited in the space and made sure to wander through the space several times so I didn't miss anything!

I took a ton of photos (yes, photography was allowed!), but wanted to share some of my favorites below:

Recap: Abracadaver Productions' Sixth Annual Halloween Market

This year I am thrilled to be hitting so many Halloween events ahead of autumn! I already checked out the 4th Annual Spook Show Halloween Festival at the Halloween Club in March (check out my recap of that event with photos HERE!), and there is July's Midsummer Scream and August's ScareLA Halloween festivals coming up as well! This past weekend was my first time checking out Abracadaver Productions' 6th Annual Open House and Halloween Market, located in Fullerton, California.

Watch Now on Netflix: The Hallow (2015)

A family who moves into a remote house in Ireland must battle malicious spirits living in the ancient Irish wood that surrounds the new home. 

The Hallow was at the top of my list when I wrote about the 10 Irish Horror Films to Watch on St. Patrick's Day last month, but it is an excellent horror film that can be relished any time of year! And now, it is streaming on Netflix for your enjoyment.

The Fourth Annual Spook Show Halloween Festival

Last month I attended the Halloween Club's 4th Annual Spook Show in La Mirada, California. It was my second year attending the event (you can check out pics and my report from last year here!), which is a fantastic outdoor market selling all kinds of Halloween and horror-inspired wares! The event brings together a wide array of vendors who sell anything from Halloween props and decor, to makeup, to taxidermy, to clothing and costumes, and much, much more! Pretty much anything you can think of, including art, jewelry, hair accessories, purses, knick-knacks, furniture, masks - all with a spooky twist of course! Plus there were also local haunts representing there, too, along with various Halloween entertainment vendors. The event is like a slice of Halloween heaven in springtime!

Top 10 Horror Movies of 2015

When I started making my list of the best horror movies of 2015, I remember thinking that it would be a tough task, as 2015 didn't really stand out for me as a banner year for horror movies. I felt like there just weren't that many new releases and it would be hard to come up with 10 horror movies I adored this year. However, as I started making my list, I realized that this year it was about quality over quantity, and that there were several stellar horror releases in 2015.

This year (and as usual), indie horror reigned supreme, and while I already had most of the horror movies mentioned below on my radar, there were a few pleasant surprises! Another surprise was how varied my favorite horror movies were, from comedies to romance to gothic to artsy to gory to holiday horrors! Lots of different sub-genres this year, which I always count as a good thing!

I did find a pattern for many of the horror films I did end up enjoying. While some of the best horror movies of 2015 were raucous, fun affairs, I found that the majority of the ones I liked best were actually understated and subtle, films that really stuck with me long after I finished watching them. There were also several challenging horror titles, which I had to watch multiple times to decide whether I loved or loathed them (and at least one of my picks I'm still conflicted about).

So below, please find my top 10 horror movies of 2015!

Monsters' Holiday by Bobby "Boris" Pickett

The monsters plan a heist of Santa's sleigh, but Santa surprises the monsters with some appropriate gifts...listen to this lost holiday classic by Bobby "Boris" Picket below!

Available on Amazon!

Watch Now on Netflix: Spooksville Season One

I loooooove spooky kid shows so I was really excited to see Spooksville on Netflix! It's a mix of Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, Goosebumps, R.L. Stine's Haunting Hour, plus some Goonies thrown in! However, it is not an anthology series, and instead it follows three teens in their fight against the dark forces at work in their small town of Springville, aka Spooksville, leading them on daring adventures.

This is a really great show full of quirky characters, fantastic monsters/creatures/creepy-crawlies/witches, really cool special FX, unique episodic storylines and an engaging wrap-around story! I was hooked from the moment I started watching and binge-watched the whole season one that's currently streaming on Netflix.

The show is based on Christopher Pike's line of young adult books of the same name. I was thrilled to see Pike's name since I devoured Pike's books as a kid, along with the books of R.L. Stine and Stephen King. I always thought Pike's books were more mature than Stine's (and therefore more thrilling), and I really like how well they translated to the screen. His protagonists always felt more real to me than Stine's sometimes cartoonish characters, and in this show I love the dynamic of the trio of friends and how genuine it feels. The actors did such a fantastic job in keeping the audience rooting for them, which I know sounds weird for a kid's show, but that's what makes the show so great even for adults to watch!

The Hub Network (never heard of it, but then again I don't have cable) premiered Spooksville back in October 2013, and it looks like there is currently only one season of it available (boo). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this show gets picked up again (according to Spooksville's Facebook page, there is talk that Netflix may pick it up for more seasons if it performs well, so go check it out now!!).

You can watch season one of Spooksville now on Netflix streaming!

If you don't have Netflix, you can also purchase it on Amazon!

Watch Now on Netflix: Extraterrestrial

Alien movies are generally so hokey I normally don't watch them, but I decided to give Extraterrestrial a go as it was directed/written by the Vicious Brothers, who made the awesome Grave Encounters. When alien movies are done right they can be incredibly effective and entertaining, and I was pleased to find that Extraterrestrial fell into that category.

Synopsis: A group of college kids go to a cabin in the woods, see something crash-land out of the sky and go investigate. They are blown away when they find a downed UFO in the woods...but their wonder turns to fear when they notice alien footprints leading away from the crash site. When they return to the cabin they are forced to defend themselves, but end up pissing off the aliens even more, with wider, unforeseen consequences they may never have considered.

I like how this started with the typical "kids go into the woods, kids get dead" premise, but then turned that on its head once the aliens showed up. Though at the beginning some of the characters are annoying, you actually start rooting for them once the aliens start terrorizing them. We even get to see Michael Ironside play a nutty Vietnam vet with a pot farm who helps blow some aliens to smithereens, and who wouldn't have fun seeing that?! I also appreciated that this is an alien movie where you actually SEE the aliens! And when you do see them, boy, is it effective! And then there is the surprisingly downbeat ending, complete with a nice wink to The X-Files' Smoking Man!

I had a lot of fun watching Extraterrestrial, which was quite entertaining! You can watch it now on Netflix or purchase it on Amazon!

Watch Now on Netflix: Animal (2014)

There are some pretty mediocre and downright awful films on Netflix, and to be honest Animal (2014) looked like it would fall somewhere in between those categories. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining this horror flick turned out to be, despite its generic sounding name/synopsis.

Here is the set-up for this creature feature:

"When plans for a weekend vacation hit a dead end, a group of close-knit friends find themselves stranded in unfamiliar territory, pursued by a menacing, blood thirsty predator."

This film won't win any awards for originality, but it was a surprisingly fun way to kill 80 minutes. While the characters start out as typical horror movie stereotypes, I liked that they tried to develop them so they stood out from one another and how they were mostly all likable (well, with one notable exception). The creature design was also really well-done and looked realistic, as did the gore and bloody special FX. For a low-budget horror flick that was produced by the Chiller Network, it also looked pretty sleek, with some great direction/production. It is set almost entirely at nighttime in a forest, so I appreciated that the lighting was spot-on so that all the action happening was crystal-clear. The storyline also had a few twists and turns that kept me engaged the whole running time of the movie.

If you are looking for some fun, mindless entertainment, Animal is a nifty little creature feature that pairs delightfully with some beers and pizza. You can find it streaming on Netflix now!

It's also available for purchase on Amazon!

The 3rd Annual Spook Show at the Halloween Club

Last month I attended the Halloween Club's 3rd Annual Spook Show in La Mirada, California. This was my first time attending this event, which brings together Halloween enthusiasts and Halloween/horror/gothic vendors, plus, a huge discount on merchandise from the Halloween Club (I believe they were offering 40% off). The vendors are all set up in the parking lot of the Halloween Club, and offer diverse wares such as art, jewelry, horror merchandise, purses, hair accessories, masks, toys, Halloween decor and props, gothic furniture, t-shirts, taxidermy, and much, much more! There are booths for those representing local haunts, attractions and conventions, people dressed in elaborate costumes, food trucks, a stage with music acts and host, and more fantastical fun! Plus, it is free to attend!

31 Days of Halloween: Spooky Short - Trick or Treat

While browsing the fantastic site Halloween Short Films (also a member of the great 31 Days of Halloween countdown!), I found this gem of a short film, called Trick or Treat, that was made back in 2010. I love the atmosphere of this short, as well as the costume of the killer! Check it out below!