I love October! It really is my favorite month with the air turning crisp and the leaves changing color and, of course, Halloween. But I have a small confession to make. I don’t really like scary stories. Except, that is, when the scary is served with a side of funny. Our family has a slew of movies that we watch throughout the month of October and I usually try to read at least one holiday themed book during the month.
One of our favorite movies and usually first up every year is “Arsenic and Old Lace.” It is a dark comedy play written by American playwright Joseph Kesselring in 1939. The movie adaptation is a classic Frank Capra production (1944) starring Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane and featuring Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre. Mortimer Brewster (Grant) is an author who has written screeds against marriage but has decided to take the plunge with his childhood sweetheart (Lane). He goes home to tell his two maiden aunts the good news only to discover that they may not be as sweet as everyone thinks when he discovers they are helping lonely old men out of this life. The plot gets even more complicated when his very troubled brother shows up and things go from bad to hilariously worse. You can check out the audiobook through Hoopla.
Next up in our holiday line up is “Young Frankenstein” (1974) with a star studded cast including Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Terri Garr and directed by Mel Brooks. The American grandson of the famous Dr. Frankenstein (Wilder) is trying to rehabilitate the family name and convince his peers that his grandfather was not as crazy as people think. He’s invited to Transylvania to the family castle where he stumbles upon his grandfather’s letters leading him to decide to recreate the famous experiment, although with a few twists.
A newer selection we have added to our October traditions is “Tucker and Dale vs Evil” (2010) starring Alan Tudyk and Taylor Labine who are both mistaken for two backwoods psychos by a group of preppy college students camping nearby. As we have learned … never judge a book by it’s cover. Tucker and Dale really just want to spruce up a cabin that they have bought as a vacation home. But misjudgement and miscommunication lead to a lot of incredibly unfortunate accidents. We eventually learn who is the true evil. You can stream this one through Kanopy using your library card.
As for books, I’m going to try “Horrorstor” by Grady Hendrix this year, which will also tick a box on the Book Riot 2020 Read Harder Challenge for a horror book published by an indie press. The story is about a Swedish style superstore in Ohio that is experiencing some odd breakage overnight but the cameras don’t show anything. Three employees volunteer to work the graveyard shift to see if they can catch whoever (whatever?) is trashing the store’s inventory and reputation.
If you would like to see more books and movies of horror with a side of funny, you can check out this list. Happy Halloween!
