The Setup

The moon rides high on a cool, dark night. As the darkness is bathed in its pale light, it still can’t quench the knowledge that something is coming. The time has come once again, fair city, where there is movement in the darkness of the alleyways. The time has come once again, wary travelers, where the unknowable is stalking behind you. The time has come again, ladies and gentlemen, where we greet the festival of Samhain. And as the mists creep in across the ground, we will gather once again, faithful viewers, to experience the lowest-grade clash of horror and humor we can find, while mixing it with concoctions both alcoholic and shamanistic. For the night of All Hallows Eve has come once again to the land of the Cavalcade of Schlock.

For those not aware of how we roll for October: We consider this to be an “open month”. No theme for the movies, other than having horror elements, and the only theme for the food is “Halloween”. This allows us to throw in movies that we may have missed on other months, or that we wouldn’t normally build a whole event around.

The Formula

The open nature of the month makes it difficult to pull together a formula, but as all of tonight’s selections are in the Horror/Comedy genres, they do have a few things in common.

• Rural Environs: Small towns and countrysides are festering cesspools of weird shit. You ever hear of an alien anal-probing a person on 120th and Broadway in New York? Nope, because alien slug zombies like to keep it organic and farm-fresh.
• References to other movies: Horror/Comedies tend to have a wink-wink-nudge-nudge relationship with the audience. In the better ones, the references will be subtle, such as naming characters after famous horror directors or having a poster on the wall. In the more pathetic attempts, a character will go “This is just like in that horror movie X!”

The Menu

Sticking with the relaxed and open nature of the month, the food will be a grab-n-growl of Halloween candy and snacks. More so than any other month, we’re going for a full-on pot luck idea. So bring whatever tickles yer fancy!

But… Don’t think we’re leaving you hanging on the booze:

The Booze: Sam Adams Octoberfest, Bloody Eyeball Martini

Yeah, the Martini’s going to take some prep, but take our word for it: The results are worth it!

The Movies

Dead and Breakfast (2004): Horror, Comedy, Musical? That’s right boys and girls! We figured it’s been far too long since we’ve had dancing zombies (not since the first ever Cavalcade with Return of the Living Dead).

Night of the Creeps (1986): Alien slugs infect prom dates, turning them into flesh-craving zombies in this horror/comedy mash-up.

If we can’t get Night of the Creeps (we’re working on it), then we’ll go with:

Slither (2006): Stop us if this sounds familiar-Alien slugs infect a small town, turning them into flesh-craving zombies in this horror/comedy mash-up. Yes, it’s heavily inspired by Night of the Creeps, yes it admits it out the gate, and yes-it’s awesome. Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, and Elizabeth Banks star in one of the best movies nobody’s ever seen.

Suggested Alternatives

Again, it’s an open month, choose what you will! We focused on fast-paced horror/comedies this year, so other choices could be:

Tremors (1990): The sandworms from Dune strike a small town in the middle of the desert, eating people and otherwise causing all sorts of mayhem.

Critters (1986): Imagine the tribbles from Star Trek…with sharp pointy teeth.

Night of the Comet (1984): It’s the end of the world, and the last survivors of the human race? Two girls from the Valley.

For details about the event, check out it’s page on Facebook!