HALLOWEEN 2025

Today, all about Halloween.  Rather than repeat what I've said in the past, you can click on my 31October2021 posting for a history.  You will need to scroll down to reach this info.  One topic I included was:

DID YOU KNOW THAT 25% OF ALL CANDY SOLD IN THE U.S. IS PURCHASED FOR HALLOWEEN?  #1 is Reese's Cups, followed by Skittles and M&Ms. We spend $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the second largest commercial holiday after Christmas...which is something like  more than $700 billion!!  (Google AI says this value is now more than a trillion dollars.)

I checked today if anything had changed, and the order now is Reese's, Peanut M&Ms, regular M&Ms and Kit Kats.  There is now a pumpkin flavor.

What channels should you watch for Halloween films?

• AMC really features Halloween.  This must be Pacific Daylight Time, as Hawaii is three hours behind, and now playing is the 1978 Halloween.

6:30 am: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
8:30 am: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
10:30 am: Halloween (1978)
12:30 pm: Halloween II (1981)
2:30 pm: Halloween III: Season of the Witch
4:30 pm: Halloween (2007)
7 pm: Halloween (1978)
9 pm: Halloween II (1981)
11 pm: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
1 am: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
3 am: Halloween (1978)

• 
  That 1978 Halloween is the top-rated Rotten Tomatoes Halloween film, with a reviewers' score of 97. 
• Audiences scored it at 89. 
• On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being transferred for a court date, a 21-year-old Michael Myers steals a car and escapes Smith's Grove. He returns to his quiet hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, where he looks for his next victims. 
• Directed by John Carpenter, who co-wrote it.

• 
  Stars Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis, in her film debut.  Her parents are Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.  She was 19 years old in this film.

• 
  Six actors were used to portray Michael Myers in this film.
• He appears in 13 franchise films.
• 20 actors have been used as Myers.
• 20 weird facts about this film you didn't know.
• I found a You Tube site that plays the entire 1 hr 29 min film.

• 
  #2  Halloween 2018, RT 79.  Jamie Lee Curtis appeared in 7 Halloween films, including this one.
• #3  Halloween H20 1998, RT 54.
• #13  Halloween:  The Curse of Michael Myers 1995, RT 8.  The others can be found by clicking on this.
• In 24 minutes, every Halloween trailer, from 1978-2022.

Of course there are other Halloween films not linked to the Halloween franchise.  Here is a list of the 21 best:

• However, Halloween 1978 is still #1.
• #2  Hocus Pocus (1993), RT 41/72.

• 
  #3  Trick'r Treat (2007), RT 82/99.   Hmmm...99, perhaps I'll watch this next year.  Can be found on HBO Max, which I'm adding with Hulu and the ESPN streaming channel, for they being added for free to Showtime at 15 Craigside.
• You see the rest of the list here.

What are the top Halloween songs?  Billboard has its 25 biggest Halloween Songs of All Time.

• #1 of course is Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Crypt-Kickers' Monster Mash, from a 1964 American Bandstand.
• Written by Bobby Picket in 1962, and became #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October, just before Halloween.
• Interestingly enough in 2021, 60 years after the original release, charted back on Billboard at #37.

• 
  Song has been generating $1 million annually in royalties.
• Picket in 1962 was an aspiring actor who sang with a band called the Cordials.
• One night, he did a monologue imitation of Boris Karloff, while performing Little Diamond.
• Audience loved it.
• So he and band member Lenny Capizzi composed Monster Mash.
• Recorded with five others as the Crypt-Kickers Five.
• 
  Producer was Gary Paxton, who also sang back-up, and who already had the hit Alley Oop, as well as Mashed Potato. during the dance craze era.
• The sound of a cauldron bubbling was simulated by water being bubbled through a straw, copied by the Beatles for their Yellow Submarine.

• 
  Picket impersonated Bela Lugosi in one line, and Peter Lorre as Igor.
• In 1962, the BBC banned the record for being too morbid.  But re-released in 1973 and hit #3.  Reached #1 in Canada that year again, made it down to #10 in the USA.

• 
  #2  Ghostbusters (1984), Ray Parker Jr.
• #25  Witchy Woman (1972), Eagles.
• The whole list.

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