Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

"Classic" is thrown around very loosely, but we sincerely mean it as our shivery fingers type today...

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark was written by Alvin Schwartz and published in 1981. It's a collection of urban legends, myths, and generally weird stories gathered largely from American folklore. The stories are direct and chilling.

But what many recall from this book are the illustrations, by Stephen Gammell. Can you imagine a collection of stories for kids being published today that are as disturbing as these? Nope. But in part, that is what made the 80s the 80s- "kids stuff" had real bite.

And these images STUCK. Show the above image to an entire generation, and they'll cover their eyes! But then- peek out to see it again... and again. Remarkable.

If you don't have a copy of this book, you can get one cheap via Amazon. It's exactly the right book for this time of year: chilling, unnerving... and wonderful.

Pipes- Ghostwatch

The gloves come off now... things get truly spooky as we get closer to the 31st.

Do you know Pipes, who haunted a British family? The ghost was featured on British TV some years ago, on a Halloween program called Ghost Watch.

That program lives on, in what many call the scariest event in British television.

We leave it to YOU to find out more... but this clip will get you started...

Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party

Closer... and closer... October creeps... towards... HALLOWEEN!

To deepen the chill, here's a fun Betty Boop cartoon from the 1930s, Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party.

It says "banned" on the YouTube page, but there's nothing worth banning in it... it's pretty tame for a Fleischer cartoon, actually.

But it has some great moments, especially around the 5:30 mark, when the power of Halloween rises up, with a bit of help from Betty, that is!

You can always count on Fleischer to get nice and weird.

Enjoy!

The Awesome Spookiness of My Ghoul Friday

As the hallowed month of Halloween continues to slither along, we had to share with you a local talent who really puts the "ghoul" in... ghoul.

My Ghoul Friday runs an awesome Halloween-themed blog, all year long. You can check it out here.

She has dedicated sections, like the Art Ghoullery  (as you can see she isn't afraid to dip into the horror puns), How-To Projects, Tutorials, and Party Planning. And she does it all with style and great wit.

She also has an online store, where she is having a "Lucky 13" sale (till October 13th... go figure). You can find all kinds of delightfully weird little critters to populate your home, or coffin. Check our her store here.

Dr. Tongue's Evil House of Wax

October is upon us! It's the month of spooky spookiness, and chilling chillingness.

Here at Mad Lab, we usually try to mix a bit of humour with our horror. To a large extend we trace it back to things we loved growing up. Things like The Muppet Show (when Alice Cooper and Vincent Price appeared), and The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, a locally-produced television show that went for chills and laughs.

As kids, we loved being chilled by this stuff, but even as we found it spooky, we also knew it was for fun. That mix of fun and scary is a wonderful thing.

So check this out: the still-amazing SCTV crew, doing their own version of 3D horror.

We humbly propose that it doesn't get much better than this.

Enjoy!