Welcome to Milwaukee Record’s 66 Days of Halloween countdown! You can find Part I, which covers Days 0-22, HERE.
DAY 38: MASS GOTHIC
It’s high time we get some more Halloween music on this countdown, yes? Yes!
Like I’ve said on previous countdowns, I loathe the typical “Halloween” playlists found on popular streaming services. Does the theme song to Ghostbusters actually put anyone in a Halloween mood? Is “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads a Halloween song just because it’s called “Psycho Killer”? No and no, I say!
Instead, my Halloween music of choice isn’t really “Halloween” music per se—it’s more gloomy, moody, goth-y, and dark music. Yeah, I’ll bump “Every Day Is Halloween” by Ministry just like anyone else, but I prefer stuff like “Dark Window” by Mass Gothic. Enjoy:
Who’s Mass Gothic? They were (are?) a largely unheralded indie-sleaze duo from the 2010s (they should be more heralded!) best known for their 2016 song “Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me.” “Dark Window” was released two years later, in 2018. I don’t know how I first stumbled upon it, but the song has been a staple of my personal Halloween playlist for years. It has nothing to do with Halloween (I think it might be about addiction?) but I love it nonetheless. Plus, you know, Mass Gothic.
DAY 37: OCTOBER
Happy October, man! Time to get serious and watch this 20-year-old Night Of The Living Dead special hosted by Milwaukee’s own Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank! (R.I.P. Mike.)
DAY 36: HALLOWEEN MOOD SHELF
It’s October Eve, so you know what that means: it’s time to shellac my book/media shelf with a bunch of random Halloween decorations and knickknacks! Yeah, I should have done this way back on Day 22 when I first lined the shelf with lights, but oh well. A full month of gazing/staring at this thing is good enough for me.
So, in the spirit of Dinosaur Dracula’s old Halloween Mood Tables, I present my annual Halloween Mood Shelf! I love it. (And yep, that’s my dad’s big wooden pumpkin/bat that I featured on Day 3!)
DAY 35: THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
I know I wrote about this movie last year, but it’s just so good and perfect and kind of beautiful that I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it again. Behold, The Midnight Hour! Nothing says Halloween more than a 1985 made-for-TV movie starring Shari Belafonte, LeVar Burton, and Michelle Pfeiffer’s younger sister.
Okay, hear me out. I love this movie. On the surface, The Midnight Hour is a cheesy horror-comedy about photogenic ’80s teens who unwittingly unleash the undead on their small Hollywood studio backlot—er, small New England town. It’s a weird cast: Dick Van Patten plays a wacky dentist. Kevin McCarthy (R.J. Fletcher from UHF!) plays an evil judge. Cindy Morgan (Lacey Underall from Caddyshack!) plays a substitute teacher. One of the main teens is the son of Dom DeLuise. (The dad from That ’70s Show also pops up, natch.) But there’s a lot to legitimately love here: the soundtrack is shockingly top-shelf for a low-rent TV movie (“How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths plays over a key scene), the story of the resurrected ’50s cheerleader (Dedee Pfeiffer) is kind of heartbreaking, and LeVar Burton plays a total horndog. Plus, Wolfman Jack is the radio DJ! What’s not to love?
DAY 34: GROCERY STORE MINI PUMPKINS
More pumpkins! And grocery store mini pumpkins, at that! I love that you can find these things anywhere and everywhere this time of year. Grocery stores, hardware stores, liquor stores, wherever. After all, it is decorative gourd season, motherf***ers.
DAY 33: CHURCH PUMPKINS COMETH
I know the Halloween season is getting serious when my neighborhood church busts out the sign for its annual pumpkin sale. I didn’t see the sign yesterday, but I just saw it now as I got back from the final regular-season Brewers game of the year. (Win #103! A club record! On to the postseason!) I don’t go to this church or anything, but it’s progressive and inclusive and, well, it sells pumpkins. What more do you need? (I’ll explain the whole “honor system” thing when I inevitably buy seven pumpkins there in a few days.)
DAY 32: HALLOWEEN VILLAGE
Looking for some low-stakes, not-scary, family-friendly Halloween fun? Then check out the Halloween Village, coming to the area outside downtown’s Baird Center beginning October 1! Here’s a press release!
Halloween Village returns to Baird Community Commons
Family-friendly interactive displays are open Oct. 1–Nov. 1, highlighted by a new Pumpkin Hut featuring jack-o’-lanterns created by Milwaukee Night Market attendees
MILWAUKEE – Downtown Milwaukee is the place for free, delightfully unfrightful Halloween fun! Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21 is partnering with Baird and the Wisconsin Center District to present another season of spooktacular lights.
Starting next month, Halloween Village presented by Baird will transform Baird Community Commons, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave., into a spellbound destination. Guests are invited to take photos with interactive figures, wander through towering sculptures, and enjoy highlights by day and night.
New this year, the display will feature a 12-foot walk-through ghost arch and a Pumpkin Hut, which will be illuminated with jack-o’-lanterns following the Oct. 7 Milwaukee Night Market. Other interactive lighted figures will include a giant 14-foot spider, walk-through pumpkin, oversized picture frame, group of ghost pals, scarecrow, Frankenstein, and two different witches. Additional décor will include hay bales, pumpkins, corn stalks, autumn florals, tree lighting, and more. Halloween Village presented by Baird will be free and open to the public, Oct. 1 – Nov. 1.
Calling All Artists: Reserve Your Place in the Pumpkin Hut
Registration is currently underway for guests who wish to carve a jack-o’-lantern for the newly added Pumpkin Hut. Carving will take place at Halloween Village at Baird Community Commons during the final Milwaukee Night Market on Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. Participants of all ages can register at www.milwaukeedowntown.com, with a limited number of pumpkins available for walk-ups. Participation is free, with pumpkins and tools provided. Each jack-o’-lantern will be labeled with the artist’s name and displayed in the hut through Nov. 1.
Mark Your Calendar: Baird Presents 5th Annual Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee
Halloween Village and the brand-new Pumpkin Hut are just two of the seasonal activations taking place at Baird Community Commons this fall. Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21’s fifth annual Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee presented by Baird will also return to the corridor. Best described as a pumpkin palooza, the free, family-friendly event will occur Saturday, Oct. 24, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Upon arrival, guests will have an opportunity to select a free pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, while supplies last. Artists Working In Education will staff a decorating station where children can create silly or spooky jack-o’-lanterns.
Families will also enjoy face-painting, photo opportunities with beloved characters, live entertainment, a children’s book sale with Friends of Milwaukee Public Library, and more. Fall-themed vendors will offer food and beverages for purchase. Plus, children are encouraged to attend in costume as Trick-Or-Treat goodie bags will be distributed, while supplies last.
For more information on Halloween Village presented by Baird and Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee presented by Baird, visit www.milwaukeedowntown.com.
DAY 31: TJ MAXX HALLOWEEN CRAP
I always joke that Milwaukee tourism outfit Visit Milwaukee needs to properly hype the city’s true best feature: the fancy TJ Maxx in the Plankinton Arcade wing of the old Grand Avenue mall. Seriously, Visit Milwaukee has offices just down the hall! It’s time to spread the good word about shopping for discount clothes, home goods, and iPhone accessories in style!
So yeah, I found myself wandering through the downtown TJ Maxx this afternoon after I wrapped my monthly radio segment at nearby WUWM. (Later, outside on the Riverwalk, I bumped into John Linnell from They Might Be Giants! Busy day!) Did I browse the hell out of TJ Maxx’s Halloween crap? I did. Did I buy anything? I did not. Though that cat mummy is kind of calling my name right now…
DAY 30: PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING
The OG Psycho series began in 1960 with an instantly iconic film from one of the most celebrated film directors of all time. It ended 30 years later with a direct-to-Showtime flick from the writer and director of Critters 2: The Main Course. It’s pretty bad. I don’t regret watching it.
Nineteen-ninety’s Psycho IV features Anthony Perkins in his final turn as Norman Bates. (Perkins passed away two years later, in 1992.) Norman calls into a sleazy late-night radio program, you see, because the topic is one that’s near and dear to his heart: people who have killed their mothers. That (and more) is the present-day framing story; the bulk of the film is made up of flashbacks to Norman’s childhood with his mother Norma, played by the far-too-attractive but appropriately unstable Olivia Hussey. The great CCH Pounder plays the radio host. Doc Hayward from Twin Peaks pops up for some reason. John Landis farts around on the sidelines for some ungodly reason. Oh, and Henry Thomas—a.k.a. Elliott from E.T.—is severely miscast as the young Norman.
Where Psycho III was merely lurid, Psycho IV is downright trashy. Seriously, there are some incestuous mother-son scenes here that would make the folks at Pornhub blush. Again, it’s pretty bad, but I don’t regret watching it. Perkins is great, CCH Pounder is a hoot, and…well, that’s about it. Thankfully for the Psycho franchise, The Beginning was the end.
DAY 29: FINAL GIRL
Geeky board games have become wildly popular in the last decade or so. Not only can you find complex and thematically rich strategy games like Settlers Of Catan and Wingspan at your local hobby shop (shout-out to Board Game Barrister!), you can find them at Target and Barnes & Noble. I’ve been on a board gaming kick ever since Terraforming Mars was released back in 2016; I’ve been on a solo board gaming kick ever since I finally cracked open a deluxe box of Final Girl that I drunkenly ordered in 2022. Turns out this was a great drunken purchase!
Final Girl is a solo game where you play as a titular “final girl” in a horror movie. It’s your job to run around, save potential victims, collect items, and defeat (or be defeated by) the final monster or villain. But it’s not just one game: the first “season” of Final Girl comes with five different scenarios (“The Happy Trails Horror,” “Carnage At The Carnival,” etc.), each with its own final girls and villains. Even better, you can mix and match locations, final girls, and villains. It makes for an endlessly enjoyable game that never plays the same way twice. It also makes for a bulky and component-heavy game that requires an instruction sheet for the box:
Like a lot of thematic solo games (and thematic games in general), what you get out of Final Girl depends on what you put in. Simply focusing on the rules and trying to “win” isn’t terribly fun; instead, putting on some mood music and thoroughly imagining (and relishing) the unexpected and organic moments the game throws your way is beyond satisfying. And the game is damn good at making those unexpected and organic moments happen all the time. In one of my recent games, a bunch of skinny dippers were suddenly killed by a random “the lake is poison” event card; in another, the killer had just finished off my girlfriend when, thanks to another random event card, two new campers showed up in the same space, only to get killed themselves. The killer’s “bloodlust” rating skyrocketed, the “horror level” spiked, and I was killed the very next turn.
I’ve played Final Girl dozens and dozens of time. I’ve probably won twice. I love it.
DAY 28: FIRST DAY OF FALL
Happy first day of fall! It’s here, it’s real, and it’s spectacular! Here are some new kitchen towels my wife just brought home!
DAY 27: MAD MAGAZINE
I’m of an age where I can say “I grew up with Mad magazine” and mean it. I LOVED Mad. I even remember my first issue: issue #264, from July 1986, with a parody of Moonlighting called Moon-Fighting. (Maddie and David always argued, you see.) I have a giant stack of issues that go to about 1994. My regular readership fell off after that, but I’d occasionally dip in to see what the Usual Gang of Idiots was up to. Blecch!
The status of Mad in the 2010s and 2020s is kind of confusing. I became a subscriber in late 2017 (a gift from my wife), and I was around when Mad was bought by DC Comics in 2018 and rebooted with a new issue #1. That reboot lasted for about a year; in 2019, Mad began simply repackaging old material. These days, the internet tells me, Mad has reverted back to its legacy numbering (issue #600 in August of this year) and publishes roughly 25% new material every issue. Huh!
This is a long of way of saying that I have a special 2024 Halloween issue of Mad, and I love it, love it, love it. Was it another gift from my wife? Yes!
This is one of the “repackaged” Mads. It has vintage parodies of Poltergeist, The Omen, and The Blair With Project. It has some newer stuff, like a Svengoolie parody. And it has an “original” horror spoof, Arbor Day, from 1981. This particular spoof occupies a strangely prominent spot in my childhood memories. I’d like to say it’s because of the typical Mad humor, but if I’m being honest I’d say it’s because of how Jack Davis drew ladies. Thanks, Mad!
DAY 26: GHOUL LOG
One of the first things I do when I set up my Halloween TV lights is cue up Shudder’s beloved Ghoul Log. Is there anything more sublime than a static one-hour shot of a carved pumpkin, complete with some atmospheric “spooky wind” sounds. Nope!
“Forget the fireplace, the Ghoul Log is Shudder’s very own ever burning Jack O’Lantern,” reads the no-nonsense description for the original 2018 Ghoul Log. I like this one because it’s so simple; subsequent “sequels” like Return of the Ghoul Log (2019) and Night of the Ghoul Log (2021) boost the background action, but lose a little something in the process. (Don’t get me started on the way-too-cartoony Rise of the Ghoul Log from 2025.)
Also, I love that people review this thing. Which I guess I just kind of did? Five skulls!
DAY 25: WITCH PLEASE
That’s it! That’s the post! (And the bath mat I just put out.)
DAY 24: PSYCHO III
I’ve talked about Psycho (Day 16). I’ve talked about Psycho II (Day 20). And now it’s time to talk about Psycho III, the 1986 sequel that finds Anthony Perkins both in front of and behind the camera. Yep, Psycho III is directed by Norman Bates himself! And it’s…okay?
It’s definitely a much more lurid affair than the previous films. There’s more gore. There’s more nudity. There’s more suicidal nuns and Jeff Fahey. There’s also more lore, and more retconning of previously retconned lore. If you thought The Rise Of Skywalker walked a lot of things back, buckle up for Psycho III!
Like I said, the film is just okay. Perkins is clearly the highlight here (Fahey is good, too), and he perfectly channels his original 1960 performance as Norman, Howie Long haircut notwithstanding. Also, I was surprised to learn that Roger Ebert preferred III over II. Huh. Chalk it up to the nudity, I suppose!
DAY 23: WOLF MAN SOCKS
I picked up these beauties during a recent friends trip to Wisconsin Dells. (See Day 4.) I forget what the store was called, but it was tucked away in some weird little pocket of shops off the main drag on Broadway. It was also one of the few Dells shops that didn’t carry a baffling mix of Sabrina Carpenter shirts, Baby Yoda shirts, and “My Pronouns Are ‘Second’ And ‘Amendment'” shirts.
These socks (from Odd Sox, natch) put me back a cool $13, but I love ’em like a pair that came from a bag of 50 that cost $8. Here’s to you, Wolf Man socks. I finally knows what it feels like to wear Lon Chaney Jr. on my feet.
Want more Milwaukee Record? Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and/or support us on Patreon.
RELATED ARTICLES