Welcome to Milwaukee Record’s 66 Days of Halloween countdown! You can find Part I, which covers Days 0-22, HERE. You can find Part II, which covers Days 23-44, HERE.
DAY 55: CASTLEVANIA
I’ve been on a Castlevania kick this Halloween season. And by “Castlevania kick” I mean both replaying Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night for the first time in forever, and watching the Castlevania Netflix anime that came out a few years ago.
Symphony Of The Night was originally released on the original PlayStation and the Sega Saturn (!) way back in 1997. It both solidified and perfected the franchise’s “explore giant map, find places you can’t get to yet, find an item, go back and use that item to get to the place you couldn’t get to before, rinse, lather, rinse, repeat” formula. It’s a fantastic game with fantastic music, fantastic PS1 graphics, and some deliciously cheesy voice acting. What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!
As for the Netflix anime, it’s pretty good! A four-episode season premiered in 2017, and the show has since gone on to deliver three more seasons and a new spin-off series. (Creator Warren Ellis was outed as a creep in 2020, and wasn’t involved in the spin-off.) It’s full of Symphony Of The Night lore and Easter eggs, so playing the game and watching the series at the same time has been a hoot. Recommended!
DAY 54: BAY VIEW PUMPKIN PAVILION
I went to the annual Bay View Pumpkin Pavilion for the first time last night. All I have to say is this: Why on earth did I wait this long?
The vibes were great. The main attractions were the hundreds of carved pumpkins, of course, but there was so much more. Food, drink, general spooky decorations, great ’60s garage-rock from local band Three Dollar Generals (l0l), and tons of people. It was one of those nights where the weather was perfect and the darkness felt like a blanket. It was one of those nights where all of us parents walked around and drank while our kids ran loose and got into god knows what. It was one of those nights where it finally—FINALLY—felt like Halloween. Here are some photos:
And here’s a bonus pic of a dog that was dressed up like Chucky. Its owners were absolutely encouraging folks to take pictures, and they would give the dog a treat every time someone did. I’m not a dog person, but I dug this dog.
The night ended, as so many of my Saturday nights do, with Svengoolie. It was a double-feature, and they played Young Frankenstein and the original Frankenstein! Be still my heart. What a night.
DAY 53: CULVER’S
As a born-and-bred Wisconsinite, I know that when it comes to fast food, Culver’s is king. Their ButterBurgers are great. Their custard is great. Hell, even their fish fry is pretty good. Like founder Craig Culver always says: “We are not fucking around. By the time we’re finished, you’ll wish you were dead. That’s a Culver family promise.”
Ahem. Anyway, Culver’s also rules because their locations always gussy themselves up for the fall season. Well, at least the one in Shorewood does. Here’s a photo I took a couple of days ago while I was waiting in the Shorewood drive-thru. Decorative straw bales, some random pumpkins, and limited-time-only Jalapeño Cheese Curds? You get it, Culver’s. You really get it.
DAY 52: CITY OF MILWAUKEE TRICK-OR-TREAT
Big news for the City of Milwaukee’s official 2025 trick-or-treat: it’s actually on Halloween this year, and it’s at night! Whoa!
Don’t believe me? Behold this fancy graphic!
Different neighborhoods within the city have their own trick-or-treat dates and times, and different cities within Milwaukee County have their own, too. Interested in those? Check out THIS handy list!
DAY 51: NIGHTMARE (THE VIDEO BOARD GAME)
Similar to Shrieks And Creaks a few weeks back: Anyone remember this one? Nightmare was one of those VCR board games where you set up a board, popped in a tape, and followed along with the instructions/insults. The “insults” were pretty important to Nightmare—the host (“I am…THE GATEKEEPER!”) had it out for the players. There were other Nightmare tapes/hosts (I seem to remember a mummy?) but The Gatekeeper was the best. Don’t believe me? Watch the full 60-minute tape below, and marvel at how wild this dude gets. Enjoy, MAGGOTS!
DAY 50: PUMPKINS (FINALLY)
And on Day 50 of the 66 Days of Halloween, I finally got same damn pumpkins.
Was St. Mark’s pretty picked over? Yeah. Did my kid and I find a couple two three good ones anyway? Yeah. Am I a sucker for the church’s price-sizing table and its Honor System Black Box? You bet I am!
Here are my pumpkins in action, tastefully perched below Shudder’s “Ghoul Log” (the 2019 “Return of the Ghoul Log,” I believe). WE’RE LOCKED IN, FOLKS. IT’S ALMOST CARVING TIME.
DAY 49: CHURCH PUMPKIN PATCH AT NIGHT
As god as my witness, I’m going to get some pumpkins tomorrow. Stay tuned!
DAY 48: FREDDY’S DEAD AND RACHEL TALALAY
Out of the entire A Nightmare On Elm Street series, only part 6, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, in near-unwatchable for me. Freddy may as well be Bugs Bunny at this point; he’s more “zany prankster” than “demonic spirit of a child murderer,” and the kills are straight-up cartoonish. Yep, this is the one where Freddy becomes a video game baddie, wears a Nintendo Power Glove, and says, “Great graphics!” Ain’t he a stinker?
It’s too bad, because this is the only Elm Street film directed by a woman. That woman would be Rachel Talalay, a New Line lifer who worked her way through the ranks only to direct a “final” Elm Street flick that called for the inclusion of lousy 3D effects and Roseanne Barr. But an event coming to Milwaukee’s Oriental Theatre has me wondering if I should give Freddy’s Dead and Talalay another shot…
On October 24 and 25, the historic theater will host “Cult Queen: A Rachel Talalay Retrospective.” The event will feature a screening of Talalay’s 1995 film Tank Girl on the 24th (Tank Girl is another film I should give another shot), a career-spanning afternoon discussion and meet-and-greet with the director on the 25th (Talalay has also directed episodes of shows like Sherlock and Doctor Who), and a screening of Freddy’s Dead later that night. Neat!
“We are absolutely thrilled to bring Rachel Talalay to Milwaukee for two days of events as part of our Cinematic Sisterhood series,” says Milwaukee Film’s Executive Director Susan Kerns in a press release. “By working in genre film and television, Talalay has expanded representations of women in science fiction and action films while helping cultivate one of the most beloved horror series of all time, the A Nightmare on Elm Street films. We’re excited to explore her work and just have a lot of fun!”
Oh, and Tank Girl will be screened in 35mm, and Freddy’s Dead will be screened digitally without the lousy 3D effects. Probably for the best!
DAY 47: THE BLACK CAT (1934)
We’re nearing the home stretch, folks, so it’s time to bust out another Halloween Big Gun: the 1934 Universal classic The Black Cat! Starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi! A film that stretches the meaning of the phrase “suggested by” to its breaking point when it purports to be “suggested by the immortal Edgar Allan Poe classic”!
There’s a lot to say about The Black Cat. It involves Karloff and Lugosi playing bitter enemies, with Karloff dabbling in some good ol’ fashioned necrophilia (with Lugosi’s dead wife, no less) and Lugosi occasionally throwing knives at cats. Both actors are great here, though Karloff is clearly the Big Star; he’s once again credited only as “Karloff,” and he receives a dramatic introduction worthy of Indiana Jones. And then there’s Karloff’s house, a cold, metallic, bizarrely modern mansion built atop an old fort where thousands of Austro-Hungarian soldiers died in World War I. Oh, and Karloff was the former commander of the fort. And he sold it out to the Russians. And Lugosi was tortured in a Siberian prison camp for 15 years because of Karloff’s betrayal. Yikes!
The Black Cat is just over an hour long (BRING BACK HOUR-LONG MOVIES!), but boy oh boy does it leave an impression. You can rent it, or watch a lousy copy of it online HERE. Supernatural? Perhaps. Baloney? Perhaps not…
DAY 46: THIS MODESTLY DECORATED HOUSE
There are home owners who go all out for Halloween—hundreds of decorations, endless strings of lights, giant skeletons in the yard, etc.—and then there are folks who simply toss some fake cobwebs on the porch and call it a day. You know what? I love those modestly decorated houses. They aren’t flashy, but they’re still a crucial part of the Halloween season. Getting in the spirit of things shouldn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.
So shout-out to this modestly / wonderfully decorated house I spotted on my way to Wiggle Room Friday night. I love it! The skeleton in the second-story window is priceless.
DAY 45: HALLOWEENIE
Welcome to Part III of Milwaukee Record’s 66 Days of Halloween countdown! The final part! I think I’m actually going to pull this off this year!
Anyway, it’s time to bust out one of the Big Guns: “Halloweenie,” a.k.a. the 1994 Halloween episode of beloved Nickelodeon show The Adventures Of Pete & Pete! Well, well, well, if it isn’t the biggest Halloweenie of them all…
Pete & Pete was made for Halloween. The show took common kid experiences and gave them a heightened, surreal, and absurdist twist. Family road trips became epic battles. Summer groundings became elaborate breakout schemes worthy of The Great Escape. And Halloween became not only a war against neighborhood bullies, but a dark-night-of-the-soul reckoning with getting older and leaving behind childish things. At its best, Pete & Pete could make you laugh, but it could break your heart, too.
The above YouTube video contains the “Halloweenie” episode and the “Halloweenie” episode with a 2005 audio commentary from creators Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, and stars Michael Maronna and Danny Tamberelli. Neat! And for an extra bonus, here’s a really old Halloween episode of Pete & Pete, back when it was just a series of shorts. Enjoy!
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