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Halloween
Tradition #5 - Scary Movie Night
 During
the month of October, we try and host a "Scary Movie Night".
We plan a spooky movie night and we
invite a bunch of friends over to watch a few
of horror movies all night. We always try and plan this on a
week-end when everyone has a day off because this tradition
has been known to go on long into the night.
The
Preparation
After we have everyone's
schedule fixed so we can pick a night, we have to come a
list of movies. We try to vary it from year to year so we
don't end up watching the same movie two years in a row.
With our horror movie collection, there's not much chance of
that anyway!
Then we have
to work out a meal plan. We like to serve some type of
substantial meal that can be eaten in front of the TV. We
also plan a bunch of snacks to munch on during the night.
Beverages usually include soda, some type of wine for
those who want it and, of course, apple cider.
Try The
Halloween Kitchen for some food ideas that will fill
them up but not too much because you'll want to have plenty
of finger foods to eat during the night. We've made the
Jack-O-Lantern Pizza in the past and the Mummy Fingers from
the
Halloween Recipes website. This site actually has a
larger amount of recipes to choose from and we've found some
good ones there for snack treats as well.
Picking The Movies
Picking the movies that you'll all be watching takes some
finesse. With different people coming together, you usually
have different tolerances for gore. Sometimes we e-mail a
list of ten movies to everyone that is coming and ask them
to choose their top three picks. That way you can have some
choices ready for when you settle in to start watching for
the night. We always start the night off by watching "It's
the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!". Everyone loves it and
most of us remember it from our childhood. Then we try to
have one classic film, one horror-comedy and one gore fest.
For a good idea on the types of movies that you should be
picking, check out
Fearful Films for ideas.
Last year we chose
the direct to DVD release "Trick r
Treat", which was a big hit with everyone! There are
five sub-plots that all tie together. Then we watched
"Elvira: Mistress of the Dark" followed by the original
"Halloween".
We always watch the movies
in advance
and make a list of questions and answers for a post
movie trivia game for each movie. It's fun and breaks up the
time between movies when people might need to use the rest
room, get drinks and munchies and just need to stretch. We
give little prizes to the winner of each round.
All in all,
it's a fun night and our friends always look forward to it.
In fact, some have started e-mailing us movie suggestions if
they happen to see a new horror movie on DVD . Some will
also let us know what stinkers they may have seen so we can
make sure that if we do happen to buy any new movies for the
party, that won't be one of them.
You can also
change it up a little by asking friends to each bring a
treat of some kind to pass around. It takes some of
the pressure off of the hosts and a since money is so
tight nowadays, it helps with the budget, too. |
