Tag Archives: halloween

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Monster High 13 Wishes’ movie review

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By: Marina Yang

This is my review of the movie ‘Monster High: 13 Wishes’, made by Mattel Entertainment in 2013 and produced by Nerd Corps Entertainment. Our main characters consist of Howleen (our main character), Draculaura, Frankie Stein, Clawdeen Wolf (Howleen’s older sister), and Gigi Grant (genie), with small segments featuring other characters like Clawd Wolf (Howleen’s older brother) and his friends in a fright show.

This movie greatly speaks about the grip that greed has on one person, being shown in different ways like wanting popularity (mainly featured from Howleen), money, etc. Howleen is jealous of her older sister and brother being so “popular”, despite the title of that being outdated in high school; just well-known.

While Howleen and Clawdeen’s friends clean up in the attic they come across a genie lamp, rubbing it a couple of times to reveal Gigi, our genie assistance. Despite all the good of having a genie may be, Gigi wasn’t the only thing released, her evil twin sister, Djinni, has been summoned and will take over power all over again. Howleen blinded by the want of being popular may make that mission easier for her.

This movie is a “kids” movie I’d say, but it highly acknowledges the feeling of greed and a look into real life with the “need” to be popular and liked by everybody. That factor really enhances my opinion about this movie rather than just reminiscing about my past/childhood, as I feel at least popularity, or being liked by everybody, is a great factor in people’s lives somewhere in life.

Alongside the message and meaning of the movie, the visuals I’d say are very fashionable and cool for the castle inside of the genie lamp. This is a good film for anyone who is into fashionable films or just for a blast in the past.

My review on this would probably be a 4/5 because I like the message a lot, and feel a lot of people need to hear this and realize how you might lose yourself trying to build a fake you for recognition. It’s at a 4/5 though because I feel like they had better films than this, but this is still relatively good in my opinion.

‘Monster High 13 Wishes’ is free to watch on Plex, or with a subscription/rental on other streaming services.

Fashion/Make-Up

Halloween costumes

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By: Siri David

This Halloween there were a lot of really good Halloween costumes that I saw. Some of my favorites included Rio birds, Justin Bieber, and Serena and Blair from ‘Gossip Girl’. Now these were my favorite costumes that I saw but Halloween costumes and what’s popular change every year, so for this article I am going to be talking about what the most popular costumes were this season.

This season the top five costumes were all from the same TV show. The TV show is ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’. This show is really popular among kids, and is the most watched TV show for kids as of right now. Rumi, Zoey, Mira, Jinu, and Baby Saja are in the order of popularity from one to five.

After all of these characters, Chicken Jockey from ‘Minecraft’ is the next popular costume.

After that it is Labubus. Labubus have become very popular among the Gen-Z generation, and can be found at lots of different stores.

Another really popular costume idea is Elphaba and Glinda from ‘Wicked’. This was seen with people of all ages, and with the new ‘Wicked’ movie coming out that makes this a lot more popular and exciting.

Overall, this Halloween we saw a lot of different Halloween costumes, some that were new ideas and some that were old ideas. Either way Halloween is a great holiday that allows people to be creative and express themselves and who they are in many different ways. A lot of the time people make Halloween out to be a holiday just for kids, but it is not. Halloween is for everyone. People just celebrate in many different ways whether it is trick-or-treating, going to parties, or being the one to hand out candy. Halloween is a holiday for everyone, and a great time of year.

Student Creative Writing

Halloween Night

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By: Seng Nhkum

In the starry dark of

the autumn sky,

a ghost-shaped cloud

went drifting by.

Ghosts and goblins

ring the chime.

You’ll hear the

super spooky scary

time of the year

is coming by.

Cats prowl,

Winds howl,

Witches ride,

Puppies hide.

It’s Halloween!

Costumes are unseen

till the night of ghoulish fun

that avoids the sun.

Dressed up like ghosts,

and frighten those we meet.

Tonight is the night where,

Trick or treaters roam the street

running like hungry werewolves

from door to door

to get the best candy to live for.

A sweet treat stash to store.

Jack-O-Lanterns smiling bright

wishing you a haunting night.

Shadows dance beneath the moon,

Whispers float like a spooky tune.

Pumpkins glow with fiery eyes,

Spinning webs with the black crow flies.

Bats sore high in the chilly air,

Chilling, laughter, echo everywhere.

Magic feels this eerie night,

Filling hearts of spooky fright!

Student Creative Writing

Midnight’s Little Secrets

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By: Canaan Nonnemacher

The hour is late, the streets are damp,

The mist creeps low across the lawn.

A solitary silver lamp

Burns weakly, waiting for the dawn.

The windows stare like vacant eyes,

Above the hollow, quiet street,

Where shadows stretch and sound replies

To soft, quick taps of running feet.

A fence post holds a silly trick,

A toilet paper shroud it wears.

A garden gnome, misplaced and quick,

Is moved from where the owner cares.

A whispered name behind a tree,

A giggle smothered by a sleeve—

For tonight, the spirit of glee

Gives license to what we believe.

The door springs open, light spills wide,

A hand drops chocolate in a pail.

The youthful faces, hard to hide,

Are cheered by sugar’s sweet prevail.

The wind picks up a forgotten leaf,

It dances with a hurried sound,

For in this night of playful grief,

The best kept secrets can be found.

We tell the tales of ancient dread,

Of witches, wolves, and things unseen,

But really, it’s the fun instead,

That crowns the night of Halloween.

Events, Getting To Know/History

A history of Halloween

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 By Hannan Mohammed

Today, Halloween is known as a holiday for people to dress in their scariest costumes and go door to door trick-or-treating, asking neighbors for candy to take home with them. Some people may even carve pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns to celebrate the holiday. But, how did Halloween and its ways of celebrating it come to be, and what was this holiday originally?

Sanhaim

Originally, the holiday of Halloween was known as Sanhaim, a pagan festival celebrated by the Ancient Celtic people. According to an article by BBC, this festival was celebrated about 2,000 years ago, usually on November 1. This was also the first day of winter for the Ancient Celts, and so this festival was also seen as an important transition in the year. According to the World History Encyclopedia, this holiday may have even represented the Celtic New Year.

This holiday was seen as the day in the year where a gap between our world and the spirit world was open, so that the spirits of the dead could cross over into our world. And, according to the World History Encyclopedia, these spirits could pass freely through to the human world and be either good-natured or harmful.

To celebrate this festival, the Ancient Celts would wear their own sort of costumes made from animal skins and heads, a little similar to what we would wear today, and priests (called ‘druids’) would light large bonfires to offer animal sacrifices.

Hallowed Evening

Over time, the popularity of Sanhaim spread across Europe, becoming especially well-known in Ireland. However, Christianity was also spreading by the 5th century, and one way that the Catholic Church attempted to convert the Celts was to incorporate pagan holidays into their calendar.

To do this, All Saints’ Day was moved to November 1 by Pope Boniface IV in the 7th century, incorporating elements of Sanhaim into the holiday. Because of this, the day before became known as the ‘Hallowed Evening’. As the centuries passed and All Saints’ Day became more widespread, this name was shortened to Halloween, and more traditions that we associate with the holiday today became more prominent:

Carving Pumpkins

The holiday tradition of carving pumpkins to create jack-o’-lanterns came from Ireland, centuries ago. Using turnips rather than the pumpkins we use today, Irish people would carve scary faces into the turnips in order to ward off a spirit called Stingy Jack.

A famine in 19th century Ireland forced the immigration of millions of Irish people to the United States, and they brought this tradition with them, making this Halloween activity more well-known. Over time, pumpkins became more widely used as they were easier to carve than turnips.

Image by Lirazelf via Wikimedia Commons

Souling

Trick-or-treating used to be an activity called souling, and it originated in medieval England as a tradition to take part in on All Saints’ Day. To participate, people would go door to door exchanging prayers for food. By the Victorian era, the food that was most often exchanged was a pastry called a ‘soul cake’. Today, people often exchange a greeting of ‘Trick-or-treat’ for pieces of chocolate and candy.

Image by Malikhpur via Wikimedia Commons

Conclusion

Overall, the holiday of Halloween was first celebrated by the Ancient Celts as the festival of Sanhaim, and the holiday was incorporated into the Catholic calendar as the ‘Hallowed Evening’. Over time, the spreading popularity of this holiday and other traditions such as souling and carving turnips and pumpkins turned this into the Halloween that many people celebrate today.

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Movies/TV/Theaters

Halloween movie/show recommendations

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By: Beverly Stinson

My favorite holiday of the year is coming up and I’d love to share some of my favorite horror/Halloween movies and shows to binge-watch on Halloween or during October.

I’m someone who struggles to find good horror media to watch so I find things like this useful when I need something to watch.

  1. The Scream Franchise

The Scream Franchise is one of the most popular horror series ever. I’d say most people have seen at least one of the movies before. I didn’t become a fan until early 2023 and I became obsessed very quickly.

The franchise is good to watch if you love a continuous story and if you love Horror comedies. It’s also good for people like me who love a good slasher but without a ton of gore.

But even though it’s a good series to watch in full I’d recommend specifically ‘Scream’ (the original), ‘Scream 5’ (also labeled as just ‘Scream’) and ‘Scream 6’. You don’t really need all the lore from the other 3 movies to understand the plot of ‘Scream 5’ and 6 as they focus more on new characters.

‘Scream 6’ is my favorite movie, and compared to all the other movies there are more gory scenes but not too bad. There’s also ‘Scream’ the TV series which is not the same as the movies at all and it’s also incredibly gory. So, if you like gore then the show is where you wanna go.

Where you can watch:

‘Scream’ 1-4 (R): Max

‘Scream’ 5-6 (R): Paramount+

‘Scream’ show (Mature): you can rent it on YouTube or Amazon Prime

  1. ‘The Boy’

‘The Boy’ (PG-13) is a very underrated movie but it’s one of my favorites. I do feel like it takes a certain type of person to like it. It’s a very slow-paced movie which is something that usually draws people away, but to me, the slow aspect of it makes the ending even more unsettling.

In my opinion, it’s not very scary, it’s more just suspenseful. It doesn’t have any gore or really any blood. The storyline is so interesting and to me it’s unique. And since a lot of people probably haven’t heard about it, I’ll give a short summary.

It’s about an American woman traveling to the UK to babysit a boy from a rich family, but when she gets to the house, she learns that the child she’s babysitting is actually a lifesize porcelain doll.

Again, it’s one of my favorite movies, though I knew the twist before watching it so it wasn’t much of a surprise.

Where to watch: Hulu & Paramount+

  1. ‘Totally Killer’

‘Totally Killer’ (R) is a fairly new movie to the slasher scene so most likely a lot of you haven’t seen it. When I heard about this movie I expected to like it and I really did.

It’s a horror comedy but to me it’s more just a comedy.

It’s about a girl in 2023 who goes back in time to the ’80s to stop a series of killings and save her mother. It’s such a fun movie honestly; it references other slasher movies including ‘Scream’.

There is one part of the movie that annoys me which is the main character trying to make the characters understand things that people in the ’80s don’t understand; it’s just a little pet peeve throughout the movie.

I love the plot so much, it’s literally ‘Back to the Future’ mixed with a slasher, but another thing I don’t like is the ending. I feel like it was so unnecessary.

But anyway, it has a good amount of gore for a slasher and will definitely make you laugh.

Where to watch: Prime

  1. ‘Lisa Frankenstein’

‘Lisa Frankenstein’ (R) was a movie I was looking forward to when it was announced, I already knew it would be something I like.

It’s a Horror comedy as well as a romance. It’s about a teenage girl who accidentally raises a man from the dead and they begin to collect body parts to piece the man back together all while Lisa is trying to gain the attention of a boy she likes.

It’s such a good movie all the way through, it’s so hilarious and has a good ending. It has a small amount of gore as there’s dismembered body parts shown but it’s not really bad. I really love the ‘Frankenstein’ take on a slasher movie; I’d say it’s a pretty unique movie. It also is a pretty good love story.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

  1. ‘Supernatural’

‘Supernatural’ (TV-14) is a pretty popular show I’d say; it has 15 seasons so it’s definitely not a watch it in one day kind of show.

It’s about two brothers who are demon hunters and they go around doing just that. The first two seasons are mostly different plots for every episode but then it starts to have a main thing going on around the 3rd season.

It showcases a lot of different monsters, demons, and ghosts throughout the entire show. I’d say it’s not that gory for most of the episodes but there are some bad ones.

It’s also mainly a horror/comedy I think.

Where to watch: Netflix

  1. ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (TV-14) is another one I’d say is pretty popular or was more popular when it was streaming. It’s one of my favorite shows, especially because it’s mainly about vampires.

It’s about a girl who has been chosen to be a “Slayer” which basically means she has this supernatural strength to use to fight monsters, especially vampires. It’s another show that has a different plot every episode with different monsters but it also has a main plot pretty much every season, in which there are 7.

It’s a drama but it definitely gives a Horror/comedy feeling, which obviously I love Horror/comedy if you couldn’t tell.

And this show gives me the most Halloween feeling out of all the recommendations.

Where to watch: Hulu

Some other good things to watch would be:

  1. The X trilogy
  2. ‘The Vampire Diaries’/’The Originals’
  3. ‘The Winchesters’ (Spin-off of ‘Supernatural’)
  4. ‘My Babysitters a Vampire’
  5. ‘Beetlejuice’
  6. ‘The Craft’

Those are all my recommendations. I really love all the movies and shows in this article and I hope it gives you a sense of some things to watch during the Halloween season.

  • Beverly
Entertainment

Halloween Trick-or-Tricking

Little witches zooming by, mini ghost floating among the streets, other weird people disguising themselves in the most strangest costumes like whoopee cushions and ketchup and mustard. Guess what? It’s almost Halloween. And do you know what that means? TRICK-OR-TREATING TIME!!! This is one of the most exciting time of the year where children will be dressed in various costumes, going from door to door begging for some candy. The goal of Halloween is to gather the most possible amount of candy during that single night and indulge ourselves with our well deserved sweets (And most likely get sugar high right before bed and sick the next morning).

Even though we are currently high school students and that it may seem a bit lame for us to be the ones trick or tricking, you still might have to take your younger siblings or neighbors trick or tricking, therefore you should take the initiative to take them to the best places to get the best and abundant amount of candies.

Here are a few places where you should definitely visit during Halloween:

PALACE AVENUE

On Palace Avenue, you will find front yards transformed into haunting graveyards, covered in cobwebs and mist of fog along with eerie background music as you walk towards their door, bringing you a chill up your spine. A giant spider supposedly had climbed up on the roof of a residents house, but don’t worry, it’s just a plastic inflatable spider. Traditional orange yellow glowing pumpkins with carved out images of spooky monsters, goblins, and cats are embellished all over their homes. Even if you don’t have any intentions to retrieve some candy, at least take a moment to enjoy the view and appreciate their devotion and much time invested into celebrating Halloween.

SUMMIT AVENUE

During your late night trip, you MUST head on over to Summit Avenue at least once. Residents there will treat you will giant candy bars such as jumbo size Snickers, Three Musketeers,  and so much more! They have always been known for their generous handouts and also the same nice decoration found on Palace Avenue so don’t be discourage to come here to trick or trick.

CHIPOTLE

Every year on Halloween, Chipotle will be there ready to hand out free burritos to anyone who arrives to their restaurant in their Halloween costumes. It’s even said that they will still give you one even if you don’t chose to participate in the Halloween spirit. This is only considered to be a good deal if you actually enjoy eating food served at Chipotle. Either way, who doesn’t like free stuff?

Tips for a safe adventure:

  • Please, please don’t dress completely in black attire. No one is going to be able to see you when you try to blend in wit the night. According to USA Today, 115 pedestrians were killed on Halloween days throughout a 21 year period between 1990 and 2010.
  • Stranger danger: Don’t even consider talking to strangers when you’re alone….all by yourself. Actually, make sure to tag someone along with you, for it’s always best to not go anywhere all alone at night. It would also be quite lonely to go trick go tricking by yourself. Remember, the more the merrier!
  • Only eat candy that has not been opened. Who knows how they might have contaminate them, or what they even put in them, or the negative intentions of creepy people who want to harm innocent individuals like you.
  • As high school student, we should be the ones to watch over younger children and set a good example for them. Some older kids may attempt to bully them and steal their massive buckets of candy, so we suggest you be the better person and stuck up for those poor little kids. See something, do something.
  • Be safe Highland!!