SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019 Halloween's heritage


They say every lie has a grain of truth to it, and horror fiction is no exception. Short of


movies that dramatize historical events (The Hills Have Eyes, Open Water, The Girl Next Door, etc.), much of our genre has its roots in reality, often in more nuanced ways. Shadow- land is an exploration of these narrative origin stories, with an eye to uncover the cultural implications that appear in the transition from real life to urban legend to film.


Halloween is a perfect time to kick off this new column, being a holiday with its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The first of November was a day designated by Pope Gregory III to honour all saints, which en- couraged superstitious cultures to spend the night before (known as All Hallows Eve, and later, Halloween) preparing for ancestral vis- its – lighting bonfires and wearing costumes was believed to ward off ghosts. Nowadays, depending on your age, Halloween has more to do with killer costumes than killer spirits, making it fertile ground for horror stories that can take advantage of the element of disguise and the spook factor of the autumnal setting. The most obvious example, of course, is


John Carpenter’s seminal Halloween fran- chise, where Michael Myers, the long-lost troubled child of Haddonfield, returns to his hometown to prey on unsuspecting teens, going largely undetected on the day of cos- tumes and generalized creepiness. While se- quel Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) remains an oddball in the franchise due to its omission of Myers as the killer, it tackles modern themes of the holiday by focussing its narrative on a series of haunted masks that bring about a ritualistic ceremony, hearkening back to Halloween’s spiritual roots. The idea of Halloween being a community celebration came about in the late 1800s, when Americans borrowed from the Irish and English traditions of going door to door in search of goodies. By the mid-1900s, Halloween had become a nationwide night of vandalism and debauchery to the point where town officials redirected the festivities toward youth. The idea that a delicious “treat” would appease neighbourhood kids and pro- tect one’s household from “tricks” took hold, linking the holiday to childhood and mischief from then on.


Kevin S. Tenney’s Night of the Demons (1988) tackled this facet of Halloween, incor-


porating what’s now become the holiday’s pri- mary method of observance with a narrative about a group of teens inadvertently awaken- ing evil spirits with a Halloween night séance. What’s more, the film also makes reference to a modern urban legend that emerged over the years – that of hiding razor blades in apples given to unsuspecting trick or treaters. Every lie has a grain of truth to it… tune in to next issue’s Shadowland for more.


ANDREA SUBISSATI


JEFF SAUNDERS LOCATION: Penndel, Pennsylvania


INSTAGRAM: @jeffsaunderstattoo


A self-confessed film buff, Pennsylva- nia-based tattooer Jeff Saunders brings a unique blend of comic, neotraditional and realist styles to some of the genre’s most iconic characters. Inspired by the gothic Victorian era of art as well as Todd


McFarlane’s comic flair, with heavy black and high-contrast highlights, Saunders has tackled designs straight out of the movies as well as dark, conceptual artwork that would be at home on any horror fan’s wall. “Right now, my favourite piece would have


HAVE A GREAT HORROR TAT? SHARE IT WITH US AT: INFO@RUE-MORGUE.COM. 9 R M


to be one of my most recent; Terrifier!” says the artist. “Art’s no ordinary clown, know what I mean?”


ANDREA SUBISSATI


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