Happy Halloween. Here’s what we’re cooking, watching and telling the kids tonight. Clocks fall back at 2 a.m., so everyone gets an extra hour after the candy count.
EDITOR’S PICKS
Comeback we’re cheering
Bill Murray is back as Peter Venkman (w/video). In Rivian’s new Halloween spot, Slimer is chomping through a family’s fridge on Halloween eve when a familiar siren pulls up outside. Gil Kenan, who co-wrote Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed it. The spot launches Rivian’s Ghostbusters Halloween Mode, live through Nov. 2.
Horror we’re watching tonight
Crystal Lake (Peacock). A24’s Friday the 13th prequel. Linda Cardellini plays Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother, in the year after her son drowned in the town lake. All eight episodes are out (how they made it).
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Disney+, 1983). Ray Bradbury adapted his own novel: two boys, a carnival that rolls in overnight and a ringmaster, Mr. Dark, who grants wishes at a terrible price. It’s somehow PG.
More horror series (see post) to start this weekend: Mike Flanagan’s take on Stephen King’s Carrie, the wedding nightmare Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, IT: Welcome to Derry and Below.
Christmas cards we’re ordering (yes, already)
Today is Halloween. Tomorrow is Christmas? [Partner*] At Disney World, crews start pulling down Magic Kingdom’s Halloween decor the minute the last party ends, and much of the Christmas decor goes up overnight. Your neighbor’s inflatable Santa won’t be far behind. So get a head start on the one holiday job that takes real lead time: the cards. The Gallery Collection has made premium printed cards since 1929, and it’s still family owned. Think real foil stamping, authentic embossing and premium paper stocks, with your company name or logo added for clients, and a U.S.-based customer service team that’s highly rated on Trustpilot. Find your Christmas cards.
Ghostly history we’re telling the kids
The night Halloween almost got banned. On Oct. 31, 1933, teenage boys across the country flipped cars and sawed down telephone poles. People called it “Black Halloween,” after the Black Tuesday crash four years earlier, and some cities considered banning the holiday. Instead, towns organized trick-or-treating, parties, costume parades and haunted houses to keep kids busy. One 1937 party pamphlet suggested hanging “strips of raw liver on walls” along a trail of terror. And the bedsheet ghost? For centuries, Europeans buried their dead in white shrouds, often the sheet off the deathbed.
Halloween menu we’re making tonight
Fiesta taco potato skillet for dinner. Air-fried potatoes, a pound of seasoned ground beef, cheddar and queso, all in one skillet before the first doorbell. The full recipe is in the caption.
Ghosts in a blanket for the kids. Crescent dough wrapped around Little Smokies, baked at 375 to 400°F for 8 to 10 minutes.
Chocolate-covered apple slices for dessert. Quarter-inch Honeycrisp slices on popsicle sticks, dipped in chocolate and topped with date caramel and chopped peanuts.
Witches’ brew for the table. A bottle of nonalcoholic red, 2 cups of cranberry juice and a liter of club soda, with blackberries, pomegranate seeds and orange slices. It’s one of five Halloween mocktails in the post (more mocktails here).
BITE SIZED
Americans will spend $13.5B on Halloween. Jack Nicholson’s Shining axe is up for auction. The best horror posters ever made. Some people really think they’re werewolves. A Kegel trainer for the core muscle most workouts skip*. A porch full of 1992 McNugget Buddies. Eating candy? Pair it with protein. (*Partner)
Tried something this week worth passing along? Hit reply. It might make next Saturday’s picks.
— The 1% Better Team
