Halloween – Salem Happenings

Halloween Weekend: Ghost Stories and Zombies

All Hallows Eve is almost upon us, and this weekend may be your last chance to indulge in all of the thrills and chills that the season has to offer. Fortunately, if you’re looking for a way to embrace the Halloween spirit, there are a couple of events this weekend that are sure to send shivers down your spine.

First, if you have always loved the idea of sitting in an old cottage listening to creepy tales by candlelight or sitting outside by a campfire sharing your local ghost stories, Pioneer’s Village in Salem may have exactly what you’re looking for. This is because Pioneer’s Village is hosting the last night (at least for this year) of their annual Dark of Night event on Saturday (October 29, 2016) with stories starting at 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 P.M. This event will feature a group of local authors and storytellers that will share the frightening tales they have written or discovered while you sit by the candlelight in an exact replica of the type of thatch-roofed cottage you might have seen in 1630. For more information on Dark of Night at Pioneer Village and/or to order tickets for the event, please visit the Salem Witch House website or e-mail info@pioneervillagesalem.org.

Secondly, if you’re a huge fan of Shakespeare and a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, there’s a show at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) Plaza Black Box Theatre on Tremont Street in Boston that you won’t want to miss. This is because the Anthem Theatre Company is performing Twelfth Night of the Living Dead every night from now until November 5, 2016. This show will take Shakespeare’s famous play, Twelfth Night, and as you might expect, add the only thing that really makes almost every literary work better: Zombies. For more information on Twelfth Night of the Living Dead and/or to order tickets, please visit the Anthem Theatre Company website.

Photo credit: JeepersMedia via VisualHunt.com / CC BY

Halloween in the Witch City

Controlled chaos is probably the best term to describe Salem on a Saturday Halloween. In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s got to be a dictionary somewhere that has a picture of downtown Salem next to the term because on an average Saturday Halloween, you can expect there to be in excess of 150,000 people in the Witch City. Now, to put this into prospective, 150,000 people is over three times the number of people that actually live in the city on a regular basis. That’s a lot of people, and that number can be even higher when the weather is really nice. This means that if you live in Salem or you’re planning a trip to Salem on Halloween night, you need to be prepared to embrace the madness.

However, in order to truly embrace the madness, there are a few things that you need to remember:

1. Choose Your Costume Carefully

There’s never a shortage of people in costume in Salem during October, and Halloween is, without a doubt, the peak of the costume season. However, most people just go with the first idea that pops into their head, and they don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what they’re wearing. Unfortunately, the temperature in Salem on Halloween night can range anywhere from 35 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the year, so it’s always a good idea to have a costume with some layers (especially if you can easily remove some of those layers and throw them in your bag or your car when you realize it’s warmer than you thought it was.)

As a result, if you decide to dress-up like an Arabian princess, a Chippendale dancer, a gladiator, a mermaid, a naughty nurse, or some other similarly scantily-clad individual, you may find that it can be pretty cold on a chilly fall night. It’s also important to consider what emergency personnel may think of your costume if the unthinkable happens and you need medical attention because, trust me, the nurses at the local hospitals are not going to find your naughty nurse costume as entertaining as you do. In addition to considering the warmth and emergency implications of your costume, it is also important to make sure that you wear comfortable shoes (you’ll be doing a lot of walking), make sure that you do not have any weapons of any kind (real or fake because the city prohibits both costume and real weapons), and avoid long trailing items like capes or gowns (because they may get caught on things and trip you, trip other people, and/or just get torn to shreds.)

2. Take Public Transportation If You Can

As page 5 of the Haunted Happenings Guide states: “Traffic in October can be scary!” This is certainly true for Halloween and is especially true for a Halloween on a Saturday because, weather permitting, there will be somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people trying to get into Salem tomorrow. This means that trying to drive into the city and find somewhere to park may be worse than and, quite possibly, more expensive than your worst nightmare. As a result, taking the Commuter Rail or the Salem Ferry can be a much easier way to enjoy Salem’s All Hallows Eve festivities because these services will allow you to avoid the traffic and the enormous parking fees.

If you feel like you have to drive into the city because public transportation just isn’t going to work for you though, try to come in early. The earlier in the day you come, the less traffic there will be.

3. If There’s Something You Really Want to Do In Salem, Book It Now!

The one thing that is absolutely, positively guaranteed on Halloween night, regardless of whether it is a Saturday or not, is that everything in Salem will be packed (unless the weather is horrible.) This means that if there is something that you really want to get into on Halloween night, try to see if you can get tickets for it now. Some places in Salem will not take reservations for Halloween night because they are guaranteed to fill up their seats from foot traffic alone. However, some places will take reservations and/or sell advance tickets, so it is always a good idea to see if you can book what you want to do now because it will give you a much better chance of getting into the restaurant or show that you want to check out.

Photo Credits

Hippie Girl Photo Credit: jramspott / Foter / CC BY
Broom Photo Credit: nanaow2006 / Foter / CC BY
Necronomicon Photo credit: liftarn / Foter / CC BY-SA

Don’t Fear the Walking Dead!

WARNING: Spoilers for “Fear the Walking Dead” may be present in this post. If you’re more afraid of having the plot spoiled than you are of zombies, it may be a good idea to stop reading this post now.

I’m a big fan of the AMC series, The Walking Dead, and it should come as no great surprise that I was pretty excited when AMC announced that they were making a spin-off series called Fear the Walking Dead. In fact, I made sure to set my DVR to record every episode, so there was no way I could miss a single zombie-filled moment. Unfortunately, I have to admit that once I finished watching the first season, I realized that the series really wasn’t as good as I was hoping. I mean I don’t hate the show, but it definitely doesn’t capture the suspense and emotion of the original series. Now, it is completely possible that some of my feelings in regards to the show are the result of the fact that there are very few things in life that are ever as good as the original, but Fear the Walking Dead is a series about people surviving the early days of the zombie apocalypse. How could something with a premise like that possibly go wrong?

Well, the answer is that pretty much any premise will fail miserably when you take a group of characters that are difficult for people to relate to and place them in a situation with plot holes big enough for you to drive the main character’s pickup truck through. Let’s face it. The most interesting characters in Fear the Walking Dead are the Salazar family, and they don’t even have a chance to really catch our attention until halfway through the season because the spotlight is focused on the Clark and Manawa families who are too busy trying to figure out which end is up to accept the fact that the world is ending.

The biggest problem with the show, however, is not the characters, but is instead the situations that the characters are placed in and how those situations unfold. The worst of these plot offenses actually occurs when the National Guard is deployed to aid the survivors of the zombie outbreak in Los Angeles. The deployment of the National Guard is, of course, a perfectly reasonable direction for the plot to go because the National Guard is always ready to respond to a crisis and zombies eating their way through a major city would definitely constitute as one. The problem is, as Matt Fowler from IGN says in his review of the first season of Fear the Walking Dead:

I thought the Clarks trying to battle gross army negligence and abuse would breathe fire into the show. But it was never handled right. There was no central character on the army side to focus on, or to play the enemy. And while the military seemed to be actively trying to help the wounded, they were also, like, shooting people for crying too much. And shooting people for sending mirror signals (did we ever even find out what happened there?).

-Matt Fowler, Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1 Review, IGN

No, we did not. The writers never actually explained why the military was randomly killing people outside of their quarantine zones even though it would have only taken a single scene before Travis hears the shots fired at the mirror signaler’s home. In fact, a scene in which we actually see the mirror signaler saying something along the lines of “You’ll never get away with this. When the people find out what you’re planning to do after things get really bad, they’re all take up arms and rise up to stop you” would have been enough to tie up everything nicely. It would have created the implication that the military was trying to stop an uprising consisting of people who were more than a little upset with the “humane” way in which they were planning to handle survivors after they pulled out. And, there is always the possibility that a scene like this is sitting on a cutting room floor somewhere, but without it, the whole season becomes one giant convoluted mess.

As a result, if you’re looking for something zombie-related this weekend, I highly recommend that you forget about checking out Fear the Walking Dead and check out the Zombie Walk at Collins Cove in Salem, MA at 4:30 PM tomorrow (Saturday, October 10, 2015) instead. The Zombie Walk will give you the opportunity to see over 400 people dress up as zombies and shamble through downtown Salem as a somewhat unruly hoard of brain-eating fiends, which as much as I hate to say it (because I really want to like Fear the Walking Dead), is probably going to be a whole lot more fun than watching Fear the Walking Dead‘s dysfunctional leading family.

Photo credit: Dustin Coates / Foter / CC BY-SA

Halloween: Resting in World Peace

The Witch City’s Annual Halloween Parade was last night, and this year’s theme was world peace. Now, I have admit when I first heard about the theme for this year, I thought that “world peace” is certainly a noble goal and something that everyone dreams of achieving (well, almost everyone, world peace would probably be the worst nightmare of some of the arms dealers out there), but it is sort of a strange theme for a Halloween parade. I mean Halloween is typically a time for people to embrace their darker sides and dress-up as villains, monsters, and every creature that goes bump in the night. However, this got me to thinking, and I realized that most of the villains that frighten us from fallen angels to zombies all, in their own dark and twisted way, seem to have the singular goal of creating world peace themselves. The only difference is that they want to do it by removing humanity from the Earth. As a result, I’ve decided that world peace is actually the perfect theme for Halloween, and if you’re looking for a way to get into the Halloween spirit before the zombies rise from their graves and make us all rest in world peace, I highly recommend you check out the lanterns at Pioneer Village.

The Second Annual Lanterns in the Village Event, which is scheduled to take place from 6:30 to 8:30 PM tomorrow (Saturday, October 3, 2015) at Pioneer’s Village, is a charity event for Collins Middle School in Salem, MA. This event will allow you and your family to hear spooky stories as you see over 100 Jack ‘O Lanterns carved by local Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and other similar organizations. Best of all, all of the proceeds from the event will go to helping the students of Collins Middle School. For more information on the Lanterns in the Village Event, which is $4 for children 10 and under, $6 for adults, and $15 for families of four or more, please visit the Haunted Happenings Online Guide or pick up a print copy of the Haunted Happenings guide in downtown Salem.

Photo credit: spencer77 / Foter / CC BY

Halloween in Salem

Today marks the end of the Halloween countdown, as All Hallows Eve is finally upon us. In fact, if you’re a resident of Salem, today is the day when you have to decide whether you will batten down the hatches and hide in your house to avoid being overrun by tourists or accept the fact that if you can’t beat them, join them. However, if you’re not a resident or you’re a resident who has already accepted his or her fate, you may be trying to figure out exactly what you’re going to do while you’re in the city and/or how you’re going to get into the celebration in the first place. Fortunately, if this is indeed the case, it is important to remember that Halloween in Salem is only as scary as you want it to be, and there are a few things that you can do to make the day more enjoyable:

1. Prepare Yourself for the Mob Scene

Halloween is the biggest celebration of the year in Salem, and with All Hallows Eve on a Friday this year, you should expect there to be in excess of 100,000 people in the downtown area of the city (weather permitting.) To put this into perspective, the population of the city of Salem is approximately 42,500, which means that there will be over twice as many people in the city (if not three times as many people) as there are actually living here. In fact, that figure of 100,000 people doesn’t necessarily include all the people that have chosen to hide in their homes, so if you don’t like crowds, you may want to stay home or find somewhere else to go tonight. However, if you are still brave enough to make your way into the madness, you should expect a significant wait for anything that you want to do. This is because the big, slightly unruly mob that I keep mentioning will want to get into the same attractions, restaurants, and other things that you’re trying to get into as well.

2. Avoid the Traffic and Parking Nightmare

Getting over 100,000 people into a city that typically has 42,500, as you might guess, creates a lot of traffic. In fact, if you’re driving into the city after 4:00 P.M., you should expect to sit in traffic for 1 – 2 hours from the time you reach the highway exit for Salem. This means that you’re going to have a lot of trouble getting into the city, finding a parking space, and getting out of the city again. However, there are a couple of ways that you can avoid these problems.

First, come in early. The traffic in Salem usually escalates around the time that the city closes the roads downtown, which is at 4:00 P.M. this year. As a result, you may be able to avoid a significant amount of traffic, find a parking spot that’s a little further away but cheaper (which is a big deal when a parking spot could cost you $20 to $30), and get out of the city a little faster (from your parking spot closer to the city’s edge) if you’re in the city before 4:00 P.M. Secondly, you could avoid driving into the city altogether. The Newburyport/Rockport Commuter Rail train or the Salem Ferry will take you right into downtown Salem from Boston and the neighboring communities.

3. Enjoy the Frighteningly Free Activities

In addition to all of the vendors, carnival attractions, haunted houses, museums, and restaurants that Salem typically has to offer during this time of year, there are also a number of events on Halloween that are absolutely free. As a result, you may be able to have a great night without completely emptying your wallet by seeing Samhain rituals performed by actual witches, watching live bands performing in the streets, and topping it all off with some fireworks before you go. For more information on all of the events going on in Salem, please visit the Salem Haunted Happenings website.

Photo Credits

Angry Mob Photo Credit: hans s / Foter / CC BY-ND
Traffic Jam Now Fully Operational Photo Credit: psd / Foter / CC BY
Music by the TOKYO TRAMPS Photo Credit: }{enry / Foter / CC BY

The Final Countdown To Halloween

The final countdown to All Hallows Eve has begun, which means that this week is your last chance to brace yourself for the oncoming storm of kids in costume screaming “trick or treat” at your door. However, if you just haven’t been able to get yourself into the Halloween spirit yet this year and the idea of buying candy for all of the little creatures that go bump in the night is the most horrifying thing you can think of right now, fear not. There are plenty of ways that you can find the spirit of the holiday this weekend. In fact, this week is one of the busiest weeks of the year in Salem, so there will definitely be plenty of Halloween things to do, especially if you are a fan of horror.

First, if you’re a big fan of horror movies and/or you love getting every autograph you possibly can, you may want to head over to Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery in Downtown Salem this weekend. This is because Tony Moran, one of the actors who played Michael Myers in the film Halloween will be appearing at Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery from 12:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. tonight (Friday, October 24, 2014), tomorrow (Saturday, October 25, 2014), and Sunday (October 26, 2014). This event will give you the opportunity to meet one of the first actors to portray the masked lunatic, get his autograph, and enjoy all of the horror movie knowledge the Nightmare Gallery has to offer. For more information on Tony Moran’s appearance at Count Orlok’s, please visit the Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery website.

Secondly, if you prefer your horror villains to be a little less scary and perhaps a little more cheesy or you’ve just always loved Michael Jackson’s music videos, there’s an event tomorrow morning at Dead Horse Beach near the Salem Willows that is simply to die for (yes, I actually just wrote that.) This is because Dead Horse Beach is hosting a Zombie Flash Mob tomorrow (Saturday, October 25, 2014) at 8:30 A.M. This group of talented and not-so-talented zombie dancers will be recreating the famous music video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller. As a result, if you’ve ever wanted to be a zombie dancer or if you’ve ever wanted to see a flash mob up close and personal, here’s your chance. For more information on the Zombie “Thriller” Dance Flash Mob, which is sponsored by Conquest Creative Media, please visit the Zombie “Thriller” Dance Flash Mob’s Eventbrite page.

Finally, if you like the idea of a horror dance, but you’re looking for something a little bigger, there are three major Halloween dances in Salem this weekend alone. The first dance this weekend is the Annual Halloween Party at the Hawthorne Hotel, which will allow you to dance the night away to a Mardi Gras Masquerade theme with everyone in masks, beads, colorful costumes, and more. The second dance this weekend is the Wicked Night on the Wharf, which will allow you to make your way around the dance floor of the Salem Waterfront Hotel admiring all of the crazy costumes as the hotel’s DJ plays a variety of hit music. The third and final dance this weekend is the 5th Annual Zombie Prom, which is exactly what it sounds like as over 600 people will dress up as zombies and compete to be crowned Zombie Prom Queen or Zombie Prom King. For more information on all of these dances and other events in Salem right up until Halloween weekend, please visit the Salem Haunted Happenings website.

Photo credit: jamieanne / Foter / CC BY-ND

Beware! Halloween Fun Lurks Here!

With only two weeks left before Halloween,
Salem has again become a mob scene.
Yet, even though the witch city is certainly a fun place,
It is not the only city that can put a smile on your child’s face.
In fact, whether you’re a fan of Salem or Boston or anywhere else in this fine state,
You are certain to find an event that you and your kids think is great!

First, if you are an aspiring horror writer or glassblower and you’re expecting to be in the Boston area this weekend, you may want to check out the Boston Center for Adult Education. This is because the Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE) is hosting two Halloween themed classes this Sunday (October 19, 2014) as part of their Haunted Halloween at the BCAE event series. The first class, which is entitled the Thriller/Horror Novel Writing Workshop, is a one-day session that is designed for aspiring writers that want to learn more about the characters, dialogue, story structure, suspense-building techniques, and other methods that are in used in some of the great novels of the horror genre. The second class, which is entitled Glass Blowing Workshop: Glass Pumpkins, is a one-day session that will teach you how to make your own hollow glass pumpkin. For more information on these events and other events at the BCAE, please visit the Boston Center for Adult Education’s class page.

Secondly, if you’re not really into horror or glassblowing, but you have some kids that are absolutely obsessed with Halloween and the zoo, you may want to consider heading over to the Stone Zoo on Saturday or Sunday (October 18 – 19, 2014.) This is because the Stone Zoo is combining everything your kids love about Halloween and the zoo into one program entitled “Boo at the Zoo.” This program will allow your kids to enter a costume contest, make their way through a haunted maze, play some Halloween-themed games, trick-or-treat around the zoo, try their hands at some Halloween-themed arts and crafts, and more. For more information on Boo at the Zoo, which runs from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. each day this weekend, please visit the Zoo New England Boo at the Zoo page.

Finally, if you’re part of the mob scene in Salem and you’re looking for something to entertain your kids, there are actually three events on the Salem Common this weekend that may be perfect. The first event is the Annual Children’s Halloween Parade & Costume Party, which is an opportunity for your child to show off their Halloween costume in a parade, partake in some games and crafts, and possibly even win some prizes. The second event is the Providence Grays Baseball Game, which will actually allow you and your family to watch a baseball game played using Civil War style bats, uniforms, and rules. The third and final event on the common this weekend is “The Box.” This event, which is presented by the Gallows Hill Theatre, is an interactive performance that is designed to have children of all ages rolling on the floor laughing. For more information on all of the events on Salem Common this weekend and other events throughout Salem, please visit the Salem Haunted Happenings website.

Photo credit: mattieb / Foter / CC BY-SA

The Season of the Witch

This coming Thursday marks the official opening of the Halloween season in Salem, which means that you will be able to have a “frighteningly” good time in the very near future. In fact, there’s no shortage of spooky events scheduled for the next month in the Witch City, and the fun will continue right through All Hallows Eve. However, just because the festivities don’t officially start until Thursday doesn’t mean that you have to wait for the fun to begin. There are already a number of Halloween events scheduled in the Salem area and beyond this weekend, and if you’re looking for a way to start off the season a little early, you’ve come to the right place.

First, if you’ve always been a fan of creepy artwork, there’s no better place to be than the Terror Fantasies Art Show. The Terror Fantasies Art Show, which is held at the Museum Place Mall in Salem from 11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until October 10th, features a wide range of horror and fantasy artwork. This means that you can expect to see black cats, jack-o-lanterns, vampires, zombies, witches, and just about every other creepy thing that has ever been associated with the season. For more information on the Terror Fantasies Art Show, please visit the Salem Haunted Happenings website.

Secondly, if you’re not a huge fan of art but you’ve always had a special place in your heart (still-beating or otherwise) for zombies, prepare yourself for the Boston Zombie Apocalypse. The Boston Zombie Apocalypse is an interactive live action game in which you play a survivor attempting to escape the Boston area after it has been overrun by zombies. This game, which is held at Stronghold Airsoft in Abington, MA, will allow you to use a special airsoft shotgun to defend yourself against the every-growing army of the undead. However, you won’t be alone, as a military escort will attempt to guide you to safety through the 25,000 square-foot facility designed to mimic a city complete with cars, buildings, and, of course, zombies trying to eat you. For more information on the event and/or to order tickets, please visit the Boston Zombie Apocalypse website.

Finally, if you’re looking for something that you can do with the kids and you don’t mind waiting until Thursday, you may want to head down to Salem for the Haunted Happenings Grand Parade. The Haunted Happenings Grand Parade marks the official opening of the Halloween season in Salem with bands, school groups, trolleys, real witches, and occasionally some special appearances by celebrities and interesting vehicles like the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters. This year’s parade will have a fantasy theme, so you should expect to see kids and adults from all over the area dressed as characters from Avatar, The Chronicles of Narnia, Frozen, Ghostbusters, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and a whole lot more. For more information on the parade, which will run from approximately 6:30 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. on Thursday, October 2, 2014, please visit the Salem Haunted Happenings website or the Salem Chamber of Commerce website.

Photo credit: Bob Linsdell / Foter / CC BY

Friday Fun: Haunted Houses

With All Hallows’ Eve less than a week away, Salem, Massachusetts has already begun to kick its Halloween celebration into full gear. In fact, this weekend, crowds of people will swarm to the Salem area to check out the carnival, visit the museums, see a reenactment of the witch trials, take part in a ghost tour, and/or partake in any of a countless number of other “Haunted Happenings” in the Witch City. However, if you’re looking for something truly creepy to do with your friends and/or family this weekend, you may want to check out one of the city’s haunted houses.

Salem is known for its wide assortment of haunted attractions, and there is certainly no shortage of haunted houses within the city. The only problem is that there are so many haunted houses in Salem that it can be difficult to figure out which one to go to. Fortunately, if a haunted house is what you’re looking for, there are a couple of attractions that are definitely worth a visit.

First, if you’re looking for the haunted house experience without all of the walking, the Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre has one of the creepiest stage shows you will ever see. This show, which is one of the most highly rated attractions in Salem, will not only try to scare you right out of your seat but will also try to teach you about the Salem witch trials and the mythology surrounding witches. I have to admit that this is one of my favorite attractions in Salem, and the live actors and the special effects will definitely have your heart racing by the end of the show. For more information on the Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre, please visit the Gallows Hill website.

Secondly, if you’re looking for a more traditional haunted house, you may want to pay the Witch Mansion, located on the Essex Street pedestrian mall, a visit. This haunted house, complete with its own back story, uses a combination of live actors and special effects to create a truly creepy experience. Best of all, if you want to go to the Witch Mansion with a child that’s a little too young for all of the creepiness, you can get a special necklace that will literally protect your child from all of the monsters inside the house (for an additional fee of course. Mhahahaha!) For more information on the Witch Mansion, please visit the Witch Mansion’s website.

Photo credit: country_boy_shane / Foter / CC BY-ND