Haunted Happenings – 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

Haunted Happenings: The Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre

One of my favorite places to go in Salem, especially during the Halloween season, is the Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre. This theatre, which was formerly known as the Griffin Theatre during the off season and the Witch Cottage during Haunted Happenings, not only features a number of comedy acts, children’s programs, plays, and other performances during the year but also features some of the most impressive Halloween fare that you will find anywhere. In fact, the Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre’s main attraction during the month of the October, the Witchcraft & Ghost Experience, is a theatrical performance that will dazzle you with special effects and possibly scare the ever living daylights out of you as you learn about the Salem Witch Trials and the legends that have existed in the Salem area for quite some time. Best of all, the Witchcraft & Ghost Experience is only one of the amazing pieces of entertainment that the theatre has to offer, and you may be able to enjoy one of the theatre’s local walking tours, ale tastings, magic shows, trolley tours, or their latest attraction, the Lost Museum as well. For more information on everything that the Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre has to offer and/or to purchase tickets for a specific event, please visit the Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre website.

Please Note: One of the scariest things about the Gallows Hill Museum/Theatre can be the lines on a Saturday. However, you can completely eliminate the unpleasantness of waiting in line to purchase tickets by purchasing your tickets online. In fact, if you would like to avoid lines all together, you can purchase a VIP Pass online that will let you avoid the ticket purchasing line, skip the line to get in, receive a Gallows Hill T-shirt, and get a free drink. If the VIP Pass is a little out of your price range though, you can always head to the theatre on a weekday when the crowds are much less frightening.

Photo via VisualHunt

The Salem Open Market 2016

Did you miss the Haunted Biz Baz Street Fair in Salem last week? Are you looking for another way to mix your love of Halloween with your love of shopping? Well, if you did miss the Biz Baz (A.K.A. the Bizarre Bazaar) and you’re looking for a place where you can find the ambience of the season and check out a whole bunch of cool stuff, there’s nothing to fear. Salem has you covered. In fact, the Salem Open Market will open for business on Essex Street and Derby Square this weekend. This street fair, which will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. until Halloween, will feature dozens and dozens of artists, artisans, crafters, designers, and other vendors who will be happy to show you everything from artwork to zombie-themed t-shirts (and all of the items in between.) Best of all, if you’re not really into shopping but you have a spouse or child who is, you can always bring them to the Open Market and then check out all of the tours and events that are happening throughout Salem. For more information on the Salem Open Market, please visit the New England Open Markets website.

Photo credit: HBarrison via Visual hunt / CC BY-SA

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

It’s Time for Some Hocus Pocus

I have lived in the area north of Boston for most of my life, but before I lived on the North Shore, I really didn’t know the Witch City all that well. In fact, I had come to Salem a fair amount as a teenager, but usually only for a day here or a day there during Haunted Happenings. As a result, when I first saw the Disney film, Hocus Pocus, I knew it was set in Salem, but I really had no idea how much of the film was actually shot in Salem. I figured some of it probably was, but I really didn’t know how much of it was because, quite frankly, I couldn’t identify most of the landmarks that were used in the film. This, of course, has changed by this point, and I can tell you (with some help from my wife) that most of the film was, in fact, shot in a studio in California. However, there is a good chunk of the film, especially the scenes that take place during the day, that were actually shot in Salem.

This means that if you are familiar with the area you can have some fun identifying the various locations that appear in the film, and if you know absolutely nothing about the area, you can at least enjoy the Salem ambience. Now, if you would like the opportunity to see the film that has become a local favorite and a cult classic throughout the world, you’re in luck because the final film of Magic 106.7’s 2015 Haunted Movie Series is Hocus Pocus. This, of course, is quite fortunate because it means that you can see the tale of three bumbling sisters who are accidently resurrected on Halloween night to spread mischief throughout the world 300 years after they were executed for witchcraft, and you can see it in the city that the film takes place in. Best of all, the film is being shown free of charge, so you won’t have to pay a thing (unless your kids compel you to buy everything in sight.) For more information on the free showing of Hocus Pocus, which is scheduled to take place on Salem Common tomorrow, October 24, 2015 at 8:00 P.M., please visit the Magic 106.7 Haunted Movie Series page.

Photo credit: Alan Light / Foter / CC BY

Edgar Allan Poe Rises Again

If you have been having a long interval of horrible sanity and you haven’t had a chance to get into the Halloween spirit just yet, you’re in luck because The Scarlet Letter Press has the perfect opportunity for you to peer deep into the darkness. In fact, The Scarlet Letter Press is hosting An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe tomorrow night (Saturday, October 17, 2015) from 5:45 PM to 7:00 P.M. This event will give you the opportunity to experience a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and “A Tell Tale Heart”.

Each of these stories will be read by an actor, but the tale will be told as if the actor was the author himself, which, combined with the eerie ambience of Whynott’s Wands (located at 127 Essex Street in Salem), will make the stories even creepier. Even creepier still is the fact that some believe that “A Tell Tale Heart” is actually based on a real event that occurred in Salem in the 1800s, so you will never find a better place to hear the tale than here. Best of all, you will receive a special gift if you attend, so you will remember the occasion for evermore. For more information on An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe and/or to order tickets for the event, please visit The Scarlet Letter Press’ website or call The Scarlet Letter Press at 978-741-1850.

Photo credit: vidalia_11 / Foter / CC BY

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