Have Yourself a Happy, Haunted Halloween!

Happy Halloween to you! Without a doubt it is one of my favorite times of the year. Even though I scare easily, I love the spooky Halloween parties. There is something about seeing all the jack-o-lanterns, witches, wizards, vampires, scary monsters and hearing stories of "things that go bump in the night" that I find so much fun. This year I decided to dress as a vampire, and put together a fun costume. I even had fake blood dripping out of the corners of my mouth...blech!

 

To me, the best Halloween parties are when guests really get into it and go all out with fun costumes. Depending on your creativity, time and budget, you can create a world of the unknown and unexpected for guests. I love all the hype and theatrics of great Halloween decorations. Check out these great pictures...I hope you have a good-n-spooky Halloween too!

Zombie guarding a coffin...

Skeleton still getting an IV drip

Spooky Ghost warning guests

"A Spooktacular evening"

My nieces had a dinner of Mummy, goblin eyeballs and witch's hair

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The Great Count Dracula

It's my favorite time of year, when the story of Count Dracula and Vampires re-emerge in time for Halloween. I have long been fascinated Dracula's story, although I don't know why. As far back as my childhood I was always terrified by Vampires. When I was a kid, I would read Bram Stoker's Dracula before going to sleep and was so frightened I would fall asleep with my hand on my neck for protection. Count Dracula of course was a centuries-old charming Transylvanian aristocrat who had amazing strength, supernatural powers, the ability to defy gravity, change into bats or disappear into fog. All this made him pretty cool in my mind. I remember my mom taking me and my brother to see a Dracula play at the Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence when I was a kid. It seemed so real, right there on stage before my eyes. Ever since then I've been a fan, even to this day. So just for the fun of it, a week before Halloween I present this collection of photos of various actors who played the legendary Count Dracula. Enjoy~

above: the great Bella Lugosi, Dracula 1931

above: Gary Oldman as Dracula (young and old) in Bram Stoker's Dracula, 1992

above: Frank Langella, Dracula, 1979

above: Louis Jourdan, Count Dracula, 1977

above: John Carradine, Dracula, 1956

above: Christopher Lee, Dracula, 1958

above: Just for fun because its so iconic, the German vampire Nosferatu played by Max Schreck, 1929. Did I miss any?

-Rick Rockhill