Celebrate Halloween With Lunchmeat Magazine

I wondered what my two favorite videovores at Lunchmeat Mag, Josh and Ted, were up to this Halloween season and asked them if they could recommend a VHS favorite. Well, they did not disappoint me with their pick and dished up this story penned by creative genius, Ray Bradbury. Though not the same as listening to the purr of your VCR at home, I’ve included a video clip for the first part of the film discussed below, which Bradbury narrates. Enjoy and stay tuned for the new issue of Lunchmeat due out soon!

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“There wasn’t so much wilderness around you couldn’t see the town. But on the other hand there wasn’t so much town you couldn’t see and feel and touch the wilderness. The town was full of trees. And dry grass and dead flowers now that autumn was here.”

We love Halloween. When we’re young we dress up in costumes, roam around the empty streets with friends, and gorge ourselves on candy. When we’re older not much changes; neighborhood streets are replaced by bars or house parties and candy becomes beer and cocktails. Halloween is an excuse to indulge these pleasures, but why does it feel so important this time of year? Why not dress up like a zombie and drink orange beer in August or eat a whole bag of candy corn while wearing a skeleton suit in May? But there is something in the air in October isn’t there? The smell of fresh firewood and the reflection of an early sunset off dew soaked orange-hued leaves combine to set off the most startling and emotionally evocative series of changes of the whole year. Ray Bradbury’s magnificent dark fantasy, The Halloween Tree (1972), confronts, dissects, and transcends this chaotic season in a way that is both moving and terrifying.

The story is about a gang of friends on a Halloween night that, this year, is bittersweet because their friend Pip is sick, maybe dying. Like a truly selfless friend, Pip tells the gang to go out without him and enjoy Halloween. With tired legs and full bags of candy, the gang decides Halloween is still incomplete until they visit the haunted house on the edge of town. Here they find the marvelous Halloween tree, decked from top to bottom in lit jack-o-lanterns. They also meet its keeper, a sinister old man with one of the greatest names in Bradbury’s whole oeuvre: Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud. The old man challenges the children to tell him why they dress up and celebrate on Halloween. Unable to satisfy the old man’s question, the trick-or-treaters are whisked away on a surreal and frightening journey through all of history’s Halloweens. They visit ancient Egypt, Druid England, the construction of Notre Dame, and El Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. During the journey they imbibe thousands of years of cultures that all share one common trait – fear of the night… and death.

The children watch Pip die a new death in each place and see him mourned differently each time. Brilliantly, the most expressive characters through the whole narrative are the wind and the night. From the moment that the “night came out from under each tree and spread,” it is clear that everything has changed, as it has every night through history. The wind carries Pip’s essence through the perpetual night as his voice rings through the air from the “flesh-and-blood clapper” in the tower at Notre Dame, and then the Pip-wind calls out to the children by whistling through the stone lips and nostrils of a gargoyle. The wind literally whisks the children after Pip in various ways throughout the book; first on a giant patchwork kite, later on witch’s broomsticks.

Part history lesson, part coming of age story, part metaphysical journey, The Halloween Tree captures the qualities of childhood, culture, and the seasons at a moment of pivotal, but perpetual change. The precise nature of Halloween may always lie beyond description, but Bradbury’s book helps to push us in a meaningful direction.

Now, to many of us Halloween wouldn’t be right without watching out favorite horror flicks to help set the mood. If you’ve exhausted the go-to slashers and Universal monster classics there is a charming and faithful animated adaptation of The Halloween Tree (1993) available, but you will have to do some searching because, perplexingly, it has not yet seen release on DVD.

Although this cartoon is a slightly streamlined version of the original story, its characters remain endearing. On an emotional level, the movie, as with the book, is about the timeless dynamic between life and death, and what these things mean to carefree youth. Bradbury simultaneously evokes the sad realities of death and affirms the beauty of life with a clarity and aesthetic power that few others are capable of.

Through its combination of spacious atmospheric settings with a style reminiscent of cartoons from the 60’s and 70’s, the animation succeeds at recreating the dark mood and youthful nostalgia of the novel. The movie’s strengths derive at least in part from the screenplay that was penned by Bradbury himself, who also takes up the narrating duties.

John Debney’s powerful score also enhances the ambient quality of the movie beautifully, and Leonard Nimoy does a nice job as the voice of Moundshroud. This is a visually stunning adaptation of a fantastic story with plenty of sources of appeal for viewers of all ages. It is a must see for anyonewho loves Bradbury’s story, and anyone who, like me, starts counting the days each November 1^st.

I own the Turner Home Entertainment version of the VHS tape which you can find on Amazon.com, but will probably have to pay a pretty penny for. There appear to be a few different editions floating around using different brand names (Cartoon Network, Hanna-Barbera) on the box, but seeing as they are all under the same ownership the various releases are unlikely to differ from one another greatly. Fans of Hanna-Barbera will delight at the extras on this VHS; included are an assortment of trailers as well as a full length Yogi Bear cartoon. Appropriately, this cartoon is Halloween themed. It centers on a witch who decides to vacation in Jellystone, only to have Yogi pull the old switcheroo, replacing her magic broom with a regular one so that he can use it to aid in his picnic basket-swiping shenanigans.

Even if you can’t find this tape, or animation isn’t your cup of tea, I recommend wiping the dust off of your VCR this Halloween and enjoying one or more of the myriad titles that are still yet to hit DVD shelves. Cherish these films before they become another Halloween ritual lost to the dark depths of time!

–Lunchmeat Magazine

Image: Amazon