(courtesy IMDb) I have been watching Scooby-Doo! cartoons in their multitudinous iterations since the 1970s – not that long after the franchise debited in 1969 so yes I am hauntingly old, thank you – and one thing that has struck all the way through is the way the show manages Continue Reading
Halloween 2026
Hoops & Yoyo’s Haunted #Halloween: A frightfully funny adventure (review)
What’s the number one certainty when it comes to big seasonal events? (Wells, besides calmly accepting that you will eat too much and that your calendar will never be big enough to accommodate all of them so FOMO is real, my friends, it is REAL). Why it’s that you don’t Continue Reading
Halloween TV review: Something’s in the Water … Thoughts on Below
(courtesy IMDb (c) Netflix) Is there anything even remotely connecting, in narrative spirit at least, the wild Atlantic shores of Newfoundland and the startlingly beautifully and empty desert landscapes of Arizona? You may not think so, but if you’ve watched both The Boroughs and Below on Netflix, you may have Continue Reading
Yummy baked scary delights … or are they? Is It Cake? Halloween 2026
(courtesy Showbiz Junkies (c) Netflix) Cake is something that you presume you will be far happier munching on than evaluating since surely all the pleasure is in the creamy, gnashy, fondanty taste and not the look, no matter how artistic and hyperealistic. But it turns out that watching people bake Continue Reading
Peanuts Halloween special review: The Snoopy Show: The Curse of the Fuzzy Face
(courtesy Halloween Specials Wiki) While Snoopy remains as culturally ubiquitous as ever and Peanuts is still one of the most popular comic strips out there, that has more to do these days with the number of specials and TV shows that keep popping up on AppleTV than anything else these Continue Reading
Want some hilariously hellish hospitality? Thoughts on Haunted Hotel returns S2
(courtesy IMP Awards) It may come as a surprise to those seeing a blog full-to-bursting of Halloween posts this October that this reviewer is not one for horror. That may seem to be a small and niggling liability in a season devoted to horror, both its manifestation and banishment, but Continue Reading
Halloween picture book review: The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt by Riel Nason (writer) and Byron Eggenschwiler (artist)
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) There is an inestimable delight to opening a picture book and falling into a story which delivers imaginative and poetic wordplay and vividly arresting, often gorgeous illustrations; it doesn’t matter whether you are reading them to endlessly eager nieces and nephews (in my case) or simply Continue Reading
The Halloween short and the short of it: The haunting impact of Night of the Living Dread
SNAPSHOTWhen a power cut ruins Ruby’s bedtime routine, she finds herself haunted by some unwanted guests. The only way for Ruby to get a peaceful night of sleep is to confront her visitors. (courtesy Laughing Squid) What’s scarier than zombies and vampires and aliens and ghosts and werewolves and any Continue Reading
Happy Hell-o-ween: Family Guy Halloween special 2026 review
(courtesy IMDb (c) Hulu/Disney+) Who of us hasn’t at some time declared that their life is hell? Yep, I see your raised hands – all of us in fact have uttered those words at some point; it’s a common lament, one that thankfully with no fire, little brimstone and no Continue Reading
Halloween movie review: Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Soggy Bottom
(courtesy IMP Awards) In a bid to sell this movie to my full-on horror loving friend – turns out I didn’t have to sell it too hard; who doesn’t love some Aardman whimsy as it turns out – I told him it was Halloween-adjacent, embracing the season quite clearly but Continue Reading