Culture

The Great Halloween Roundup of 2013

Holiday readings from the Reason archives.

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Halloween readings from the Reason archives:

Happy Halloween!
Jack T. Chick

Charles Barr, "The Exorcist" (1974): Our film critic is impressed.

John Hospers, "Halloween" (1979): The Libertarian Party's first presidential nominee praises the movie Halloween, calling John Carpenter "a writer-director who, though still in his apprenticeship, may yet one day fill Hitchcock's shoes."

Tim Cavanaugh, "Sympathy for the Devil's Night" (2002): Strictly speaking, this one is about the night before Halloween.

Damon Root, "Hell Hounds" (2003): The horrifying case of the West Memphis Three.

Willow knows the score.
Jack T. Chick

Virginia Postrel, "Why Buffy Kicked Ass" (2003): An appreciation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Jesse Walker, "The Halloween Election" (2004): I combine a Halloween column with an Election Day column. Pundits are allowed to do this only once.

Jesse Walker, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" (2005): Technically a Christmas article, but I'm including it for its reading of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as the anti-Charlie Brown Christmas.

Tim Cavanaugh, "We the Living Dead" (2007): The politics of zombies.

David Weigel, "Interview With a Vampire Expert" (2007): A Q&A with Eric Nuzum, author of The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula.

Jesse Walker, "The Passion of the Pumpkin" (2007): An early dispatch from the War on Halloween.

Jesse Walker, "Satan's Faces" (2008): The many lives of Lucifer.

Jesse Walker, "Season of the Regulator" (2010): "a quick, far from exhaustive list of the dubious ways the authorities are now policing All Hallow's Eve."

Creepier with nudity.
Jack T. Chick

Scott Shackford, "Meddling Officials Put Kibosh on Crazy Naked Haunted House Plan" (2013): No description could improve on that headline.

Nick Gillespie, "The War on Halloween is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things" (2013): Halloween killjoys and the case for school choice.

Jesse Walker, "The Legend of the Child-Stealing Gypsies" (2013): In which the fear of monsters turns people into monsters.

Jess Remington, "Halloween Sex Offender Laws Are Unjustified" (2013): The latest fashion in ill-conceived Halloween rules.