October 22, 2013 Halloween Cocktail Book Film Recommendation

Halloween is the time when portals open between worlds.

It’s that one particular night of the year when spirits, faeries and more than a few ghouls mingle with the humans and exchange stories, dark spells and perhaps a kiss or two.
          If you’d like to relax and snuggle with a few revenants this Halloween or if you’re planning on a more intimate human get together, I’d like to suggest the revenants come in the form cocktails, books and films.

Let’s start with the cocktails. We have two recommendations.

For the Gin lover:

New Moon

1 1/2 oz gin
1 1/2 oz triple sec
1/2 oz lime juice
2 1/2 oz tonic water
Lime Wedge

          Pour the gin, triple sec and lime juice into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice cubes.
          Stir well. Fill with tonic water, or add to taste.
          Stir again gently.
          Garnish with a lime wedge, and serve.

For the Vodka lover:

Vampire Kiss

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz chilled Vodka
1 1/2 oz chilled Champagne or Cava (we recommend Freixenet from Spain)
3/4 oz Chambord black raspberry liqueur
Red sugar for rimmed martini glass

Directions:

          Rim the glass with red sugar (use red food coloring or red sugar from the baking aisle).
          Into a martini glass pour vodka and 1/2 of the Chambord raspberry liqueur.
          Top with Champagne.
          Drizzle the remaining Chambord into the glass over the back of a spoon. This allows the Chambord to make it float.

Drinking Glasses for Your Party:





Now to the books:

          This year let’s take a step back in time to the first decades of the 20th century and peruse the works of three groundbreaking writers. They are known as the big three of the pulp magazine Weird Tales:

H. P. Lovecraft
Robert E. Howard
Clark Ashton Smith

          Lovecraft, Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian) and Smith all knew one another through voluminous amounts of letter writing. They played off each other’s works, creating tales of chilling viscous gods and weird cosmic worlds that plague the nightmares of human beings.
          These three authors created worlds and characters of true horror. They make Harry Potter’s troubles seem like an excursion to a Hello Kitty store. You might not want to sleep with the lights off after reading a few of these skin tingling tales.

Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
The Tsathoggua Cycle: Terror Tales of the Toad God (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) by Clark Ashton Smith

Movies:

          For the films I’d like to recommend first a documentary called Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown . John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro, Neil Gaiman, Stuart Gordon, Caitlin Kiernan, and Peter Straub discuss the life and work of the forefather of modern horror. Good stuff.

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (2009) Directed by Frank H. Woodward

          As for the horror stories on film I must recommend several movies starring the dashing Vincent Price. The first, called The Haunted Palace , is based on stories by Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. It is directed by the legendary indie film maker and teacher Roger Corman.
          Another Corman classic is The Tomb of Ligeia . Price gives one of his best performances as a troubled, possessed man who cannot get over the death of his beloved Ligeia. Creepy and darkly romantic.
          Last is one of my absolute favorite movies. It’s called The Tingler . This gem again stars Vincent Price and was directed by the great movie showman William Castle.
          Price plays a scientist obsessed with discovering the source of fear in humans. What he finds will shock and surprise him and the audience.
          This movie includes some audience participation which you can do at home. I won’t say what. Also, when the movie was originally released in 1959 the director William Castle had the theatre seats wired so that when The Tingler made an appearance on screen the audience members received a low voltage shock. I was lucky enough to see this movie in a revival house that did wire some of the seats. Sizzling fun! But I don’t suggest you try this at home.

NOTE: A must read is Castle’s autobiography called Step Right Up!...I'm Gonna Scare The Pants Off America . It’s a riot. The version of the book that I own has a forward written by the fantabulous director John Waters.

The Haunted Palace (1963) Directed by Roger Corman
The Tomb of Ligeia (1965) Directed by Roger Corman
The Tingler (1959) Directed by William Castle

Snacks:

          Popcorn is always an ideal food for reading or movie watching. But in keeping with the early 20th century book theme I liked to recommend Deviled Eggs, a food craze of the 1930s. Perfect for Halloween. Here are a couple of recipes:

Classic Deviled Eggs
Alton Brown's 4 Pepper Deviled Eggs

Special thanks to Dylan A. Kent for all her help with the cocktail recipes. Follow her on Twitter @DylanAKent

If you found these Library of Ghosts recommendations useful, please use the links above to purchase the items from Amazon. This helps support my blog. Thank You.

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Have a Happy Halloween!

Keywords: cocktails, books, movies, film, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Vincent Price, Roger Corman, Halloween Party, gift, birthday gift, holiday gift, recommendations