Highbury Cemetery, 2026

Year twenty three is now complete and another amazing season for the Highbury Cemetery yard haunt is in the books! The Candy Corn gods continue to look upon us with favor! For another year, the dry and warm weather cooperated throughout the entire week of Halloween, allowing me time to set up, adjust, tweak, improve and perfect. The numbers for trick-or-treat were also back up and the evening went off without a hitch with perfect plumes of thick fog slowly rolling across vibrant colors and shadows of a calm, mild evening. 

This year, our neighborhood successfully petitioned our HOA and decided to have trick-or-treat ON Halloween night (usually we follow our local township's questionable rule of having it the Sunday before, but with this year being a Saturday... only makes sense, right?), and I may have engaged in a little bit of straight bribery by staying open an extra hour and offering full size candy bars for any trick-or-treaters who dared to see the full, creepy display at night. I think about 20 kids showed up! This year's display was a lot of fun for both the trick-or-treaters AND the haunters!

So without further ado, I'll get to the good stuff... 

Ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, I proudly present Highbury Cemetery, 2026. Enjoy...

When all was said and done, we ended up having 235 trick-or-treaters, parents, neighbors, and curious onlookers through the gates of Highbury Cemetery this year. A nice uptick over the past 2 years' dwindling numbers, so I'm really happy with that increase. The word is getting out that the development has that one "Halloween house" that you just have to go see!

And before I end it, I can't go without giving a special thanks to everyone who helped put on the show this year. I couldn't do it without your help and your presence in just making the whole night a ton of fun. Special Highbury Cemetery thank you t-shirts go out to: Mrs. Highbury, Christian Highbury, Sharon, Karen, and Nancy. And my dogs Atticus and Willow who hung out in the display dressed as hot dogs. And an extra high five to the neighbors who came by after hours for beers and general Halloween revelry. There aren't many of us in the development who decorate for Halloween, but I sure am stoked to be hanging out with the cool neighbors who do.

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So there you have it. Halloween, 2026 is done and dusted and the Cemetery is closed for another year. Twenty three years of home haunting and still going strong. It only reinforces the importance of what we as haunters are doing - keeping the traditions of Halloween alive and passing them on to the next generation to keep it all going. And this year's overall experience reinvigorates me to get started on next year's display!

Only 360 days until Halloween. Are you ready?

Pumpkin Witch - "The Halloween Three" Demo Compilation

So it's two days after Halloween and I'm still in recovery mode. Most of the display is still up (and lit!), and I'm just not ready to take it down. Gonna relax a bit more and just enjoy this transitional feeling of post-holiday melancholy.

And to keep that feeling going, here's a great two-and-a-half hour compilation of tracks from dungeon synth artists, Pumpkin Witch. It's just short of dark ambient, but still a perfect discordant collection of creepy sounds indicative of the Halloween season. Enjoy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Happy Halloween from Highbury Cemetery! Another 31 days have come and gone way too fast and we're ready to put another Halloween season to bed. Next comes the inevitable melancholy and sadness that the post-holiday season brings, but in the meantime I'm going to cherish this Halloween season and the great success that it was!!

We just wrapped up a really fun night of trick-or-treat and it was another resounding success. Lots of trick-or-treaters and their families came by to check out the display, with many compliments and photos taken. We also managed to have another night of perfect, dry autumn weather. And after the stress of putting this all together, I can now melt into the couch for a bit, content with how everything went.

I still have quite a few posts to get to, but for now I just want to thank everyone who helps put this crazy display up and all of the neighbors who came down to hang out with some beverages and talk about the neighborhood Halloween festivities.

And I really want to thank everyone who stopped by the blog during the October Countdown To Halloween and dropped a comment or two, just to let me know that people still read this thing. In a world constantly whittling down its attention span and information bits, I appreciate the long form writing that I can still post here. It's nice to slow down and taker a deeper dive into a subject that means so much to all of us.

And with that, we close the book on another October. I'm headed to the couch for a bit, but the plans for next year are already formulating. After all, Halloween is only 365 days away. Are you ready?

"Ghost Story And Sound Effects" Record

Here we are at the fifth and final Friday in October, which means it's time for one last Freebie Friday for the year! And I have definitely saved the best for last this year!

A "SPOOKTACULAR" HIT that's sure to send chills up and down your spine. Dr. Doom, world famous authority on the supernatural, introduces the eerie and frightening ghost story, THE HAUNTED HOUSE. You will go along with a group of teenagers as they become lost in the abandoned haunted house. Mysterious things happen when gruesome sounds are heard coming from the old mansion. Eerie shapes are seen floating past the windows in the "empty" house. Step by step these young people walk deeper into the mysteries of the haunted house. At every turn spoke things happen as they try to find their way out. What is the secret of the haunted house? Don't miss the fun, thrills and chills of the most "horrific" ghost story of them all...THE HAUNTED HOUSE.

Side one is a straight homage to the Haunted Mansion story, in that teenagers have to go into a haunted house in the neighborhood on Halloween night. The entire story is first introduced by "Dr. Doom," who is supposed to be a creepy narrator, but falls flat in his monotone vocal deliveries. The story then picks up as the "golly, gee" teens straight from the late 50s prepare to enter the haunted house, searching for items for their Halloween scavenger hunt. Cue the creepiness as they make their way through the house. The cherry on top is the ending, which is a complete blueprint to every Scooby Doo, Where Are You? episode. It's silly, campy fun all the way through.

On side two of this High Fidelity spookarama spectacular, is a collection of the most spine tingling SOUND EFFECTS ever recorded. Howling winds that send chills down your spine; rumbling thunder, moaning winds and splashing rain sets an eerie mood for a ghost telling session. For even more spooky surprises, turn out the lights, sit in a circle with your friends, hold hands and start the SEANCE section of the record. The hair on the back of your neck will raise up as you hear mysterious, haunting, sounds come floating from your record player. Then, as if by magic, "contact" is made and you actually hear a ghostly voice communicating with you and your friends. Variations of party fun from this album are endless and entertaining. Buy it now, and enjoy it all year round.

Side two is a segmented collection of early and classic "spooky sounds." The ghostly voice is probably the same voice actor who portrayed "Dr. Doom" on side one, with another monotone and hilarious impression of a ghost's voice. But that is what makes this side great, too.

This is definitely a fun offering from the early days of the "spooky sounds" era, meant for young kids. It's "creepiness" passes only as silly, but it's real charm lies in the nostalgic old feel of the record.

And as an added bonus to this release, it was originally offered with a "Magic Glowing Witches Wand" included. My copy has the sticker on the cover, but the paper insert with glow-in-the-dark dab at the wand's tip is unfortunately long gone. Overall, this is just a fun, old Halloween release and a great entry to wrap up another October Freebie Fridays segment. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD "GHOST STORY AND SOUND EFFECTS" HERE.

43 Years Ago Today...

The Misfits played their final show at Detroit's Graystone Hall in 1983. A disastrous set from the very beginning, the fill-in drummer Brian Keats was so drunk he got thrown off the stage after the first 3 songs and Todd Swalla from the Necros had to fill in for the fill-in for the rest of the set.

Couple this with increasing tensions between bandmates and the writing on the wall became abundantly clear...

From 23punk_
The lineup featured Glenn Danzig on vocals, Jerry Only on bass, Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein on guitar, and Brian “Damage” Keats on drums. However, the performance took a chaotic turn when Keats showed up heavily intoxicated and struggled to keep up with the band. After several songs, he was escorted offstage, and Necros drummer Todd Swalla stepped in to finish the set.

Before the drummer switch, Danzig announced to the crowd that it was the band’s “last show ever.” The marathon performance featured more than 30 songs, including covers of Black Flag’s “Rise Above” and Negative Approach’s “Can’t Tell No One,” which featured guest vocals from John Brannon.

Ohh, to have been there to see that!

Happy Anniversary, Glenn!

Halloween 'Zines: Haunt #12

It's time for another Halloween 'zine review! Growing up as a punk rock kid, I collected many a fanzine through the years. Small, DIY handmade photocopied, low-budget mini magazines that covered all aspects of the music genre, created and produced by the very participants within that scene. There's just something about holding a small magazine that was created and assembled by hand that always felt so tactile and genuine to me. And when I later became a home haunter, I discovered the same medium and immediately began collecting them.

Up next is the current issue of Haunt (#12), a Halloween 'zine created by GroovyDoom. Last year, I was able to grab the entire 'zine bundle (the original 9 issues plus the new release, issue 10) which gave me hours of reading time! I really love each issue of Haunt because it absolutely nails that 70s, 80s, and 90s vintage Halloween nostalgia with page after page of haunted house and Halloween newspaper ads, photos, a word search and spooky drawings. Each issue is a quick read, but it's so much fun looking at all of those old ads again.

Haunt #12 is still available at the GroovyDoom Etsy page, so grab one for your collection before they're all gone!