Seriously Geeky Sundays – Spooky Spirits

WoOoOoOo!

It’s time for a delightfully ghoulish version of Seriously Geeky Sundays, brought to us from beyond the graaaave by Heather over at Just Geeking By (she’s fine really, don’t worry!) As always, thanks be to Heather for crafting such excellent questions for us terrifying bloggers to answer…

Let’s get our fangs into the questions then, shall we, my cheeeeeldren of ze niiiight!

It’s that time of year when we think about all things spooky and what we’ve lost. In Mexico, it is the start of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and for Pagans the autumn festival of Samhain is taking place. It’s a much quieter Halloween this year so we’re doing our bit by celebrating the spooky side of fandom while also remembering the parts of it that are lost to us.

Question 1 – What is your favourite Halloween episode, event or film?

Halloween isn’t as big in the UK as it is over the pond. I spent my childhood not bothering with it (I always felt cheeky trick or treating) and as an adult my tradition is to turn out the lights and hide or, if possible go out somewhere instead!

But one Halloween movie has become something of a tradition, thanks to the insistence of my wife. That movie is 1993’s Hocus Pocus, of course.

The movie is about three evil witches, the Sanderson sisters, led by the brilliantly evil Winifred (Bette Middler absolutely rocking it). When the evil trio are brought back to life on Halloween night 300 years after their hanging, they set to work on a plot to become immortal. Thakfully, three very 90s kids stand between them and success, along with 16th century boy-turned-cat Binks, who is the second best character on account of him being a talking cat.

Question 2 – Who is your favourite fictional spirit?

I don’t know if this is cheating or not, but how cool is Gengar?

He’s a spiky, purple, evil faced ghost Pokemon who is capable of some serious destruction. Back when I was all over Pokemon around 2000 or so and played Pokemon Red to an insane degree, acquiring a Gengar was the absolute highlight for me!

You could only get the ultimate ghost Pokemon by trading your Haunter via link cable to another person’s Game Boy and then (if your friend wasn’t an asshole) trade it back again. Thankfully, my friend is a reliable kinda guy and I did, indeed, end up with a beasty Gengar! Oof!

Question 3 – What is your go-to for spooky fandom fun at this time of year?

There’s really only one fandom that delivers the good at Halloween, and that’s The Simpsons. Their Treehouse of Horror series has been going forever and these episodes have lampooned just about every horror movie and tale going at this point.

Highlights include the episode skewering 1992’s Dracula, with Mr Burns as the vampire (“ooh, super fun happy slide!”) and the zombie apocalypse episode, mainly for this classic moment:

To be fair, the venerable series has been struggling for a few years now, but in its heyday these episodes were brilliant.

Question 4 – Which supernatural character do you like the most?

There are so many awesome supernatural characters out there, choosing just one is really, really hard work!

I reckon I am going to go for the one, the only Count Dracula though.

Written in 1897 by Irish author Bram Stoker, Dracula not only made a lasting impression in horror literature but, with the help of many movie adaptations, shaped the pop culture image of a vampire we see today. Based loosely on the infamous Vlad the Impaler, the Count lived in a castle in Transylvania and, after entertaining Englishman Jonathan Harker as his guest, followed him back to England, from where his evil plans were uncovered.

Dracula’s most terrifying feature, in my ability, is his ability to corrupt.Everything he comes into contact with is shaped to his own evil purposes and, if that means people dying, then so be it. This undead hombre is super famous for a reason and, if you haven’t read the novel, I really must recommend it.

Give the ’92 film a miss if you want, though…

Question 5 – If you could resurrect a fandom which would it be?

This is a tough one, as most things I’m into still have very active fandoms!

As such, I suppose I’d have to cast my mind back to something which wrapped up a while ago and has passed into posterity – maybe something like Spartacus or Life on Mars (though the latter is coming back!

The Spartacus fans I knew were always pretty decent, pleasantly surprising in that they loved the OTT, almost cartoon violence and made characters and didn’t go on too much about the fan service that went on in places!

You rock Spartacus fans!

(Also, and I must stress this again readers, he slices off a man’s face like a plate. A PLATE!)

Question 6 – Which character would you like to bring back?

I’d like to bring back Buffy‘s on-off villain/hero Spike!

Who doesn’t love a thuggish, punk vampire with a (really dodgy) London accent and hair like Billy Idol?

Spike, played by James Marsters, first appears in season 2 of Buffy as a major villain, alongside his vampiric love, Drusilla. He soon takes over the local vampire scene and very nearly manages to overcome Buffy and the gang, only to be overshadowed by a newly evil-ified Angel, who’s just so much more unpleasant.

Later appearences of Spike show him as a bit of a down-on-his luck vampire, who eventually becomes, after many adventures, one of the good guys, staying with them right til the very end.

What an undead guy!

And there we are, another week completed with no casualties! Thanks for reading along with me, I hope my choices gave you something to read about! As always, please do check out all the other writers under the #SeriouslyGeekySundays hashtag, they are powerful indeed!