The pumpkin spice is brewing, ABC Family has ‘Hocus Pocus’ playing on repeat, and Jimmy Kimmel is preparing to traumatize children once again with his whole “parents ate all the candy” bit. Yup, it’s Halloween time, or as some people like to say Spooky Season. With that, we just had to dive into spooktacular crushes this week with Nikki Hawkins, the host of the new show, ‘Bats on the Brain Podcast.’
So far she’s covered haunted cemeteries and dove into the legend of Bunny Man Bridge, and there is so much more to come. Before you get to know more about what to expect on her show and her Spooky Crush on Wednesday, we’re going to talk about mine…but please, refrain from saying his name three times. He can be a bit…extra.
The year was 1990-something when my mom once again thought there was nothing wrong with sitting me down in front of the TV to watch ‘Beetlejuice.’ I thought, crap…this is going to scare the shit out of me because well, just about everything did when I was a wee child. Especially given the fact that my older brother was the quintessential ‘90s metalhead into skeleton tees horror movies, and he lived to scare me with his film favorites. Can I just say, fuck ‘Critters?’ So yeah, I was a little on the fence about this Tim Burton movie but I sat down and gave it a chance and I am forever grateful I did.
Yes, there were parts that were a bit on the scary side but all in all…it was just a really fun movie that I felt was pretty kid-friendly despite it being about some pretty dark things. I mean, I didn’t get the receptionist in the afterlife had offed herself until many, many years later. I just repeated her lines and went about my business. As much business, an elementary school student could have at the time.
What made this movie far less scary was my main man, Beetlejuice. I know, I know…he’s not even in a good chunk of this movie and that’s the beauty of him. He was so great in the minimal scenes he had, and I loved every second of those scenes that featured him in that classic black and white striped suit. I’m not sure why I thought he was the coolest thing ever as a kid, but I watched him with little hearts in my eyes. I think it was because he could make himself small enough to live in the tiny model town. Anyone else beg their mom to let them start creating miniature towns after this movie?
Anyways, Beetle…that guy, was one of the first spooky characters I remember actually liking. After some years of horror movie torture brought on by an older sibling, you can see how I would not be ready and willing to give anything even remotely scary a chance, but alas my mom must’ve known that this movie would not leave me with nightmares. From that, a lifelong love of Beetlejuice began. Oh fuck, that’s three times!
Crushgasm 