I can’t remember a time when horror wasn’t a part of my life. My Dad always told me that Jaws was the first movie he ever took me to. That might explain why I still love shark attack movies.
I was never one of those girls that wanted to be a princess when I was growing up. Morticia Addams was always who I dressed up as and tried to emulate. Never Wednesday, oh no. Always Morticia. I still have a Morticia costume in my cosplay wardrobe.
As Halloween draws ever closer, one of my best memories is of my Dad sitting around and trying to recreate the Wolf Man makeup. Dad was always a huge fan of the Universal Monsters and the makeup genius of Jack Pierce. He told me of the monsters from the time I was around five years old and up. I remember thinking that all Dads must talk about things like that, so imagine my surprise when all I got was funny stares when I brought it all up to my friends at school.
This was all back in the day before Spirit Halloween existed, so my Dad bought wolf masks and repainted them. He would purchase gray granny wigs and color them for the hair. In my mind’s eye, I can still see my Dad sitting mixing paint, trying to get the perfect Wolf Man colors. His next favorite was Dracula. Finally, he found a licensed Universal Studios Wolf Man full-head mask. That thing was his pride and joy. It holds a place of honor in my horror collection right to this day.
Nothing made my Dad happier than to pull off a scare with his Wolf Man makeup. He managed some elaborate pranks in his time. I believe the one that stands out most in my mind is when Dad was going to scare someone but ran into a prowler on the way. I’m not sure who was more frightened. It was a while after that before Dad planned any more pranks.
As Dad aged, he loved to dress as the grime reaper and come to my door trick or treating to try and fool me. What fun and wonderful memories. This Halloween, I hope to keep even a fraction of Dad’s memory alive and celebrate the holiday in style.
