Suggested Halloween Reading: Part 2

David Skal is one of my favorite writers who specializes in the history of horror, specifically horror movies. If you're looking for a concise, clever look at horror cinema, you can't do much better than "The Monster Show," and he's written equally worthy volumes about more specific subjects, too, including director Tod Browning ("Dark Carnival"), the Dracula films ("Hollywood Gothic") and mad scientists ("Screams of Reason"). He also shows up in the commentary tracks for a lot of the classic horror movie DVDs, and always has something worthwhile to say.


But in his book "Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween," Skal expands his study past the boundaries of the movie screen and offers an intriguing, clear-headed look at the holiday in question. Skal examines Halloween from just about every imaginable angle -- historical, cultural, pop cultural and sociological. He begins the book with a detailed examination of the urban legend that Halloween candy is packed with needles and razor blades each year, then reveals that there's exactly one -- one -- incident of Halloween candy tampering on record, and that was a father who murdered his own son.

After that, Skal covers, among other things, the religious (and pre-religious) roots of Halloween; why "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" couldn't be set on the holiday (America didn't celebrate Halloween back then); how, just like Christmas, Halloween used to be little more than an excuse for children to terrorize their towns and destroy property; how Salem turned its shameful past into a profitable present; how the religious right hates San Francisco's Halloween celebration but loves using abortion and homosexuality as terrors in their haunted houses; why people who couldn't find an O.J. mask in 1994 settled for Mike Tyson and Muammar Gaddafi (!); and, last but not least, how the events of Sept. 11 affected the mood of Oct. 31.

Like Skal's other books, "Death Makes a Holiday" is a great little volume, topping out at 224 pages but jammed with fascinating knowledge on every page. If you're a fan of horror, history of, of course, Halloween, you need this one on your shelf. At the very least, it'll give you something to say next week when someone tells you a friend of a friend of a friend knew a kid who got a Hershey bar jam-packed with razor blades.

Up next: I'll bet this guy has a better Halloween display than you.