In this thoughtful short film, a boy encounters a strange creature and tries to find it a home.

(via The Presurfer)

The Secret Pumpkin gift exchange was conceived as a way to soothe those spooky souls pining for October by sending them a little Halloween in April. It’s similar to a Secret Santa exchange but the gifts are supposed to be spooky in nature; you can read my previous description and details here.

And now it’s time to open up registration for next April’s exchange! If you’d like to participate, go to the Secret Pumpkin site:

1) If you did not participate last year, click the “Join” link and fill out the form.

2) If you DID participate last year, log in, click the “Update Profile” link and change the “Activate My Membership” option to Yes.

(Just in case it isn’t clear–folks have been confused in the past–I’m the person who manages the site, so you aren’t blindly submitting your mailing address to some anonymous stranger.)

I’d previously suggested that participants should join one of the two Halloween listservs which originally spawned the exchange, but they’ve withered away so much that they may actually be defunct; instead I send occasional reminders directly to the participants.

You can sign up even if you aren’t in the U.S., and if you encourage friends from the same country to participate you don’t have to worry about exorbitant shipping. My script matches people in the same country preferentially, and at the end of the signup period I’ll let you know if you’re the only one in your country so you can decide whether or not to participate.

The deadline for signups is October 15. All that I ask is please, PLEASE don’t sign up for the exchange unless you’re serious about following through. We occasionally have participants flake out, and their Pumpkins are always sorely disappointed.

C’mon and join! It’s lots of fun, and getting something unexpectedly Halloweeny in April is a treat.

It’s time for another bunch of random stuff I want to share but can’t hang a whole post on. Some of them have no attribution, so if you happen to know the source for any of these please leave a note in the comments. (Click to view larger.)

	Succulent Skull This skull kinda looks like it might be designed to be a flowerpot, rather than just being a repurposed prop, but if you’ve got a prop skull lying around it should work fine. I really like the selection of succulents. I’m not entirely sure about the source since most of the image lookup results are from Pinterest (you guys, I hate Pinterest so, so much. I am sure that “obfuscate original sources” is a core part of their business plan), but a couple of those seem to point back to Frolicing [sic] in the Forest so let’s pretend it’s from there.
	Hocus Pocus Nails I really like the use of glow-in-the-dark paint in this manicure. This design is by PiggieLuv, and there are a number of other neat Halloween ideas on the site; this spider and web design would be a little unwieldy, but it’s really striking.
	Tentacle Flatware This sea life dining set by Perry Gargano is a mere $240 per place setting. And, sure, if you want to get technical about it, the curve on the handles would probably make these things a pain to actually use, but you can’t beat ’em for style.
	Laundry Starch Ghosts This is one of HGTV’s Halloween tips (the slideshow format is annoying, but there are some other cute ideas if you feel like clicking through ’em). I have doubts about whether it’d be possible to get these detached from their forms cleanly–maybe if you used balloons and then popped them–but they’re pretty cute.
	Jewelry Rack Posted on imgur by IndustrialStapler. This would be easy to DIY; you could also use it to hold keys.
	Octopus Chair This design is apparently by Wendy Olsen. Makes me wish I were better with fabric paint.
	Poe Pumpkins This is an idea from Country Living; it’d be fairly simple to pull off with stencils, and it’s a nicely elegant look.
	Bond Ring This just made me giggle. (via Tanya)
	Monster Shoe There are a couple of additional photos on Craftster. I’m not sure how easy it’d be to cover a pump with fake fur, but these are pretty cute.
	Spiderweb Photo Album This is an embroidered cover for a photo album. It’s a fairly easy design, and if you can’t find a fabric-covered photo album you could use paint or sequins instead.
	Photo Tombstones These are from the exit queue in Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor. If you decorate your yard for Halloween, a set of “family portrait” tombstones like these would be a great addition to your graveyard. It’d also be fun to get a set of miniature foam tabletop tombstones (like these; you can usually find them at party stores around Halloween) and use wallet-size photos to make a little “‘Til Death Do Us Part” photo frame.

…and more’s the pity.

Shadow Jack, who sent me this gem, said:

I had seen the Bauhaus video for this song a while back, but I think I like this Nouvelle Vague version better. Breathy female vocals and all original footage, including what might be the only appearance of armadillos in a music video.

It’s pretty awesome, although, given the popularity of country music, I doubt it’s the only appearance of armadillos in a music video.

“A young girl witnesses the murder of her family by a mysterious killer. Now she must try to survive before the killer finds her.”

This award-winning horror short film is the product of a successful Kickstarter.

In this lovely short animation, Death finds a newly-dead soul and takes him on a journey to see “many things.” The film has won numerous awards and was shortlisted for an Oscar. (Barely NSFW for cartoon nudity.)

(via Neatorama)

It’s time for another bunch of random stuff I want to share but can’t hang a whole post on. Some of them have no attribution, so if you happen to know the source for any of these please leave a note in the comments. (Click to view larger.)

	Piñata Anatomy This is apparently by Carmichael Collective, although it doesn’t seem to be in the portfolio. I love how the various types of candy have been chosen to mimic appropriate organs. The same artist has some other interesting work here. (Bonus image: Bondage Piñata, found in the comments on BoingBoing where I originally saw this art. Heh.)
	Scary Fireplace Surround The cited source on Indulgy is Moberg Gallery, but the site doesn’t seem to have a search feature (what kind of site in 2015 doesn’t have a search feature?) and I didn’t feel like trawling hundreds of pages in hopes of stumbling upon it. Whatever. It’s pretty neat, and would look even cooler with flames in its mouth. Who wouldn’t want an angry screaming fire-mouthed head in their living room? Nobody, that’s who.
	Bat Earrings These winsome little bats are apparently by Etsy seller Lovecraft and Co. but are no longer in their shop. They’re simple enough that they might be DIY-able with polymer clay.
	Goth Mermaid Mertailor makes gorgeously realistic-looking mermaid tails and accessories, but I’ve only seen them in jewel tones and pastels before. This mermaid is more in line with the traditional lure-sailors-to-their-doom sea witches of old. The photo was done for a magazine feature; you can see other pictures from the same shoot here.
	Eye of Sauron Fire Pit This bit of awesomeness is by ImagineMetalArt, who also did the Viking Ship Fire Pit I mentioned in a link dump a while back. It is almost painfully metal. (Bonus links, found when I was trying to track the source: The One Ring Firering and the Witch King of Angmar Fire Pit.)
	Skeleton Poncho This is sold by Grandin Road, whose Halloween merchandise seems to come in two flavors: Gob-smackingly overpriced or reasonably priced but low-quality. At $34 I’m guessing this is the latter. I love the idea, though, and a similar poncho could be replicated with a number of different techniques: Knit, crochet, embroidery, or even fabric paint.
	Nice Things to Whisper When Hugging Someone This made me giggle.
	Ghostly Eye Makeup I’ve mentioned the amazingly detailed makeup designs of Tal Peleg previously. I like this one–entitled “Childhood Fears”–for the clever use of the eyelid as a blanket, and also because everyone needs more ghosts on their face.
	Halloween Bathroom Decor When I am Empress of the Galaxy, my first act will be to put the staff of Pinterest up against the wall for their crimes against meaningful search results. I have no clue where this came from originally, but I love the vintage Halloween theme.
	Taco Belle Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. This wonderfully punny mashup is by AvantGeek, who has loads of other fun stuff in her portfolio. (For confused readers in countries where the chain doesn’t exist, Taco Bell is a popular fast-food restaurant.)

I recently saw a post on Facebook asking for help; someone was putting together a horror trivia game night and realized that the topic was so huge that she didn’t know how to target her questions. She asked, “if you had to give me the top 5 things TRUE horror fans should know about, what would they be?”

My reply was that it was such a huge topic that I don’t think there’s any way to narrow down what a TRUE horror fan should know until you define what you mean by a “true” horror fan; people with an encyclopedic knowledge of slasher movies and people who are dedicated to Poe and Lovecraft could both reasonably call themselves horror fans but there may be virtually no overlap in their knowledge.

However, I think the question is interesting so I want to open it up to comments here: Are there some things that all (or at least most) horror fans should know about? If so, what are they?

We can also expand a bit: If you were putting together a curriculum for Horror 101, what would you want to be sure you covered?

This excerpt from a DisneyNature documentary on winged creatures focuses on bats pollinating cacti in Mexico. They’re such lovely creatures.

It’s time for another bunch of random stuff I want to share but can’t hang a whole post on. Some of them have no attribution, so if you happen to know the source for any of these please leave a note in the comments. (Click to view larger.)

	Halloween Vest This is a secondhand vest described on The Rusty Zipper as “ugly” by someone who obviously meant to type “awesome.” What I like about it is how easy it would be to DIY: Simple applique outlines, straightforward beading and/or embroidery, and blanket-stitched edges. You could use a plain thrifted vest as a base and gussy it up in an afternoon.
	Sally Pinup Tattoo Artist Tim Shumate did a series of Disney characters as pinup models for tattoos; you can see that set here, and buy prints of those and other work at Society 6.
	Bat Wing Cup This is by the Sami Rinne Design Shop, which sells them in cappuccino and espresso sizes. I don’t speak Finnish, so I don’t know if they ship elsewhere.
	Ian Curtis Cushion He’s…he’s looking at me. No idea where this originated; it was found at I Have Seen the Whole of the Internet, but it’s unclear where it came from. TinEye is no help. Oh, well; it’s easy to custom-print photos on fabric so if you always dreamed of sitting on Ian Curtis’ face, now’s your chance.
	Wayne Family Cosplay I love everything about this. You know there’ll be plenty of Batman cosplayers, so play off of them instead. Bonus for leaving a trail of mildly-perplexed Batmen in your wake.
	Porcelain Skull This is one of several porcelain skull designs by artist NooN in collaboration with the French ceramics company K.olin tribu. Something similar could be DIYd with a plaster skull and decoupage.
	Exorcist Prank This is such a simple joke, but it made me giggle. A lot.
	POLYPODIS This Lovecraftian shoe is by Kermit Tesoro. Although not terribly practical to walk in, you have to admit that it can’t be beaten for style. (As one commenter put it, “Your poor unfortunate soles.”)
	Pizza Ouija As soon as I saw this I figured it was probably a Hell Pizza item. It was a limited-edition box created for an advertising campaign. Hell Pizza is the same company that offered hell cross buns for Easter a few years ago.
	Window Picture Frame The watermark on this credits Cheerios and Lattes, but I didn’t see a post referencing it. Regardless, it’s a neat way to repurpose an old window frame: Place little shadowboxes behind each pane and use them to display small items. I like the shabby, peeling-paint look; this would be great with a spooky thing in each pane, all trying to get inside….