And Speaking Of Michael Audrey Myers...

Now I've been handing out candy dressed as Michael Myers since the old days of Haunting my parents' house.  I took a pause in 2011, and handed out candy dressed as ME for a while.  Nowhere near as fun and I think I convinced myself that it wasn't mature or normal to do such a thing.  I can be a dope.

Me in the old days, probably thinking "One of these days, I'll give out candy as a costume-less mature adult."     Nope.

So there I was this year, waiting in the house, a few feet from the door, straight back in the darkness.  I would watch for the shadows of approaching kids.  They would observe the display and then quietly knock on the door.  It's a full length glass storm door, so what they saw was an adult figure coming from the darkness inside.  They saw the candy bowl first (a red bowl to be exact, the kind Laurie filled with popcorn for Lindsay and Tommy back in 1978 [historical accuracy is key]).  

I would open the door slowly and their eyes would rise to meet the face of the homeowner...  but they would find instead Michael Audrey Myers.  I hate admitting that I saw terror all night long.  And I think I enjoyed it (I might have loved it).  

There were so many trick or treaters this year, so the terror count was high.  More than a few children RAN from the porch, without even getting candy.  That has never happened before.  The kids back at my parents' house were scared, but they would always seem to get candy first, before scream-laughing away into the night.  They knew the value of free candy (even the cheap stuff that I give out).

Now, when you're handing out candy as The Shape, you have to get into character.  You tell yourself that it's not out of the realm of possibility that Myers would hand out candy on Halloween night.  We're talking about a guy who dressed in a ghost sheet while wearing the glasses of the freshly-murdered Bob.  Your movements have to be slow and paced, and your hand has to scoop [cheap] candy out of Laurie's bowl and slowly glide over the bag or plastic pumpkin of the trick or treater.  You then have to simply open your hand in a slightly jerky manner and drop the candy (often times this would cause some of the [cheap] candy to hit the ground).  This technique seemed to really unsettle the majority of kids.  A lot of the time it would cause them to look up at my face.  And when that happened, without fail, I would do the classic Myers head tilt.  Now THAT right there caused sheer horror.  And it made me wonder if young children even knew who Myers was or if they knew that the head tilt was a thing.  Though I'd imagine that was the brilliance of that moment in the film:  a creepy dude in a blank white mask tilting his head is probably some kind of universal language of fear.

Needless to say, it was a neat night.  The Night He Came Home.  A night filled with screams and laughter and the sound of crunching leaves, rustling cornstalks, and spooky music.  Long live HALLOWEEN.

Me succumbing to my inner Myers.  This is definitely gonna be a thing.