ENGLISH VERSION : PER LA VERSIONE ITALIANE
The witching hour draws near. Soon it will be Halloween, the night in which strange things happen; tombs open and mummies escape; bats flit around the house and materialize as vampires in the shadows of the bedroom of a blond damsel; mad scientists transform corpses into the walking dead; martians descend to take control of the world. 
(insert evil laughter here) mmmmmaahahahahhahahaha! Yes, the sun is setting and evil rises. We must take care if we wish to avoid the evil curse of (insert name of favorite monster here.)!
The world of shivers, chills and mystery has its fascination. We like to get goose bumps and feel our spines tingle. Our hearts always beat a little faster when we come into contact with something unknown scary and paranormal. How delightful to leave behind our hum drum lives and dive into the world of horror. It makes sense that we enjoy something that makes us uneasy.
(Attention: there is a difference between “ha senso” and “fa senso“. “Fare senso” refers typically to the unpleasant sensation that one feels when we see something is more than disgusting but rather, disturbing, and makes us feel uncomfortable…something that is really unpleasant that gives you the feeling of physical queeziness. “Avere senso” refers to something that “adds up” and “makes sense”. For native English speakers these phrases give us a little grief because in English one says “this makes sense” and we use the verb “to make”, but in Italian we must use the verb “to have”.)
In anticipation of the Halloween festivities, I am reading an Agathy Christy mystery – “Ten Little Indians” that I bought at the Fetrinelli bookstore in Rome last summer. Since I was a teenager this book has given me the creeps! In Italy detective stories, mysteries and horror dramas are called “yellows”. Why “yellow” you ask, when this color is fresh, summery and generally associated with happiness and light of day? Here’s why. In March of 1929, given the big success of detective stories abroad, the editor Arnoldo Mondadori and his partner Lorenzo Montano decided to put out an Italian series of mysteries. Because each Mondadori series of books had its own color by which to identify it, the covers of the mystery novels were given the color yellow and in the center there was a red circle with an illustration of the culminating scene from the story. (Incontro Italiano #39 Giallo All’Italiano)
You all must dust off your mystery and detective novels and horror films to put you in the right frame of mind to celebrate halloween. I have put together some rather cool Italian horror film clips. Other than shivering from fear I like laughing, therefore there are several parodies of the horror genere. Enjoy yourselves and happy halloween everyone….mmmmmaahahahahhahahaha!
Frankenstein Junior di Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein in inglese)
Dracula
Mummia
Cena con delitto
Mars Attacks
