DC's

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The_rainbow_room, 19
I’m writing here to ask for advice. I live with a roommate from the Philippines, and he’s in the habit of walking around completely naked. I admit he has a nice ass even if it’s small, but seeing it almost always like this, just hovering and dancing gently from side to side, makes me want to destroy his mind, his self worth, his self confidence, turn him into a self-hating, paranoid, lonely boy with multiple mental illnesses.

I know he’s an escort and I started to nurture this dream when I discovered he’s also a transvestite and gets fucked almost every other day by mature men. I discovered he was an escort on the internet and from that moment on I wanted to break his head and fuck him up, ideally over an extended period of time, make him fall in love with me, make him question reality, turn him into an unstable, crying, depressed emotional wreck.

If you want I can also post some photos of how he looks in transvestite garb.

Comments

euroteenboys – Oct 27, 2026
I’m one of Bayani’s regulars, and you should really rethink this. Without his pizzazz, that ass would be like a burnt out light bulb.

The_rainbow_room (Owner) – Oct 26, 2026
I did offer to pay, and he said, and here I quote, “Don’t fuck with me and don’t waste my time, watch Netflix or take a photo of your grandmother and start masturbating.”

Dr_FeelGood – Oct 26, 2026
Or you could just pay him $50 every time you want to fuck him like the rest of us.

domboy92 – Oct 23, 2026
been there wanna go there again before his time runs out

 

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AmericanInSpain, 21
This boy is a drug mule who fucked up and owes me a lot of money. He’s paying it off through toilet sex. Who wants to take the first shit down this scat virgin’s throat? Contact me on Telegram @gayforeverfun

Comments

ferrarihorse – Oct 21, 2026
I warned him.

Aron_Parker – Oct 20, 2026
I’ve “known” Danny for almost seven years. He’s a good kid. Like many others who got caught in the drug trade, he’s been through both ups and downs. But he found the strength and will to move forward — albeit in the wrong direction. I’m truly happy for him that he didn’t lose himself in a foreign world. He stood his ground and is moving forward with determination. Well done, buddy. Stay strong.

Crystalman – Oct 20, 2026
To be clear the dealer had the hots/hates for him and set him up. He did the same thing to me.

 

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Rrready, 22
So I had a serious thought about it, I would love to have a guy try to kill me by literally tickling me to death.

I would try to fight him off. If he succeeded then well that would be it and I got what I deserved, but If I was able to fight him off….

I would taunt him: ‘Is that the best you can do? Do you think you are even man enough to kill me? I bet you don’t have the balls to kill me.’

I’d laugh at him and tell him to go ahead and try again.

(Secretly I would want him to try again and again, maybe he would succeed, maybe he wouldn’t).

On the other hand, If a man asked or begged to kill me, I don’t think I would hesitate.

Comments

olderforboy – Oct 11, 2026
It’s not impossible to tickle someone to death, but the ticklee would likely need to have a preexisting heart condition or undiagnosed aneurysm – something like that, and while he might believe that the tickling is what killed him, it would almost certainly be an extenuating circumstance.

Forsweetboy – Oct 7, 2026
No, he won’t let you tickle him with a scalpel.

 

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BNWOonly, 18
Polish boy looking for a black daddy to destroy me

Comments

MakeSexWithPassion – Oct 19, 2026
I fucking love this bitch 🥰 God sucks his cock and swallows like a dirty pig everyday. Fact.

Forwhite_kid – Oct 15, 2026
He’s a furry. A needy cunt wolf by the name of Siggy.

MakersMark88 – Oct 8, 2026
I took him to my cabin in the forest, where there is no one 10 kilometers around; he was tied up and raped against a tree – it was dark, and wolves and vampires were howling. I got very excited. It’s a good thing this trash speaks no English, because if my girlfriend found out what I do, she’d go crazy. All she cares about is Botox and sucking cock.

 

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Antwerp_boy, 23
I am a young trained chef, classically French trained including breaking down livestock carcasses. And yes, once or twice some exotic meat.

I’ve been active in this lifestyle for at least 3 years, so I’ve been around. Seen some things done some things.

I feel like the time is approaching to give myself to an Executioner. I have the need to be kept captive, sexually abused, tortured, and then butchered alive, cooked, and eaten. Ideally turned into sushi. Longpig sashimi anyone?

Want to do it but no experience? I can guide you.

Comments

Antwerp_boy (Owner) – Oct 19, 2026
You can remove my head.

finisher – Oct 19, 2026
Can I cut off your head?

Grund – Oct 14, 2026
I make this discussion for my curiosity. How bad of a corpse decaytion degree if being kept in freezer about a month before eating? I asking this because i saw that young corpse often have weird face.

Antwerp_boy (Owner) – Oct 12, 2026
I think I’d grill up nicely too, if you prefer.

_l_o_u_i_s – Oct 12, 2026
Not a big fan of sushi/sashimi, but you do look scrumptious! 😋

Yourchamp – Oct 10, 2026
Fuck i see why y’all want to eat this bitch.

 

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OurLittleSecret, 20
I want to kill my fuckhead coworker. Nobody likes this boy and probably wouldn’t blink twice if he died. This other dude and I are cut from the same cloth and think up ways we would kill him or what we want to happen. He more wants to shove him in the oven or strangle him, but I’m partial to crushing his head with my car and abusing and dismembering what’s left. We’re united on strangling or beating him to death. I would love to murder him with the dude but I know he probably doesn’t mean it that much anyway. If someone on here wants to come take him help yourself, just as long as he’s gone.

Comments

pervsilverfox – Oct 25, 2026
Or there is another way. You can turn a boy into a lifeless living corpse. The way is to use injectable insulin. Ordinary insulin does not require a prescription, nor do hypodermic needles, but the best for the purpose is fast acting insulin such as NOVALOG. If you know a diabetic you can obtain this. This produces the ultimate limp unconscious “dead boy” experience. Injecting him through the jeans will initially make him appear hopelessly drunk before lapsing into unconsciousness in a matter of minutes. Should you ever recovery your humanity, the coma can be reversed by a glucagon injection (which many diabetcs have) or glucose gell to be given as an enema or used on the mucosa inside the mouth. I’m just saying there’s gone and there’s “gone”, but that way he might be gone enough.

OurLittleSecret (Owner) – Oct 25, 2026
I might have a crush on his corpse but I won’t know until I hit the off switch.

toogood4u – Oct 25, 2026
Why don’t you wrench yourself out of the closet and ask him out on a date since you so obviously have a big crush on him.

Horny718 – Oct 22, 2026
LOL I’m the man with the sideburns. The teen boy in that scene, Jim, died in a motorcycle accident a couple of weeks after we shot. And yes, what a waste.

sidequest – Oct 22, 2026
Holy shit, that was you in that “Gacy” video? I’ve been obsessed with snuffing you for fucking ever. Name your price.

Horny718 – Oct 22, 2026
Cincinnati. Always been too shy and afraid to talk to people about this kind of stuff, but here I am now. I have appeared in some fake snuff vids before that you might’ve seen. They kinda looked convincing but trying to open up to the real stuff.

MasterFuckYou – Oct 22, 2026
Location, Horny718?

Horny718 – Oct 22, 2026
Hello everybody. Been lurking for a while now on this site but haven’t made an actual introduction till now. I swing both ways with boys and girls for snuff and necro, if I had to choose one I’d probably pick boys. Would love someone to explore my dead anus.

Anonymous – Oct 20, 2026
PATHETIC

Anonymous – Oct 20, 2026
I can only confirm: homophobic, zero decency, can’t speak without words like “son of a bitch,” “faggot” …

Anonymous – Oct 19, 2026
Unfortunately not very attractive

Anonymous – Oct 19, 2026
Just to say he looks caucasian but he’s not.

 

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Established, 24
Open for every extreme and even illegal.

Comments

GabXL78 – Oct 22, 2026
I’ve done him with a junk buzz and nodded out. Junk buzz is better.
As a Top you manage the sex better.
Nodded out….You just wanna dig into him. No Mercy.
You wanna rip him apart.

Established (Owner) – Oct 17, 2026
i am absolutely a junkie and love every minute of it. i dont work and spend my day and this my routine everyday i start off getting pointed by my roommate and from then i spend the rest of the morning and afternoon having guys whoever my roomate decides to have over they just have their way with me and since i dedicated my life to being a junkie/sex addict i have been agrressively raped by 4 guys and they would not let up on me, i now have graduated to gettig fisted and im not gonna lie i love it fisted and bred is so fuckin fun and also i have made over 300 movies of me nodded out getting raw fucked and used. I still have my good looks but have lost some weight i sometimes let my mind seem like its been effected but i come to my senses and have it under control and i finsih my day if i remember to eat or not i am giving one more heroin shot and i spend the rest of the night being used and really abused sometimes by my roommate pays my bills and lets me live this lifestyle i always give him 110 percent of whatever he wants me to do and i keep happy and always lookin forward to seein me evry night. SO that is my life as a heroin junkie and not gonna lie it makes me happy and i dont want this to end.

Hussy – Oct 17, 2026
Sorry for the rude question, but are you a heroin junkie? You look like one.

seagull – Oct 12, 2026
You are favorite porn bottom of all time. Although, you never reached that final level of depravity where you were a blown out worthless cumdump, I DO love to fantasize and wish that I could see you at that level of degredation. Honestly, you haven’t been active in the last coupla years, and I assumed you weren’t still alive, knowing the life expectancy of bareback cumdump gutterslut bottoms. Still I now hope to see you in person one more time, maybe film it, let me know, and maybe we can mount a last-blast comeback. I love you man. Seeing you in all those dp and fisting videos, man that was super hot, no one could get enough of that. In short, may you live in infamy among sleazy, cum dumpster bottoms forevermore. I will pour one out for you, or many more if you let me have you while you yet live.

 

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thefilthiestboy, 18
Hello!
I am a tall and skinny boy. 16 years old and I’m an athlete, I wear sneakers hi tops.
I want someone to kidnap me, torture me, violate me and kill me in the worst possible ways.
I’m really pretty if you’re lucky enough.
I draw pictures. If you see my profile, I have drawings of boys being killed by soldiers.
With me, you can be a soldier, a monster, or a machine.
Or you can kill me as yourself.
If you do not want to kill me, you can also tell me a story of how you would kill me and I will make it in pictures.
regards!

Comments

Yourboyfriend – Oct 18, 2026
Maybe you could post a pic of your naked body and members could vote on how they’d like to see you killed.

sexynstrong069 – Oct 16, 2026
Get him drunk. When he’s drunk he’s obnoxious and embarrassing and it helps you get motivated.

Need_Fuck – Oct 11, 2026
So much child’s play here. By the time of my months if not years of torturing and abusing you and cutting, scarring, breaking hones and more you yourself will see how unrecognizable you are at the final moment.

thefilthiestboy (Owner) – Oct 9, 2026
Yes I am actually! 5 foot 11 and like 137 pounds

twinkaroma – Oct 9, 2026
Awesome! Are you tall?

 

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Lemonfallfromthesky, 23
I’m an extremely submissive, 100,000% willing bottom — open to pretty much anything—seriously, anything 😉 I was once in a relationship where my boyfriend would punch me, leave me with a broken nose, bloody lip and two black eyes before, but he is in prison now and probably doing the same to someone else. I love being filmed and photographed while you’re doing it. My only hard limit is eating vomit.

Comments

Iyawo_2001 – Oct 16, 2026
Wow friend what a hot face it hurts and we are so far away uff the truth is something wonderful and your face is great thank you

Willing – Oct 12, 2026
Or bring a tattoo gun.

1Exhibitionist – Oct 12, 2026
Next time you get gangbanged bring a Sharpie marker so the guys can leave a mark on your ass to record your dick count for posterity.

TheHandsomeGuy1988 – Oct 8, 2026
I love how what used to be a rectum and anal sphincter has transformed into a huge gulf that needs the pleasures of extreme size sodomy like the rest of us need oxygen.

wheresmyfist – Oct 2, 2026
What is the best sex? When you feel so fulfilled that other fantasies no longer matter. Gosh, that’s what I had with Tim here. He’s the hottest and shapeliest male I’ve ever seen, and that beleaguered face … Fucking him, if you can even call it that, is so complete that you end up asking did I just had sex or something infinitely more? That’s the experience I had — and something no human could ever forget.

 

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SeriousCompany, 20
hi does anyone wanna drug me ill take anything

Comments

cruiser63 – Oct 19, 2026
Hey man. I’m Tom, 18. I’m very interested in getting to know you. I’m a drugboy myself. Your private messages are full, or I would have told you that you are INCOMPREHENSIBLY SEXY 😛 Hope to hear from you if you can delete a few messages, man!

Mister-gay – Oct 18, 2026
Watching him sink into a drug stupor is very sexy. Moving his body from position to position eventually wore me out. Cute ass but rather mushy. Snores.

Godzilla0 – Oct 17, 2026
The only drugs I’d use would be to keep you from dying before I’m finished

SeriousCompany (Owner) – Oct 17, 2026
yes please

enjoylife_fun – Oct 17, 2026
Does that mean I can illegally pump you full of fentanyl?

 

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Orphex, 18
Mostly in The Netherlands or Bulgaria.
I have always wanted to be beaten ever since I started wanking.
Recently 18 and not spoken to anyone on a contact site or met anyone through one, so a bit nervous.
I have been beaten before and can take a lot punishment to butt and body but I am pale skinned and it does take time to recover and for marks inflicted on me to disappear completely. So do need a week or so between sessions.
Please respect that but I am very passive and submissive with a violent dom.
Butt pic available if required.

Comments

BigMystery – Oct 6, 2026
I only punched you in the head because I didn’t want to turn that milky body of yours into an unsightly, swollen grape and make you spend weeks in bed before you hooked up with your next bastard, you ungrateful bitch. And I told you I was in love with you because I was. You should be proud!

Orphex (Owner) – Oct 6, 2026
OMG you’re a liar, first of all I came to be beaten and all you did was punch me in the head a couple of times then fuck me like an animal and you cummed three times… and you didn’t like it? What are you even talking about? After you cummed the third time you said you were in love with me and started acting crazy and pathetic. I’m not gonna hide your comment because you’re ridiculous.

BigMystery – Oct 6, 2026
I did this kid a few days ago. Nice body, nice smile but does not deliver what you agree on. One of the worse encounters ever.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. So, tomorrow morning I travel to London to host screenings of ‘Room Temperature’ on Saturday and Sunday, and I’ll return to Paris on Monday. Thus, you will have an extra-long weekend here, and the blog will return to normal again on Tuesday. ** Alice, Morning to you, Alice. Yes, see you very shortly. I’ll be a little nerve-wracked like I always am at screenings, but I’ll do my best to be as ‘me’ as possible. That “you’re 23, this is typical” is just mental laziness on the speaker’s part. I’m so sorry to hear about the troubles you’ve ben going through, and they do sound way too plentiful. You clearly need to be among fellow creatives, as we all do, or certainly me, and, fuck, I just hope you can get there as soon and easily as immediate reality allows. Take care until Halloween. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I’m not expected much Halloweening from London, but what do I know. I’m fairly accustomed to my deprivation this year now. Love did manage tonged his patches but not enough cigarette packs quite yet. Have a great Halloween whatever it takes. Next time love gets gangbanged bring a Sharpie marker so the guys can leave a mark on his ass to record your dick count for posterity, G. ** Adem Berbic, Actually, on further thought, the Halloween-adjacent film I most highly recommend to you if you’ve haven’t already seen it is Nobuhiko Obayashi’s ‘House’ (1977). It’s insane and amazing. Nothing else like it. I have a good feeling about the London screenings, but we will see. Still haven’t seen the bigger ‘The Devils’ since Paris hasn’t yet contextualised it. The Barre actor was on some cool-ish other movies like ‘Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?’ and a Bond film and I can’t remember. One of those faces. ** Larst, Hey, bud. So, what is this mysterious Halloween treat then? Happy a scary, happy one. ** _Black_Acrylic, Oh, crap, about the post-qualifying. Wtf?! What, there are more worthy people out there?! I hope Halloween vacates the disappointment briefly at least. ** Sarah Palmer, Yeah, I wrote for Artforum for a long time, and I think I”m still a Contributing Editor although I haven’t contributed anything in ages apart from a video conversation with Ryan Trecartin. I only stopped because I swore off writing non-fiction about twenty years ago. But if I restart, it’ll probably be for Artforum. I love that place. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the Pinault Mike Kelley show was. Their shows can be kind of dry. There were even works of Mike’s I’d never seen before, and I know his work quite well. It wasn’t as good as the retrospective that the Stedlijk did just after Mike died, but it was solid. If Mike were alive, he would have insisted on a very different installation though because the installation itself was a little regular. I’m hoping/planning to see a bunch of art in London, but the limited time and the largesse of the city will hamper things, no doubt. I’m looking forward to seeing Obélix and the rest menaced by fog and scary music and monsters. My week is going to be rush-rush and conclude with a train trip, but that can be punk, I think? Have a sweet Halloween! ** Carsten, Love me some Jack Nitzsche. That sounds like something John would say, yes. Well, we just have to accustom ourselves to hopping over the snarky bits until snark becomes less cool, although I fear its cool factor is an eternal. Thanks for the beautiful and appropriate poems. In return I can only offer you one of your least favorite posts of the month. Do Halloween up somehow. ** Shea, Hi. Nice you’ve got Halloween covered. John Hawkes! I reread ‘The Lime Twig’ about a year ago, and I was blown away by it, which was interesting (to me) because back when he and his fellow post-modern fiction guys were ruling the cutting edge fiction roost, I never could get into his stuff. I was more of a Barth and Barthelme and Pynchon guy. But he’s fantastic, and I’m meaning t get into a Hawkes reading jag, which you are inspiring me to start. How’s the grad program? You’re a fiction writer? Iron Lung is so much fun. I’ve never seen them live. I know of YHWH Nailgun, but I haven’t listened yet. I will. I’m mostly consumed with film stuff, doing screenings of Zac Farley’s my most recent film and starting worm on the new one. Writing and co-directing films is kind of my big interest and excitement these days. Listening … nothing too exciting at the moment, just this and that. What do you suggest? Are you doing Halloween in any respect? Have a good whatever it ends up being. ** laura w., Derek rules. ‘Castle Faggot’ is especially highly recommended. I’ve sworn off tv series. It’s just too much, and, when I do check in on shows people are wild about, I almost always just think, ‘That’s it?!’ If London has Halloween stuff that we’ll have time to indulge in, I will be very pleasantly surprised. ‘Everyman: Stories’ … what in the world is that? News to me. Enjoy the big night/day. ** HaRpEr //, Big congrats on getting that section done. Sounds monumental. Writing a novel thats a coffin is a top goal. That’s what I wanted my novel ‘Period’ to be. ** Steve Erickson, Yeah, most of the Letterboxd reviews are like belches. IMDb says that Gus’s next film is called ‘The Prince of Fashion’ and will star Will Ferrell. Jesus. ** Uday, Oh, as a Pettibon artwork, that makes more sense and, huh, good luck with that simulation. Ugh, school hierarchies are such a fucking mess these days. I know and love Richard Hell, and at the best of times he is both great and very often irritating, so … ** Bill, Hi. The London screenings killed our plans to be in LA for Halloween as we usually are, so they’d better be good screenings, that’s all I have to say. You’re finally home. But briefly? Traveling is always stressful to me, even the short train trip to London. Weird. Max everything local out obviously. Any Halloween plans? ** Audrey, Hey, Audrey, it’s great to see you! Happy birthday if it’s still is your birthday, or, wait, in any case. Wild about the band reading from ‘Frisk’. Cool band, or I hope so. I’m okay. I’ll be in London on Halloween showing ‘Room Temperature’, so if it isn’t a great Halloween, it’ll be Zac’s and my fault, I guess. No, I don’t do costumes. I have a clothing/dye allergy, and also I’m kind of a demure guy. We’re still showing ‘Room Temperature’ but it’s winding down because it’ll come out on BluRay and DVD and streaming next month. The process of making ‘RT’ was a total nightmare. Our so-called producer was a pathological liar, so Zac and I had to raise the funds. We just went to individuals and asked for donations. It took over four years, but we finally raised enough to make it. We’re starting to work on our new film, but we’re going through normal filmmaking channels this time and it should be must easier. Enjoy NYC. Yes, I’l let you know when I’m there next. Great that you’re writing poetry and that it’s getting published. That’s awesome. It’s possible to be a part-time art/writing hermit and have a real life, or I’m somehow managing it. Thank you, my friend, that’s so cool of you to say. Very happy Halloween to too! xoxo ** Nicholas., Hey. It seems like they would go hand in hand? Paris is doing okay. The students are rising up, and it’s crisp and coldish, and it’s feels pretty comfy and alert. That doesn’t sound terrible to me. It sounds … sensible? Take care of yourself, bud. ** Thom, Hey. I saw an email from you, great, thank you! I probably won’t be able to start setting the post up until I get back from London at the beginning of next week, but then I will, and I’ll get back to you. Really, thanks! Week some good stuff and a lot of trip prep. It’s doable. Happy Halloween! Make the holiday pay! ** Okay. Luck of the draw means you will be spending an extended Halloween with the slaves. But they’re an appropriately dark bunch this month, if that helps with the Halloween spirit. I’ll see you back on Tuesday.

* (restored)
* borrowed from Taddle Creek

 

A is for All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. All Hallows, also known as All Saints’ Day, takes place on November 1st. It is a day when Catholics celebrate those who have been beatified. All Souls’ Day is the day after All Saints’. The church decreed it a day to pray for those poor souls in purgatory—spirits suspended between heaven and hell. In the Middle Ages, the days were known collectively as Hallowtide. On the eve of All Souls’, churches would ring bells to scare away the dead. Some churches rang bells all night long.

B is for Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. Burns wrote “Halloween” in 1785. “Some merry, friendly, countra-folks / Together did convene, / To burn their nits, an’ pou their stocks, / An’ haud their Halloween / Fu’ blythe that night.” The poem refers to the Celtic Halloween custom of fortune-telling with nuts and apple peelings. Emigrating Scots brought the custom to Canada. Other Halloween customs carried here by Scots and Irish: bonfires, begging for food door to door, playing pranks on those who would not furnish food.

C is for Caledonian Society. Founded in Canada, in 1855, by affluent Scottish-Canadians, the Caledonian Society held banquets across Canada on Halloween. “We are not divining the future, or burning nuts, or catching the ‘snap apple,’ but [we are] celebrating Scottishness,” a speaker told Caledonians in Montreal, in 1885. In Toronto, George Brown was active in the Caledonians. Halloween here was a night of feasts: besides the Caledonian Society, different regiments of the military held a Halloween dinner, as did colleges at the University of Toronto. A meat market ran this ad on October 29, 1903: “HALLOWE’EN POULTRY. We are having heavy enquiries already.”

D is for Dennison Manufacturing Company. “You would be surprised,” said a young lady in Bookseller and Stationer magazine, in 1924, “how many people give Hallowe’en parties the last two weeks of October.” The young lady worked at a Toronto store. She supervised the crêpe-paper department. Dennison Manufacturing, of Framingham, Massachusetts, was the country’s main maker of crêpe paper. Dennison had a Toronto office in the early nineteen-hundreds. It was located on Wellington Street West. They were the first to sell yellow, orange, and black crêpe paper. They sold crêpe paper printed with owls, bats, jack-o’-lanterns, black cats with arched backs. They published The Bogie Book, the Bible of Halloween party guides. Place cards, Spanish moss, blindfolds, costumes—The Bogie Book told how to make them all from Dennison crêpe paper. Crêpe paper is combustible. The parties were firetraps.

E is for Eaton’s. “Don’t Miss The Hallowe’en Parade,” read an Eaton’s ad in the Toronto Daily Star, in 1929. The Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade involved several floats and many paraders. The Hallowe’en Parade? “A big pompous general will lead Felix, Bluebeard—A gypsy, a Zulu, and other familiar folk in a march around Toyland.”

F is for Frankenstein. Billy Pratt was a British lad. In 1909, he was flunking out of King’s College London. He was studying Chinese customs and languages; he wanted to act. He travelled to Canada and wound his way to Toronto. The Canada Company office found him work in Hamilton. Pratt became a farmer, but after three months, he drifted westward, working as a ditch digger, a tree cutter. Soon he convinced a stock company in Kamloops, British Columbia, to let him join the troupe. He changed his name to Boris Karloff. Karloff was a surname of some of his relatives; Boris was a name he said he “plucked out of the cold Canadian air.” Karloff toured Alberta and Saskatchewan, then he headed to Hollywood. His role as the monster in Frankenstein made him a star.

 

 

H is for Dr. H. H. Holmes. Holmes built himself a hotel in 1893, in Chicago, that boasted, in the words of the crime writer Connie Fillipelli, “iron-plated rooms, secret passages, hidden chutes that ended in the basement directly above zinc-lined tanks, sealed rooms with gas jets, stairways that led nowhere . . . trapdoors, a dissecting table, surgeons’ tools.” The building was a blueprint for every carnival and amusement park haunted house to come. It’s believed Holmes murdered more than a hundred people there. Then he went on the lam, landing in Toronto. He buried more bodies in the basement of a house near Barrie, Ontario. Pinkerton detectives shadowed him. Again he fled. They nabbed him in Boston, tried him in Philadelphia. In 1896 he was hanged.

I is for Isabel Grace Mackenzie. She died in 1917 and was survived by her son, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Mackenzie King became the prime minister of Canada. He hung a portrait of Isabel in his study, and kept it lit night and day. He spoke to her through a Ouija board and a crystal ball. He contacted her during séances. On October 6, 1935, his dead mother communicated the following to him: “Long ago I dreamt that you would succeed Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Long ago I knew God meant you to be prime minister. Long ago I [more than] knew that God meant that you would serve His holy will. Good night.” King was buried beside his mother in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

 

K is for kisses. “Ducking for apples is rather out of late,” said the Everywoman’s Column of the Toronto Daily Star, in 1913. The topic: suggestions for Halloween parties. What did the column recommend? A taffy pull. “For the taffy pull, pull the taffy from buttered plates and save mother’s busy hands next day.” A taffy pull fulfilled two functions: it provided entertainment, and it provided eats. For hosts who didn’t have time to cook candy, stores sold it. At Halloween, a confectioner called Hunt’s sold a “Taffy Sucker, Face on Stand” for a nickel. In 1925, Eaton’s advertised a variety of taffies for Halloween: “peanut crisp, cocoanut and peanut, peanut and butterscotch.” During the Depression, the molasses kiss grew in popularity. No one seems to know why. Maybe molasses was cheaper than the ingredients for taffy? “Just In Time For Hallowe’en Parties,” read an ad from Loblaw’s, in 1933, “HALLOWEEN KISSES.” Fifteen cents bought a one-pound bag.

 

 

M is for David Manners, who played the handsome John Harker in Dracula. Manners was born in Halifax. His real name: Rauff de Ryther Daun Acklom. He studied forestry at the University of Toronto, and acted at Hart House Theatre. He hightailed it to Hollywood, where James Whale spotted him at a party. Whale cast him in his directorial debut, Journey’s End. Manners went on to work with directors Frank Capra and George Cukor. Tod Browning cast him in Dracula. In The Mummy, Manners played opposite Boris Karloff. In The Black Cat he starred with both Bela Lugosi and Karloff. He eventually abandoned the movies. Some suggest he quit, in part, because his studio suggested he marry a woman (Manners was gay). Retiring from acting, he retreated to the California desert. He wrote novels, and died in 1998. Horror movies, he once said, were his “only claim to movie fame.”

N is for noise. Making noise was at the heart of Halloween in its early days. Revellers tossed rocks and mud at windows and doors. They crafted noisemakers from tin cans, wooden spools, roofing tiles. A mid-century Halloween package produced for Canadian schoolteachers included instructions for making a Halloween megaphone. As early as 1900, Halloween noisemakers were being produced in Germany and exported to the United States. Styles for sale included horns, rattles, cranks, snappers, and clappers. “Weird Spirits a-gamboling,” said a 1913 ad for Mason and Risch Limited, of Toronto. “Witch Caps—Pumpkin Heads—Dominoes—Flowing Robes—Holed-Out Eyes. Strange phantasies they are! Yet, who and WHAT are they? Listen, then, they are the phantom witcheries of Hallowe’en!” The ad was peddling the Victor Victrola. “To sit snugly around the open fire, revelling in all the mystic rhythms of this bewitching fairyland of Hallowe’en, conjured up so wonderfully by the little Victrola, will make the evening’s frolics complete!” Which mystic rhythms did the store recommend? “The Dance o’ the Fairies,” “Peer Gynt,” and “Will-of-the-Wisp.”

P is for Philip Morris. In the nineteen-fifties he toured across Canada performing in a ghost show—a magic show with supernatural and horrific effects. His stage name: Dr. Evil. To garner publicity, he’d arrive early in a town and pull stunts. Drive a car blindfolded. Raffle off a “dead body.” The dead body was a frozen chicken. The R.C.M.P. once arrested him for dressing as a gorilla in public. Years later he invented an artificial spiderweb made of cloth. He made a killing.

Q is for Kew Beach. In 1945, Halloween hooligans burnt bonfires on Queen Street East. To feed the fire, they tore down fences and gates. Police were called. When they rode up on horses, they were pelted with stones and bricks. Hooligans blocked fire trucks with piles of concrete blocks. Thirteen troublemakers were taken in. A mob of seven thousand marched on the Main Street police station, hell-bent on springing the hooligans. Police cruisers rushed to the scene with tear gas. Water cannons dispersed the rioters. Five firemen were injured, as were a couple of cops.

R is for rides. Leon Cassidy needed a “dark ride.” In 1928, Cassidy was the co-owner of a small amusement park in New Jersey. Lots of amusement parks had an “old mill” ride: boats floated riders down canals decorated with scary scenery. Cassidy couldn’t afford to build a boat ride. So he put dodgem cars on a twisted track in a darkened pavilion. The Pretzel, he called it. It was a sensation. He started the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company to provide Pretzel rides to amusement parks across the continent. In 1930, he came to Canada. He put down a floor base at the Canadian National Exhibition. He laid tracks on the base, then covered them in a black tent, covered by another tent. It was probably the first cartable dark ride on a midway anywhere.

S is for slogans. “Trick or treat!” It’s what children scream on Halloween. But “trick or treat” didn’t become the customary catchphrase in Toronto until sometime around the Second World War. Before then, kids yelled, “Shell out!” “HALLOWE’EN” said an ad for a grocery store chain, in 1929, “with its joyous merriment. . . . SHELLIN’ OUT to the district cut-ups, guessing who the strange figure is who knocks on your door.” From a Loblaw’s ad during the Depression: “When You Hear the Ultimatum! SHELL OUT. Be Ready with LOBLAW’S HALLOWE’EN KISSES.”

T is for Bill Tracy, a sculptor and engineer from New Jersey. In the nineteen-fifties, he revolutionized carnival dark rides by adding supernatural back-glows, glow-in-the dark stunts, trompe l’oeil to the decor. He created themed rides like the western ghost town and the haunted pirate ship. Sadly, he never invented safety features, like fire escapes. Wiring was makeshift. His rides tended to go up in flames. Very few still stand. The dark ride at Toronto’s Centreville Amusement Park—the Haunted Barrel Works—is decorated in a distinctly Tracy mode. And it is safe.

U is for University of Toronto. According to the historian Keith Walden, spontaneous Halloween celebrations erupted on campus in 1884. Students marched into the downtown core, singing, shattering lampposts, egging Eaton’s. Police dispersed them. Torontonians complained. The parade became an annual event. In 1899 students barged into the peanut gallery at Massey Hall, disrupting the evening’s performance. Veterinary students dangled dead horse parts over the balcony. Medical students banged human arm and leg bones. Some students slit open a political effigy, showering the audience below with chaff, hay, and excelsior. Hector Charlesworth, the future editor of Saturday Night, was sitting in the pit. His suit was ruined.

 

 

W is for whoopee cushion. In the early twentieth century, an American named S. S. Adams invented a plethora of classic pranks: dribble glasses, joy buzzers, sneezing powder. In 1930, a Canadian “rubber concern” approached him with a new novelty—a bladder that made a farting sound when someone sat on it. The rubber concern? The Jem Rubber Company, headquartered in Toronto, on Dundas Street West. It produced parts for printing companies. Adams turned down the fart cushion, so Jem manufactured it on its own. It was green, with a wooden nozzle. Stamped on the face was a picture of a Scottish lad. He sported spurs and a sporran, and carried a rifle. Wouldn’t bagpipes have been the obvious visual pun? The whoopee cushion was a sensation, even during the Depression. Adams ended up coming out with a copy of the Canadian cushion—the razzberry cushion, he called it.

X is for XEPN, a Mexican border-blaster radio station near the Rio Grande. In the late nineteen-twenties and early thirties, Bob Nelson and his brother Larry hosted an astrology show on the station. Listeners sent in a dollar and, in return, the Nelsons sent them a mimeographed horoscope. The Nelsons also operated Nelson Enterprises, of Columbus, Ohio, which supplied mediums and mentalists with fake fortune-telling equipment—mind-reading codes, mechanical crystal balls, two-way radios that could be concealed under capes or in turbans. “Be it distinctly understood,” said their 1931 mail-order catalogue, “that all effects described in this catalogue are accomplished by normal means, and are entirely divorced from any supernatural or supernormal powers.”

Y is for yellow. “Green and red have come [to] be the Christmas colors,” said a newspaper article from 1925, “just as black and yellow tell us of Hallowe’en.” An article in Bookseller and Stationer, from 1925, advised those celebrating Halloween to obtain “yellow and black crêpe paper for decorative purposes.” In 1927, an ad for crêpe paper in that same magazine recommended “Orange and Black for Hallowe’en.” In coming years, orange and black would come to be considered the Halloween palette par excellence. What changed? Why did yellow fade out and orange fill in?
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p.s. Hey. ** Adem Berbic, Well, if the bucks don’t accrue, Phantasialand is one of the best amusement parks in the world. Ah, inhale in proximity to a tree, gotcha. Favorite Halloween adjacent film? If you mean really Halloween adjacent, I have a great fondness for ‘Halloween 3’. Which is only what it is, mind you. Oh, Zac and I are always equal parts nervous and excited before a screening, and, this being the London one, probably more so on both fronts. ** Sarah Palmer, Hi, Sarah. On the second night the protesters didn’t come anywhere near my neighborhood, so all the boarded up, closed shops were for nothing basically. Here’s the review of ‘Dancer in the Dark’ I wrote for Artforum when the film first came out. Yes, I’ll keep my eye on the ticket availability status just in case. It’s wonderful outdoors right now, for so sure. It’s so great that you get to travel and see all those things so often. Dreamy. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done before we go to London for the ‘RT’ screenings on Friday, but I went to a screening last night of some great Leslie Thornton’s films with her in person at the Scratch Projection series. I’m seeing Nirosta Steel play next week and doing the Parc Asterix Halloween event a week from Sunday, and there are so many art shows I want to see starting I guess upon my return. Enjoy what you’re going to see, and I hope your punk day is hardcore. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Tickets acquired for Halloween at Parc Asterix for a week from Sunday, so I’ll get to drag Halloween out for an extra week. The French mail is dodgy, but I think mail within the EU should pass the test. Ah, ‘Dragula’ is still going! Love and you enjoy that for sure. Love remembering to buy nicotine patches and extra packs of cigarettes, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, I think I can mostly guarantee that a trip into ‘Strait Jacket’ will tickle your funny bone if nothing else. ** HaRpEr //, I believe I agree with you about ‘Strait Jacket’ now that I think about it. ‘Dementia’ is a total treat! Very nice. The 2015 remake is to be avoided at most costs. ** Amphibiouspeter, Well, hello there! It’s been a bit. Hi! I’m pretty amazed myself. You’d think I have no life or something, but I actually do. Inexplicable. I’m good. I trust you would say the same. Big up! ** Carsten, Hi. Gus and I were friendly, yes. I guess we still would be if I ever saw him. I remember when ‘Cutter’s Way’ was the most mentioned example that people would use when talking about an unfairly overlooked great film. And I’ve still never gotten the gumption to watch it for no good reason. I’ll try to find the mood. Thanks for the fill-in. ** laura w, The blog’s hunger is incorrigible and annoying. When people use the word pretentious it’s almost always them trying to save face about something they didn’t understand, it seems to me. The majority fear of experimentation will always be beyond me. Is that ‘Carrie’ the Netflix or whatever thing? I never watch those kinds of things, but I completely believe you. Why would someone remake ‘Carrie’? I don’t get it. No, the added screening is on Sunday. The people who are bringing us over were nice enough to pay for our lodging for an extra day, so we took it, of course. ** Steve Erickson, Because ‘Blair Witch’s’ reality/fictional confusion was completely out of the blue in the horror genre at the time. And I at least remember it as being very effectively done. Feel better. It seems like Gus doesn’t want to make small budget personal films anymore, but I can’t figure out why. ** R 𓃴, Hi, welcome, very good to meet you! Thank you so much for saying that. Where were you overseas and why and why are you back in the States and why and what are you doing? Sorry, that’s a whole lot of questions, but I am interested if you want to say. Either way, have a great Halloween, and at least you’re in the right country to be able to fully experience it. ** kenley, Hey. Slutty mouse: I am not quite successfully imagining what that would look like so far. Oh, bored teenaged rider operators … I wish. Haunted baguettes seems more possible. They have some kind of haunted forest thing that looks like it might be scary or, well, okay, ‘scary’, which would suffice. Yep, on so-called pretentiousness, I so agree. Letterboxd is such a shitshow. Like with the ‘RT’ reviews there, maybe a third are engaged and thoughtful but the other two-thirds are just people throwing out snarky one-liners that I guess they think are hilarious or something. Lots of one-upmanship stuff. I think it’s alway been probably like this, but people used to have to confine their proud conservatism to their groups of in-person friends. ** Uday, Frogs, huh. I know what you mean. I mostly experience that when I’m working on novels, I think. Raymond Pettibon … so a long sleeve white partly buttoned up shirt over a t-shirt and baggy pants and tousled hair and a look of confusion and hostility in your eyes? ** Thom, Hi. Thanks! For the pop in too. Okey doke on the post/email. I’m anticipation central. ** Right. It’s basically an annual tradition here at DC’s to repost the great Derek McCormick’s ABCs of Halloween every year, and, this year, today’s the day. See you tomorrow.