"White masked killer that thrills Yearley"

A historical summary of the most popular classic horror sagas of All Time! ‘Halloween”

By Tim Glanville

Halloween is a time for Dressing up in costumes, parties, group gatherings, pumpkin jack o lanterns and the traditional Horror movie marathon. Year after year it becomes a tradition and annual thing for many people to do on Halloween, watching Horror Movies. From Classics such as Phantom of the Opera, The wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, psycho and The Exorcise. They become a key aspect to the Holiday and meaning of Halloween. Today it’s a Tradition just beginning, with a new generation of Movie goers who see the classics that are frightening today as they were years ago.

One of the most popular horror classics of all time “Halloween” is surveyed to be the most watched horror movie series on Halloween. Beginning with the Release of the first Film in 1978 on Halloween of that year. Directed By Horror/ Sci Fi Producer John Carpenter, “Halloween” became an instant horror classic going on to gross the most money of any independent film ever. Staring Actress Jamie Lee Curtis and Veteran movie actor Donald Pleasance, the film had nothing but sure success for Horror. It lead to an Era of Slasher films that Rose in the 80’s. this Horror Genre was not seen since “Psycho”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, and “Black Christmas” all films that came out before “Halloween.” With all the success of the first film it was continued on with the sequel “Halloween 2” in 1981 that Became another Classic in the series. Although the most recognized Horror film of the year was “An American Werewolf in London” that won the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and an Academy Award for Makeup, “Halloween 2” still gained a lot of success. Unfortunately John Carpenter went on to do other films such as the thing and the Fog leaving the Michel Myers story abandon for almost 7 years. The series continued on with the release “Halloween 3 Season of the Witch” a year later. The Film became a negative impact on the movie series, having nothing to do with the story Line of the main Character Michael Myers. It brought Dislikes and Hates to Fans of “Halloween” and is not favored as the original movies. During the period of Halloweens absence, other horror films such as “Friday the 13^th”, “creep show” and “A nightmare on Elm Street” were in the spotlight of Horror with their significant success and marks on Horror film. Keeping similar elements of horror they made some of the most well known Horror classics alongside “Halloween.” In 1988 John Carpenters collaborator Mustapha Akkad brought back to life Michael Myers and the series continued on again with the Story of the Psychopathic killer in ”Halloween 4 the Return of Michael Myers.” The film Reunited Actor Donald Pleasance as the only original actor in the movie series. The film went onto gross out 5 million overall at the box office ranking 5^th in the series. The film got moderate critic feed back as there were some dislikes in the 4^th film, but the film kept some original elements seen in the first two films that gained it success. With its mustered success, Akaka quickly worked on the 5^th film “The Revenge of Michael Myers” that released a year later in 1989. The Film

Earned $5, 0093,485 in 1,495 theaters in The United States, but quickly fell from the box office with a mere 11,642,254 becoming one of the least successful “Halloween” films in the series. Most reviews to “Halloween 5” were good and bad, critics believed the rushed script, and irritating characters are the reason. The release of “Halloween 4” on video ran into the release of Halloween 5 in theaters confusing the viewers to understand the storyline of the sequels to the original film. The movie series continued on with “Halloween 6 The Curse of Michael Myers” that released on September 29, 1995. Bringing in $7,308,529 during the opening weekend gross, being the first film in the series to beat “Halloween 2’s” opening weekend gross. The film went on to gross a total of $15,116,634 at the U.S. box office. On February 2 1995 “Halloween’s” long time actor Donald Pleasence Died at the age of 75 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France hospital from complications after heart valve replacement surgery. The film was dedicated to him in honor of his acting career in the “Halloween” Films. His dedication is seen in the end of the film. With the success gained, the return of Jamie Lee Curtis brought “Halloween 7 H20” that came out two years later even more success. The film was indeed another classic becoming the second highest grossing film in the Halloween series, just behind Rob Zombie’s remake of the first film grossing over $21 million at the box office. In 2002 “Halloween 8 Resurrection” came out with extremely poor reception only grossing in $12,292,121. The two original films were remade by horror director Rob Zombie that were slightly successful, but did not surpass the original films. For almost 30 years the “Halloween” saga has changed horror as well as the industry of independent films forever. As for director John Carpenter a small budget film became a success beyond one man’s wildest dreams, unexpectedly connected the world to traditions and rituals of Halloween past and yet changed the holiday to what it is today. Forever people will know one movie when it comes to mind with horror and that’s “Halloween” and the man Michael Meyers.

Teachers Taking The Fall For Safety Net

by: Will Hastings
The recent emergency school board meeting concerning the teachers contract has raised a lot of questions concerning the make up and workings of the proposed contract.

In proposed two year contract teachers would have seen no pay increases the first year. In the second year there were three possibilities of pay increase. Longevity is the first possible option, for teachers who had reached their maximum step, meaning that they cannot advance further with continuing their education or with pay increases. They would have been rewarded with a one-time cost of living adjustment. The second option is to move up in step, which essentially represents a pay increase. The third option is if a teacher did not get a positive increase from either of the previous options they would have received a one time cost of living adjustment of around five hundred dollars.

Additionally teachers would have had the option to take either continuing education classes or use one thousand dollars (about the cost of a class at UNH) that is already set aside in a fund and use it to purchase a laptop. Mrs. Charron, a special education teacher at Hopkinton as well as a member of the contract negotiation team, said, “The idea behind this is to help get laptops into the hands of all teachers.” This is important in a world where technology is increasingly used in classroom education.

In order to become eligible the teachers would have been selected in a lottery system and only a certain amount of teachers would be able to access these funds each year. In addition they needed be able to show how they will use it to further their teaching and classroom experiences.

The laptops would have remained the property of the school district for three years, and after that the computers would have became the teacher’s property. It is not clear if programs downloaded onto the computers would remain on the computers, if the teachers were to leave the district.

The contract stated that if teachers do not call in sick during the school year they would receive a check equivalent to 2½ days pay. This would have worked out to being cheaper than the cost of paying a substitute teacher to come in for the same amount of time.
Had this contract been passed it would have caused about a 21-cent increase per one thousand dollars in taxes. This would have been the “smallest tax increase in a long time,” according to Mrs. Charron.

Mrs. Charron as well as many of her fellow co-workers believed that the article published in the Concord Monitor may have led to the confusion of many voters at the meeting. As well, an un-clear understanding of the Evergreen law may have had its own negative effects. The Evergreen Law is a state law, which states the unions working without a contact will follow the same conditions as their previous contract if it was established before 2008. “Many voters may have had the idea that, if there is no contract then there are no bonus, this is simply not true,” said Charron. Some voters feel that “Evergreen is taking away the towns right to local government”.

Having an outdated contract dissuades teachers from remaining in the district as well as scares new teachers from coming to work in the district.

“It’s hard to listen to how people think teachers are being greedy and selfish,” said Charron, “but many of the teachers affected live in Hopkinton and pay the same taxes as the voters.”

The Pumpkins Will Fly

Colin Amoth

The predator, pot protesters, and of coarse pumpkins, all were present for Keene’s 19th annual Pumpkin Festival. On October 17th, 2009, the main streets of Keene were engulfed in a flood of partakers and pedestrians. A menacing wall of over fifty pumpkins stood as a beacon to mark the entrance into the pumpkin festival. New comers to the event stared in awe at this impressive display, but that was only the beginning.
29,762 was the final count of all the pumpkins and that number seemed to be modest. The record, so far, has been held by Boston since 2003. The current record is 30,128 and was accomplished in Boston. So by less than 400 Keene came close. As far as the eye could see, lit pumpkins. Pumpkins took over the sides of the roads, the branches of trees, shelves on racks; anywhere people could place them was overtaken by orange melons of all shapes and sizes.
Along with the mass amount of people crowding the streets another group was gathering. At around 4 o’clock police from every direction started to mosey down to one location pretty close to the main wall of pumpkins. The infamous “legalizer’s” of Keene showed up to have a grand 4 20 at the festival. At 4:20 exactly Richard Paul, one of the well-known protesters, shouted “FREEDOM!!” and lit up a joint in the middle of the festival. About five seconds later three police officers surrounded Paul and arrested him on the spot as the crowd booed in vain.
I had a chance to speak with one of these protestors after the incident was over. He would not give his name, but he was happy to share his views on the matter. “We’re not doing anything wrong,” he started out “we should have the option to put whatever we want into our bodies without anyone telling us what we can and can’t do. It’s ridiculous that the government thinks that they can have this much control over us. It’s unconstitutional, it’s illegal!”

Have a Horror Movie Marathon!

Have a Horror Movie Marathon!
by Katy White

Got nothing to do on Halloween? Have a Horror Movie Marathon! Here are some horror classics to choose from. View at your own risk.

1.)A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984): A group of teens are being haunted in their dreams by a man named Freddy Krueger. He has a terribly burned face, knives for fingers (well, only on one hand), and the intent to kill. Sure, it may just seem like it’s a bad dream. But here’s the catch: Whatever happens to you in the dream, happens to you in real life. There is some good news though: if you never sleep again, you’ll be just fine.
Why you should watch it: This movie is a horror classic, and despite its old age, it still lives up to today’s standards.

2.)Halloween (1978): Six year old, Michael Myers brutally kills his older sister on the night of Halloween. Fifteen years later he escapes from the mental institution and sets out to find his younger sister, Laurie. Oh, and he may kill a few of her friends on the way.

3.)Scream: A year after Sidney Prescotts mother was brutally raped and murdered, new killings began to arise. The killer is a man in a ghost mask, and now he’s after Sidney.


4.)Friday The 13th (1980): Years after Jason Vorhees drowned at camp crystal lake, the camp is finally reopening. The week before opening, the counselors are stalked and murdered at the campsite by an unknown assailant.

5.)Texas Chainsaw Massacre(2003): While driving down a desolate country road in Texas, a group of teens decide to pick up a hitchhiker in distress, who then decides to commit suicide in their van. The kids go off to seek help, but instead they run into a family of homicidal, cannibalistic, inbreds. Watch in horror as these kids run for their lives. Oh, and watch out for leather face; the guy in the leather mask who likes to chase people with a chainsaw in hand.

If you've already seen these classics, here are some others to check out: Saw, The Haunting, The Shining, I.T., Prom Night, Rosered,The Butcher,and Carrie.

Costume Chaos

by Caitlyn Madore

Tired of the same traditional costumes used every year? Then, here are some unique and original ideas for you!





Monopoly Man - All you have to do for this easy costume is wear a black suit, top hat, cane, and mustache. An additional option if you really want to get into character is to decorate your hat and clothes with actual pieces from the monopoly game; money, houses, dice, and property cards.

Grape - For this costume you have to dress in all purple. Then blow up purple balloons and either pin or tap them to your clothes. It is that simple!

iPod - Decorate a cardboard box replicating the front of an iPod. Cut out a hole for your head in the middle of the click wheel and holes on either side of the box for your arms. You could even attach an iPod player and speakers to the top or inside of your “iPod” so that you can play music!

Banana Bunch - In order for this costume to be successful, you need to get together a small group of friends (4 -6 people). Each person dresses in all yellow and when you go out trick-or-treating, all you have to do is stay in a bunch.

If none of those ideas appeal to you, here are some other ideas; Mario and Luigi, Pac-man, Barbie and Ken, a Lego brick, the middle finger, a record disk, a Crayola crayon, or your favorite candy bar. Just remember that no matter the idea, as long you get into costume it will be a success.