Chicago Halloween DUB

Transcript (Download)

Where's a lot of things The we invoke all light of life Be thou a bright flame before us The world's a wet match Halloween is my favorite holiday That warm feeling that you're supposed to get at Christmas time I get it at Halloween I can't help it, you know This will be the celebration which is The correct pronunciation is Samhain So they say, spelled Sam -hain S -a -m -h -a -i -n The celebration of the earth going to sleep And for the winter only to be reborn again in the spring The holiday spirit is taking over But I just want to wish everybody in Chicago A terrific Halloween And you guys better get down and party seriously, okay? I'm gonna cut your little throats Nine nasty snakes they underbundle about Welcome Welcome on Halloween It takes a lot to get these people excited What we're basically going to do is Try and cut somebody with a plastic knife We want a sacrifice tonight We want some blood Negative influence from your Canada Negative influence from your Canada Negative influence from your Canada Halloween or All Hallows Is the renaming of One of the highest of all pagan holy days Which is Samhain I look at Halloween as a great American And a great far More theatrical Kind of holiday Samhain was a time when they decided what Kale would be kept for breeding stock And what would be slaughtered Naturally with that huge amount of slaughtering And preserving of meat going on It was an excuse to have a party Holy moly, holy moly And today it's such a mess because You know, partly because you've got mass communications So, you know, I think diversity is really good And this is supposed to be when the earth and everything Is just shutting down temporarily Firstly, but only to be reborn And it's a cyclic thing just like anything else You'll have the wine, the bread, the Eucharist And the sacrifice, which is usually a piece of the harvest Like a piece of corn The horror aspect of Halloween I think relates to the denigration of the female body And so there was this mystery involved With ministration and birth That they didn't understand And it was a sort of a power that women had And they wanted to take it away from them And it comes out in a suppression of the female body And, you know, killing them And the blood and the gore that's I wanna be your angel I wanna be your witch As we all know, the origin of Halloween is It's basically from the old religion The religion that came before Christianity Before the Christians wiped out any kind of nature or worship Anything that was useful, okay To farmers and to people that lived out in the woods The Christians wiped it out And therefore in order to wipe something out dramatically What you have to do is make it evil As the seven fires of old Were burnt in public We as the hidden children of the goddess Have to do it in secret And once again They're trying to create laws against us Be here, now Forces of change and magic and lust We conjure thee We call thy name into the night O ancient one, come O come to the heartbeats drum Come to us who gather below Through the stars, to the heavens height We hear thy hooves on the wings of night Since time began the blessings of Pan Fire, fire, fire Pan, pan, pan, pan, pan In craft and some other pagan religions The members will actually call back the spirits of the dead So for us it's a very solemn occasion Anyway, our wigs are from the same supplier that supplied Dallas and Dynasties These are my new thuxbee pumps These are five inchers and they are kind of bitch It's very nice Very realistic Yeah, thank you so much It's a little Halloween joke That's not I'm impressed by this guy My best girl I'm sorry I'm irresistible I love the dead before they're cold The bluing flesh for me to hold Cudever eyes upon me see Nothing I'm impressed by this guy This is my sacrifice This is my sacrifice I never even knew we were now rotting face The Day of the Dead is a celebration that is celebrated actually throughout Latin America Halloween and the New Year are celebrated in the same way The Day of the Dead are somewhat different They tend to approach sort of the same subject but in a different way Halloween tends to be somewhat more horrifying, scary and spooky type of approach In Mexico the tradition of the Day of the Dead has a very positive connotation And it is a celebration that basically deals with the idea that death is really part of life That you cannot separate life and death They are rather one together, one that is the consequence of the other Altars are created in the homes to basically remember in a positive way the relatives And also to help the spirit of those people come back and rejoin the family again The purpose is to please those dead people so that they will be happy And will have no excuse about coming back and rejoining the family again Ladies and gentlemen, now the rest of the, these are the new and improved amazing, incredible acro rats Alright! Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! How about that? And experience the fearsome things that they are going to be greeted with in life Is that amazing? A round of applause! Let's swing! Ready? Oh! Let's swing! Oh! One more time, let's swing! Yeah! Whoopie! Oh that's a good one! Oh wow! Whoopie! One more time! One more time! Oh! Oh! The original conception for the whole haunted house came back from prehistoric myths, the rituals We wanted to bring back a ritual to this generation It's all the scary things that are of our civilization that can haunt you The Dracula was killing those bloody Marys That's what we do So you'll see a lot of people in ties don't be put off by that, ties, suits This in actuality is their way of going way out, taking a big chance, making people upset, people that know them You know what I mean? That's what Halloween is about Oh! Oh! Oh! At Samhain, the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest Oh! Oh! Oh! The dead do return Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Date Of Production

1988

Abstract

A rapidly-edited short documentary showing how a variety of individuals, cultural organizations, and performers celebrate Halloween in Chicago.

Chicago Halloween screened at the Illinois Film and Video festival, the Seventh Art Foundation [Chicago], the Center for New Television [Chicago], Athens International Film and Video Festival, and Chicago Filmmakers as well as other United States film festivals. It also screened at various clubs around Chicago, such as the Metro, Club Lower Links and the Limelight, as well as WTTW-TV Image Union.

Description

Revealing the horrific and humorous ways that Chicago celebrated Halloween in October 1988, Chicago Halloween documents Splatter Theater eviscerating victims at the Limelight club, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) judging a costume contest and torturing losers at the Riviera, Rat Girl and her trained rats performing at Metro, and the Heartland Pagan Association invokes Satan. Through interviews with a witch, a pagan, the creators of Hades Haunted House, and a candle-headed philosopher among other experts, the film explores the origins of Halloween as well as its horror subtext.

Within Chicago Halloween is a mini-documentary about Day of the Dead shot at the National Museum of Mexican Art (formerly known as the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum).

Log

00:00 - 00:30: Opening credits with spooky synth music and sounds, accompanied by images of candles, skulls, and skeletons.

00:31 - 00:59: Credits continue, listing some of those featured: Splatter Theatre, The Witches Ball, Hades Haunted House, Samantha the Rat Girl, and Robert "Freddy" Englund. In the background, a group performs a ritual with fire, blue flames, and chanting.

01:00 - 01:25: A man in a mask discusses his love for Halloween, relating it to how most people feel about Christmas. He explains the pagan holiday of Samhain, "when the veil between the dead and the living is at its thinnest". Shots of pumpkins carved for Halloween and other decorations are intercut.

01:26 - 01:45: Costumed people dance at a nightclub, intercut with bloody footage from a Splatter Theatre performance. Actor Robert Englund, known for playing Freddy Krueger, wishes everyone in Chicago a terrific Halloween.

01:46 - 02:25: Splatter Theatre scenes are intercut with cobwebs and other decorations. Kimble Paul, a bouncer at Chicago nightclub Neo, describes plans for a mock sacrifice while wearing a burning candle on his head.

02:26 - 03:30: A superimposed title introduces Jospeh, a pagan, who wears a pentagram necklace. Members of the Heartland Pagan Association are interviewed in a group. They discuss the holiday of Samhain in detail. This is followed by a collage of short shots of people dancing and having fun in costume at a club. The soundtrack is a song by The Cramps.

03:31 - 04:00: The masked man from the first scene discusses Samhaim in more detail, intercut with images of costumed children at a Halloween parade and scenes from Splatter Theatre.

04:01 - 04:30: Gretchyn Steele, identified in a superimposed title as a witch, discusses the role of women in Halloween and the horror aspect of the holiday, intercut with scenes from Splatter Theatre. This is followed by another brief transitional shot of the children's Halloween parade.

04:31 - 05:45: Kimble Paul from Neo discusses Halloween before Christianity. A pagan group performs a formal ritual.

05:46 - 06:26: A man dances and breathes fire. Members of the Heartland Pagan Association discuss Halloween as a solemn occasion. A group of drag queens show off their outfits and shoes and a group of people dressed as nuns sip drinks and laugh.

06:27 - 07:10: Robert Englund judges a costume contest and interviews some of the contestants, followed by more shots of the children's Halloween parade.

07:11 - 08:51: An extended bloody scene from Splatter Theater's performance precedes an interview with Rene Arceo from the Mexican Fine Arts Center (now known as the National Museum of Mexican Art), who discusses the differences between the Day of the Dead and Halloween, intercut with shots of Day of the Dead artwork.

08:52 - 10:59: Samantha the Rat Girl conducts a performance of her acrorats, surrounded by Halloween decorations. An interview with Joe Jensen from Hades Haunted House is intercut with footage of people entering the haunted house and footage of the rats doing tricks.

11:00 - 12:43: Kimble Paul continues to discourse on Halloween. The Splatter Theatre performance reaches its bloody climax and the credits roll.

Color

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Language Of Materials

English

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Format

Cassette Tape ➜ 3/4" U-Matic

Genre

Documentary

Form

Interviews
Performances

Subject

Performances
Entertainers
Religions
Witches
Halloween
Sexuality and culture
Religious services

Related Collections

Dan Dinello Collection

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago ➜ Lower West Side ➜ Pilsen

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago ➜ Lincoln Park

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Villa Park

Main Credits

Dinello, Dan (is filmmaker)

Shock Productions (is production company)

Additional Credits

Bob Brink (is editor)

Beth Burnett (sound)

Suzy DuFour (sound)

Mindaugas Maculis (sound)

Bill Petty (sound)

Taggart Siegel (sound)

Kate Wrobel (sound)

Participants And Performers

Robert Englund (is participant)

Splatter Theatre (is performing group)

Hades Haunted House (is participant)

Samantha The Rat Girl (is participant)

The Witches Ball (is participant)

Heartland Pagan Assosiation (is participant)

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