Night 13 of "Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween"

Welcome to night 13 of "Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween". Tonight we have our next featured shop from our GIANT Giveaway. We also have the review of the next movie on our Halloween Movie List. First off lets get to our featured item of the night from Laughing Vixen Lounge.

Tonight's Featured Item - Skull and Bird Silver Pendant

Skull and Bird Silver Pendant $12

Purchase this item from Laughing Vixen Lounge during October and get 10% off. Use code OCTOBER10
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Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween Shop Feature - Moonsteam Alchemy/Geek Bliss/Moonsteam Design Studio

Our last featured shop is Moonsteam Alchemy, Geek Bliss and Moonsteam Design Studio run by Sara from Tampa, FL. Moonsteam Alchemy and Geek Bliss are filled with lots of fun lip balms and Moonsteam Design Studio has great digital paper designs.

Black Cat Lip Balm

How did you come up with your shop name? ""Moonsteam" is a word I came up with one day while thinking about my passion for all of my creative projects; it's about working late into the night on projects (as in "often working way too much because I love what I'm doing too much to stop when I should"), working by the light of the moon or just being inspired by it, and working with the power, the "steam" of my own hands & ideas."

""Geek Bliss" was just a fun name I came up with for the first balms I made that were all geek-themed. I first made them for my DragonCon friends...yes, I am a con-going geek. :)"

Absinthe Lip Balm

What inspires Sara's designs? "For Moonsteam stuff, the designs and aesthetics of the 19th - early 20th centuries; for Geek Bliss stuff, whatever TV show or movie I love. :)"

The Matrix Inspired Lip Balms

Why did you choose to open your shop and make what you do? "For fun. Now it's for fun & profit. I first started making lip balms for fun; they were simple to make, I loved designing and theme-ing them, and friends loved them. I still love making them! I started with the geek-themed balms, but my vintage-loving side is much larger than my geek side, so the vintage-themed Moonsteam shop came to be. I love planning new themes and flavors. I plan to eventually expand the balm shops to offer body balms, solid perfumes, and maybe candles."

"I started making digital paper because I could not find what I wanted (I've always been a designer, so if I can't find something, I make it), and because when I did find digital paper I liked, the terms of use were so restricting that it often was not worth buying. The papers I liked never allowed commercial use, and so all the ideas I'd get for using the papers could never be. So I decided to make & sell my own papers and offer very generous terms of use--you can use Moonsteam Design Studio papers for anything except for making scrapbook kits or other paper packs. That means you can use them to create things to sell on Etsy or anywhere else! I want people to be inspired by the papers and create gorgeous stuff and be able to sell their creations & make money!"

Since it's Halloween I had to ask the shops what their favorite horror film is. "I'm not a big fan of scary movies! I like "lightly" scary, haha, such as The Others. My favorite Halloween movies are fun, not scary: Love At First Bite (George Hamilton FTW!), Beetlejuice, and Corpse Bride. :)"

A big thanks to Sara and Moonsteam Alchemy, Geek Bliss and Moonsteam Design Studio for joining in the giveaway. Make sure to stop by see what treats you can find.
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Night 13 - The Hitcher

Tagline - The terror starts the moment he stops.

              Never Pick Up A Stranger.

              He came from hell. Don't ask him where he
              wants to go.

             Out on the desert highway, the rule of
             thumb has a different meaning...
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Directed by Robert Harmon (They) and released in Febuary 21, 1986 by TriStar Pictures (rated R). A young man, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell), is delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego. Unable to keep his eyes open, he decides to pick up a hitch hiker, John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), standing on the side of the road so he could have someone to talk to. As the passenger door opens Jim utters the infamous line "My mother always told me not to do this". We the viewer know that mom was right but Jim has to learn the hard way.
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I used to love Tommy Howell. The I grew up and realized a cute boy does not a good actor make! That aside, this movie is still creepy and fun.

OK...this movie has lots of flaws. Mr. Howell really can't act and it does show in this movie. I don't remember him being so painful in the Outsiders but it has been a long time since I've seen it. Also, it's quite amazing how the hitcher can always be hiding right where Jim is about to show up. Maybe his character is psychic and they forgot to tell us. It's probably laying on the editing room floor.

The silliness aside, there really are some great scary and creepy elements here. It plays on all of those terrible "what could happens" of traveling, especially on your own. Driving in out of the way places, stopping at gas station and rest areas and crossing paths with lots of strangers. Usually harmless things but we all know the horrible things that do happen to people sometimes and that's what feeds the fear here.

What takes that fear and kicks it into high gear is Mr. Hauer himself. This is the first movie I really noticed Rutger Hauer in and it took a good decade to be able to separate him from this character. He is truly scary as the villain here and it shows just how talented of an act he can be.

Besides, the scene with Nash at the truck stop is just classic horror film making. Maybe you don't get to see as much as nowadays but it's horrible all the same.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1.The writer of the screenplay, Eric Red, has said the story was inspired by the Doors song "Riders on the Storm".
2. Sam Elliott was originally signed up to play the hitcher but had to back out due to a scheduling conflict.
3. Rutger Hauer knocked out one of his teeth with the shotgun he was holding during the windshield scene.