The Ghoulish Plot: It’s Halloween and Charlie Brown and his “friends” are eager to celebrate. But Linus believes in a mystical Great Pumpkin that will visit the most sincere pumpkin patch that night, and instead of partaking in tricks and treats he sets up shop in a nearby pumpkin patch, only to be disappointed yet again.

If you grew up in America in the last part of the 20th Century you’ve definitely seen this. I wouldn’t say I was a big fan of the Peanuts strip growing up, but as I got older I began to realize the deep undercurrent of melancholy within the strip, and also how relevant the experience of the characters were to my memories of growing up in a small Midwest town in the 80s/90s. Now I’ve read the bulk of the entire run of the strip and read the biography of the creator, Charles Schulz, and hold it up there with Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side as one of the greats of all time.

The thing that has struck me as I’ve gotten older and rewatch this (and the Christmas special) is the way the story represents that big heaping helping of melancholic disappointment that you start to develop as you get to be an older kid at these big holidays. You hope and believe that somehow it will feel as fun and great as it seems like it’s supposed to, and the event can never quite get to those heights…and you have to learn to adapt and savor it anyway. And then you find the parts that mean the most to you, and ignore the rest. It’s not quite as fun as watching Dagwood hork down another giant sandwich, but goddamn does it resonate as you get older.

And…that’s it for the 2024 Cinema of Spookeries! Thanks to the couple dozen of you who reliably stopped by, I appreciate it.

Happy Halloween!