A Book, a Movie and a Song for Halloween

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Hello, welcome to another class. I’m Robin and today we are going to continue with our Halloween content and I’m going to give you recommendations of books, movies and songs to get you ready for Halloween. Now, if you watch my video last week, you’ll remember that we talked about making checklists. So making lists of things that you need to do. And I gave you a special checklist for Halloween, if you’re going to have a party that is COVID-friendly. So if you remember what COVID-friendly is from last week, then you can write that in the comments. Okay, check what you remember from last week or go and watch the video. So today, we’re going to talk about books, movies, and songs. So there are so many that are Halloween-related or scary in general. But I’ve chosen some that are family-friendly and easier for English learners because I want you to read these books, to watch these movies, to listen to these songs and to understand and to enjoy them. Many of the books that are famous to read around Halloween are books like “Dracula”, “Frankenstein”, but these are difficult to understand because they’re older, they have older language that we don’t tend to use anymore in English. So I have chosen some books that are a little bit more modern, movies that are more modern, that you should be able to understand more easily. Okay, so let’s start with my book recommendations. I actually have two. My first one is called “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice. Okay, so this is a story in which a vampire tells his life story, he explains his whole life to a reporter. Okay. And, and it’s pretty easy to understand. It’s a very interesting book that was also made into a movie. So what I like to do when you have a book and movie version, I always like to read the book first, and then compare it to the movies. So that’s what I recommend you do here. And the same with my second recommendation of a book for Halloween, “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman. So this is also an animated film that you can watch. So the story of Coraline. She is a young girl who moves with her parents to a very old house and she discovers a special door that takes her to another world. So this is a great book for both adults and children to read. And you can watch the animated film after you read the book. So those are my book recommendations. There are many more, but I suggest these two to practice your English and get ready for Halloween. Now let’s look at a couple of movies. So another one that is family-friendly, it’s called “Hocus Pocus”. All right, so this is a movie about three witches who were executed or killed in the 1700s. So as you may know, many many years ago, witches were killed, it was illegal to be a witch or even if someone thought you were a witch, then witches could be hung. They could be drowned. So this was a bad time for witches or for people who were thought to be witches. So in this film, the witches were executed, they died. But 300 years later, they come back, they are resurrected. So that’s when they come back to life. And it’s the story of what happens when they come back. Okay, it’s a funny movie. And it’s very family-friendly. So I recommend watching “Hocus Pocus” for Halloween. And my other recommendation, which is a bit more scary, but it’s a very good film, a classic film. It’s called “The Sixth Sense”. Okay, so you may have seen this and you may know this very famous quote from the movie. The main character, a young boy, he says, “I see dead people”. Okay, and this is not a spoiler. Okay, a spoiler is when you know what happens in the movie or the book before you read it before you watch it. This is not the spoiler. Okay, so this is the story of a child who sees dead people and his psychologist, played by Bruce Willis, his psychologist who tries to help him, he tries to solve this mystery and help this child. Okay, so this is a great film, and a good one to watch before Halloween because it is scary. All right. And now let’s look at my recommendations for songs. Okay, there are many songs about Halloween or about scary situations, but I’ve chosen two that are kind of classics. And I think you’ll agree with me on my first recommendation, which is, of course, “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. I mean, what more classic Halloween song do you want? I recommend listening to “Thriller”. And the best part about this song is that you can also learn the dance and dance along with Michael Jackson. You can watch the video and you can learn the lyrics. And my second recommendation is a song by Stevie Wonder. I love Stevie Wonder. And this song is called “Superstition” and we’re going to look at, analyze some of the lyrics from Superstition now. All right, so look at these lyrics with me. He sings “Very superstitious, writing’s on the wall, Very superstitious, Ladders about to fall, 13-month-old baby broke the looking glass, seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past. When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer superstition ain’t the way.” Okay, let’s look at this here. Now, what is a superstition? A superstition is when you have a belief when you believe something that is not based on science. It’s based on magic or the supernatural. So a belief that something is bad luck or good luck. This is a superstition. Okay, so he gives several examples of superstitions here in the song lyrics. He says “writing’s on the wall”. So this expression, writing’s on the wall, this actually comes from the Bible, but it means that you know something bad is going to happen. So, writing’s on the wall, this is something that you can see. So you know, ahead of time, but it’s an expression that means, let’s say, you see someone and they’re standing on a ladder painting, maybe, and the ladder is not very stable. And then they fall, you could say, “writing’s on the wall”, or writing was on the wall, he was going to fall off that ladder, it was very clear that something bad was going to happen. Okay, so he gives this example, “ladders about to fall”. So that’s, that’s another example because many people have superstitions about ladders, about standing on a ladder or actually walking under a ladder. So if you have the ladder if you walk under, many people believe that that is bad luck. Okay, that’s a superstition. All right, 13-month-old baby. So here, many people think that the number 13 is also bad or brings bad luck. So you’ll, you’ll see many hotels, many buildings actually do not have a 13th floor because of this superstition. All right, more examples broke the looking glass. Seven years of bad luck. So it’s also believed that if you break glass, especially a mirror, if you break a mirror, then you will have seven years of bad luck. That’s another superstition. But then he, in the chorus, he concludes saying that “when you believe in things you don’t understand, you suffer, superstition ain’t the way”. So here remember that in many songs, singers will use slang that aren’t exactly correct in English. So he says “superstition ain’t the way” and actually it should be is not, superstition is not. “Ain’t” is a slang form of is not, okay, superstition ain’t the way. So he’s saying you shouldn’t believe in all of those things. Because then you’ll just be worried or afraid all the time. Okay, so I want you to tell me in the comments. Do you have any superstitions? Do you believe in any of these things that I mentioned or maybe something else that brings bad luck? Tell me in the comments. And I also want to know, what are your recommendations of books, movies, and songs that are scary or Halloween related. Okay, so I’ve just given you a few. Tell me what are yours? And, yes, write your comments, and I look forward to reading them. So I hope that this will help you get ready for Halloween. And remember, check out my video from last week and check out all of the other content that we have other ABA teachers, Marion and Jay are creating Halloween videos. So check your app every day and we have something to help you learn Halloween-related vocabulary and get ready in just a couple of week’s time. So thanks again for watching. Take care, and I’ll see you next week. Bye.