By Theresa Regli

Haunted America

Haunted America is perhaps the most comprehensive Halloween site on the Web, abounding with historical information, Halloween event listings, and haunted house locations, all broken down by state into a haunted travel guide of America. Though most listings are culled from last year's events and are slowly being updated for the 1997 Halloween season, there are phone numbers listed so you can call ahead before that trip to Texas to find out if you can visit your favorite suburban haunted house in Dallas.

The most interesting part of the site is the "legend listings," also broken down by state, which describe various stomping grounds for real ghosts and spirits, recounting the events that caused undead people to hang around in certain areas. Take, for example, the story of this New York family:

The DeFeo Family of Amityville, Long Island, was a nice loving family of six. Little did they know that their lives would end one horrible night on Friday, November 13th, 1974. Ronald DeFeo Jr. brutally murdered his own family in their beds, then notified the police that it was not him but that something or someone took over his body, and that he could not stop. . . .

Rumor has it that the house was built on a sacred Indian burial ground. The Indian spirits were very angry because a white person dug up a skeleton and disturbed the Indian's spirit. The spirit is still angry and every white man who lives there is an enemy to him, becoming a perfect victim for possession. At the Amityville house, 112 Ocean Avenue, you can hear footsteps, doors opening by themselves, and see figures disappear into thin air, as well as other poltergeist manifestations. . . . This is a true story which has been made into a book as well as a movie. This story could happen to anyone, anywhere. How well do you know the place where you live?

The site also features a Deaditorial written by a "vampire" who "delves into the legacy of humankind's haunted side and forges new nightmares of our own to share with the world," all the while reviewing haunted houses and hayrides.

Night Gallery

The night gallery contains some of the most stunning animated and interactive artwork on the Web (the site has won numerous awards), and it just so happens that artist Kevin Greggain loves Halloween. He makes excellent use of color and animation for his horror-related "scream savers," and a few of his works feature Java-enhanced rippling water effects that are downright awesome. As this site is extremely slow, make sure you have a high-speed connection and a fast computer before checking it out.

Halloween Sound Bites

Want to freak out your coworkers? Look no further than this site. Halloween Sound Bites features a huge collection of .wav format downloadable files, including a ghost's moan, a werewolf's howl, a monster's growl followed by a terrified scream and bones breaking, a witch laughing, a creaky door opening followed by a terrified scream, and the sound of a guillotine.

Halloween Recipes

This site of holiday recipes has a great Halloween-links subdivision. Some of these recipes look so disgusting that your guests will likely be repulsed by the finished product. Bloody eyeballs on the rocks, anyone? How about boogers on a stick or brain-cell salad? Or crudités with vomit vinaigrette and diaper dump porridge? You'll find the recipes here.

Halloween Greeting Card Home Page

In case you forgot to send out Halloween cards this year (or if you never thought Halloween cards were worth the money), here's a quick and easy way to wish your wired friends a Happy Halloween -- or to send them invitations to your way cool party. Choose a graphic image (such as Frankenstein, a ghost, a ghoul, or a mummy), then pick your text color and background color. Afterward, compose a message to send to a friend or friends, type in the appropriate e-mail addresses, and everyone will receive an e-mail message that will point them to their own personalized postcard on the Web.

Theresa Regli can be reached at tregli@phx.com.

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