Photos by Olivia Merola
Dear Reader,
I love Halloween. Ever since I was little, I looked forward to trick-or-treating down Greenwich Street in the West Village, stopping at shops, stores, and people's apartment buildings, running around the downtown streets with a plastic jack-o'-lantern candy bucket in hand, eager to gather as many different treats as I could. I loved the feeling of the season changing, the spooky chill in the air, the excitement of deciding who or what I was going to be this year. As I grew older, I traded trick-or-treating for late-night house parties and horror movie marathons with friends, clutching a Halloween-themed cocktail as we braced ourselves for the next jump-scare.
I love the spectacle. The performance of it, the costume changes, the makeup, the hair, the grand reveal…Maybe it’s the dancer in me — we always yearn for a stage. This year, I dressed as Betty Boop. Mostly because I have a bob haircut, and of course we have to put that to some use, but also because Betty requires little planning, and this year I felt especially short on time. She’s so recognizable in her simple garter and red dress; add a small swirl of hair on your forehead, and you’re instantly her. It’s satisfying when you’re recognizable, and you feel like: “Yessss. I did it! They know who I am.” So Betty was good for that.
In what now seems to be becoming a Halloween tradition, I also ventured to the New York Philharmonic to see their Art of the Score series, this time featuring Jordan Peele’s Get Out, with Michael Abels’s score performed live by the orchestra. I hadn’t really thought of the movie as having a particularly striking score, at least that’s not what stuck with me from the five or six times I’ve actually seen the movie. But as the opening scene began and the eerie chords from the first violin filled the theater, the gospel singers to the conductor's right came in with “Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga,” and I realized just how powerful the score was. Peele describes it as “gospel horror,” a signature musical motif I’ve come to recognize in Peele’s later films Us and Nope, both of which were collaborations with Abels. The mix of shouting, wailing, and overall feeling of impending doom that the singers belted was honestly incredible. Combined with lead Daniel Kaluuya’s iconic stare of horror, the entire production felt like we were right there with him.
That’s what I love most about Halloween in New York City. The city itself becomes its own stage. Whether it’s costumes parading down the street, the decorations ornamenting Park Slope brownstones, the anticipatory energy in the air as everyone waits for nightfall to transform into a new character, or an orchestra bringing a horror film to life, the city has a theatrical quality I never seem to outgrow. While my Halloween may look a little different these days, I still feel the same excitement I did as a little girl barging down the streets of the Village, plastic pumpkin in hand, eager to see what spooky surprises the night would bring.
Happy Halloween,
Olivia