My Favorite Halloween Stories, Cartoons, & Movies - American Culture & Holidays

hey there and welcome to speak English

with Christina

where you'll have fun becoming fluent in

American English I'm your English coach

Christina and today we're getting ready

to celebrate Halloween

sorry it's it's my favorite holiday so I

can be a little over enthusiastic about

it sometimes when I was a kid Halloween

was all about scary ghost stories ghost

stories about monsters ghosts and

skeletons got my skeleton earrings

fun songs Halloween costumes Halloween

costumes to be a witch a butterfly or

even Cleopatra and of course candy lots

of candy

really happy memories and today I want

to share with you some of my favorite

Halloween books and stories so that you

can bring a little Halloween and some

real English into your life let's go if

you did

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everybody knows the Simpsons it's the

most popular cartoon in American

television history

but did you know that every year since

the beginning there's a special

Halloween episode and this year 2017

will be the 28th one these special

episodes are called the tree house of

horror

episodes the tree house of horror

just like Bart's famous tree house now

these episodes include a lot of cultural

references to other Halloween stories

and scary movies so it's a great way to

immerse yourself into American Halloween

culture if you love this holiday like I

do and there's even a Simpsons episode

of The Raven which we'll look at later

now I'll put some links with summaries

of the best treehouse of horror episodes

plus a link to watch a full episode

below this video and also to the

Simpsons version of The Raven just don't

watch it Alou

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there are some stories that everybody

knows in the US and if you watch

American TV you may see cartoon versions

of them or documentaries about their

history the most famous story is

probably Washington Irving's The Legend

of Sleepy Hollow

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written in

1820 it's about a superstitious school

teacher named Ichabod Crane who comes to

live in a small village in Tarrytown New

York one night on his way home from a

Halloween party

he meets a terrifying Headless Horseman

it's a guy without a head riding a horse

pretty scary right

yeah and after a crazy chase in the

forest the Headless Horseman throws his

bloody head and Ichabod Crane and the

next day

Ichabod Crane

has mysteriously disappeared from the

village now I don't recommend trying to

read the original story it's written in

a very old style of English with lots of

obscure vocabulary but thanks to the

mysterious magic of Internet you can

watch the same cartoon that I watched

when I was a kid and of course there's

the Tim Burton movie Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow starring Johnny Depp and I

definitely recommend this movie in fact

I think maybe I'll watch it tonight

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American kids love ghost stories and

there are plenty of Halloween books

written for kids but I'll warn you these

stories are truly creepy creepy scary

right they are not disney stories with

happy endings no my favorite collection

is scary stories to tell in the dark

scary stories to tell in the dark by

Alvin Schwartz I even brought these

books with me to France so that I could

reread them at Halloween it's a

collection of traditional American ghost

stories and urban legends urban legends

like two boys who see a monster in a

cornfield a woman who almost becomes the

victim of a killer in her car or a ghost

that haunts the thirteenth floor of a

hotel scary stories to tell in the dark

are truly scary and the illustrations

are even worse even if they're for kids

another collection of stories I loved

when I was little is in a dark dark room

now these are not as scary because

they're for children aged 4 to 8 but

they're excellent reading for some real

accessible English and they still have

scary stories about a decapitated woman

a young hitchhiker who is in fact a

ghost in reality and a skeleton named

John

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The Raven many Americans know the

opening line to this scary poem Once

Upon a midnight dreary while I pondered

weak and weary and you can really feel

the rhythm of the language just listen

Once Upon a midnight dreary while I

pondered weak and weary this poem The

Raven was written by Edgar Allan Poe a

famous American poet you've probably

heard of him who was born in Boston in

1809 and the Raven is his most famous

poem I'll put a link below so that you

can listen and read along but again it's

kind of an old-style poetic English so

you might want to find a translation in

your language so that you can understand

the story Poe had a very miserable life

his dad abandoned the family his mom

died the next year he had problems with

his adopted family he was poor I mean I

mean just look at the guy you can see

that he had a hard life but maybe

because of his experiences Edgar Allan

Poe became a master at writing mysteries

mysteries and McCabe stories the cab

stories like the tell-tale heart it's a

short story about insanity and murder or

the pit and the pendulum about a victim

of the Spanish Inquisition I told you

Poe is not happy stuff but his stories

are classics that we still love

especially around Halloween when they

show the old film versions especially

the ones with the actor Vincent Price

who became famous for playing in these

horror films are you scared yet woohoo

no all right well then tell me are you

going to celebrate Halloween do you know

any other Halloween stories or even

better ghost stories from your country I

would love to read them and I would love

for you to share them with me and the

speak English

ambassadors now if you're not too scared

go ahead and check out my other

Halloween episode on American Halloween

traditions at the office thank you so

much for watching speak English with

Christina and have a happy Halloween

alright see you guys next week

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