Number 4: Coraline (Movie)

Coraline is a dark fantasy horror film that first aired in 2009, and is about a young girl who moves into a new town, always feels neglected by her parents, often feels bored and HATES being brought down because of her age. Unpacking, she finds a hidden door within the walls. During the night, she decides to pass through the passage, and ends up finding a parallel world where all her dreams come true. But, is her new world really how she expected it to be.
This movie is based on Neil Gaiman’s 2002 novel, with the same name. 

Coraline is an animated film and isn’t one of those movies with jump scares and spooks. It is more of a “child” scary movie. But, does contain an abundant amount of realistic features. For example, wanting to have a different live, or to live a new life aside from the one you're born into. Also, being curious can sometimes lead you in the wrong direction. Meaning, she doesn't know what to expect.

This movie, may relate to a lot of different children and families as well. It is both entertaining and spooky at the same time, which most of us enjoy. Most characters have buttons for eyes, which portrays a very uncomfortable feeling to each scene as well as how the characters look and talk. 

In the movie, Caroline is forced to come across people who are strange, such as her new neighbors and her landlady's grandson, whose sister mysteriously disappeared years ago. She knows something is off in this town, but she's not quite sure what it could be. There are a lot of mysterious objects and people she still has to figure out.

In my personal opinion, Coraline ranks at 5 stars. While watching this, it made me think deeper into what the author was really trying to make sense of in his message. There were so many twists that were hard to catch onto, but made the movie so much more interesting when you do figure it out. 

​Halloween has been an American tradition for centuries, celebrated by everyone except the puritans, though the holiday has taken many forms. “Halloween” comes from the feasts of “All Hallows Eve”, a Catholic holiday and feast day celebrated on the eve of the Feast of All Saints.

The way Americans have celebrated the holiday has changed greatly over time. Originally, dressing up and trick-or-treating were not practiced, but that changed in the early 20th century as the holiday became more widespread. Now Halloween is unrecognizable to its earlier forms, retaining only a few ancient, celtic traditions: jack-o-lanterns, festival activities like apple-bobbing, and festival foods such as candy-apples.  

The way the holiday is celebrated varies not just between countries and time periods, but also between people. Their experiences of the holiday are also equally divergent. 

“I like to go trick-or-treating with my friends,” says Sophomore Roberto Estrada, “though I don’t go to parties because they are so small.

Trick-or-treating continues to be a very popular activity on Halloween, though everyone does their own unique things.

“I like to trick-or-treat, but I also like to make bags of candy to give out on Halloween,” says Andres Valdovinos, another Sophomore.

Some people have various different traditions that occur within their own families. 

Faith Livengood continues, “We like to trade candy with each other.” 

Sophomore Adrian Santiago says, “For the past five years, without exception, I have created DIY costumes. Every year I dress up as some food brand.”

Some people have unique stories to tell on Halloween as well. 

Andres Valdovinos says that, “My mom was trick-or-treating with my sisters and I when we ran across some drunk people in the park. My mom brought them home with us to keep them safe. She had heard that giving drunk people bread makes them sober. When she did give them bread, they sobered right up.”