“This is the one night where the dead and all sorts of other things roam free…”

Cypress reference photo

Katerina Sakkas, Cypresses, 2011, Acrylic on linen

A couple of weeks ago I had an evocative but disturbing dream about a Satanic funeral taking place across the road from where I grew up in Mosman.  As those in Sydney know, some rather inexplicable crime has taken place in this affluent suburb, the most recent instance being the collar bomb hoax.  It seems like an opportune moment to introduce some of my own paintings, which deal with both Mosman and horror.

Katerina Sakkas, Thompson St Gothic, 2011, oil on canvas

And the film recommendation for Halloween this year?  It’s Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘R Treat (2007), from which this post’s title is taken.  Here in Australia Halloween is at best a fairly superficial import, confined to egg and shaving cream-brandishing teenagers and to parents chaperoning small parties of tots in and out of houses limply decorated with fake cobwebs. Through four interwoven tales, Dougherty’s film goes beneath the surface to reveal the pagan and folkloric origins of the modern American custom.  Characterised by flashes of black humour and unexpected twists, the film unfolds in the manner of a scary bedtime story, exposing Halloween’s true identity as a night where those from the other side come out to play with, or exact revenge on the living.

Katerina Sakkas, Rotunda, 2010, Acrylic on linen

All images and text © Katerina Sakkas—blackspothorror.wordpress.com

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