Halloween 2025: Day 24

Dead Red Zombie

glass beer mug filled with a dark red liquid and ice, garnished with a syringe containing a pale green liquid

The Alchemist is a chain of around 24 bars across the UK (and one in Berlin), with an emphasis on theatricality in drink presentation. This is one of their signature cocktails, normally served with dry ice for extra drama. Instructions for making it are readily available on their social media, though they don’t mention the maraschino (which is both in some older descriptions of the drink and currently listed as an ingredient in their bottled version). I also have reason to believe the current version they serve uses dilute citric acid in place of the lime juice and is topped with a splash of soda.

0.5 oz light rum
0.5 oz overproof rum
0.5 oz curaçao
0.5 oz raspberry syrup
0.25 oz passionfruit syrup
0.25 oz lime juice
1.25 oz pineapple juice
1.25 oz cranberry juice

Garnish with 5 ml of “zombie mix” (a 50/50 mix of absinthe and maraschino liqeueur), preferably in a syringe.

Pumpkin carving

jack o lantern with angular eyes, lips sewn shut, and algiz carved into the forehead

pumpkin with a stylized skull outline carved into it

jack o lantern that is a happy vampire

silhouette of a wolf against the full moon, carved into a pumpkin

pumpkin carved with the image of a jar of fireflies

Hellboy: The Crooked Man

“Something in these hills. Trees, and the dirt. Something haunted, and evil. This place has the stink.”

Third-best Hellboy film, I guess. The plot (apart from an unnecessary romance curveball) is okay, but the dialog could have used another pass or two, and some of the acting choices (particularly from the witches) didn’t really land for us. I feel like they got decent mileage from their budget, though I would have cut either the spider or the snake (probably the spider) so there weren’t two large not-very-good CGI creatures in not-very-thrilling fights.