This time of year is great. Not too hot, not too cold and, oh yeah, my favorite holiday that doesn't involve beer and the color green is coming up. The only thing I object to about Halloween is that it's technically only one night of fun; with St. Pat's, one night's more than enough -- the average celebrator hopes to be in bed by dawn, if possible. Fortunately, there are plenty of folks who get into the Halloween spirit a little early, carving pumpkins, testing the latest new candies to see if they're worthy of trick-or-treaters (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) or just trying out this year's freaky, creepy costumes at the mall (or that could just be Twilight's target demographic, I'm not sure).

Some readers of this column may have heard of me from a little Web movie review show I've been co-hosting with Jeff Johncox over the last year and change. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet, feel free to check out the TNT Movie Geeks on The Transcript's Web site.

In keeping with the impending arrival of All Hallow's Eve, call it a shameless plug, tie-in or whatever you like, we're doing something new that ties in with the Halloween season, namely our 13 reviews of Halloween, where we do short written reviews of horror movies that will appear on our blog and in print, plus short video reviews too. The 13 reviews kick off Monday and wrap up on Halloween. I hope you like it; making it was a blast, especially the watching scary movies part. Checking the blog out may be a bit confusing, so here's the address: www.normantranscript.net/connected/tntmoviegeeks. I'm one of the least computer-inclined people I know, so I just went and checked that out to be sure it works. Looks good, so give it a look if you want.

This probably doesn't seem like it's a column at this point, at least not with regard to the point where I note something I think needs fixing. It's a movie, or more accurately a problem about movies, so maybe that excuses my mentions of Movie Geeks stuff above.

Two words: "Couples Retreat." Yes, we reviewed it. No, there wasn't anything else we could find premiering that day. Yes, it was Oct. 9. As in 22 days before Halloween. It's been a week and I'm still trying to find something right about the timing of that. No luck yet. I understand how movie studios got it into their heads that scary movies play well in January and February, i.e. the build-up to Valentine's Day. The concept of a date jumping into my arms with the assistance of onscreen spooks, demons, maniacs, aliens, monsters, mutants or whatnot makes sense.

Turning that concept on its head, showing something in October that almost seems tailor-designed for a February date night with your sweetie (at least, if your sweetie has a low tolerance for actual funny or good movies), now that, I don't get. I want to believe this was switched around in a studio's lineup with a horror or thriller film as some kind of payback. Given that the only laughs in the theater I saw "Couples Retreat" in came from a few of the ladies watching it with a guy on their arm who, in some cases, would look at the screen, shake their heads, look at their lady and look back at the screen with the most pitiable resigned facial expressions I've seen outside of Shakespeare, I'm pretty sure that's the case.

Another hint on this one was Kristen Bell's appearance on Craig Ferguson's talk show Oct. 14. Mysteriously, she talked at length about her voice-over work in the upcoming animated release "Astro-Boy." Yet "Couples Retreat," in which she plays a major role that drives much of the plot (and which is currently tops at the box office, and I kind of understand why, sadly) didn't get mentioned at all, or if it did, both I and a friend who watched it the same night missed it. Hmmm.

So now, if you actually want to be scared in this Halloween season, rather than a little disgusted with paying to go see the movie equivalent of someone's vacation slide show, I have two more words: "Paranormal Activity." If you like being scared, go see it. If someone you love dragged you to see that slide show, excuse, me, other film, I mentioned before, maybe they owe you a bit. And if it comes down to a choice between the two, please, please, think carefully. Happy Halloween!

Adam Scott 366-3531