Giveaway #742 : Win a Spooky Tales 3-movie collection - closed - winner Keith Hunt

Halloween is almost here - woohoohoo ! (That was a scary ghost voice, not a big whoop of excitement by the way !) It's going to be a bit of a strange year though, what with coronavirus rules and lockdown and face masks making trick-or-treating a less than appealing option. How about making this year different, buying in your own sweets and maybe baking up some spooky treats then having a movie-fest at home instead ? You could even dress up to watch the movies in the comfort of your own home ! Well, if I've convinced you, I have the perfect viewing option - Universal Pictures Home Entertainment have released some fabulous kids' Halloween collections, including this Spooky Tales 3-movie option.

Start off with everyone's favourite ghost, CASPER. 'Ghost therapist' Dr. James Harvey and his daughter Kat arrive at drafty, old Whipstaff Manor. Its greedy owner, Carrigan Crittendon, has hired Dr. Harvey to exorcise the house's apparitions: a friendly but lonely young ghost named Casper, who's just looking for a friend, and his outrageous uncles Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso (The Ghostly Trio). If the plan works, she and Dibs, her partner-in-slime, can get their hands on the manor's fabled treasure. Meanwhile, Casper has found a kindred spirit in Kat, but The Ghostly Trio will not tolerate 'fleshies' in their house. 

 FILMMAKERS:  

Actors: Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci, Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle, Don Novello  

Director: Brad Silberling 

 Producer: Jeff Franklin, Steve Waterman, Colin Wilson 

 Screenplay: Sherri Stoner, Deanna Oliver

Next is THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Get ready to snap your fingers! The first family of Halloween, The Addams Family, is back on the big screen in the first animated comedy about the kookiest family on the block. Funny, outlandish, and completely iconic, The Addams Family redefines what it means to be a good neighbour. 

 FILMMAKERS:

 Actors: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Snoop Dog, Bette Midler, Allison Janney 

 Director: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon 

 Producer: Gail Berman p.g.a, Conrad Vernon p.g.a, Alex Schwartz p.g.a, Alison O’Brien p.g.a,

 Screenplay: Matt Lieberman 

Finally, MONSTER FAMILY. Meet the Wishbone family! When an evil witch turns mum Emma into a vampire, dad Frank into Frankenstein’s Monster, and kids Fay and Max into a Mummy and a werewolf, they must go on an adventure chasing the witch around the world to return them to their human selves. But when Dracula and his mischievous bats kidnap Emma, the family are thrown apart and forced to find their inner strengths, reunite and reverse the curse that turned them into a Monster Family. 

 FILMMAKERS:  

Actors: Emily Watson, Jason Isaacs, Nick Frost, Jessica Brown Findlay, Celia Imrie

 Director: Holger Tappe 

 Producer: Maya Gräfin Rothkirch, Michael Mack, Stefan Mischke, Holger Tappe 

 Screenplay: David Safier, Catharina Junk

 

Forget the tricks ... I have a great treat lined up ! One of you will be winning your very own copy of the Spooky Tales 3-movie collection. Just fill in your entries in the Rafflecopter widget below. Good luck and happy Halloweeeeeeen !

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UK only. Closing date : 9/11/20

T & C's : Entries close at midnight on the closing date. Winners will be selected with a random number generator and announced on facebook and in the giveaway post subject line. Please note, you will be contacted by email and/or twitter and if I haven't heard from you after 28 days, I'll have to pick another winner. Prizes will be sent out by the companies or their PR directly to winners. Madhouse Family Reviews cannot be held responsible for any prizes that go astray. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. The winners' personal contact information will be passed on to the PR / Brand responsible and used only for delivery of their prize.

You may also like to enter my other giveaways :

Giveaway #741 : Win Wish Upon A Unicorn dvd - closing 4/11

#MySundayphoto #SundaySnap 4/11

Hope you had a Happy Halloween !

Trick or Treating Supplies from Cadbury ! (review)

Are you all ready for Halloween? Have you bought the glow-in-the-dark skeletons, fake blood and cobwebs? What about your goodies for the trick or treaters who are bound to come and ring your doorbell? Well, Cadbury's kindly sent us through some of their Halloween offerings to give out to the local kids, and we've been busy sampling them !

The Cadbury Heroes Party Bag is a great option for trick or treaters (or just for anyone who likes something to nibble on in front of the TV!). They come in various sizes, with 40, 20 or 16 sweets in the bag, and each bag contains mini versions of Dairy Milk Buttons, Flake, Twirl, Crunchie, Curly Wurly, Chomp and Fudge, so there's bound to be something to appeal to everyone !

You may prefer to choose your favourite chocolate bar, in which case, you might like the Fudge Treat Size bag, with 15 treat size bars per bag, 202g RRP £2.79.

My choice would be this one - Crunchie, with 12x treat size bars per bag, 210g, RRP £2.79.

If you want something a bit spooky for Halloween, how about these brand new Goo Heads, a spooky twist on the much loved classic Crème Egg and the perfect treat for trick or treating? They come in three sizes : Cadbury Goo Head, 40g, RRP £0.55, Cadbury Goo Head Five Pack, 200g, RRP: £2.85, Cadbury Goo Head Mini’s, 89g, RRP £0.89.

They are delicious Cadbury chocolate eggs filled with gooey white fondant. The spooky wrapping is what the kids love the most though ! Each gruesome head comes in a range of eerie characters, with a scary skeleton, petrifying pumpkin, frightening Frankenstein, dreadful Dracula or terrifying Were-Wolf.

Happy Halloween !

Disclosure : We received the products, in order to write an honest review.

Getting ready for Halloween with Feisty Pets ! (review)

Awww just look at the cute little pets that the postie dropped off for us earlier in the week, along with some Halloween make-up. On the left, there is a unicorn called Glenda Glitterpoop and on the right a cute dog called Sammy Suckerpunch. If anything, they actually look quite sad and in need of a cuddle ...

Until you put your hand around the back of their heads and they turn into snarling, aggressive monsters that are just perfect for welcoming in Halloween ! Aaaggghhh I don't like the teeth - they're scary ! 

The best thing is, once the toys are out of the boxes with the labels removed, nobody knows what to expect so there will be lots of scared reactions and surprised faces when they show their teeth ! They're well made and seem to appeal to adults as much as kids. Giggles guaranteed !

Available in Argos, Smyth's Toys and numerous other retailers.

RRP : £14.99

Disclosure : We received the products in order to write an honest review.

#MySundayphoto #SundaySnap 7/10

I think he's practising for Halloween !

Madhouse recipe : Pumpkin & chicken curry

This was the starting point for last night's dinner - our Halloween pumpkin ! This year, I picked up a pumpkin from Lidl a few days before Halloween but we were so busy, we never got round to carving it before the big day. It didn't really matter because it came with a spooky face stuck on and it actually had the huge advantage of reducing food waste because leaving the skin intact it stops it from going off. We're only a fortnight away from Christmas though, so I didn't want anything too Halloweeny, such as pumpkin pie. I turned to google for inspiration and found a Hairy Bikers' recipe for Caribbean chicken and pumpkin curry. I tweaked it quite a lot, making a quick midweek version without marinating the meat, so do go and have a look at the original recipe to see how it should be done with more time on your hands. It was still a perfectly acceptable, tasty and warming meal though, even as a rush job.

Pumpkin & chicken curry

ingredients :

1tbsp coconut oil (or a glug of olive oil)

1 clove garlic

2 onions

1/2 tsp ground ginger

4tsp South African (mild) curry powder

salt, pepper

1/2 - 1 pumpkin

4 chicken breasts

3 tomatoes

chicken stock

Melt the coconut oil in a large pan and gently fry the garlic and onions until they go soft and translucent but don't go brown.

I used South African curry powder that I found in the spice rack, but the Hairy Bikers recipe used Caribbean. Any mild curry powder would do though.

Stir through the salt, pepper, ginger and curry powder.

Chop the chicken into chunks and add to the pot. Cook until the chicken is white all the way through (about 10 minutes).

Chop the tomatoes and add to the pot.

Add the peeled and chopped pumpkin to the pot and cover with chicken stock.

Leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened. Stir, adjust the seasoning (I added a drizzle of pomegranate molasses to bring out the sweetness of the pumpkin) and serve, with rice or just on its own.

Adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky as it used up our Halloween pumpkin, as well as some over ripe tomatoes and a pouch of curry powder that was lurking in the spice rack.

#MySundayphoto #SundaySnap 5/11/17

Pierre loved freaking me out with his killer clown eyes this year !

Maybe he scared everyone else too, which is why they gave him so many sweets ! Hope you had a happy Halloween too :)

Madhouse diaries : Halloween fun at the zoo

One of our traditional half term jaunts is a trip to our local zoo in Fort Mardyck. It's only a short bus ride away and is cheap to get in so we go at least once or twice a year, generally at Christmas and Halloween, as they put on special activities and displays.

The birds didn't seem to mind the fact that their enclosure had been turned into a graveyard for the occasion.

In fact, we thought that this pelican looked like he was pretending to be a ghost ... all that's missing are the clanking chains !

 We marvelled at just how bendy the flamingos' necks are, then, encouraged by a sign, Pierre took up the challenge to see how long he could stand on one leg like a flamingo.

The walk-through aviary had been spooked up with giant spiders for the occasion.

Time for some silly spider selfies !

And not just for the kids !

 This skeleton spider was pretty creepy, although Pierre wasn't bothered in the slightest ! We looked out for skeletons on our way round the enclosures too.

 Whoever was given the job of decorating the zoo obviously had great fun !

We arrived just in time for the otter's feeding time so they were excitedly climbing up the sides of the fence and making funny squeaky noises.

They look cute but they've got really sharp teeth.

They made short work of the fish and chicks that the keeper gave them - eww !

Despite much encouragement from us, the peacock steadfastly refused to fan out his tail.

Last time we came, the bears weren't looking too happy and had started pacing around, looking bored.

This time they had some new equipment to play with and they looked happier.

It's interesting to see how they upcycle things to make new toys for the animals. The bears had big crates and cable rolls to play with and there were car wash brushes in with the goats and reindeer.

The bears didn't seem interested in playing but they were looking more content and had stopped pacing. 

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the newest residents - a pair of lynx cubs that were born this year.

I wasn't sure we'd get to see them or if they'd be hiding away, but they spent their whole time chasing each other around, play fighting and exploring their surroundings. They bounce around as much as Tigger !

The pigs were much more placid and spent the whole time buried in the straw !

Another walk through aviary got us up close to the storks, and this huge owl - a Great Grey Owl - which is the largest species of owl in length.

However many times we see him, the anteater still looks very strange. Apparently he can only open his mouth by a few millimetres, just enough to get his long tongue out.

The marmosets looked very grumpy !

This didn't stop Pierre monkeying around though ! Look out, it's behind you !