This Side of the Pond

As costumes go, it was remarkably close to the real thing. On my eighth Halloween as a human being, I marched into the school gym wearing a homemade version of Jack Pumpkinhead from Return to Oz. To the surprise of nobody present, I waltzed back out with the grand prize.

If you’ve never seen the movie, I don’t advise hunting it down – it’s terrifying. To this day, I can’t look at a chicken without expecting it to talk, and don’t get me started on princesses who think it’s fine to keep heads in jars.

That movie was nightmare fuel from beginning to end. From bad guys with wheel...