This Is Halloween: The Cinematic Guide to Everyone’s ACTUAL Favorite Holiday
William Bibbiani

“Halloween Movies” finally get a book of their own in This Is Halloween: The Cinematic Guide to Everyone’s Actual Favorite Holiday! These films don’t just use Halloween as a backdrop, they make Halloween come alive—sometimes literally. Film critic William Bibbiani takes you on a guided tour through the long yet neglected history of this overlooked cinematic genre. 

This Is Halloween explores the greatest and most fascinating Halloween movies and exhumes what makes them special. How do they carry on the legacy of the holiday, and what do they have to say about that time of year when we embrace our scary side, indulge in our sweet teeth, and engage in the age-old practice of pretending to be something we’re not? Or, just as likely, who we really are on the inside? 

Bibbiani finds the connective tissue between Hocus Pocus and To Kill a Mockingbird, Arsenic and Old Lace and Boo! A Madea Halloween, and Late Night with the Devil and War of the Worlds. He’ll take you on journeys through Haddonfield, Sleepy Hollow, and Springfield’s Treehouses of Horror, and introduce you to oogie-boogeymen like Art the Clown and David S. Pumpkins. 

He’ll even answer the greatest cinematic riddle of all time: Is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Christmas movie… or a Halloween movie?

William Bibbiani has been a professional film critic for 15 years, with writing credits at The Wrap, Fangoria, Bloody Disgusting, Blumhouse, The Film Verdict, CraveOnline, and more. He’s honored to be a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Society (LAFCA) and the Critics Choice Association (CCA). He’s also asexual, and a member of The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA). He has hosted midnight movies at the historic Nuart Theater, written essays for Blu-ray releases of classic and cult classic films, and recorded official commentary tracks for Shout! Factory. (Not for nothing, he’s also an award-winning movie trivia champion.) Bibbiani co-hosts The Critically Acclaimed Network, a series of film and television criticism podcasts specializing in deep, detailed dives into the cinematic arts and film and television history. Their series have included Canceled Too Soon (a retrospective of TV’s strangest and most notorious failures), Thank Godzilla, It’s Friday (every Godzilla and Godzilla-adjacent movie ever made), Episode Zero (the many films that inspired Star Wars), Only the Best (every film ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture), All Our Yesterdays (every episode of Star Trek ever made), Wholly Batman! (every Adam West Batman episode) and many, many more.

Release date: September 2025