We went to the DMV on Monday to get Nevada licenses and registration, only to find ourselves at the biggest Halloween party in Las Vegas. We knew there was trouble as soon as we drove into the parking lot -- it was jam-packed with cars hapharzardly parked wherever they could fit, like the mall on the day before Christmas (the photo on the left was not taken on this day). The inside of the building looked like the interior of a sports stadium; there were huge lines of people snaking around the area, masses of people sitting in chairs and on the floor looking up at an LED display with numbers, and I shit you not a concession stand selling popcorn and soda.

We got there at around 2:30pm and didn't leave until after 6pm, well past the 5pm closing time. The Halloween decorations and costumed employees added several layers of surrealism. At one point, I saw a Harley-decked man, his number finally called after several hours, bring his open laptop with him to the counter where the clerk sat so he could continue to play his game of online poker. When we got our vehicle inspected, the inspector said this was the busiest day he had seen in his nine years there. Here are several reasons why:

• It was the end of the month, and for some reason new residents from California are used to doing DMV errands at that time.
• The previous Friday was Nevada Day, a state holiday, so state employees had both Friday and Saturday off. Hence, Monday had to deal with a two-day backlog.
• This is the only open full service DMV in the city of Las Vegas. The DMV on the eastern side is currently closed for remodeling.
• And of course, since Vegas is the fastest growing city in the US, they have an inflated amount of new licenses and registrations in the first place.

But now that I have a Nevada license, I can get discounts at local strip clubs. Huzzah!

One of my favorite Halloween movies is the underappreciated Cemetary Man (Italian title: Dellamorte Dellamore). It's a 1994 Italian horror film dubbed in English, similar to the style of Dario Argento but much more surreal and philisophical than the films of that master of Italian horror.

It stars Rupert Everett as Frencesco Dellamorete, a cemetery man responsible for managing graves, guarding the plots, and murdering the zombies that keep on rising from the dead. He handles this latter job with nonchalance, which leads to some morbidly funny scenes, such as his reaction when he learns of a bus accident that kills tens of children -- he merely sees more zombies as more work (Shaun of the Dead certainly has traces of this film). There's also a great subplot that revolves around his assistant Gnaghi and his love affair with a female zombie in the form of a severed head.

Back in my college days, we used to screen several films every Halloween but Cemetey Man was the only film that never left the rotation. We liked it that much, and I guess we also reveled in its cult status. Unfortunately, it seems as if it hasn't been released on DVD yet, but you can find in on VHS if you go to your local nerdy video store.