To some people, Halloween may be just one step closer to Christmas or another excuse to pig-out on candy, but for others, it is the best time of the year.

To Tony Fonseca, assistant librarian at Ellender Memorial Library, Halloween is easily his favorite holiday.

Fonseca has edited and co-authored many different books on horror, including a journal on horror fiction, a horror encyclopedia and a soon-to-be zombie encyclopedia. Sadly, these will not be the types of zombies than can be stunned with a Nerf gun.

When it comes to horror stories, whether it is books or movies, Fonseca is the man to go to, but it has not always been this way. Fonseca said that he came across the genre accidentally while taking a graduate course for his doctorate.

“The professor was teaching novels that were basically dark psychology, so we had books like Tony Morrison’s ‘Beloved,’ ” Fonseca said.

That particular professor became Fonseca’s favorite, and so he decided to make him his dissertation director. Soon, Fonseca began to have an interest in horror.

Fonseca said that he prefers horror movies to books, and his favorite movie is “Candyman” because “you never figure out if he is real or just in the mind.”

“He is every scary story you’ve ever heard personified,” he said. “He’ll come out from under the bed, put razor blades in Halloween candy and even come out of the mirror when you say his name five times.”

Fonseca also said that along with “Candyman,” the other two scariest movies he has ever seen were “The Ring” and the first “Nightmare on Elm Street.”

“Those were the three films that actually kept me awake at night,” he said. “The reason is because the creatures in those films all come out from your dreams or mirrors.”

Fonseca calls himself a “frustrated director” because it is something that he has always wanted to do.

“If someone were to come to me and say, ‘I want you to direct my film,’ I wouldn’t be able to say no,” he said.

Fonseca said that his nine-year-old great nephew has already decided to be a horror director.

“He is already making movies out of Legos,” he laughed. “For Christmas a few years back, I got him some zombie dolls just to give him an idea.”

Rather than being shocked or “booed” by something, Fonseca prefers what he calls the “dark psychology” of stories.

An example is a recent novel he has read about someone who is called a “spree-killer,” which is someone who starts killing a bunch of people for a short time. The author of the book used photographs of his friends to illustrate his novel.

“I like writers who kick you in the gut and don’t pull punches,” he said. “They can be gory, but it isn’t so much as it being gory as it is being blunt.”

Despite all of the zombies, vampires, werewolves and killing, Fonseca said that he is not easily scared. Rather than being afraid of the dark or being out at night, he is only fazed by phobia-related things like heights.

“When I was young, I used to walk through graveyards at night,” he said. “If anyone were to ask me why I like this, I really don’t have a definite answer. It’s a place that people don’t like to go that doesn’t really bother me.”

With his fearlessness in mind, Fonseca said that he is usually the first person to investigate the source of an eerie sound in the dark corners of the library at night.

Fonseca said that he loves making big decoration projects during the Halloween season.

“Halloween is the only holiday that I actually celebrate,” he said. “Rather than put up a scarecrow like most people, one year I spent days making Blair Witch sticks and hung them from the trees.”

His latest decoration project was around the time that the movie “Snakes On A Plane” came out. Fonseca said he bought hundreds of rubber snakes and put them all over everything.

“I like to have a little fun with it, because I think that if you look at Halloween, kids are dressed up and enjoying themselves,” he said. “I guess that’s what Halloween is all about—dealing with fear with laughter.”