SHOULD HALLOWEEN BE SCARY?

Halloween is a holiday of many colors; you can shape it to your preferences and celebrate however you want. The two main ways of celebrating are either tricking or treating. This causes a distinction between Halloween-goers where one side is looking to be scared and frightened, while the other is trying to have a friendly encounter by dressing up and trick or treating. Halloween should not be scary. 

“I like cute Halloween because I’m not one to like being scared or creeped out. I don’t like seeing stuff like zombies if it looks really realistic. Now if it was a cartoon-like cute adaptation that would be different,” junior Jonathan Calvert said.

Most Halloween decorations are frightful, say creepy things, have blood all over them or can jump out of somewhere unexpected in order to scare you. This is not a favorite of many people since it can make their anxiety rise up, trigger PTSD or cause pre-existing heart conditions to flare up. This can be very damaging for those people. Having a “cute Halloween” would eliminate these problems from coming up as the decorations look more like they want to hug someone rather than scare someone. 

“It is the sudden, unexpected things which tend to cause a dramatic increase in heart rate and blood pressure and put people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease at risk,” Dr. Mark Estes said in an interview with the American Heart Association. 

A “Cute Halloween” is aimed at kids and lets them be easily involved. They can dress up as their favorite characters, make fun Halloween decorations and eat themed food. Because of this marketability, companies will sell more items aimed toward them. Halloween can range from mystical to more whimsical and silly, this variety lets them sell lots of products. This makes celebrating Halloween all the more simple and planning becomes much more flexible and versatile. 

A “Scary Halloween” is culturally more prevalent than its aforementioned counterpart. Everywhere you may go, it is apparent that all sorts of merchandise and other market items are designed more towards the horror aspect of the holiday. There are tons of scary props, haunted houses as well as dozens of horror movies. Nevertheless there is also a considerable amount of cute Halloween for children. There is, however, very little market of cute Halloween for adults. These movies in the Family-Friendly category, are for the family but have more innocent jokes and designs aimed for children, whereas horror flicks like “The Conjuring” and “Friday the 13th” are advertised for adults.

Though this may make it seem like scary Halloween has more content, which it does,it undermines the fact that scary Halloween is not all that inclusive of other age groups or lighthearted cultures. Of course there is still a marketplace for scary Halloween. Those looking for a good fright and enjoy being scared still do have plenty of venues where they can get a thrill. There are plenty of frightful attractions and decorations still to be found around Halloween time. Events like Halloween Horror Nights, Fright Nights and Howl-O-scream occur every year, with Fright Nights reaching a total of 35,000 guests each season.

Things like practical effects have tons of money invested into them, at least in the sense of haunted houses, to make them look more realistic than ever before. In movies and videogames, even more money is put into giving the player or viewer a better experience, that is inducing dread and terror in just the right way. Because of this, the line between reality and fantasy blurs significantly. If the distinction is not clear the brain can get confused and cause fear levels and the emotional reaction to be stronger.

“I recall when I was a kid and basically had a phobia of haunted houses. Those zombie animatronics kept me up at night,” junior Rhamiel Bernados said.

With Halloween forthcoming and COVID-19 still being a major concern, the future of Halloween of 2020 still remains uncertain. Halloween is a holiday meant for people of all ages; we must make sure to accommodate the likes of everyone. Whether or not they enjoy the spooky or cute season everyone should be included. 

But let’s be honest, Christmas is better.