Halloween

I know we have the general "holiday" thread to remind us of what holidays are coming up, etc., but I thought it might be nice to have an entire thread related to Halloween since it is one of the more popular unofficial type "holidays" or days that are celebrated, in a way of speaking.

First, thanks to Thoul for the cool Halloween avatars. I love the pumpkin and the black kitty.

Also, I've started a fun poll here in this thread about Halloween.

And, if anyone has any fun, scary, or otherwise stories, poems, etc., about "ghosts", "ghoblins", or other "creatures of the night", or anything related to Halloween, etc., then post them here and let everyone share in the fun.

Also, are there any video games that are Halloween related or remind you of Halloween in some way, shape, or form? If so, post it here for discussion.

And, if anyone would like to voice their opinion about the issue of Halloween and whether it should, or should not, be celebrated or recognized to begin with, then that might make for some interesting conversation also.

As I grew up, Halloween changed for me as the years passed. Y'know how it goes; kids being excited that they get to dress up and go trick-or-treating and get as much candy as they can. Now, I'd rather watch some movies in the month of October (which is where my vote went).

Also, my favorite monsters are vampires. I also like witches, but they don't really do it for me.

I think the only monsters that scare me, really are zombies. There's something disturbing about a rotting corpse going after people and wanting their brains. I used to get some pretty freaky nightmares from those, that's for sure!

I voted to cancel it, mostly because of how out of hand it's getting. It's reduced my nephews to tears to go to Wallgreens and see a mummy with blood running out of its' eyes. It has degenerated from a light-hearted holiday about getting candy into horror. You can't go anywhere without seeing severed hands for sale, gigantic hearses, etc. I don't like it any longer.

That's terrible! I've yet to see anything like that around here... Worst I've seen were some creepy looking costumes, but that's about it.

You are right about one thing; there should be more control when it comes to the "scare" factor of it all, as I've always seen Halloween as a kids' holiday...

I don't do anything for Halloween really, so I'm going to skip the poll. I was excited for it as a kid, but now it's really just another day for me. All of that stuff in the poll is good to some degree, but I just don't do any of it really. I certainly wouldn't mind a little bit less of a scare factor to it all, though.

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Also, are there any video games that are Halloween related or remind you of Halloween in some way, shape, or form?

Oddly enough, the old Wolverine game for the original Nintendo had level that was very Halloween themed. Lots of games have zombies and ghosts and whatnot, but that one was just weird.

Tsunami wrote:

As I grew up, Halloween changed for me as the years passed. Y'know how it goes; kids being excited that they get to dress up and go trick-or-treating and get as much candy as they can. Now, I'd rather watch some movies in the month of October (which is where my vote went).

I agree about Halloween changing as we grow up. I remember as a kid being thrilled and so happy to dress up and go trick or treating and get wads of candy! We rarely got candy and this was a night when you could get all you wanted - by the bushels (or as fast as you could fill your plastic pumpkin buckets/containers ). It was so much fun and a blast!

Halloween has changed from being a fun time to a time of being very cautious due to risks of tainted candy, to other possible injuries or threats of violence or trouble. That's sad.

However, it is great for the kids that some groups, churchs, organizations, etc., now get together and have Halloween partys or Fall Festival gatherings where children and other people of all ages can come together and have a fun time to celebrate Halloween in a safer and chaperoned environment.

Thoul wrote:

Oddly enough, the old Wolverine game for the original Nintendo had level that was very Halloween themed. Lots of games have zombies and ghosts and whatnot, but that one was just weird.

Yeah, I remember in some of the Super Mario games (maybe 1, 2, & possibly 3) that in the castles there were ghosts (sometimes big ghosts) and some type of skull/skeleton creatures that walked around and tried to get you. Most times you had to stomp on them. That was fun. There was always weird, spooky music being played in those castles too.

The $ Avenger wrote:

It has degenerated from a light-hearted holiday about getting candy into horror. You can't go anywhere without seeing severed hands for sale, gigantic hearses, etc. I don't like it any longer.

I agree. As I said previously, to me as a kid all Halloween meant was that it was a time to have fun and get all the candy we wanted. I do think that in it's own way, Halloween has always been about horror to some degree - the ghosts, ghoblins, monsters, costumes of such, witches, vampires, etc., etc., etc., however never has it been as violent and gross and more horrorful than it seems to be in this day and time. It is down right scarier than ever. The more or higher the scare factor is, the better for some. I don't like that either.

I remember vampires used to really freak us kids out - the old Bela Lugosi type, etc. in black and white where just his look and his voice scared us half to death. These days, not only do we see the vampire still biting his prey, but doing all other sorts of ungodly things also. And, it's all in wide screen color now. Sometimes I think our generation has seen so much horror in movies that we are growing immune to it all and that makes the film makers and others want to become even more horrifying in their future projects. Scary movies and products seem to sell very well and as long as there is a big demand for them, that trend will continue. I don't watch much of the newer scary movies, give me the old b/w Frankenstein or Wolfman or Dracula stuff. That's scary enough for me.

Here's a Halloween question:

What is the scariest movie you can recall seeing, whether Halloween related or otherwise?

Hmm... I've never been much for movies, but as far as scaring goes, it seems to me that they try to scare people with disgusting things nowadays.

I'd say that one of the scariest movies I've ever seen was a zombie one that I watched late one night. I sat through the whole thing since I was bored, but it certainly was creepy how they can make things like that appear so life-like. I doubt I could remember the name of the movie, though.