I love Halloween. I look forward to it every year, and I love to decorate the whole house for the holiday. I love to make my own decorations, because quite frankly, most home-made decorations look better and cost less than store-bought decorations.
I don't do "Fall-o-ween", I like eerie, more traditional things.
I belong to a lot of Halloween "building" lists, where people discuss what they're building for their displays or "haunts". I myself just have a display, it's only the yard and porch for the public. I don't have the time or money for a "haunt" that people can walk through.
Since I am a member of these haunt families, I see a lot of grievance posts about complaints regarding decorations.
I have generally been one to say "My display, my way.". There have been people who have told me that my display is "too scary" for little kids.
I have bats, spiders, a lot of tombstones, a 7 ft tall reaper, ghosts, skeletons, a glowing ghoul, a faceless ghoul, a witch, a mummy, a zombie, a werewolf, and a vampire. Not always all at the same time, so you never really know what will be there from year to year.
In other words, for a couple of days a year, there's a cemetery in my front yard with life-sized figures that don't move except by the wind, or make any kind of noise. They also don't bleed, have blood, and are not visibly missing any body parts. The only one that wields a weapon is the reaper, who has a plastic halberd that is nearly the same height that he is.
I also have little kids. They're not scared. They know it's not real, because they see it in storage at various times, they see me get it out and set it up, they see me put it away. Oh, and I tell them "Don't worry, that's not real. There's no such thing.". Seems like the right thing to do, after all.
So knowing that, you can call me biased for what I'm about to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you just get offended, then you're not really thinking about what I have to say.
There is a line that I do not cross. That line includes murder, torture, and dismemberment.
Not only because murder is something that has happened within my very small circle of family, but also because it's so prevalent in real life, in so many other families. It's real, it's not something to be glorified by showing it off for however many days in your front yard where other people have to see it. Neighbors, people who walk by, kids on bikes, etc.
You can say "Well, that's your opinion." Funny thing about that. It's not just my opinion. Obviously a lot of others share it, or the issue would never come up. Authorities and courts would not have to be involved. In fact, ask a psychiatrist if they put bloody mutilated body parts on their lawn in any given month of the year. I'll bet that the answer is no. That is because it's mentally disturbing.
Basically what it says is "Hey kids, don't come here. We might kidnap you and torture you, and you'll never be seen alive again. Or not...but how can you be sure if you don't try? C'mon kids, we have candy!"
Honestly, kidnapping and torture happens all too often in real life. If you don't believe that, just take a look at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Or, watch the news. Or ask someone who has lost a child in such a way.
Better yet, stop for a moment and think about how you'd feel if your own child was missing, and possibly in the hands of someone who would treat them that way. You are trying to scare the kids with that idea, or you wouldn't have such a display. Halloween is for kids, remember? So put the realistic idea in your own head for a minute.
Apparently you've not really thought this idea through, if this is the type of display that you do.
You can say "Don't look at the decorations if you don't like them. Don't bring your kids to our houses."
We don't if we don't have to, but when you
belong to these building groups, it's in 75% of the posts and pictures. Escalating arguments in communities are on the evening news, it's on social media sites. I've left building groups because there were no "fun" builds, just gore galore. It's not just happening in your yard all by itself, single, solitary, and unique.
All that I hear from those people is "I can't believe that people are offended by this!". Which just makes me wonder, what does offend those who display such things?
Maybe if Mr. Jones' decorations were mirrored in someone else's yard, with Mrs. Jones and their children's faces printed out and pasted on the bodies--would that get the point across? Does it become offensive then? After all, it's just a temporary decoration.
I'll even go so far as to defend zombies, although some are intensely gory. Yes, they can be truly disgusting to look at, but they belong to the "fantasy" genre.
Thus, I have to ask, "What happened to Halloween?"
I know the ancient roots of the holiday, but I mean the Halloween that has become a tradition since the 1800's. Dressing up in costume, decorating with "spooky" classic things like ghosts, witches, skeletons, black cats, bats, rats, spiders...even zombies? Yes, skeletons, ghosts, zombies and vampires are dead. Do they glorify death? No. They are what we used to be afraid of. They are fantasy creations.
If there was any murder involved in the scenario of classic decorations, it was only implied, not shown with guts and parts lying about. Vampires are murderers, no doubt. But, subtly so. Its victim is a limp, pale body with two small holes in the neck, and a drop or two of blood to get the point across.
Not a torso with its face twisted into an agonizing grimace, doused in blood, entrails exposed.
To bring up zombies again; yes, they are also killers. Fantasy. Not realistic. Big difference. They fall into the same category as vampires. Werewolves. Reapers. Same. Zombies just happen to be the ultra-gory version of the fantasy "implied killers".
Movie character killers are similar. With few exceptions, in these movies they are no longer living; therefore, they fall into the fantasy category. If you have Freddy Kreuger standing over a victim, then it's a little more understandable than if it's just a body-strewn yard and the killer has left the scene...or might be hiding nearby.
I still don't want to see the victim in any case, but at least it makes more sense that way--and my opinion is that I don't like movie characters in haunts. Personally, if I want to see Freddy, Jason, etc., I will get a Netflix subscription and enjoy high-quality special effects at my leisure, in the comfort of my own private home.
If you want to scare someone, why not just stick to fantasy, instead of something so realistic and sickening as murder or torture?
Tacky gore displays are killing Halloween everywhere, yet it's mostly the people who are making those types of displays who are the ones complaining about the death of our traditional Halloween.
They don't even see that they're doing it to themselves.
I realize that even non-gore displays which congest traffic, or create safety hazards are also harmful to the continued allowance of Halloween displays. I have to be fair and admit that. It's a shame, but true.
I understand that people can't help themselves when it comes to "doing it big" in a small area, or an area that doesn't allow for good traffic flow around the display or haunt. It seems like they get fewer public complaints however, when they are tastefully done.
I also understand that gory scenes aren't the only complaints. There are also the bizarre "adult themed" displays that the creators say are "just in fun". These displays also harm Halloween as a whole. Do you not envision the day to come, when townships go the way of our schools, and refuse to allow residents to make any sort of holiday display? Envelope pushing isn't always a good thing. Sometimes it equates biting the hand that feeds you.
For myself, I will stick to the basics of a fantasy display. You can call me a boring, stick-in-the-mud old fuddy-duddy all that you want. I will not let the real Halloween die like a character in a Rob Zombie movie. My Halloween isn't just classic. It's classy.
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