When did Halloween turn from trick-or-treating for children dressed up as cowboys and ballerinas to a complete zombie gore fest aimed at adults? Back in the 1970s, dressing up as a princess, cowboy, or even Darth Vader was a nostalgic and fun activity for children. Scary costumes included vampires with greased back hair, a wolf man, or a cute little witch. We went to Halloween parties, bobbed for apples, ate cupcakes and candy and went home with a tummy ache.
Growing up during these times instilled a more traditional Halloween spirit in me. I like ghosts and goblins, witches, Frankenstein and Dracula. Zombies are too scary and I don’t like massacres, blood, and guts. To me that signifies murder. Halloween was never about murder, so why does society in our country make it lean in that direction? People kill other people every day in this country and in horrible, disgusting manners. I do not see the appeal in these “Halloween” decorations.
I don’t care what anyone chooses to be for Halloween, but the blood and guts theme is overdone, and it’s getting worse every single year. And zombies…I’ve never seen so many movies, and props, and costumes for this genre. People talk about the zombie apocalypse on the Internet and perhaps this helps them to prepare for it; your guess is as good as mine.
Yesterday I took my kids to a Halloween store to pick out costumes, not realizing that we were in for a gore fest when we arrived at the store. Yes, sure, they have costumes, but when my kids saw the cut off limbs, moving zombies, bloody chainsaws, and other gory items, they soon forgot about picking out a costume. We were suddenly exposed to really frightening “decorations” and mind you, I am no prude-I love some horror movies-my main concern is to protect my children from graphic violence as much as possible.
The kids were completely spellbound by the “decorations” and were upset with me when I would not let them inspect these graphic things closely. There were no signs on the door warning me that we were about to embark on a rated R journey through this store, and these moving zombies were in the center of the store-leaving us no way to avoid them. We left the store.
All I know is that I would like to take my kids shopping for costumes without subjecting them to torn off limbs, moving zombies with rats eating their innards, and masked murderers chasing them with chainsaws. All I wanted was a pirate costume. Instead, my children got a lesson regarding human anatomy, and what it looks like when a body is cut in two. I hope my kids don’t become numb to horror and gore like many people in our society seem to be.