When it comes to Halloween, there are two kinds of people:
Those who believe things are getting MORE INTENSE in recent years, and those who think we’re babying kids too much, and things are becoming too safe, too protective, and too bland.
There’s a new article in the “New York Times” that asks, “Have Halloween Decorations Become Too Scary?”
It mentions things like “Skelly” and the HUGE Halloween skeletons that have been popping up. Along with very lifelike witches and demons, and realistic blood and gore.
They talked to some parents who have young kids who like the “classic” Halloween imagery: Pumpkins, witches, ghosts, spiders, and skeletons. And they feel like today’s “dismembered bodies, and moving, speaking, and gesturing props” are too disturbing.
There are also neighbors who complain about the decorations in their neighborhood being too violent and unsettling.
Some adults even admit that THEY have been rattled by some of the modern decorations, although others say it’s possible they were always there, they just didn’t notice them as much until THEY had kids.
You could compare this to how “kids” movies from the past 20 years are much tamer than the PG movies from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. But it’s not a perfect comparison. It’s hard to argue that technology and mass production has made ELABORATE Halloween decorations more over the top, more affordable, and more accessible in recent years.
(I mean, there’s a reason there weren’t Skellys everywhere in the ’90s. For parents, the best advice is to steer clear of any houses that are too extreme for your kids. And if possible, scope out the areas where your kids will be trick-or-treating beforehand.)
