Is Halloween Still Scary?

This may be because I'm grown up, or it may be because of culture, but, I've come to notice something around this time of year. Halloween used to be about the ghouls and monsters. It used to be about going out at night to either gather in celebration dressed in our best (or most rushed, in my case) costume. It used to be about the fear.

Now, well, all I see is parody. Obviously there are the likes of the "Scary Movie" series, which are horrendous. But, the parody I'm talking about is unintentional. It's laughably bad horror, it's cheap, it's...gimmicky.

There may be but one exception to this and it's Cabin in the Woods, which is a horror movie that doesn't really serve as a horror movie but rather as a deconstruction of the horror genre.

But, can you seriously think of a good scary movie that's come out lately? One that isn't predictable and fully of shaky-camera? The "Paranormal Activity" series had an interesting premise, but turned out to just be the hook-up movie for teenagers in a theatre. Demon-possession movies are simply little girls in weird make-up turned slowly toward the camera saying something that would be cute but because of the situation, we're supposed to be scared.

Few people go to a movie theatre with the hopes of being scared anymore, because, what's the point? You know what's going to happen. Part of that may be because of the trailer, where most of the scares are given away so there's nothing left, but part of that might be because we're used to it. We've seen The Conjuring already, we've seen the Orphanage before.

There seems to be some extremes to horror that we're overlooking, and it's something that isn't necessarily seen anymore. On one end you have suspense, psychological horror. The best of this is of course the Twilight Zone, a show that can actually be really scary. Don't believe me? Watch the episode "22," a horrifying looking, maybe, into the mind of a stressed dancer.

Nowadays, it seems that the only thing that's scary about horror movies is the jump-scare, is how well we can turn the camera and have either nothing or something there.

Alright, talking a bit much on movies for now, gotta get back to reality.

Ish.

Though some of you may not live in Florida, or may never have attended these events (I'm not sure if there are things like this at theme parks outside the Sunshine State, so, forgive me), but there's a little thing called Halloween Horror Nights. For a while, the place presented some pretty interesting scares, bringing back several original horror icons such as Jason and Freddie, some of the best in my opinion.

Nowadays, it seems that the attraction plays off of what is popular, and as we've established, much of what is popular isn't particularly good. The main house that may be worth one's time is, of course, The Walking Dead house, where you run through various places the survivors of Rick's group have been through.

The horror element is kind of taken out of the equation when you realize that these people can't do anything to you and that most of the scares are animatronics. Is it boring? No, because like I said, there are several horror icons to check out and be a part of, almost like you're there.

Is it scary? No. Why is that?

Part of this may be because we are conditioned to laugh at things that would be scary because of how silly Halloween has become. Halloween now, whereas before many of these things, is often associated with bad horror films you'd only check out if you want to go on a date or have nothing else to watch on Netflix. Not as bad as C-list horror movies where gore is the name of the game, but bad enough to the point where you'd die to watch Friday the 13th.

Obviously there are various aspects of Halloween that make it not at all scary. For example, most of it now seems generated towards the costume element of it all, not about the tricks or treats. What is the most advertised part of Halloween now? Not the creepy haunted house luxuries, but the scantily-clad Captain America costumes (which is a whole other discussion I am not getting into, but, if I must: why is that a thing?). It's all about the look, it's all about the costume.

Sure, there are those that try to make Halloween scary. The creepy looking house with the graveyard spelled out in front. Only to get to the door and...it's just some dude watching the World Series. Oh...well, what's the score?

See what I mean?

Perhaps, too, the fact of the matter is over-exposure leads to Halloween just being National Free-Candy Day. Shows like The Walking Dead aren't played just around the time of Halloween, but also, ironically enough, Easter. Zombie films hardly ever come out around Halloween. So, zombies are cool at various parts of the year. Because of this, we get a lot of them year-round and it becomes less of a horror aspect, and more of just a part of the show.

There are some things that salvage this, though, such as The Walking Dead making its series premiere on Halloween. That was a smart idea. Obviously they can't air every episode on Halloween, but, it was still a smart decision. NBC beginning Constantine around Halloween-time too was a good idea. But still, these shows will continue on far past October 31st, and may end closer to December 25th, a holiday not often associated with horror. Unless you hate Christmas music and toys.

Kids nowadays aren't as afraid of the ghouls and monsters because there has been a severe spike in how many of those appear over the course of the year. In fact, it's become that way so much that the monsters and ghouls aren't scary anymore.

Recently, Marvel released the first trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron. In it, a twisted, slow version of "I Had Strings,"--the song Pinnochio sings where he becomes a real boy, plays, symobolic of Ultron cutting himeslf loose of Iron Man's heroic A.I. The trailer ends with Ultron towering over someone, staring them dead in the face, after we just saw all of the Avengers down, saying, "There are no strings on me..."

Uh, dude, that's freaking horrifying. Nothing is scarier than staring death straight in the face and not being able to do anything about it. There are things that come close, such as psychological torture. This is shown not only in the Twilight Zone but also in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. No matter how much you don't like that movie, the shot of the twins is chilling, as is the scene of Jack in the bar, or just the character of Grady in general.

Things like that don't come around anymore. Freddie Kruegar is no longer stalking our nightmares like he did at first, now he's just another figure to be blown up and played over and over again until he is finally made nothing more than a mere attraction at an amusement park.

Halloween has become less about the thrills and chills and getting into the spirit of the scare and is now more about what costume I'm going to wear to the party/ game/ to go out with. Over-exposure has led to us merely shrugging when we see a man in a hockey mask, and has us begging to go toe-to-toe with a zombie herd.

Well, actually, that last one might just be me. I watch TWD a lot, okay?

So, honestly, no, I don't really think Halloween is that scary anymore. It's gimmicky, it's just, funny. There are several horror elements that come into play around Halloween but they have been parodied and overused so much that they aren't horrific, they're normal.

But seriously, Ultron. Scary as heck. Watch that trailer. Now.


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