| Staying in for Halloween but don't want to waste it | | | | but boy does it make the movie more enjoyable. |
| away? Well, if there aren't any parties to go to, | | | | The point of Halloween to exist in the modern world is |
| trick-or-treaters to treat (or scare), or if you just plain | | | | to provide faux scares. That and, well, at the opinion of |
| don't want to get up off that couch, then you may as | | | | this writer, Halloween is a solid gold harvest for the |
| well make it into a Halloween-themed evening. No | | | | corporations. Staying home without any legitimate |
| trouble there. Just rent the right movies and invite the | | | | fears, or even a sense of greater wonder, is the |
| right people. Costumes optional. And for those still | | | | ultimate crime on Halloween night; the one and only |
| dissuaded to participate in this supernatural time of the | | | | legitimate and legally organized night to instill fear in |
| year (or for those who don't believe in the | | | | others' hearts. The best thing to do, inside the confines |
| supernatural), read onward for several suggestions | | | | of your own home is to dress up as a creature, lie in |
| and insight. | | | | wait behind a door, and scare family members. |
| Halloween bears its origin from the Irish and Scottish | | | | Okay. Fine. So I'm all out of ideas to convince you to |
| countries. Since then varieties of it have cropped up, | | | | revel in Halloween night. You're right then, it really isn't |
| nonetheless all of them with similar components: | | | | worth it to go out and stay out on Halloween. They |
| masks, costumes, parties, and the presence of | | | | say the candied apples strangers throw into the kids' |
| mortality and death. The latter quality is what makes | | | | bags are booby trapped with razors and pins. They |
| Halloween stand out from the other national American | | | | say that vandalism goes up for one night; drunkenness, |
| holidays: death. It is only appropriate, then, to | | | | disorderliness, and delinquency…it all goes up. |
| disseminate it into all the qualities that make up our | | | | Most importantly, they say that ghosts and evil spirits |
| notions of Halloween. In other words, scare the living | | | | rise from their graves and enter the physical world of |
| daylights out of anyone; but don't forget to scare | | | | the living, and that they torment any soul who doesn't |
| yourself. That's the real treat of Halloween. | | | | wear a mask (a ward to keep spirits at bay, just so |
| Of course, most movies can only go so far in scaring | | | | you know). |
| a person. (And in all honesty, the majority of movies | | | | And so, for those of you who do not intend to |
| can only manage to startle a person; all while instilling | | | | celebrate Halloween at all, who plan to stay inside on |
| very little actual fear). As any person would know by | | | | the one night evil spirits arise to wreck havoc, please, |
| know, the joy of watching a horror movie is to watch | | | | at my own superstitious beliefs…at least wear |
| it with others. Doing so might pad out the scare-factor, | | | | a mask. |