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The most annoying thing about Halloween

November 2nd, 2009 · Posted by Skuds in Life · No Comments · Life

This is not where I bang on about telling children that for one night a year it is OK to accept sweets from strangers and the endless streams of  children knocking on your door.  That is easily addressed.  You can already put up posters saying ‘no trick or treat please’, although I think it would be better for an opt-in rather than an opt-out way of handling this – assume that nobody wants children begging at their door unless they indicate otherwise, perhaps by showing some sort of symbol.  A pumpkin would be appropriate.  No need for laws or rules, just a general society norm would do.

I am also not going to bemoan the enforced Americanisation of our customs, with trick and treating, school proms and the like.  I will leave it to the BNP to denounce the spread of foreign customs.  It is all harmless fun, and if some people want their children to roam the streets begging for Haribo, and others want to keep a stock of pick & mix by the front door for them, that is fine as long as it is not compulsory.

Nor am I going to suggest the whole thing is evil and is leading children down a path, at the end of which lies depravity and devil-worship.  I will leave that to the more excitable churches.

Instead I am going to have a gripe about films.Specifically, I want to complain about HMV’s Halloween promotion.  In the last week or two their shops have had a promotion on horror DVDs, suggesting we should get in some horror films to mark the event.  I noticed that the display had films like Saw prominent in the display.

Now I am not an expert on the traditions of All Hallow’s Eve, but surely it is about ghosts, spirits, spooks, witches and all that sort of thing.   Possibly that could include the traditional Mummy and maybe zombies.  Frankenstein’s monster and vampires are so long-established they seem traditional now, although the Frankenstein story is really science fiction more than supernatural.

But Saw?  That is just about a human psychopath, with absolutely no supernatural element to it at all.  Along with similar films like Hostel, House of Wax, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it is more about explicit gore than suspense and has entirely human causes.  Just because a film sits in the racks labelled ‘horror’ does not mean they are suitable for Halloween.  If you are going to jump on a bandwagon, at least get it right.

You might as well sit the kids down at Christmas to watch Eyes Wide Shut, Die Hard and Meet John Doe instead of Jack Frost, Elf, the Snowman and Jingle All The Way!   (top tip: the best Christmas film must be Gremlins)

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