The Halloween Conundrum - How Scary is Too Scary?

When I bought my house three years ago, I wasn't too keen on the neighbor's Halloween decorations. They put up orange lights around the doorway (no problem there), some pumpkins on the porch (still no problem), and a plethora of fake headstones in the front yard. Nothing says "Good Morning" like leaving for work and seeing a cemetary in your rearview mirror.

But alas, culture (or is it permissiveness?) has continued its slide toward...something, and the innocent cemetary of my neighborhood has been overtaken by The House on Farr.

At this house, a huge grim reaper hangs from their front porch so low that even the tiniest trick-or-treater's heads will be brushed by the hem of its death cloak. Every inch of landscaping is covered with spider webbing. Iron stakes line the front walk, complete with fake skulls skewered on top. There are headstones...with skeletons digging their way out of the burial plot, expressions grimacing and contorted in pain. In front of the driveway hangs the piece de la resistance - a headless, bloody torso.

For the love of Pete. I'm 29 years old and it freaks me out to drive past the house. What if I were a 9-year-old girl with a group of friends, tasked with not looking like a wimp as the rest of the group fearlessly tromps to the front door?

I know, I know - they're just decorations. It's all make-believe, right?

Yes, to a point. It's all plastic.

What is not make-believe is the insensitivity and poor judgement of the homeowner who purchases said plastic decorations and with them, litters a holiday meant for children. It's not make-believe when the majority of trick-or-treaters are NOT afraid to walk up to a house that looks like that.

Boo hoo, right? Kids like to be scared. No harm, no foul. It's all in fun.

Okay, great. For fun, let's amp it up a notch and instead of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," let's give them a real scare and sit them in front of "Saw IV," or "Hostel," perhaps.

"Scary" used to be defined by witches and ghosts and goblins and scarecrows that jumped out at you from the porch. Haunted houses had bowls of "eyeballs" that you'd stick your hand in, later to find out it was only wet grapes. I can't compare that with what haunted houses currently do, because I haven't been in one since peer pressure was a mitigating factor in my life.

The scariest part of Halloween nowdays is that imaginary fantastic has been replaced with realistic. As adults in charge of shaping the next generation of children, what the hell are we thinking?