After my last article "A Typical 90s Halloween" was posted on retrojunk.com, I was so thrilled with the comments and such, so I decided to go more in depth and talk more freely on Halloween. The holiday itself is one that is full of magic, fear and fun. Many people who have said that Halloween is now more commercialized, and just left without the same touch. I agree. Halloween is not the same today as it was back then. There seem to be more and more different authorities putting more harsh punishments on kids that play pranks on Halloween. I believe that pranks are all in the fun of Halloween.



I recently showed my mother the article and she started talking about the fun of her Halloweens back in the 1970s. She talked about how pranks were such a big role of Halloween. Trick-or-Treaters used to walk the streets until about 11 o clock at night and all of the stores would pass out tons of candy. My mother recalls the heavy bags of candy she would have to haul up and down the street. Many times they would use pillow cases (which is the best bag to use, if I say so myself). Teenagers would scare the kids so much to where they would drop their bags of candy and then BINGO, free candy. The 70s was also a time of popularity for streaking. My mother and her friends were trick-or-treating at a local shopping center and a streaker came out of the shadows running after them. They ran to the local bowling alley to take refuge and call their parents. I envy her for being able to have that much fun.



I think my Halloweens were pretty fun as well, though. There isn't too much I would take back from those days because I dont believe much changed from the 70s to the 90s. People back then believed in the magic of the scare. Today, I go to Halloween USA (the store, for those people who don't know) and they have pretty princess costumes and Spongebob. What happened to kids dressing up as scary stuff? I dont know how many people will agree with me on this, but when I was a kid, I dressed up as something scary and something that I MADE. The 90s was very much so the end of making your own costumes. If you have read the Part 1 of this, that what was so fun about my elementary school having a parade. Everyones costume was so original and interesting. There were no duplicates.



Religion. I have read comments on religion. Well, I am a Christian, to be completely honest with everyone, but I also have the same tattoo that Michael Myers does. The thorn, for those who cannot recall. Does that make me a pagan or devil worshipper? No. Some bible thumpers and extremists always try to do whatever they can to stop Halloween. It really gets to me, because of my love for the holiday. It seems that people always think that Halloween is trying to sway kids to doing evil things and pulling them away from Jesus. For one, Halloween is taking nothing from the Christian Church. Its not as if Halloween was placed on the same day as Christmas. That would be a reason for people to be pissed. Halloween is placed in the best spot for it. Right smack dab in the middle of Autumn, when all of the trees are dying and the weather cools down a little bit.

The Movies. Well, as I think all of you have found out, my favorite movie for this time of the year is the Halloween series. I believe that these were the start of the slashers. They pioneered the art of slashing. The most wonderful thing about John Carpenters Halloween is the fact that you hardly see one drop of blood in the whole movie. It simply didnt need gore to make it scary. It was already a creepy movie to begin with. An escape mental patient goes back to his home town and stalks babysitter. Its a TOTALLY (pun) original idea for the time. Halloween was made in 21 days on a budget of $320,000, now it is the highest grossing independent film of all time. That fact is quite impressive.






Lastly, I would like to speak about Television and Halloween. Commercializing Halloween has not been a total mistake. Thanks to AMC (American Movie Classics), we are able to watch loads of some of the best horror movies ever made during this time of the year. Last year, AMC named the 10 day marathon, Fearfest. I didnt like Fearfests line up as much as I have enjoyed their Monsterfest line up. Monsterfest was pretty much the same marathon, except just different titles were being played. For 10 days straight, day and night, AMC will stop all of their regular movies, and play non-stop horror films. Anything from Michael Myers to Dracula to Jason to Chucky to Frankenstein to Freddy. In my opinion, this is one thing that seems to keep Halloween alive.





All in all, Halloween is not the same, but people who are true to the holiday can bring the good times back. We should all do our best to keep it going. Thank you for reading. I will continue on different aspects of Halloween if the readers wish.