Page 3 | Disgusting Halloween decorations

ViaRia01 · 2023-10-31T16:09:43+00:00

I will hold my hands up and say I’m really not a fan of Halloween so of course my view is a bit swayed by that. At the same time, I have no problem with people enjoying their fun and games, dressing up, pumpkins, and all that - it’s just not for me. well… except today I’ve seen a house in my village with decorations that I think are just too much, distasteful, not appropriate for children (or even teens or vulnerable adults), and… well, I’ll describe it and you can let me know whether IABU. It includes: a real car parked on the driveway with red ‘blood’ all over the bonnet and what looks like a body underneath. Also a body in a body bag at hanging from an upstairs window. there’s also various cobwebs, skeletons, pumpkins etc that I have no problem with really. I have no intention of “doing something about it” and I know it’s not up to me what other people do to their houses, so I don’t think I am actually being unreasonable… but I’m wondering whether others (especially any Halloween lovers out there) agree that this seems to be going too far?

3Tunes · 31/10/2023 17:51

A house on my road has gory clothes and hanging skeletons and a ‘defrocked priest’ on the front door. It’s the house where the teenage lad leapt out at me from behind the front garden hedge with a (fake) axe on my way home from work last year, and genuinely scared me (he’s bigger than I am).

It feels like a way to intimidate people and put off little kids trick or treating, rather than anything more neighbourly.

Fannyfiggs · 31/10/2023 17:51

Jewelspun · 31/10/2023 16:39

It's Halloween and a lot of you will have bought fake skeletons made of plastic to decorate your homes and gardens with.

After Halloween many of these plastic skeletons end up discarded which is really bad for the environment.

This year I will only be using natural skeletons I sourced locally.

Hilarious 😂😂 unless it's true... nah, it's still hilarious 😂

Americano75 · 31/10/2023 17:52

Fuck, I hate Halloween, it's my brother's anniversary (knocked down by drunk driver) so anything outwith the cute spooky realm gets a big fuck off thumbs down from me.

MotherEarthisaTerf · 31/10/2023 18:01

Yanbu - Halloween is about ghosts, ghouls, pagan rituals eg pumpkins etc.

I get that it became a "fright night" of sorts - but Halloween now seems to be morphing into "murder night". Can't we keep horror characters and themes as 18+?

I've got 2 SEN kids and not only does my DD refuse to go Trick or Treating I now have to be vary wary of half term day trips as various children's activities seem to be going "all in" on Halloween and she's been completely spooked by people going too far. It's tainted it all for her.

MotherEarthisaTerf · 31/10/2023 18:01

Americano75 · 31/10/2023 17:52

Fuck, I hate Halloween, it's my brother's anniversary (knocked down by drunk driver) so anything outwith the cute spooky realm gets a big fuck off thumbs down from me.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Did they find the driver?

Caffeineislife · 31/10/2023 18:02

YANBU about distasteful decorations. I enjoy the fun of Halloween as the kids enjoy it. I have to say this year I have noticed that some of the decor has verged on distasteful/ not child appropriate.

We have done a few cheap Halloween trails locally over the holidays, one was at a pumpkin patch and the other at a local park and I personally thought the trails were a bit inappropriate for the age group they are targeted at. The one at the pumpkin patch had a skeleton dangling a doll upside down screaming whilst threatening it with a knife to the neck (full audio as well as animatronic). The local park one had gone Halloween film themed but featured some of the more graphic scenes from horror films and had really gone on the gore side (severed, world war z, Chuckie, jeepers creepers, Texas chainsaw massacre ect, there was not a film in there that i would show to a lower/ mid primary aged child). The teens who were doing it were having a great time. If that was their aimed audience then they were spot on.

Both these places were aimed at lower to mid primary aged children and were explicit in the advertising that it was aimed at mainly under 10's. IMO it was a bit much and lots of the DC were a bit scared or unnerved by some of the scenes. Im on the fence about sending an email tonight as it is all good fun and my DC wasnt bothered but I think next year there might need to be some consideration about the age group they are targeting.

AInightingale · 31/10/2023 18:09

Don't like the 'crime scene' stuff at all. We've had a few real incidents in the large estate where I live, about five murders in two years and a few drug-linked deaths. Walked up a street the other day where a police car was parked and did a double take when I saw tape all over a door, but realised it was just a coincidence.

Trinity65 · 31/10/2023 18:16

Jewelspun · 31/10/2023 16:39

It's Halloween and a lot of you will have bought fake skeletons made of plastic to decorate your homes and gardens with.

After Halloween many of these plastic skeletons end up discarded which is really bad for the environment.

This year I will only be using natural skeletons I sourced locally.

😆😆👻

Verv · 31/10/2023 18:20

cardibach · 31/10/2023 17:46

@saltinesandcoffeecups no, nit film. Halloween.
@Verv one of what? People who actually know what Halloween is about? The commercial aspects of Halloween May have been hijacked by an older demographic. Doesn’t make it traditional or appropriate for the street in view of everyone else.

No, one of those twee chirpy irritating types who says things like "hint" in order to be passive aggressive.
Glad you're one of the people who actually knows what Halloween is about though, what an achievement.

FuzzyPuffling · 31/10/2023 18:22

Op, are you in Staplehurst?
I just saw a photo on a FB page with things as you describe and thought it looked pretty distasteful.

Maddy70 · 31/10/2023 18:25

Having g lost a xlose family member by hanging that would upset me so much. Do you think you should perhaps speak to them in case it upsets others in the street

CasperGutman · 31/10/2023 18:26

YANBU. Public Halloween decorations should be unrealistic, and focused on ghosts, ghouls and (unrealistic) monsters. Not dead babies and road traffic accidents that might upset any random passer-by.

Pussygaloregalapagos · 31/10/2023 18:30

Could be outing but there is a full on ‘operation’ scene down the road with doctors and nurses covered in blood and bits of bodies all over the place. It’s incredibly detailed and effective but certainly quite stomach churning! I suppose tricky for anyone due on the operating table soon… oh no wait the NHS doesn’t do operations any more does it!

Lizardonachair · 31/10/2023 18:33

I agree it's absolutely terrifying for young kids and for people who are vulnerable. I remember being petrified of Halloween masks as a child never mind pretend dead bodies!

saltinesandcoffeecups · 31/10/2023 18:34

cardibach · 31/10/2023 17:46

@saltinesandcoffeecups no, nit film. Halloween.
@Verv one of what? People who actually know what Halloween is about? The commercial aspects of Halloween May have been hijacked by an older demographic. Doesn’t make it traditional or appropriate for the street in view of everyone else.

Umm… can I introduce you to the Halloween movie franchise?

sweetgardens · 31/10/2023 18:44

I'm with you OP. I don't like Halloween but if you want to do the ghosts and witches thing, that's up to you. The other day I drove past a 'corpse' wrapped up in black plastic hanging by a noose from an upstairs window of a house.

If you want to do stuff like that, I think you should do it indoors. I don't think it's fair to drop that on passers-by who might have traumatic flashbacks.

TheYearOfSmallThings · 31/10/2023 18:53

Jewelspun · 31/10/2023 16:39

It's Halloween and a lot of you will have bought fake skeletons made of plastic to decorate your homes and gardens with.

After Halloween many of these plastic skeletons end up discarded which is really bad for the environment.

This year I will only be using natural skeletons I sourced locally.

I like your work

SurprisedWithAHorse · 31/10/2023 19:04

Caffeineislife · 31/10/2023 18:02

YANBU about distasteful decorations. I enjoy the fun of Halloween as the kids enjoy it. I have to say this year I have noticed that some of the decor has verged on distasteful/ not child appropriate.

We have done a few cheap Halloween trails locally over the holidays, one was at a pumpkin patch and the other at a local park and I personally thought the trails were a bit inappropriate for the age group they are targeted at. The one at the pumpkin patch had a skeleton dangling a doll upside down screaming whilst threatening it with a knife to the neck (full audio as well as animatronic). The local park one had gone Halloween film themed but featured some of the more graphic scenes from horror films and had really gone on the gore side (severed, world war z, Chuckie, jeepers creepers, Texas chainsaw massacre ect, there was not a film in there that i would show to a lower/ mid primary aged child). The teens who were doing it were having a great time. If that was their aimed audience then they were spot on.

Both these places were aimed at lower to mid primary aged children and were explicit in the advertising that it was aimed at mainly under 10's. IMO it was a bit much and lots of the DC were a bit scared or unnerved by some of the scenes. Im on the fence about sending an email tonight as it is all good fun and my DC wasnt bothered but I think next year there might need to be some consideration about the age group they are targeting.

That's so age inappropriate that I'd have to think an actual sadist was in charge of it.

Donesaidtheunicorn · 31/10/2023 19:07

@ViaRia01 I think you live in my village! Begins with S?

SirVixofVixHall · 31/10/2023 19:07

whatisforteamum · 31/10/2023 16:31

I was thinking just the same thing on my way home from work.
I saw a house with hanging ghosts and corpses but the worst bit was the front door and driveway covered in caution hazard tape.
It looked like the scene where 2 women were stabbed to death in the next road to ours.
I wonder how triggering these things are people who have lost loved ones in tragic circumstances.
Pumpkins and ghosts and plastic skeletons fine.

I have lost a loved one in tragic circumstances and seeing a Halloween “decoration” that reminded of it really upset me.
I agree with you OP, some of the scenes are really insensitive and I miss the more old fashioned witches and ghosts type Halloween.

GrimGrinningGhosts · 31/10/2023 19:12

Viviennemary · 31/10/2023 16:29

I don't mind Halloween. Imloved it as a child. But skulls and skeletons scattered aroind n gardens are just not on IMHO.

Simon Le Bone spends most of October out fishing in our garden. Nobody has a problem with him.

Ollifer · 31/10/2023 19:17

Just went out trick or treating with my five year old and it wasn't very enjoyable tbh, loads of teenagers running round In costume shouting etc , some of the houses had things like fake hanging bodies outside, again I just think it's getting more extreme every year with people competing, like can't we go back to when I was a kid and it was a shitty costume that wasn't scary and a few pumpkins and fake cobwebs hanging up 😂😭

PurpleChrayne · 31/10/2023 19:22

It's horrible.

Maybe I'm sensitive at the moment (friend had his 12-year-old twins massacred at Kibbutz Be'eri) but I just can't bear the decorations this year.

MyOtherNameToday · 31/10/2023 19:23

It really does seem to depend where people live. It's rare to see anyone over the age of 11 here. I did just get 2 girls about 14 years old who very politely knocked the door. Everyone else is primary age.

SurprisedWithAHorse · 31/10/2023 19:25

GrimGrinningGhosts · 31/10/2023 19:12

Simon Le Bone spends most of October out fishing in our garden. Nobody has a problem with him.

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There were quite a few skeletons coming out of the ground tonight. One of them was reading a copy of What Car?