Is it ET's fault?

[Slugfest]

Bear with me, not everyone will be old enough for this one. Prior to ET being released in the 80's, Halloween wasn't such a big thing in the UK. ET showed how it is celebrated in the US and it seems to have exploded from there on.
So is ET responsible for Halloween as we know it today?

“I’m the most horrible”. Tootie had serious issues 😆

I spent £50 on fireworks just yesterday

Yeah was a big deal where I am in Scotland in the 80s, dooking for apples, party’s in school and brownies, out guising etc

Maybe because Halloween has links with Celtic/Scotland but was always a big deal here imo

Exactly £50 for how many fireworks...and no bangers or jumping jacks!

iI was born in '81 we dressed up, went trick or treating and had Halloween parties with prizes for best dressed at our catholic primary school. So has been a 'thing' my whole life. Nothing to do with the US.

@NotAnotherScarf 2 x sparklers, 1 box of rockets and a selection box plus a “rainbow” thing we had last year

I am from the SW with northern parents, one of whom had an Irish grandparents, and Halloween was not a thing in my family prior to me being a small child in the early 80s. Bonfire night was more of a thing for us. Trick or treating when it did come around was going to some houses on your road in a homemade crepe witch hat.

Halloween wasn't such a big thing in the UK.

I think it might be fair to say it wasn't a big thing in England. It's always been a big thing in Scotland, I understand. Not sure about other parts of the UK.

I don't think a single film can be blamed for the rise in popularity in England, and not ET particularly. I remember the massive ET hype and it didn't centre Hallowe'en. I've seen the film a couple of times since orginally seeing it at the cinema and Hallowe'en doesn't especially stand out.

I think it's down to ever-more cynical marketing filling shops with Hallowe'en products, and, in the last 20 years, social media competitiveness.

Surely the film Halloween released in 1978 would have played a bigger factor than the ET film released 4 years later

I'd be surprised if one film somehow...

Ooh, I wouldn't underestimate the power of a single film. Look at what Jaws did for the villification of sharks. Peter Benchley spent the rest of his life trying to undo that damage.

And what The Omen did to Rottweilers. Everyone thinks they are devil dogs because of that film.