AIBU to find this halloe’en display’ offensive?

As someone named Karen I find this Karen Halloween mask (see photo) horrible and some Halloween decorations are in bad taste, but I think dressing up and a few scary spiders can be quite fun.

I agree the torture side of it should be rated 18+. Went with my daughter to pick my granddaughter up from the childminder. Bearing in mind the child is 13 months, the front window had a sheet projecting ghouls and nubs with bloody tears!
I didn't comment found it inappropriate.
Can't believe I'm so pruddy about it, but to me, totally inappropriate for a childminder.

The whole Halloween thing should be banned in my opinion. Why some adults encourage and promote this with children is beyond me.

Oh come on, really?

Where did the idea come from for this gruesome and macabre display? I would find it very upsetting, particularly in view of all the body bags we see nightly in reports from Gaza and Lebanon.

No you aren't BU! I'm not at all sure I understand Halloween. We did 'duck apples' and toffee apples and went to church for All Souls. I've read that there is a pagan thing called Samhain, commemorating the souls of the dead - but this modern stuff is plain weird.

Halloween's absolutely dreadful, a somewhat unpleasant American custom derived from the Scottish "Mischief Night" and then taken to the most unpleasant extremes by our own most unpleasant members of the population who think that their main source of inspiration should be modern gore-ridden horror films. It gets worse and worse each year. I don't play along or take part in any way - I just grumble and hide with the lights off.

I too dislike these violent, creeepy all-American Halloween displays.

We have our own traditions in Europe and should promote them.

Until the Reformation All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and all Souls' Day - 31.st.Oct. and 1. and 2. November were memorial days to the dead, as they still are in predominantly Catholic countries and in the Catholic church everywhere.

When exactly Americans added all these scary, and now frankly indecent elements, I do not know, but as a teacher I have been increasingly worried by the acceptance of violence in entertainment during the last four decades (at least.)

Children of all ages can accept a certain amount of violence in fairy tales, although many, as I myself did, are revolted by the more violent fairy tales, but even small children know that the world of fairy tales is not identical with ours.

What neither small children, nor teenagers realise readily, is that the violence shown in thrillers, horror movies, or even Jacky Chan films is dangerous. A film hero, be it Bond or Jacky Chan may survive being kicked in the head, blown up etc. but real men and women do not, or at least do not undamaged.

Human life is cheapened by violent acts being shown as entertainment, and this leads to youngsters copying their film heroes. Who would have dreamed when we were school-children that murders would be committed by 12 year olds, or young teens fight with knives ? Only those from the very roughest areas of the very toughest cities. Now these things are happening everywhere.

Is it not time to stop permitting violence as entertainment?

I think the person/people who thought up the PM scenario must have been inspired by the endless police/pathology dramas, involving the murder, usually of women, often sexually assaulted. I find them so tiresome and formulaic, not to mention the feminist aspect. Though there was one recently written by and directed by women..

There was a drama around Jack the Ripper, and another about the Yorkshire Ripper. So prurient, but people enjoy them.

Don’t know how this links in with Halloween, though, and is another topic.

I can see how many people would be upset by what OP describes. Does not sound very suitable for young children. However but we Liverpudlians are a tough lot and it takes a great deal to scare or intimidate us.

I once had an obscene phone call. I think it was his first one. Scared him so much he rang back later to apologise.

biglouis 😆 good for you.

oreo, I’m with your sentiments.

I think these black plastic tied up bodies are not just an individual making things for their house I believe they must be on sale as I’ve seen too many hanging around this year
Very poor taste in my opinion

Totally tacky and offensive

Lived in the US a couple of times and seen many similar scenes at Halloween, dislike them intensely, definitely not part of a fun evening for youngsters.

I think it's horrible and not in the spirit of Halloween, which is Celtic Samhain - an important ancient pagan festival. This is a time to honour the ancestors, to respect the darkness (as the womb of life) to remember the Beloved Dead, to tell stories and have a bit of harmless mischief to cheer up the darkening days. Being subjected to such gruesome images desensitises people to the awful things that happen and make it easier to dismiss atrocities - such as those perpetrated daily in Gaza now. It all becomes just pictures....

Totally agree. Sad reflection of how desensitised society has become. I don’t get Halloween at all. Another American excessive waste of resources and time. I won’t be answering the door to trick or treaters.

undines, well put.

I have seen half a body apparently emerging from someone’s flower beds with an axe through its skull and blood pouring out of the head. Like others I don’t know when it became au fait to create a gruesome tableau outside the home where all can see it. Halloween is becoming a huge deal, and obviously these tableau’s cost money.
To be honest if small children are taken trick or treating and see some of these hideous scenes I imagine it could keep them up at night.
Is surely more for adults. And that’s another thing why do women celebrating Halloween dress as if they are taking part in role play in the bedroom? Surely that isn’t traditional.

I’m not keen, but my grandsons love it all, the more gruesome the better.

GrannyGravy13. Can I make a correction? All Hallows Eve is a Christian tradition, November 1st being All Saints Day, celebrated from 8th Centuary. The pagan festival is Samhain, a much older festival that celebrates the end of Harvest and the beginning of Winter, on October 31st and November 1st. Over time the two have merged, resulting in the tacky, tasteless Halloween we see today.

Very bad taste in my opinion.
I have 3 pumpkins on my doorstep.

It's been like this for a very long time it is nothing new. The rise of the VHS video tapes of horror films in the 70s and 80s, kids were dressing up as the killers in these films. It's one day out of the year. I say let people do what they want.

AreWeThereYet

Oreo

Not sure if that ship sailed in the 70’s AreWeThereYet as I was only a young child then and Halloween was quite low key, and no kids I knew were allowed to watch anything violent on tv.

Oreo We watched violence on TV in the 70s - even in cartoons, western films, war films, crime films. None of them as violent as the films are now, of course, and not so much gore.

The first computer games aimed at the public were released in the 70s - nearly all of them involved shooting things and killing things to increase your score. Even then I remember discussions on whether children were affected by violent films and games. I would have been in my teens then.

Erm, Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, 1974.. and there were plenty more!

I hate it so much when gamers get blamed for all the ills in the world, just in case some of you don't know, gamers raise a LOT of money at various points throughout the year for charities worldwide and the majority are decent hard-working nice folks ( how else would they be able to afford to play!)

Ava25 I don’t agree about it always being like this yes, there have been axes and blood in a cartoony sort of way but this is the first year (certainly around here) I ve seen bodies tied up in bags hanging upside down from windows It was always been about ghosts and ghouls and witches with a bit of blood and coffins thrown in
This year it’s seems more about killing and torture
I m no killjoy but this is not something to put in children’s minds at all it has become an adult day with VERY adult content
…and then we wonder why younger and younger children are seeing killing as the way to solve problems