The Horror Movie On The Front Lawn

America’s fixation on grotesque Halloween decorations is a symptom of “Let people enjoy things!”

Halloween decorations have gotten out of hand. As a horror movie fan, I naturally enjoy the spooky holiday. But even my tolerance for gore makes me wince at what I see on front lawns. No longer is it sufficient to put a tombstone and a jack-o-lantern outside. People now turn their suburban home into a grotesque horror flick for October. Giant skeletons, severed limbs, huge spiders, demonic dolls, and other ghoulish items takeover lawns across the country.

It’s not unusual for Americans to go all out for holiday decorations. Christmas has always been a time for people to go nuts to make their homes festive. But no kid is going to be scared by Santa and his reindeer. Children would absolutely be terrified of the current Halloween grotesquerie. But it seems to be no great concern for the public.

The gory Halloween decor reflects the strength of the principle “let people enjoy things.” Commonly repeated by Redditors to defend abnormal interests, this phrase defines our country’s atomized individualism. People are not supposed to be bound by the concerns of the community (unless it concerns racism). You’re supposed to do whatever you want, which is why people now wear pajamas to the grocery store and get neck tattoos. There are no real standards. If you want to put a horror movie on your front lawn and scare neighborhood kids, no one is there to tell you differently. We’re all supposed to pursue our own happiness independent of those around us. Standards and norms are for uptight dorks.

Our growing child-free state amplifies indifference. . While the suburbs still have kids, the adults no longer adjust to this reality. They spend more time on Halloween decorations than preparing for trick-or-treaters. They don’t care if their decorations scare kids. Halloween is now for adults, not kids. It’s about dressing up and getting wasted with friends. Trick-or-treating in the neighborhood is a secondary matter. 

While Halloween becomes an adult holiday, the grown-ups remain attached to childish customs. Self-respecting adults in the past would’ve never put out gory corpses in their front yard. They would've understood it was disreputable and would piss off the neighbors. It’s not something grown-ups do. But in the Age of Reddit and declining community standards, the adults feel empowered to be as ridiculous as they want to be. The over-the-top Halloween decorations exhibit this extended mental adolescence. Many middle-aged men dress like middle-schoolers, complete with a Marvel shirt and baggy cargo shorts. They spend inordinate amounts of time collecting items such as comic books and toys that were once reserved for children. If it’s too much to expect them to dress like adults, don’t bank them on caring about what their fellow adults think of their stupid Halloween decor.

All of this happens while America becomes more permissive towards the gore and shock around Halloween. Take the success of Terrifier 3. The bloody slasher would’ve never been allowed into regular theaters in previous years. The famous slashers of the 80s suffered many edits to avoid an X rating. The Terrifier series makes the uncut versions of Friday the 13th look like Hocus Pocus. Its gore has caused many filmgoers to vomit and pass out. Terrifier 3 makes itself more controversial by having its killer clown dressed as Santa for much of the movie. (Film posters depict Art the Clown in Santa’s hat and skinned-off face hanging around his neck.) 

The Santa desecration would’ve met a very hostile response in the 80s. The far-milder Santa slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night was pulled from theaters in 1984 after the public went berserk over itskiller Kris Kringle depiction. While Terrifier 3 features far more explicit material and features a gruesomely murdered Santa in its film poster, it opened as the number 1 movie in America. Conservatives don’t seem to care about it. In fact, many of them get mad if you criticize it.

When I noted that it’s odd a nihilistic gorefest is the number one film in America, my mentions were filled with very angry right-wingers who see nothing wrong with the film. Many of these same people lament that the Right lost the culture war. Now, they spend their time defending movies the cultural warriors of the past would’ve tried to ban. 

It’s not the worst thing in the world Terrifier 3 is a hit, and I don’t support censorship of it. It’s probably a better film to see than other choices in theaters, and adults should be free to watch it. But its popularity and gruesome Santa poster align with the oddity of the Halloween decoration craze. In 1984, America was concerned enough with kids to not want a Santa-themed slasher ruining the beloved Christmas figure. Now we shrug at slashers flaunting a flayed Santa in its film poster. “Let people enjoy things!” trumps “What about the children?”

And that’s what this ultimately boils down to. Citizens are not supposed to police the behavior of their fellow citizens so long as they don’t “harm anyone.” Halloween decorations technically don’t harm anyone. It doesn’t matter if they scare other kids; that’s not the concern of the decorators. It especially doesn’t matter to them if the designs bring “disrepute” upon their house. Few care about social norms anymore. As long as no one thinks they’re a bigot, who cares? What matters most is doing what you want–neighbors be damned.

A proper society can enjoy splatterfests at the movie theater. But it wouldn’t encourage people to turn their yard into a splatterfest. It’s undignified, it scares kids, and it makes you look like a weirdo. 

But in the Age of Redditors, it’s just something we have to deal with. Too many Americans refuse to grow up and act like respectable adults. And that’s why we now see plastic, blood-smeared corpses in cul-de-sacs throughout the nation.