The True Horror of Halloween

Every year around this time, there seems to be a new controversy (or several) regarding an insensitive, racist, or sexy costume plaguing our news feeds, but people don’t know how good they have it. Going back decade by decade, looking at what was available, we’re in a virtual utopia of costume choices and technology. Our ancestors weren’t quite as lucky. Let’s take a look at the ghosts of costumes past.

Try, please try and ignore the fact this is during a time when ‘black face’ was socially accepted (a term that comes up often during this season) and look at the ‘people’ in this picture. These look like the type of people that would enjoy a nice purge every year.

And don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just the adults. If these kids aren’t serial killers in training, maybe they’ll only become bank robbers instead. Makes me feel a lot better about that time I was forced to be a clown against my will, instilling a fear of the “happy” tricksters that I only recently conquered.

Seeing these pictures, you may think it’s the black and white (or sepia) nature of the photos that are instilling the horror in them, but I dare you to come up with a color palette that removes the terror oozing from this family of devil worshipers.

This dead Little Bo Peep in a tiny hat is probably the least threatening of the costumes I came across during my research, but then you realize she lost her sheep because she most likely ate them, and the image takes on a whole new meaning.

Black face rears its ugly head again and I’m really starting to wish for a sexy nurse or librarian to alleviate the dread of the scariest kegger ever.

Now this may be one of those instances where color in context could help the situation, but in my mind the past actually was black and white, and these kids would have been shot in the face as soon as I opened the door. The judge would take one look at these costumes and agree these spawns from hell deserved to be put down most brutally.

You may think I only cherry picked the worst or purposefully scary costumes, but look at what passed for a “sexy” Mickey Mouse costume nearly a hundred years ago.

Compare that to where we are today, and this horror author is glad to keep the terrors on the page and not my door step.

For more from Dr. AzarRising check out his website here.