This Halloween, the humdrum masses of costumed ghouls and goblins will be standing next to such idolized getups as the sparkly main characters from Euphoria, HBO’s award-winning pornographic series masquerading as a coming-of-age tale; the “incestuous, dragon-riding” Targaryens from the same network’s sequel to Game of Thrones (and just as gratuitously graphic); and any of the antiheroes who have recently taken star turns on the big screen—at the top of the list the pathological Harley Quinn, the former sidekick and romantic partner of infamous villain the Joker. And let’s not forget Salem’s favorite fictional witches, the Sanderson Sisters, whose popularity has been revived just in time by Disney+’s sequel Hocus Pocus 2.
Halloween seeped into American tradition in the 18th century via masses of Scottish and Irish immigrants. Having its roots in pagan superstition, the holiday now gives license to, basically, be someone you’re not for one night.
After the invention of the television, by the mid-1950s, there was a television set in “70 percent of the country’s homes”—and just like that, America “had a common culture.” Just like that, Americans wanted to be whoever was on “the magic box.”
And Halloween proves it. Over the years, droves have dressed up as Snow White, Barbie, The Beatles, and E.T., to name but a few icons of their day. Beginning in 1978, costumes “took a dark, gory turn” as John Carpenter’s eponymous Halloween trailblazed a modern genre of horror films. In the 1990s, all-consuming consumerism showed up as children dressed as McDonald’s french fries, boxes of Kellogg’s cornflakes, and rolls of Lifesavers.
From political pariahs to pop idols, Halloween costumes are, as expert Lesley Bannatyne described it, the “bellwether for what we’re thinking about,” the barometer of what is preoccupying the American mind.
So, what’s on our minds today?
There Goes Your Mind
As it is with most anything, a person’s mind is filled with what a person puts in it. And most simply, a person puts in his mind whatever’s in front of his or her eyes. After all, that’s what the world population has been doing for more than half a century. As Encyclopædia Britannica put it: “By the end of television’s first decade, it was widely believed to have greater influence on American culture than parents, schools, churches, and government—institutions that had been until then the dominant influences on popular conduct. All were superseded by this one cultural juggernaut.”
What has 70 years of entertainment voyeurism done to the human mind?
If recent years’ costumes are any indication, people’s minds are filled with sex, violence, and witchcraft. For another, people are no longer satisfied with just what’s pleasing to the sight. They want more. As a promotion for the release of Hocus Pocus 2, for instance, a Danvers, Massachusetts, listing on Airbnb touted a one-night stay at a viable recreation of the Sanderson witches’ cottage, straight out of the two movies. The occult abode even came with a replica of the sisters’ book of spells, which, according to the story, was once a gift, “bound in human skin,” from “The Devil himself.” The listing’s description, in particular, gleefully encouraged lucky visitors to “try their hand at enchantments enshrined in the ancient spellbook that guided [the sisters] in all [their] mischief.” In this way, fiction can become reality—your reality.
Or what about the low-budget horror sequel Terrifier 2, which reportedly has viewers fainting, vomiting, and needing medical assistance at the movie theaters? At one point in time, these physiological responses would have been clear indications of adverse reactions. Not so nowadays: “It’s cool that a movie can still draw a reaction like that. Seems to rarely happen these days,” tweeted one fan. “My friend passed out and the theater called an ambulance. Highly recommended,” tweeted another. People aren’t ashamed or disgusted or horrified. They want what’s on the screen to reach out and touch them. They are, at this point, so desensitized to the evil that they are embracing it.
Deception Thrills
It would perhaps be more accurate to conclude that Halloween is the night not on which people become someone they’re not, but on which people expose who they really want to be. The Bible predicts “that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). People actuate the most depraved deeds of their hearts unashamedly, exchanging evil for good and good for evil (Isaiah 5:20), “[turning] their ears away from the truth, and … aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:4). Halloween reveals the telltale signs of a society high on deception.
If we take a closer look at this year’s Halloween influencers, we’ll see one more interesting commonality. The plot of Terrifier 2 is about the return of a “creepy clown … after being resurrected by ‘a sinister entity.’” As for Hocus Pocus 2, the Sanderson Sisters are again resurrected by the lighting of a bespelled candle.
This is no coincidence. Why would the silver and small screens be emitting this content to a spellbound audience at this point in Earth’s timeline? Can the devil and his powers of darkness truly bring the evil dead back to life? Or is Halloween merely another device in the devil’s master plan—to fabricate “false christs and false prophets [who] will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24)? This deception will ultimately culminate in a very rude awakening.
For a crash course on the truth about death, ghosts, and actual resurrection, try Pastor Doug Batchelor’s “Spiritual Imposters,” a presentation that will keep you on the edge of your seat—and not from fright.