Happy Halloween!

Tomorrow is Halloween. The kids and I just finally got the obligatory cobwebs stretched across the bushes out front and the fog-spewing ghoul in his proper place by the front door. We are ready to roll.

Halloween is second only to Christmas around here when it comes to the decorations and the money poured into the event. I had to drag six storage bins filled with Halloween decorations out of the attic to transform our home for the candy-fest.

According to this chart, costumes are the single biggest Halloween expense for most families, followed by candy. Decorations is a close third. Apparently, Halloween cards are also a thing–making up the last five percent.

Last weekend my wife and I took the kids to a local haunted trail. The parks and recreation people do a very good job of putting together something that is scary but still child / family friendly on some level. We actually ended up going through it twice–the second time was so the kids could try it with their eyes open.

While we were waiting in line I was talking with my son and commented about how there hasn’t been an iconic horror film in a long time. When I was his age we had Michael Meyers (Halloween), and Jason (Friday the 13th), and Freddy Krueger (Nightmare On Elm Street). The closest things we could think of in recent years were John “Jigsaw” Kramer from the Saw franchise or the Scream movies–but in that case the mask was the “villain” more than a particular person. There have been a few solid horror movies, but nothing rivaling the classics for sometime–at least in my opinion.

Along those lines, though, this information is interesting. The top Halloween movie based on US box office sales is The Exorcist. The Blair Witch Project–which was basically filmed with a consumer camcorder on almost zero budget–is second. One interesting thing is that none of the classics I mentioned even made the list–no Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street movie is even in the top 15. I’d be curious to see what this would like adjusted for inflation.

Personally, I still think the scariest movie I have ever seen is Poltergeist–the original one. The remake was OK, but didn’t really do it justice. Let me know in the comments below what your opinion is for the scariest movie ever made.

The data for the charts was curated by prettyfamous.com and findthedata.com and sourced from Gracenote, the National Retail Federation, and Cooking Light.

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Tony Bradley

Editor-in-Chief at TechSpective

I have a passion for technology and gadgets--with a focus on Microsoft and security--and a desire to help others understand how technology can affect or improve their lives. I also love spending time with my wife, 7 kids, 4 dogs, 7 cats, a pot-bellied pig, and sulcata tortoise, and I like to think I enjoy reading and golf even though I never find time for either. You can contact me directly at tony@xpective.net. For more from me, you can follow me on Threads, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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