Trick or Treat!

Good evening, kiddies...

It is that time of year again. The black cats are hissing, the goblins are gobbling, and the spirits of the dead are roaming the earth once more.

As well as pint-sized versions of the Avengers, apparently...

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. When I was a kid, it was because I got to play around with pumpkins, experiment with awesome costumes and go wandering around the neighborhood and collecting free candy!

CANDY!

Nowadays, though, my love of the holiday has diminished a little bit. Not because I can't dress up anymore, oh, no, I still do that. But people get just a little bit freaked out if you go wandering the neighborhood trick-or-treating when you're older than about 12, so...

But I think the biggest draw of this holiday is that it is, in essence, an anti-holiday. Most other holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas and Valentine's Day, are all about bringing people together, joining in friendship and family, and basking in the warm fuzzies of the season.

Halloween, on the other hand, is about getting the pants scared off of you. And I'm not talking about the 'jump-out-of-a-closet-and-shout-BOO' type of scared, either. When I say scare, I'm talking about the deep, dark chill that runs through your very bones...the claws that reach into the deepest recesses of your mind and awaken your most primal fears...I'm talking raw, unadulterated terror.

The 'cover-your-head-with-a-pillow-while-clutching-your-blankie'
kind of terror.

Truth be told, it is rather difficult in this age to evoke such feelings. Horror writers and movie makers are mainly focused on shock factor, because it is so easy to evoke a reaction in the audience. It takes a true master of the craft to spark real fear.

Now, I am in no way a master of the craft. But I do like to consider myself a student of it. I present to you now, a simple philosophical question on fear. And one that chills me to the bone...

What are we afraid of?

Many classic horror icons and other disturbing creatures share common characteristics. Pale skin, dark, sunken eyes, elongated faces, sharp teeth, and the like. These images inspire horror and revulsion in many, and with good reason. The characteristics shared by these faces are imprinted in the human mind.

Many things frighten humans instinctively. The fear is natural, and does not need to be reinforced in order to terrify. The fears are species-wide, stemming from dark times in the past when lightning could mean the burning of your tree home, predators could be hiding in the dark, heights could make poor footing lethal, and a spider or snake bite could mean certain death.

The question you have to ask yourself is this:

What happened, deep in the hidden eras before history began, that could affect the entire human race so evenly as to give the entire species a deep, instinctual, and lasting fear of pale beings with dark, sunken eyes, razor sharp teeth, and elongated faces?

Sleep tight, boys and girls...