Halloween sucks. Who really wants to watch a movie that keeps you up at night and visit a scary maze where zombies almost give you a heart attack? Not me. But Spooky Season? That’s something everyone needs to get on board with.
The trend has emerged in recent years as people move away from the scary side of Halloween and give the holiday a cutesy new appeal. It broadly describes the season leading up to Halloween, from September to October – and it’s the best time of year.
Halloween sucks for wimps like me
Halloween dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts, History Channel explains. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III then declared All Saints Day on November 1, a day to honor all saints.
The evening before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows Eve, which then turned into Halloween. Over the centuries, it’s evolved into the holiday we know today, which celebrates all things scary and is characterized by being terrified.
Some people love the adrenaline of visiting haunted attractions and telling scary stories – but not me. Those who hate horror (which must be at least half of the population) are forced into this horrid holiday and it sucks.
Friends think it’s funny to force you into a Walking Dead maze at Universal Studios that leaves you in floods of tears (yes that actually happened) or put on a horror movie even though it will give you nightmares for weeks.
Spooky Season brings a cutesy new appeal
Halloween is the worst time of year for wimps like me – but Spooky Season is a magical new alternative that rules. In August, everyone starts counting down the days to Spooky Season which many say starts on September 1.
It’s a time for staying at home, being cozy, decorating your house with cute pumpkins, drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks and watching all your favorite fall TV shows. The season focuses on the charming side of Halloween – with nothing scary in sight.
Spooky Season is a magical time of year when the leaves begin turning red and falling off the trees, the smell of cinnamon and hot apple cider looms and a pumpkin pie is cooking as you wrap up in a warm knit jumper.
“The word spooky kind of sums up what I love about Halloween,” Miranda Enzor, a Halloween enthusiast who runs the website Spooky Little Halloween told Slate. “I’m not so much on the horror, blood, and guts side. I just love the magical, cutesy, slightly creepy feel.”
It’s a Halloween rebrand that takes the holiday back to the Halloweens of our childhoods, and videos are flooding TikTok of people decorating their doors with fake spiderwebs, lining their porches with pumpkins and having Spooky Season date nights.
Best Spooky Season TV shows and movies
A huge part of Spooky Season is the TV you watch because the time of year is all about putting your feet up and putting on a feel-good show that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. Here are some must-watches.
Movie-wise, Hocus Pocus and Harry Potter always go down a treat. Some more good ones are The Addams Family, Coraline, Ghostbusters, The Witches, Casper and Twilight. Horror films or anything remotely scary are a strict no.
Some TV options are Gilmore Girls, The Vampire Diaries, Virgin River, Stranger Things, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Teen Wolf. You could watch something every day in October with Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween!
Related Topics
