Adam Blatner

When did scarey become cute? The many pressures of commercialization, mixed with the candy and snack industry, the greeting card and costume industries, the specialty Halloween shops and the many Goodwill and other charity stores, commercial Haunted Houses, scary movies, and much more all contribute to the mass celebration of what really is the “shadow” function of our minds.

We neutralize all this “for the kids”—and for the more easily scared among us. There is death, after all, perish the thought. And monsters, or as I like to say, “mon-on-sters”—all the scary elaborations of fear. We’re going to “get” you really means we’re going to eat you, kill you, and you better be scared! Booga-booga!