Monday, October 18, 2010

Arctic Circle's Halloween Horror

Last Friday, Jonah received a certificate from school for a free ice cream cone from Arctic Circle. I decided to take the kids over that day after a trip to the park.
We went inside because three young children with ice cream cones inside a moving vehicle is a disaster in the making. As soon as we walked in the door, I wanted to walk right back out again. There were bloodied knives and bones hanging from the ceiling. The entire place was draped in black plastic. They had a large skeleton along with a display of various body parts in jars. Oh, and there was also plenty of gory looking fake blood on the walls and ceiling. Jonah called it Halloween Horror and I must say that I agree. We ate our ice cream cones as quickly as possible and I was sure to try to keep the kids' eyes on anything but the decor. Is it just me, or does this type of gory, violent decoration not belong in a family friendly fast food restaurant?
Am I the only one who is disturbed by the way Halloween keeps leaning more and more to the violent, bloody, and almost satanic? I was on my morning walk around the neighborhood with Jayne this morning and I made it a point to notice the Halloween decorations on people's homes. Most had the murderer from Scream on their front door holding a bloody kitchen knife. Several had body parts and fake blood plastered across their windows. And, of course, we had plenty of the scary skeletons dressed as brides or waiters or whatever. What happened to cute Halloween decorations? Trick-or-treating children don't need to be greeted by severed heads and bloody weapons in their faces. Come on People! On Halloween night there will be cute little kids dressed as fairies and firemen coming to the door and your "cool" decorations just might give them nightmares or scar them for life. Think about it before you hang up your next dangling body part by the front door.

1 comment:

Kandis said...

Okay so I'm a cutesy Halloween decorator myself, but I see the reason why people go for the scare though. It's the same reason why people watch horror movies and go to haunted houses. IT'S HALLOWEEN! It's supposed to be spooky, and scary and gross. Like I said it's not for me to decorate my house that way, but I understand why people do.
I think Arctic Circle is a bit much though. I mean it is a food establishment and blood and food is nasty right?! So they could tone it down a bit!