Haunted Houses

"Houses are not haunted. We are haunted, and regardless of the architecture with which we surround ourselves, our ghosts stay with us until we ourselves are ghosts." - Dean Koontz

All of us grew up, I am pretty sure, with the idea of a house or area being haunted.  That we believe in haunting at all begins from when the first person was on earth and realized most things were really scary; Mother Nature was scary. Being fearful kept our ancestors alive.  Now, we enjoy being frightened. Haunted houses are meant to scare you, they make money scaring you, and centuries of enjoyment from scary things exists even today because we make sure they do.

This is what a haunted house is supposed to do. They exist to scare people. The idea behind some of Halloween is the 1802 beginnings of Madame Tussand's wax sculptures of decapitated heads in her Gallery.  I might add that the very thought of death masks does not thrill me either.  Haunted houses hit America in 1915 fairs started having haunted houses (rooms/buildings) in 1915. It commercialized peoples fears.   During the Dirty Thirties, adults decided to dream up a night to distract kids who had little to do and time on their hands and, in order to stop kids from, say, turning over outside toilets (gulp, guilty!) was to set up a trick or treat idea where treats were a commodity and it paid the kids off so they did not do dirty tricks.  It became a tradition and kids are bought off.  Now, the trick and treating part is very sanitized with kids having their parties at clubs, schools, etc.  And treats have become healthier.  Kids will never know the taste of treats they do not get often and the candy apples, popcorn balls and homemade caramels and fudge. Why even have Halloween any more.. oh, yes, of course, it is big money!

 By 1937 mothers were encouraged, through advertizing, to design trails of terror. But it was Walt Disney that did more for Halloween than ever before.  His designers developed a series of Mystery houses and  Haunted Mansions in his films.  He was able to develop illusions that made the genre stick. 

I do not support the commercialized holiday, even now.  Yes, I went to the Pit and the Pendulum but after that,. I never ever went to, paid for, or supported anything spooky since I was a teenager, scared out of my wits.  I guess I had discovered life could be scary on its own.

Challenge:    Do a scene that portrays haunted houses.  These are awfully fun to do since the imagination can run wild. 

©Carol Desjarlais 10.2.19