Spooky Season Is The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year 

Every year, once late August hits, I’m filled with a sense of excitement. Now most of you normies consider spooky season limited to October, but not ya boy. As soon as Sept. 1 hits, I start going full spooky and don’t stop till mid-November. 

Now, back before we were truly living through the throes of climate change, fall was always my favorite season in Arizona. Right as the punishing summer weather broke, my favorite shows were coming back on air, the best games would release, and most importantly, a barrage of horror movies would hit movie theaters. 

My love of spooky season began at a young age. I have fond memories of my grandpa showing me horror movies I was way too young to watch when I was growing up. I’m talking Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street- the classics. Apparently, this was a family tradition, because he took my mom and uncle to see those movies at the drive-in when they were also way too young to watch them. 

Maybe it’s because I watched them so young that horror has become a comfort genre for me. You know the stereotype of a big, tatted metalhead with a heart of gold? I’ve pretty much been the inverse my whole life. Outwardly sweet and approachable, but I love the grimy, grotesque, and downright disturbing. 

I showed a few of my friends the movie Climax a few years ago, telling them that I thought it was “incredibly messed up, but a lot of fun.” By the time the credits rolled, both of them turned to me and asked: “What the f-k is your idea of fun?” If you’ve seen Climax, you probably understand why they asked. 

Life and the news hit us with absurd, horrific, and heartbreaking developments on a regular basis. Horror movies allow me to confront those feelings in a space that I can control. People can be monstrous, and horror movies are a way for me to never forget that fact. While spooky season allows me to embrace the dark, it also comes with a fair share of lightness. 

Since my gramps died three years ago, spooky season has a more sentimental feeling for me. It reminds me of those great times throughout the years, and keeping the tradition alive still makes me feel close to him.

Also, if I’m being totally real, I love spooky season because I can be festive without any responsibility. With Thanksgiving, I’ve been charged with smoking the family turkey over the last couple of years. As it’s the central dish, that responsibility comes with a significant amount of focus and pressure, because nobody wants to eat an undercooked or dry-ass turkey. So I’m up at the crack of black, getting the fire ready, monitoring the turkey, and adding wood to the smoker. By the time dinner is ready, your boy is beat, 

With Christmas, you gotta be accountable to your family and Jesus. There’s the stress in buying gifts and hoping you get folks something they like. Then, depending on your family, you gotta go to church that morning, get dinner ready, and then maybe have some time to unwind in the evening. While Christmas was my favorite holiday as a kid, and I’m still one of the people who immediately whiplash from Halloween to Christmas music, spooky season has really come to take its place as I get older.

Halloween is a deeply unserious holiday, and that’s why I love it! With Halloween, I can pop an edible, sip on some bourbon, and mainline horror movies with the homies while we hand out candy to kiddos. 

Living in a purple state makes Halloween feel a little more special these days too. It’s so easy to feel like everyone is super polarized and spiteful against each other given the heightened rhetoric that’s become commonplace. I don’t think it’s an extreme generalization to say that the loss of third spaces, our increasingly polarized politics, and a fractured cultural landscape have made us far less neighborly. 

Come election season, my neighborhood is a fairly mixed blend of campaign yard signs. Despite our pronounced ideological differences, it’s nice to see the whole neighborhood come together for the kiddos. While Christmas and Thanksgiving are holidays that are mainly spent with families, Halloween is one of the few holidays that can bring an entire community together.

Spooky season allows me to enjoy the gross, grimy, and darker aspects of humanity, while also celebrating a spirit of community. So grab those pumpkin spice lattes, pop on your favorite horror movie, and have a bowl of candy ready for those trick-or-treaters. It’s the most wonderful time of year, y’all! I’m gonna need y’all to start acting like it. 

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