On a recent Sunday evening, Melanie Parker took her 2-year-old to the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn to see a house in the area known for its elaborate Halloween displays. “He loves classic Halloween imagery — pumpkins, witches, ghosts, spiders and skeletons,” Ms. Parker, 38, a full-time caregiver who lives with her partner in Crown Heights, said of her son.
Adorning the home, though, was “a ton of blood” as well as “dismembered bodies, like a child’s head,” she said. “They were all moving and speaking and gesturing and making noises.” The decorations were illuminated in a way that made many of the figures — and wounds — appear more lifelike, she added.
Since then, her son “keeps talking about the guy who broke his head and the people who were hurt. Our kid was both riveted and disturbed.”
Being a little spooked is part of the delight of Halloween. But lately, some say genuine jump scares are abundant — on stoops and front lawns, looming in doorways and hanging from rafters — as household decorations seem to have become more gory, more violent and unsettlingly realistic.
It has caused neighbors to lodge complaints, and others to wonder about the twisted impulses that may be lurking in the collective American psyche.
“It bothers me because I think it says something about the character of our culture,” said Regina Musicaro, a licensed clinical psychologist who practices in New York City and specializes in trauma. “It feels what is being prioritized is being the most outrageous, and I think we need some self-imposed restraints on what we put out there because it reflects our thoughtfulness.”
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Adorning the home, though, was “a ton of blood” as well as “dismembered bodies, like a child’s head,” she said. “They were all moving and speaking and gesturing and making noises.” The decorations were illuminated in a way that made many of the figures — and wounds — appear more lifelike, she added.
Since then, her son “keeps talking about the guy who broke his head and the people who were hurt. Our kid was both riveted and disturbed.”
Being a little spooked is part of the delight of Halloween. But lately, some say genuine jump scares are abundant — on stoops and front lawns, looming in doorways and hanging from rafters — as household decorations seem to have become more gory, more violent and unsettlingly realistic.
It has caused neighbors to lodge complaints, and others to wonder about the twisted impulses that may be lurking in the collective American psyche.
“It bothers me because I think it says something about the character of our culture,” said Regina Musicaro, a licensed clinical psychologist who practices in New York City and specializes in trauma. “It feels what is being prioritized is being the most outrageous, and I think we need some self-imposed restraints on what we put out there because it reflects our thoughtfulness.”
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