Halloween Roundup! From Fun Facts to Favorite Flicks

This Halloween, we thought it would be fun to put together a Halloween roundup of random facts and not-so-random favorites. From the history of haunted Victorian mansions to Halloween cinema favorites, this roundup is intended to inform, delight, and give you a fright. We hope you enjoy our picks for the holiday of tricks. And we promise not to rhyme for the remainder of this blog.

The most jaw-dropping fact from this article was that “nearly 1.5 billion tickets to horror movies were sold last year alone,” and that was in 2015! And according to the New York Times, the box office’s biggest year in horror history was just two years later. By the end of October 2017, scary movies had grossed $733 million in ticket sales. That’s insane! Well, not Psycho insane, but insane as Einstein supposedly defined it: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

If you’ve seen a fair number of horror flicks, you’ll understand what we mean by that. Except for a few horror classics, most scary movies are bad, really, really bad. So why do people keep buying tickets expecting horror films to be good? In a word, we love to be scared. Why? This JSTOR article explains some of the science behind why we keep going back to the theater for more thrills.

While the current version of celebrating Halloween didn’t become popular until the 1930s in the U.S., the tradition is rooted in the ancient Samhain (Celtic) harvest festival. Sure, you may already know that this end-of-summer festival was held on the night before the winter harvest and the belief that the dead returned on this night to play tricks on the living. But do you know about the other traditions that influenced the Halloween we know today, such as the Roman Feralia (day to honor the dead)? That’s why “The History Of Halloween Plus 5 Things You Didn’t Know About The Holiday!” makes the list at #3 on our Halloween roundup.

Have you ever wondered why old Victorian Mansions became the iconic haunted house? We’ll give you a hint: It has to do with the end of WWI and moving on from a dark past. But we don’t want to give it all away. Read “How Victorian Mansions Became the Default Haunted House” to get the full scoop. Meanwhile, Victorian homes continue to carry the torch when it comes to creepy houses.

We couldn’t complete this Halloween roundup without a short list of classic tales of terror. While there are so many scary stories to choose from, we found the article, “Spooky Tales of Halloween,” to have the most diverse collection. From the legend of Bloody Mary to a tickling ghost, you’re sure to find a yarn to spin at your next Halloween gathering.

Everyone here at CallFinder wishes you a safe and happy Halloween 2018!