Halloween Scary Story Special

Complicated Halloween costumes have never been my style—black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a devil’s ear headband are about par for my course. But luckily, creative get-ups are not the only way to shine on All Hallows Eve. After all, no Halloween party is complete without a good, old-fashioned, scary story.

The key to a successful scary story is to correctly size up your audience—obviously, what works great for an eleven-year old will be way too terrifying for a five-year old and there is nothing worse than genuinely terrifying a little tyke.

For little kids, the trick to a creepy-but-not-too-creepy tale is to give them a real scare at the very beginning of the story so there is plenty of time left for resolution. For example, the family who all lost their heads to a marauding ogre would turn out to be a Halloween spoof or the thumping noise in the attic can turn out to be a trapped kitten, not great grandfather’s angry ghost.

With older, braver children you can let the suspense build as the story unfolds and leave them with a scarier, unresolved ending (the headless horseman is still out there, etc.). But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you need oodles of violence to make your story scary enough. Many of the most terrifying tales are blood-curdling without being particularly bloody—think Alfred Hitchcock, not Jason and Freddy.

Or if you really want to dial into the master scary tale teller, check out the Japanese ghost stories and fairy tales of Lafcadio Hearn (see. http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/japan/hearn.html, for some examples).

When in doubt, fall back on classic Halloween ploys like soul-stealing zombies, rampaging witches, and creatures that crawl out of the slime. Happy spooking!