The beauty of Halloween is its duality: it has traditions, but it’s also the only holiday that encourages novelty.
SeaWorld Orlando’s Just One More Chapter is an ode to BookTok. Set in a gothic garden, it’s populated by masked, shirtless men drawn from dark romance archetypes. And it’s taken the internet by storm. The most-liked comment on one reel, at 17K+ likes, is “This is corny af.” A scare actor’s objection that the concept invites harassment of performers drew 1,651. And SeaWorld’s reel is full of readers “giggling and kicking my feet” and telling friends they’ll have to be dragged out of the zone. And, of course, the spray-painted abs.
Back in June, I wrote that our job is to entertain people, and that how they want to be entertained might be changing. Are those guests scared? No. Are they entertained? Clearly, whatever you think of the zone. It’s the same tension as Fortnitemares at Universal Orlando, which is equally polarizing for the same reason: to bring in bigger audiences, events must get more general, and that moves the event away from ‘traditional’ scares.
As trend data shows, Halloween in the US is a tradition (complete with pumpkin-spice-steeped rituals), but it’s still the one holiday where people get to be creative, express themselves, and experiment. Christmas is family and tradition, but Halloween is friends and expression.
This duality of Halloween is everywhere, including in this fall’s retail news. I went to multiple Starbucks in a (naive) attempt at snagging something from the new Peanuts collection, but it was sold out at both. The collection sold out at many stores nationwide within hours. Brach’s is selling a candy corn perfume. I spent the weekend at Creep It Real OC, Orange County’s largest Halloween festival, where this year’s theme celebrated Halloween tradition with “Vintage Hometown Halloween.” This year’s vintage theme ran throughout the event, with 4 custom vintage characters, decor, and music, and it sold out. Meanwhile, Spirit is selling Italian brainrot meme costumes, A24 Backrooms hazmat suits, and a Pennywise animatronic that’s already sold out online. Nikki from Obsession is being chased around Universal Studios Hollywood.
No other holiday has this duality, and it means there’s no wrong way to do a Halloween event as long as you’re focused on entertaining your guests. Traditional or experimental, the audience is there for both. The only mistake is not knowing which one you’re building.
