Hollow-teen

The falling of leaves evokes memories of warmth, apple cider, pumpkin carving and pumpkin pie, corn mazes, and pranks. Halloween brings the excitement of making creative, inspiring, or scary costumes, haunted houses, and a celebration of death. For as much joy as Halloween brings me, it leaves me feeling let down at the end of October - mainly because as soon as it becomes November 1st, I know I've missed my opportunity to embark on an epic coming-of-age supernatural adventure, on which I would have learned what I must do to change the world for the better and become an independent person.

I'm not totally sure why Halloween brings about this feeling of half-excitement and half-nostalgia for a crazy adventure that will never happen. Perhaps it's because the adventures of so many teenagers have been chronicled during Halloween. Adventures like those in ET, Donnie Darko, Super 8, and Stranger Things (which isn't a movie at all, but it has the right sentiment) happen on or near Halloween. All of these movies also feature teenagers who get involved in kind of supernatural entanglement and must drop everything to solve a mystery by themselves, with little to no adult help, for the greater good. In the case of ET, a kid hides his alien friend from everyone around him in order to protect him. Donnie Darko, which is much less of a feel-good movie, follows Donnie after he is visited by a giant bunny named Frank who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days (on Halloween) unless he can stop it. In all these movies, the kids have to learn to make sacrifices in order to make the world right again.

Although that troupe is not unique to Halloween-teen movies, I think Halloween is the most fitting holiday for such an adventure. Halloween is all about acknowledging our fears, specifically of death, and making light of them. At least that's how I interpret it and use it. I love screaming through horror movies and haunted houses because, ironically, it makes me feel alive. Everyone feels a sense of pride and accomplishment after "making it out of" a haunted house in one piece. Another big component of Halloween is dressing up as someone who means something to you. In the past, I've gone as Napoleon Dynamite, Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill (not going to spoil her name), and the Red Guy from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. These three people are heroes to me in their own respects, and I loved being able to be them for a day, to try on their personalities and see how they had become part of me.

The themes of conquering our fears and becoming another version of ourselves are present in so many of these coming-of-age stories. An adventure is thrust onto a group of kids, who aren't ready for it at first. Then, they realize that they have to become other people, their new selves, in order to conquer their fears and solve a problem for everyone's benefit. For me, that's exactly what Halloween is - except I never solve any problems. 

And so, every year when the leaves start to fall, I can't help but pine for my own escapade. Obviously, I need to get over this longing for a dangerous pursuit for my own physical and emotional health. I can't go around sobbing about how I'll never have to decode a serial killer's clues, or raise an alien, or discover the dark secrets of ghost encounters. Unlike the rebellious, resourceful teenagers of 80s movies, I'll never be in the unfortunate circumstance of having adults around me shrug off my well-being or the problems of the world. I won't be left out of sight long enough to get involved in a murder or a demon chase. This is a good thing.

However, it also means my Halloween season will not be spent becoming an adult or wronging a right with other teenagers dedicated to justice. Of course, going on an adventure is not the only way to do these things. But I don't think it matters - these movies have set a precedent that when the leaves start falling, the ghouls start crawling. I have never seen a movie set around Halloween focused on a bike riding, slingshot-weilding group of teens dedicated to sitting around and talking about Climate Change. I would love to sit around and talk about Climate Change, and helping that cause would fulfill my need to change the world, but unfortunately, it wouldn't fit the bill of an adventure. I want some action, some exploration, and some fear without the risk of death. The closest thing I'll get to that on Halloween is a history test.