Halloween Compromising

Halloween is a holiday for compromise in our relationship.

Josh loves Halloween and if he had his way we would spend every weekend in a haunted house. I on the other hand, hate being scared. The thought of being in a place where people purposely embrace your deepest fears is not my idea of a good time. So over the years we have developed a compromise that allows him to get scared, and I feel safe.

Every year Josh and I have a scary movie night on Halloween. We invite friends over, I cook food, and Josh selects a couple flicks that are guaranteed to make me scream. The week leading up to our movie night, Josh researches scary movies and comes up with a few he thinks would be good. Then he shares his ideas with me, and I check them for the appropriate criteria. (Like I said, I hate being scared, so I get to have a say in what movies are shown).

When it comes to scary movies, I do not like anything to do with the devil. I do not believe in giving him screen time and inviting him into our home in film form. So if the titles Josh selects have anything to do with the devil or an exorcism or other satanic stuff, it is automatically out. The other criteria I have, that is a lot harder to find prior to watching the movie, is anything relating to forced sexual acts. Unfortunately, it’s hard to know if that will happen at any point in a movie before watching it. Thankfully, in our years of doing this event we have only had 1 movie with that make it to the final showing.

This past weekend we had friends over and watched The Purge and It Follows. They both got us girls to scream a few times.

As much as I hate being scared, I am glad Josh and I found this compromise. He is able to enjoy the scary part of Halloween and I get to dabble in it while hanging out with our friends. Plus living in Madison, we got to go out to see everyone dressed up which is always fun!