It’s official: kids are ditching the sidewalks for the asphalt.
The newest Halloween craze isn’t trick-or-treating… it’s trunk-or-treating. Because nothing says spooky season like begging strangers for candy in a parking lot.
A TikTok went viral where some guy explained that he was horrified to learn his cousin didn’t want to go old-school trick-or-treating this year… and instead, they’re hyped for trunk-or-treating. Apparently, knocking on doors just doesn’t hit as hard as “Halloween tailgating.”
If you’re out of the loop, trunk-or-treating isn’t new. It started in the ‘90s but has blown up post-Covid as a “safer” and more convenient alternative. Instead of walking miles for mini Snickers, kids wander around a parking lot where adults hand out candy from decked-out car trunks. Think less “neighborhood stroll,” more “haunted Costco experience.”
It’s easy to see the appeal: parents like the controlled environment, and kids get a concentrated sugar haul with elaborate car setups that make Pinterest jealous. It’s like Halloween, but with Bluetooth speakers and folding chairs.
Of course, whether trunk-or-treating replaces the classic door-to-door tradition depends on where you live. Some suburban neighborhoods still go all out with fog machines and full-size candy bars. But in big cities or rural areas, the parking lot party just makes more sense.
And let’s be honest… the smartest kids are doing both. Hit the neighborhood and the lot, double the sugar, double the cavities.
Forget skeletons in your closet – some people have full-blown ghosts roaming the hallways.
A Halloween poll from Realtor.com found one in eight Americans claim they’ve lived somewhere that was haunted. Like, signed a lease and everything.
Even most people who haven’t had an encounter aren’t totally ruling out the supernatural. A whopping 86% said hauntings are at least plausible. Only 14% gave a hard “nope” to ghost talk. The rest are leaving the door open – and hoping it doesn’t slam shut on its own.
So what exactly screams “haunted house” to people who’ve experienced it firsthand? Here are the most common spooky encounters people reported.
Unexplained noises
67% of people who’ve lived somewhere haunted reported this one. Think footsteps when no one’s home, mysterious thuds, or music that starts playing when your speakers are off. 51% said they heard “disembodied voices” as well.
Ghostly visuals
61% said they saw a shadowy figure or something they absolutely couldn’t explain. So, some sort of spirit… or they took a second Ambien by mistake.
Objects moving on their own
58% reported objects moving around on their own, like sliding across a surface or magically appearing in places they didn’t belong. Cue dramatic stare at that glass of water sitting on a table across the room.
Phantom pokes
Half of haunted home veterans say they’ve felt touched when no one was around. Pretty risky behavior in a post Me Too world, even for a ghost.
Light shows
48% said their lights flickered or appliances powered on and off randomly. Either it’s a spirit or your wiring hasn’t been updated since the Nixon administration.
Most celebrities prefer to quietly update their looks and hope nobody notices. Jennifer Lawrence? Not so much.
In a new interview with The New Yorker, the Oscar-winning star got brutally honest about her body after having two kids, admitting she’s planning a little repair work in the breast department.
“Everything bounced back, pretty much, after the first one,” she said. “Second one, nothing bounced back.”
Lawrence didn’t shy away from the details, saying she’s not trying to drastically change her appearance—just restore what motherhood, as she put it, “took away.”
The Hunger Games actress also revealed she gets Botox, but she has to be strategic about it, because she needs her forehead to move when she acts.
It’s a refreshingly candid take in a world where Hollywood stars usually deny, deflect, or blame “great lighting” for visible changes. Lawrence’s willingness to be open about cosmetic work fits perfectly with the personality that made her famous early on: unfiltered, funny, and sometimes too real for her own good.
She also acknowledged that her no-filter approach has rubbed some people the wrong way over the years. “Well, it is, or it was, my genuine personality,” she explained. “But it was also a defense mechanism.”
The honesty is vintage J-Law—mixing humor and humility in a way that feels more relatable than Hollywood-polished.
In an era where stars carefully curate their image down to every selfie and soundbite, her openness feels like a breath of fresh air.
And while fans might debate her decision to tweak a few things, one thing’s for sure: Jennifer Lawrence is still as unapologetically herself as ever, just with a little extra help from modern medicine.
If you’re someone who can’t sleep without a nightlight, the TV glowing in the background, or your bathroom light peeking under the door, you might want to sit down. Preferably in total darkness.
A new study out of the U.K. just dropped a shocking bedtime bombshell: sleeping with even a little light on might seriously mess with your heart. Like, heart attack level mess.
Researchers strapped wrist sensors to 90,000 adults and tracked how much light was in their bedrooms at night. The average age of the participants? 62. So, no need to yank the nightlight out of your kid’s wall socket just yet – this study focused on the 40+ crowd.
Bright bedrooms increase your heart attack risk by 47%
People who slept in total darkness were the least likely to have heart issues. But folks with bright bedrooms (we’re talking overhead lights, TVs blasting, glowing electronics) had a 47% higher risk of heart attacks.
Yes, even nightlights had a deadly effect
Even those in “moderately lit” rooms – like with a nightlight or that TV you “accidentally” fall asleep to – had a 20% higher risk. So yeah, turns out your cozy little bedtime setup might be sabotaging your arteries.
What counts as “moderate light”? Think soft nightlights, your phone screen lighting up every time someone likes your cat photo, or the bluish glow of a paused Netflix screen. Apparently, your body isn’t chill about any of it.
Why is light at night so bad for you?
Previous studies have found that light messes with your circadian rhythm, reduces melatonin, and keeps your nervous system a little too alert for comfort. Your heart’s like, “Can I please get some peace and quiet in here?”
So if your bedroom looks like a low-budget spaceship at night, it might be time for a glow-down. Maybe consider some blackout curtains, cover your electronics, or at least set that sleep timer on your TV.
Whatever you do, don’t worry so much about that monster under the bed. Your nightlight might be the true villain. Sweet dreams!
If a zombie apocalypse ever hits, New Jersey might want to start packing for Alaska…
Because according to a new “scientific” study, Jersey would be the worst place in America to try to survive an undead uprising.
Some so-called “experts” ranked every state’s zombie preparedness using six factors, including population density, hospitals, airports, water access, and how many hunting stores and military bases they’ve got.
The result? A readiness score out of 10 that says a lot about who’s going to make it past Episode One.
New Jersey came in dead last with a score of 1.66. Turns out, cramming 1,308 people into every square mile isn’t ideal when you’re trying to avoid a contagious bite.
The state also barely registers when it comes to survival infrastructure, with fewer than one hospital, one airport, and two hunting stores per 100,000 people. Translation: you’re not escaping, you’re not fighting back, and you’re definitely not getting a hospital bed.
Connecticut was runner-up for “fastest to fall” at 2.15, while Massachusetts and Pennsylvania tied for third-worst (2.57). Rounding out the doomed top five were California and New York, both packed with people but light on resources. (Though, as one report kindly noted, New York does have a “decent amount of water”… so if zombies can’t swim, Staten Island’s got a shot.)
On the opposite end of the apocalypse, Alaska absolutely crushed it.
The Last Frontier scored 7.89 out of 10, thanks to its massive open spaces (only one person per square mile) and more airports than moose (78.5 per 100,000 people). It also leads in freshwater access and military presence, making it the ultimate safe zone if you can handle the cold and occasional bear.
Maine took second place (5.31), mostly because it’s basically one giant Cabela’s, with nearly 70 hunting and fishing stores per 100,000 people. Rounding out the top survivors were South Dakota, Montana, and North Dakota… a.k.a. the “less-populated, more-armed” part of America.
Does your area have what it takes to “hold the line” during a zombie apocalypse? Yeah, mine neither.
Every year, the same debate comes creeping back like a haunted house fog machine: Should we move Halloween to a weekend?
Luckily this year it’s on a Friday, so no one is complaining. But with October 31st falling on a random weekday most years, parents and candy-loving kids have long wished the holiday could just live on the final Saturday of October. But despite a Change.org petition that’s racked up over 150,000 signatures, the government still isn’t budging.
So now, there’s a new plan on the table: Instead of trying to shift Halloween itself, why not create an entirely new holiday just for trick-or-treating?
Introducing National Trick or Treat Day.
Yep, it’s official-ish. The folks behind the Halloween petition are pivoting their energy into starting a new holiday that would always land on the last Saturday in October. That way, families could enjoy trick-or-treating on a weekend without disrupting the traditional October 31st Halloween date. And honestly, it’s a pretty clever workaround.
The idea already has a spot on the National Day Calendar website, which tracks all the unofficial holidays we never knew we needed (looking at you, National Taco Day). But whether National Trick or Treat Day actually catches on remains to be seen. It could become a fun bonus night of candy and costumes… or fade into obscurity by Thanksgiving.
The original push to move Halloween came from safety and sanity concerns.
Supporters argue that Saturday celebrations are safer for kids, more convenient for working parents, and less of a nightmare for teachers dealing with sugar-zonked students on November 1st. Critics, of course, say Halloween is Halloween, and you can’t just reschedule spooky season like it’s a dentist appointment.
So will National Trick or Treat Day stick? Time will tell. But if you love candy, costumes, and avoiding weeknight chaos, don’t be surprised if this “bonus” Halloween becomes a thing.
The movies have given us some ridiculous monsters.
Who knows what these filmmakers were thinking. Maybe they dreamed bigger than their budget should have let them. Or maybe the mushrooms hit a little too hard. Whatever the case, here are 10 of the most ridiculous movie monsters in history.
Killer Bunny Rabbits: “Night of the Lepus” (1972)
Three years before “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” did it as a joke, this movie made rabbits into killing machines . . . and asked us to take it seriously. But did I mention they’re GIANT rabbits, made massive by hormone experiments intended to make them stop breeding?
Did I also mention that DeForest Kelley . . . Dr. McCoy from “Star Trek” . . . and Janet Leigh from “Psycho” are in it?
Vampire Turkey Man: “Blood Freak” (1972)
When Something Weird Video rescued “Blood Freak” from obscurity years ago, they promoted it as “The World’s Only Turkey-Monster Anti-Drug Pro-Jesus Gore Film.” And unless another one’s come along since, this statement is completely accurate.
Herschell is a Vietnam Veteran who becomes a turkey from the neck up thanks to a combination of bad weed and tainted poultry. He’s also a vampire, who must feed on the blood of other addicts. I mean, you try taking a hit off a joint with a turkey beak!
This is a terrible, terrible movie, and if that’s your bag, it’s a must-see.
Bad Movie Bonus: Co-director Brad F. Ginter appears intermittently as a narrator, warning us of the dangers of drugs and chemically altered food . . . while smoking a cigarette that at one point sends him into a coughing fit. I guess the budget didn’t allow for second takes.
The Were-Cicada: “The Beast Within” (1982)
1981 was a landmark year for werewolves, thanks to the release of both “The Howling” and “An American Werewolf in London”. But 1982 belonged to the Were-Cicada. And I am not kidding.
17-year-old Michael MacCleary hasn’t been feeling so hot. Turns out he was conceived when his mother was raped by a strange creature in the woods off a rural Mississippi backroad. The assailant was a man who used Native American magic to turn himself into a cicada-like creature, then impregnated a woman so that his offspring would emerge 17 years later, as cicadas do, and exact revenge against his enemies.
“The Beast Within” is a darn good movie with one exception: The monster. Thanks to budget and technological limitations, it looks NOTHING like a cicada. Or any other insect for that matter. It actually looks kind of like E.T., if he pumped himself with steroids but didn’t lift.
In 1986, David Cronenberg would insectify the crap out of Jeff Goldblum in “The Fly”, so maybe they should have just waited a few years for the technology to catch up.
The Demon Bed: “Death Bed: The Bed that Eats” (1977)
This movie is so ridiculous, it’s kind of genius. Yes, it’s a bed that eats people, but it’s so much more. First of all, the bed doesn’t have a mouth, or teeth. People who lay on it just sink into it. You can even see its stomach acid as it dissolves the people and things it devours.
This flick is so cheaply made I think the director’s mother paid the cast and crew in grilled cheese sandwiches. But it’s a lot of fun, and it’s got some really interesting lore involving a demon crying tears of blood and a young artist watching everything from his prison behind a painting, which the bed long ago banished him to.
This one’s about as weird as they come, but I promise you’ll remember it.
The Space Herpe: “The Ice Pirates” (1984)
A criminally forgotten sci-fi comedy swashbuckler starring the late Robert Urich, Anjelica Houston, and Ron Perlman, “Ice Pirates” is a funny, exciting, and sure, sometimes politically incorrect romp. It was the ’80s, people.
In a universe where water is scarce and controlled by the evil Templars, Urich and his band of misfits cruise around the galaxy stealing giant blocks of ice from the Templars’ ships to make a living.
But one of their raids yields more than just frozen H20. After falling out of a crate they’ve pilfered, the fast-moving slug-like SPACE HERPE hatches from a pod and runs rampant through the ship. It’s eventually caught, but not before biting a crew member and ruining what looked like it was going to be a delicious turkey dinner.
Annoying Giant Teenagers: “Village of the Giants” (1965)
A precocious little kid called Genius invents a substance he dubs “Goo”, which makes animals grow to incredible size. Some annoying teenagers, including Beau Bridges in an early role, get their hands on it, ingest it, and become SUPER-annoying, 30-foot-tall teenagers who take over the whole town.
Ultimately, Genius . . . played by Ron Howard, I’ll have you know . . . develops an antidote. But delivering it to these post-pubescent monsters requires a distraction, which comes in the form of a seductive go-go dance by a normal-sized Toni Basil. Yes, THAT Toni Basil, 16 years before her “Hey Mickey” fame.
Perhaps you’ve seen the film’s most infamous image, of a guy hanging off a gigantic Amazon chick’s cleavage. They even used it on the poster.
Robert the Car Tire: “Rubber” (2010)
Nothing to see here, just a rubber tire that suddenly comes to life, stands up and starts rollin’ down the highway. Oh, it also has telekinetic powers, and can make people . . . and small animals . . . explode.
This one is intentionally absurd, and to paraphrase Quint from “Jaws”, it’s either very smart or very dumb. Online opinions vary widely. But “Rubber” lets you know what you’re getting into from the jump, thanks to a character breaking the fourth wall to tell us that film, just like life, is full of things that happen for no reason. And it just keeps getting weirder.
A Volkswagen Dressed Up as a Giant Spider: “The Giant Spider Invasion” (1975)
Sometimes a simple premise and a little gusto is all you need, and that describes “The Giant Spider Invasion” perfectly. Spiders from outer space crash land in a small town inside meteors, grow to enormous size, and start doing what movie monsters do.
This one occupies a sacred spot in the so-bad-it’s-good bin, largely thanks to the awful, low-budget spiders. One of the bigger ones is actually a Volkswagen Beetle in a spider costume!
Bonus: The sheriff is played by Alan Hale Jr., a.k.a. The Skipper on “Gilligan’s Island” . . . and early in the film, he calls another character “Little Buddy”.
The Vagina Dentata: “Teeth” (2007)
Every feminist’s dream, every man’s nightmare: The Vagina Dentata. If you’ve heard this term before, there’s a good chance it’s because of this movie. If you’ve never heard it, you can probably guess what it is just from the name, plus the title of the movie.
Dawn O’Keefe is a teenage spokesperson for a Christian abstinence group, and somehow, she keeps finding herself in the company of sexual predators who want to take advantage of her. She discovers her “gift” by accident, but by the end of the flick, she’s using it very deliberately . . . only on guys who deserve it, of course.
Hermaphrodite Gene Simmons: “Never Too Young to Die” (1986)
This film poses, but ultimately does not answer, an important question: Can one be a drag queen, or king for that matter, when one possesses both male and female sex organs?
If you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait, Gene Simmons isn’t a monster,” then you’ve never faced him in a trademark infringement case, or seen him chew the scenery in “Never Too Young to Die”. Here, Gene plays Velvet Von Ragnar, who’s the psychopathic leader of a gang he must have stolen from a “Mad Max” casting pool, a god-awful nightclub singer with unfettered access to Cher’s wardrobe, and an evil supervillain plotting to poison the water supply of a major U.S. city and hold it for ransom.
When he’s not busy trying to coax superstar gymnast-turned-spy Lance Stargrove, played by John Stamos’s hair, into bed, that is.
Has Gene, or his acting, ever been this horrific? Are we lucky that this film failed to launch John Stamos to action movie stardom? And did the Chinese-American actor who played Stamos’s nerdy friend who builds cool electronic gadgets ever apologize to the Asian community?
The answers to these questions are NOT in “Never Too Young to Die”. But Prince’s one-time muse Vanity is, and that alone is worth checking out.
Halloween is just around the corner, and that means it’s time for the annual grocery store dance: pretending you’re buying candy for the neighborhood kids when you’re actually just stocking your secret snack drawer. No judgment.
But this year, as people try to stretch their candy budget and indulge their own sweet tooth, one thing is clear: some treats are tanking hard. And by “some treats,” we mean the usual suspects that should’ve been canceled years ago.
Candy corn popularity is tanking
What’s not to love about that waxy, tri-colored triangle that tastes like regret and sadness? Consumer interest in candy corn is down 9.1% this year, and honestly, it’s shocking it still had 9.1% to lose. If you’re still handing this stuff out, you’re either trolling the neighborhood or cleaning out your grandma’s pantry.
No one wants licorice either
Licorice saw an even bigger nosedive, down 13.6%. (No offense to the four people who still willingly eat black licorice, but… are you okay?)
Other treats we’re giving a hard pass?
Also falling out of favor: marshmallow candies (down 9%) and caramel apples (down almost 7%). Turns out, people don’t want to eat something that immediately yanks out a filling.
The candies we do want to eat
Now for the good stuff – the candies that are rising from the shadows and into our reusable tote bags. Haribo gummies are up a whopping 48%, because chewy little bears are basically universal joy. Baby Ruth bars are having a moment too, up 42%. (Did someone’s grandpa get access to TikTok?)Hershey’s Kisses, up 37%. Apparently, we’re all in our “give me bite-sized chocolate and no one gets hurt” era.
“Parade“ magazine chalked some of that surge up to nostalgia. But are Baby Ruths and Hershey’s kisses really any more old-school than candy corn? Methinks kids today just know they have other options and don’t have to eat wax to get that sweet candy-induced dopamine hit.
So, ditch the licorice, forget the candy corn, and embrace the candy that actually sparks joy. It’s Halloween. Life’s too short for sad sweets.
Is there an expiration date on free candy? A new survey has sparked debate over one of Halloween’s most controversial questions: How old is too old to go trick-or-treating?
According to the poll, 12 years old is the most popular cutoff, with 12% of people saying that’s when kids should hang up their pillowcases. Coming in close behind are ages 13, 14, 15, and 16. A tiny but shockingly stern 5% think 10 is too old, which sounds like the kind of rule made by someone who also yells at clouds.
But here’s the twist: the most popular answer by far wasn’t an age at all.
A full 26% of people said there shouldn’t be an age limit for trick-or-treating at all. So if your 17-year-old cousin shows up in a killer costume, maybe don’t slam the door in his face.
Of course, enthusiasm tends to go down if the costume is just a hoodie and a muttered “I’m a serial killer, they look like everyone else.” Effort matters, people.
And while we’re on the subject of Halloween etiquette, the survey also asked what people plan to do when trick-or-treaters come knocking. Good news: 61% say they’ll be handing out candy like the Halloween heroes they are. Another 21% admit they’ll be pretending not to be home, and 10% say they’re still undecided (possibly waiting to see how many mini Snickers they can eat before the 31st). Then there’s the 2% of cold-hearted ghouls who say they’ll answer the door just to tell kids they’re not giving out candy. Bold move.
Whether you’re team “free candy for all ages” or firmly in the “12 and under only” camp, one thing’s for sure: Halloween continues to stir up strong opinions.
And if you’re a teenager hoping to keep the tradition alive, maybe just skip the hoodie and go all in on something spooky, funny, or clever.
After all, candy tastes better when it’s earned with a little effort.
Halloween is basically here, and that means it’s officially pumpkin carving season.
But before you grab that serrated knife and go full horror movie on your gourd, here’s a simple tip that could save your masterpiece from turning into a moldy mess: Stop cutting the stem off your pumpkin.
Sure, tradition tells us to carve a lid on the top, yank it off, scoop out the guts, and go from there. But according to pumpkin pros and a bit of science, that top-down method is actually the fastest way to ruin your jack-o’-lantern.
Here’s why: the stem is not just some random little nub on top. It was literally the pumpkin’s lifeline when it was growing.
It connected the pumpkin to the vine that fed it nutrients and water. So when you chop it off, you’re basically removing the cork from the wine bottle of rot. It opens your pumpkin up to air, moisture, and decay much faster.
Instead, cut a hole in the bottom or the back of the pumpkin. That way, the stem stays intact, acting like a natural seal. Your carved creation will last longer and attract fewer bugs. (Unless you’re trying to summon flies for some reason, in which case… you do you.)
This carving hack has actually been floating around the internet for a while, but it still seems to shock people every Halloween. Think of it like carving 2.0.
Not only does the bottom-entry method help preserve your pumpkin, it also makes it easier to place it over a LED light. You just lift the pumpkin and plop it down instead of awkwardly reaching in from the top.
So this year, skip the decapitation and try the butt cut. Your pumpkin will thank you by not collapsing into a sad, mushy puddle by Halloween night.
Happy carving! And remember: the stem is your friend, not your target.
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