Halloween is the time of changing seasons and beautiful scenery, the threat of scary movies and haunted houses, traditions of carving pumpkins and decorating outside your house, handing out candy to children and seeing their adorable costumes, and of dressing up.

Emma Reiter, a junior at Arrowhead High School, says, “My favorite part about Halloween is all the traditions my friends and I have. We love carving pumpkins and baking the seeds, watching scary movies like Scream, going to different Haunted Houses in the area each year and lastly dressing up in our new costumes is always fun. I think this year my friends and I are going to a costume party in Milwaukee.”

Some of the haunted houses in the area include: the Wisconsin Feargrounds in Waukesha, Mars Haunted House in Milwaukee, The Hills Have Eyes in Franklin, The Dark Side in Ixonia, Terror on Rural St in Hartford and the Haunted Woods in Palmyra.

Reiter says, “I’ve been to the Mars Haunted House and the Wisconsin Feargrounds before. Mars was pretty good but the Feargrounds was pretty lame. I’m looking forward to going to the The Hills Have Eyes on Friday night because I’ve heard really good things about it. ”

Another popular and festive thing to do around this time of the year is to attend the Harvest festival at The Elegant Farmer grounds. Visitors are able to pick apples, pumpkins and purchase homemade goods and desserts made by the staff. A hayride around the grounds is also included.

Jasmine Case, a senior at Arrowhead, says, “I went to Elegant Farmer the second weekend of October and I had a really great time. I picked a few small pumpkins and walked away with a huge bag of crispy apples. The apple cider I bought there was amazingly good also. I’d recommend going there with friends or family.”

According to http://www.imdb.com/list/ls000091321/, the top ten most popular Halloween movies include: Hocus Pocus, Halloween, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Trick R’ Treat, Beetlejuice, The Addams Family, Halloweentown, Casper, When Good Ghouls Go Bad, and Donnie Darko.

Reiter says, “Donnie Darko is one of the most thrilling and thought-provoking movies I’ve seen. It’s also pretty suspenseful and scary. Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown were classics from my childhood. However, my favorite scary movie will always be Psycho because it’s a cult classic and I love the storyline.”

Overall, whether it be handing out candy, attending costume parties, watching scary movies, or attending haunted houses – Halloween is a holiday to be enjoyed by many.

Case says, “Halloween is my favorite holiday. It’s always good to get a scare.”