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Most of us probably have pretty happy memories of Halloween. I mean, except for the freezing weather and the having to walk a long way in uncomfortable costumes and our parents stealing our best candy…what’s not to love?
I jest. Mostly.
If you think any of those things were hardships, these 15 people’s actual horror stories will probably go a long way toward changing your mind.
15. So much for love.
I was going out with a girl back in high school whose birthday fell on Halloween. Her brothers absolutely hated my guts for no reason whatsoever. I wasn’t a troublemaker, didn’t do things I wasn’t supposed to, and tried really hard to get on good terms with them.
Anyway, she threw a birthday party for herself at her older brother’s basement. I showed up with a couple friends and while the party was pretty lame, I was there for her.
When I went to give her the gift I had wrapped, her older brother grabs me by the collar and shoves me outside on the concrete steps. I asked him what his problem was, he told me to get the hell out of his house, his sister tries to get him to stop and tells me it’s okay to go back inside the house. Her other brothers then showed up shortly after and… well, I got my ass handed to me.
I ended up just leaving the party with a black eye and a bruised up face. I lied to my parents that I picked a fight with someone and lost. We broke up shortly after.
14. That’ll kill it, for sure.
Halloween 2014, my dad died. He had cancer and I had a flight out November first to say goodbye. Got a call early on Halloween morning telling me to get on a plane, ASAP.
during my layover I got the call he had passed. Holiday still kinda sucks for me.
13. That one true friend, though.
Got made fun of and bullied for wearing a full costume when I was 13. Cried and wanted to go home by like 5pm.
There was one true friend who waited with me at a park until my parents came to pick me up…
12. An actual nightmare.
When I was around 8 or 9 I went over to my friends house to fool around a few hours before a Halloween party, which we would be going together. In the backyard, his sister came up to me and asked where their dog was. They had a black chow-chow who was fairly docile, was around 4 years old and bigger then me. I showed her to the dog and he was chewing on a bone.
Of course, back then I made a huge mistake but, I pointed to the dog and in a split second, he went from chewing on the bone to chewing on my arm. I tried to run but he had a vise grip on my arm but eventually he let go. At the time my friends parents weren’t home either (lol) so his sister called 911 and they ran inside and left me outside in the backyard with the dog circling and growling at me. The maid came running outside and threw a chair at the dog which made him back off.
Also while I was out there, I felt strange. There was no pain and there was a ton of adrenaline in my system but I sort of felt at ease? I also started to reflect on what just happened. There was a lot of white stuff which looked like whipped cream (tissue) oozing from my wounds a long with a ton of blood. Blood was everywhere. Stained the concrete and grass. Everyone was crying too. Paramedics arrived and really everything up until the ER was a blur.
I had 6 cuts, 3 cuts on the inside and 3 on the outside of my forearm. 4 stitches for 2 cuts and 1 for 1 and vice versa. And 10 more stitches for the inside of my arm (muscles and whatnot) 20 or so stitches total. The doc said I was lucky to still have my arm as the dogs mouth was just the right size that it missed several vital veins and arteries. It was very traumatic but thankfully it did not ruin our relationship and funnily enough, I was back at his house after a few weeks, petting the dog again (with a lot more caution).
I think it’s safe to say, we did not go to the party later that night.
11. I bet their parents were thrilled.
Skinned my leg on someone’s driveway and covered it with blood, then waited a few hours for a ride to come that didn’t come when it was also cold and a police officer brought us home
10. I hate that man.
I was 12 and a man yelled at me and told me I was too old to be out trick-or-treating. I felt so bad I gave all my candy to my little brother and just walked with him for next hour or so. When I got home my mom asked me why I didn’t have any candy so I told her what happened.
She asked me who said that to me and I told her which house. I don’t know if she ever did anything about it. But since I’ve become an adult and bought my own home, I don’t care if your 90 years old. You’re getting candy. Halloween is for everyone.
9. Bad assocations.
My dad got fired on Halloween once out of nowhere when I was 10. No explanation or anything, so we had to move the next week for him to try to find a new job.
Also, I got sick a couple halloweens.
8. Pure chaos.
Getting tear-gassed on Polk St. in San Francisco. Mid-1970’s, evening, everyone is milling around in crazy Halloween costumes.
Lots of fun, very chill, until some a$$hole chucks a teargas cannister into the crowd. Pure chaos ensued, and my throat was sore for 24 hours.
7. This is horribly sad.
My mom picking me up so drunk another parent give us a ride home. Everyone knew from that point on my mom was a drunk. I was in 4th grade .
She died when I was 21 from liver failure.
6. A whole story.
When I was a child I had a Barney-ish costume (it was a homemade hand-me-down dinosaur that was the right color palette to be Barney). The main costume was the body, and there was a headpiece of the dino head that went on top of my head.
When I looked in the mirror, with the dino head, it’s friendly felt teeth, and then my face below that, all I could see was that it looked like Barney was eating me alive. And I was not having it. I threw a tantrum and refused to wear the head.
So if you lived in Pennsylvania in the late nineties, and had a half-girl-half-knockoff-Barney show up at your door, now you know why.
5. Minimal damage.
Not on Halloween, or not my story, however you want to look at it, but:
Some years ago I was at the elementary school that my children were attending -a few days after Halloween, (dropping the kids or a forgotten instrument or lunch who knows) Anyway there was another mom in the office and Her daughter was a kindergartener who was just returning to school after an absence because of a trick or treating injury
Pause here for all the moms, kid is physically fine if emotionally scarred for life.
She tripped while running across a yard in the dark, like you do, and face planted into a tiny cute cemetery decoration that had a tiny pointy plastic fence around it. The fence went INTO HER EYE and got stuck! Ok, so not into the eyeball, but shimmied it’s way between her eyeball and eyelid and ffs you can’t pull it out!! You’d scratch her eye!! So they had to transport the poor screaming tiny person to the ER with a fence sticking out of her face.
They got it out with miraculously minimal damage, she had to wear an eye patch for a few days, but as of our last encounter, the child hates all things Halloween.
4. A totally different meaning.
Brother died 2 years ago …he had battled cancer for awhile.
The Great Pumpkin took him home.
3. Middle school, man.
It’s a tie, but for very different reasons.
The first was in middle school (age 11 or 12) while trick or treating with friends. Some jerks threw eggs at us out a car window, hitting one friend and splattering raw egg on at least one other, and while we were recovering from that some older/bigger kid stole another friends bag (pillow case) of candy. It was not very fun.
The other worst Halloween was with my abusive ex. He was invited to a costume party by work friends and told everyone went all out for it. So he decided that we would go as a “fairy pimp” and “fairy hoe,” basically a pimp and whore with wings.
He decided that i had to dress super slutty, getting me clothing from a sex shop for me and some cheap premade pimp outfit for him. My costume cost over $100 and we did not have that type of money to spend. We go to the party, him looking like s*%t and me looking like a literal street walker, something i’ve never been comfortable with and he knew that.
I was over dressed as f**k (technically underdressed, as i was basically in panties and a bra), meeting these people for the first time, in October in WI, USA. It was cold, embarrassing, and a waste of money.
I had a bad night, felt completely objectified – in a bad way -but my ex loved having the ”sexiest” girl at the party at his side, even though he largely ignored me (unless i started talking to someone other than him.. that was interrupted right quick as he had to be my not just my main focus, but my only focus).
I was 24ish around this time and it took over a decade – and ditching the less-useful-than-an-a$$hole of a bf – for me to enjoy costumes again.
2. Not a great memory.
My mom’s funeral happened to fall on Halloween.
1. Some friends.
Same. I was 12 and it was gonna be my first ever trick or treat because I was very shy, but somehow that year I mustered up the courage to ask my ‘friends’ if I could go with them. They said yes, and I was excited. Bought a costume, candy bucket, etc. When Halloween night came, I went to the meeting spot and stood there… waited in the cold for an hour. Turns out, they never even intended to go with me.
Never tried it again.
I’m sure a psychologist would have a field day on the effects this had on my ability to trust other people.
See what I mean? Be thankful for your petty Halloween gripes, my friends.
Did you ever have a really, really bad Halloween? If you think your story belongs on this list, share it with us in the comments!
