Gore.
Blood and guts.
To most, these are synonymous with Halloween.
There was once a time I attempted to recreate realistic gory creations. They told me to come to work in costume back when I worked at Burger King. Laughed, and put me at the register when I showed up, then asked me to go remove the bullet hole from the middle of my forehead after the third complaint from costumers saying the sight of it made them sick.
And they love to put me in charge of makeup on mock disasters at work, just to give folks something to be squeamish about.
Maybe it was witnessing one too many amputation in the heavy machinery while being a first responder at a former job. Maybe it was saving a guy who tried to blow off his leg when booze, firearms, and homemade fireworks mixed one 4th of July season in the field across from our old home.
For whatever reason, as I sat down to figure what we were doing for Halloween, gore ceased having a place in it some time ago. I’ve never quite understood why some people think gore is ‘scary’ to begin with. Besides, none of the makeup stuff, or even movies, ever gets what’s bothersome down right anyway: the smell.
I’ve never really done much in the gore department at this house. I’ve always preferred the Edgar Allen Poe method of leaving the impressions and allowing people to come up with their own details.
So, I happened to be talking to some local kids the other day. Showing a bit of how the new mask is coming along, and describing some of the new things we’re working on.
And, they went off on how I could add all this blood and stuff to here or there because it would make it so cool, ‘like last year’.
Confused a bit, I commented how I don’t do blood or gore.
I was greeted by some confused looks, some quiet discussions, and then a bewildered remark.
“You really don’t, do you? I never noticed.”
Which, in the end, I suppose, is the entire point.