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October 3, 2024

31 Days of Halloween: October 3

Good morning, ghosts and gremlins,

With the approach of October comes “Code Orange”, the social media term for the appearance of Halloween decorations in stores. One thing that always makes me laugh about decor these days is the variety of bizarre and improbable animal “skeletons”.

Mostly these skeletons are “normal”—in that they’re just meant to be skeleton versions of regular animals, like cats, dogs, cows, pigs, snakes, reptiles, and fish.

A cow skeleton with big "eyes" (eye holes)
Hey, it’s kinda cute…

A spooky plastic fish skeleton
When you open Davy Jones's locker, this is what you find

But if you dig into them (heh heh 🦴), things start to get a little…interpretive.

I understand why some of these skeletons have non-anatomical additions, of course — a cat skeleton wouldn’t “read” as a cat without the little pointy ears, so that’s fair enough.

But pretty quickly, you start to get into some very strange stuff. This cricket, which is meant as a terrarium decoration, should actually be an exoskeleton (and also not be 9” long).

A terrarium decoration, it's a grasshopper
Just imagine the music this thing makes…

It may go against nature, but it does succeed in being creepy!

But how do you explain something like this?

An interpretation of an octopus in bone form. The octopus's head is a ribcate and its limbs are spines
The octopus, famously boneless, now with eight spines and a ribcage for a head

Or…this?

A butterfly skeleton, its wings are all made of bones and it's pretty creepy
This raises more questions than it answers

My favorite by far, though, is this one:

A plastic pumpkin formed from bones
A pumpkin skeleton. Because: Halloween!

10/10, perfect, no notes.

🎃

An illustration of a spooky ghost hanging out in a doorway
Art by Broci

These people took an outdated cabin in California and turned it into a cute yet horror-themed Airbnb.

A cabin interior with wood paneling
An old bathroom that's been made over to look like the bathroom in The Shining

I think they did an amazing job — it seems like somewhere you might actually want to stay, and they’ve also avoided making it feel like the inside of a Spirit Halloween. Click through and check out the bathroom for a very fun detail. (Thank you Michael!)

A black and white sketch of a contemplative-looking Frankenstein, shot through with large lightning bolts
“Another Monster” by Jeff Kristian

Off to the pumpkin patch,

Laura

Laura E. Hall

@lauraehall

lauraehall.com

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