Right now, I should be wandering the blood-soaked halls of a decrepit house. There should be a chainsaw-wielding clown waiting in the shadows. I should be struggling to see in the dark, about to suffer a mild panic attack when an air cannon shoots me in the face. Instead, I’m sitting on my couch alone, with no demented clowns in sight.

You see, I’m supposed to be at Universal Studios, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their iconic haunted theme park event, Halloween Horror Nights. Unfortunately, the event was called off in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. For Halloween fanatics like me, the weeks leading up to October 31 are the most wonderful time of the year. They’re normally packed with haunted attractions, shopping trips to stock up on candy and décor, party planning, and agonizing over what costume to wear. But there’s an extra chill in the air this fall and it happens to be a pandemic. 

It’s fair to say Covid-19 has spooked Halloween. Los Angeles already banned trick-or-treating while other municipalities debate whether to follow suit. Most of the country’s biggest Halloween events are canceled, including Halloween Horror Nights, Walt Disney World’s Oogie Boogie Bash, Knott’s Scary Farm, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, and the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival. Even the nation’s purveyor of culturally divisive marshmallow candies, Peeps, suspended production. For better or worse, that means no pumpkin-, ghost-, or Frankenstein-shaped marshmallows until 2021. 

Still, the $8.8 billion Halloween industry is nothing if not creative and resourceful. Even World War II didn’t stop Americans from trick-or-treating and putting on parades. While the holiday will certainly look different this year, it’s far from canceled. 

Peeps may be on hiatus, but other candy companies like Hershey are more optimistic. In the US, the brand launched a color-coded interactive map to track the Covid-19 risk level of every county and offer safe trick-or-treating suggestions. In Canada, they partnered with Snapchat to gamify trick-or-treating. The result, “Hershey’s Treat Quest,” will allow kids to hunt for candy at home using augmented reality.

“We are expecting upticks in respect to celebrating at home,” says Ola Machnowski, senior marketing manager for Hershey Canada. “This year, Halloween does fall on a Saturday, so parents are going to have the interesting dilemma of, ‘How do I keep my child occupied for a full day?’ versus just the evening.” At any rate, Hershey attributes half of its Halloween sales to people buying candy for themselves and their families to consume at home (something I’d know nothing about). Rampant stress eating certainly shouldn’t hurt those numbers. 

Mars Wrigley, which makes M&Ms, Skittles, and Snickers, has its own online plans, launching a digital Treat Town where kids can virtually trick-or-treat with trusted contacts and actually receive real candy afterward via vouchers. Users can even decorate their in-app “doors” and create costumed avatars. 

There will be no shortage of opportunities to shop in the lead-up to America’s second-largest consumer holiday — one that typically sees almost half a billion dollars spent on pet costumes alone. Despite online rumors to the contrary and some very panicked customers, Spirit Halloween opened most of its 1,400 seasonal pop-up stores this fall. Big parties may be a no-go, but the retailer is promoting safe ways to celebrate including virtual costume contests, outdoor scavenger hunts, family game nights and, of course, going full-out with outdoor inflatables, lights, and animatronics to show up the neighbors. It seems to be working; Spirit’s CEO Steven Silverstein says sales look to be on par with last year.

In similar fashion, Party City pivoted to highlight the potential of virtual parties and drive-by celebrations, including “trunk-or-treating” and contactless “booing and ghosting” (leaving spooky surprises on a neighbor’s front porch with a note that says, “You’ve been BOOed”). It helps that Halloween spending is increasingly influenced by the ’gram: In 2019, nearly half of millennials admitted to making Halloween purchases strictly for social media posts.

Uber-basic DIY costumes are also making an (ironic?) comeback. A new TikTok trend sees teens dressing up in white sheets — often accessorized with a cool pair of sunglasses — to do ghost photoshoots. 

But it’s haunters, in particular, who are determined to make this Halloween simultaneously safer and scarier than ever. There are typically over 1,200 haunted attractions in the US each year. The haunters — those who work in haunted attractions and events — have dealt with societal crises before, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic and several wars.

“A lot of haunt owners actually saw an uptick after 9/11 and throughout the Iraq War,” says Margee Kerr, a sociologist who studies fear and authored the book Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear. While this may seem counterintuitive, inducing controlled amounts of fear is arguably therapeutic, and haunts are a safe way to experience the fight-or-flight response without actually being in danger. “Doing things that are challenging or scary, even when there’s no real harm involved, and coming out the other side leaves us feeling like we’ve overcome and accomplished something,” explains Kerr. In fact, Americans originally conceived of haunted houses as a way to occupy and focus aimless teenage boys who wreaked havoc during the Great Depression.

Drive-through haunts offer Covid-19-safe experiences in Houston, Orlando, and Tokyo, where “zombies” smear vehicles with fake blood (and helpfully clean it off afterward). Still, some traditional haunts are determined to forge ahead, albeit with innovative changes. Gone are the haunt industry’s favorite go-tos like claustrophobia walls, close contact with actors, and heavy curtains between rooms. The only scares within 6 feet these days are courtesy of machines. 

Located in Salt Lake City, Fear Factory was the country’s first haunt to reopen after Covid-19 shutdowns for their annual Halfway to Halloween event in May. In addition to more than 400 returning staff, the company hired a new safety team tasked with wiping down and sanitizing any and all potential touch points every 15 minutes. Their 60-page contingency plan, which is publicly available, serves as a roadmap for the rest of the industry.

“I really think it’s safer to go to our haunted house than to go to the grocery store and get groceries,” says founder and COO Rob Dunfield.

Beyond physical distancing, haunts need to rethink everything from actors’ costumes to sound engineering. (Well-timed lighting and sound triggers can fool the senses to make someone seem a lot closer than they actually are.) All of Fear Factory’s actors wear PPE masks under their decorative masks, and makeup is only applied with contactless airbrushes. In some cases, PPE masks incorporate special-effects makeup to look like rotting flesh, vampiric grins, or metallic Bane-esque masks.

“The scare has been completely redesigned,” says Dunfield. “We used to have animatronics draw customers’ attention so actors could pop out and startle them up close. Now, that’s reversed. The costumed actors draw attention from farther away, then trigger an animatronic, loud noise, or air blast to go off right next to a person.” 

The move of the season is to creepily observe guests from afar, waiting to be noticed before slowly tilting your head in the way only homicidal maniacs do. “It’s given our actors the opportunity to actually act more and develop characters. Before it was all screams, grunts, and jump scares,” says Dunfield. 

This season’s haunt themes fall in line with horror’s tendency to reflect cultural anxieties. For example, horror during the Cold War often featured alien attacks and invasions, representing Americans’ fear of foreign attacks and nuclear warfare. In the early 2000s, Guantanamo Bay and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib gave rise to “torture porn.”

While it seems generally agreed upon that it’s way too soon for any sort of coronavirus or pandemic theme, adjacent ones like zombie outbreaks, surveillance, isolation, and post-apocalyptic worlds are popular choices to prey on guests’ current fears. “Others are going in the opposite direction, leaning more into supernatural and monster themes — things that are so far outside reality we can really suspend disbelief and enjoy the fantasy of it,” says Kerr.

In many ways, 2020 itself has felt like one long, never-ending horror movie. We’re in need of release, some serious group therapy, and a healthy dose of escapism. Whether you want to dress up like a sexy Carole Baskin, stuff your face with candy, or scare yourself silly at haunts, Halloween might be just what the doctor ordered — even in the middle of a pandemic.  

Thirty years ago, the world was introduced to a 29-inch-tall doll in overalls named Chucky. With eyes bluer than a White Walker’s, hair more fiery than Ed Sheeran’s, and a smattering of freckles à la Emma Stone, he looked like the perfect childhood buddy.

Unfortunately, Chucky, the tiny antagonist of the 1988 movie Child’s Play, was possessed by a serial killer with a knack for slaughtering people with butcher knives, yo-yo strings, and anything else he could find around the house. Today, almost everyone knows that if a wild-eyed doll asks, “Wanna play?” the only acceptable response is to run as fast and far as you can.

Then there are people like Kevin Cain, a paranormal investigator in Alabama who owns hundreds of haunted dolls and other items. “I lost count a long time ago,” he says. While Cain may be an especially prolific collector, he’s far from the only one. In fact, there is a thriving marketplace for haunted dolls on the internet.

According to Cain, things really took off after the Annabelle doll appeared in The Conjuring (2013), followed by a solo film, Annabelle: Creation (2017). Annabelle, a vintage porcelain doll with smeared lipstick, a cracked pupil, and claw marks on her face, is possessed by a demonic spirit that enjoys ruthlessly murdering people. That she’s based on a real-life haunted Raggedy Ann doll adds to the intrigue.

With the next installment of the Conjuring series, Annabelle Comes Home, and a reboot of Child’s Play both hitting theaters in late June, there’s sure to be a new wave of people curious about haunted dolls — and perhaps even eager to get their hands on one.

Gone are the days when you’d have to trek to a shady part of town, down a darkened alley, and into a questionable-looking antiques shop to get your haunted doll fix (although if you’re ever in New Orleans, Bloody Mary’s Haunted Museum and Spirit Shop is worth a visit). Etsy and eBay list thousands of dolls purportedly inhabited by everything from evil witches to judgmental spirits that might call you fat to young children and fairy spirits.

Most haunted dolls sell for around $50 plus shipping, but the most highly prized ones are priced well into the four figures. There’s a formula, too, for how they’re sold: Each listing contains a detailed overview of the spirit’s life story, details of said spirit’s death, and a description of their personality. Dolls are labeled “active” or “highly active” if paranormal phenomena are said to occur frequently in their vicinity.

Some are advertised as being able to move objects, make noises, or communicate via telepathy or Ouija board, while others are meant to act as creative muses, play matchmaker by revealing potential lovers in dreams, or emit positive energy.

Kat Blowers, whose Etsy shop FugitiveKatCreations specializes in haunted dolls, says best-sellers tend to be inhabited by female spirits that have some sort of “empowerment” angle. “We have a lot of goddess-type spirits or women who have survived terrible situations and thrived.” She also sees high demand for witches around Halloween and leprechauns near St. Patrick’s Day.

While there are con artists looking to take advantage of uneducated buyers, many haunted item purveyors hold themselves to what they see as high ethical and scientific standards. “It costs us a fortune in tools,” says Blowers. Whenever she acquires a new doll, Blowers and her husband put it through an intense investigation that lasts one to three months.

First, the doll is separated from any other paranormal objects in the house. Then it’s examined with a K-II EMF meter, a device used by paranormal investigators to detect electromagnetic energy, for a period of three to five days. Blowers then places the doll in a sound box (“basically a foam box”), with a voice-activated recorder to see if she can hear any words or phrases. “We’ve heard music before, which is really weird,” she tells me.

Finally, they conduct lucid dreaming sessions, which involve sleeping next to the doll alongside a piece of amethyst (which is supposed to be a potent lucid dreaming crystal) to see if they have any weird dreams. Blowers typically ends up with a 15-page report by the end of each investigation.

Unlike in horror films, real-life haunted dolls aren’t necessarily bloodthirsty beings with a penchant for sharp objects. “Not everything is evil,” says Cain. “Yes, there are demons, and Annabelle is example number one of that, but also good spirits. If a ghost can haunt a house or building or ship, why can’t it just hang around an item it once owned or reminds them of something in their past?” He theorizes that spirits like to hang around dolls and other toys because of their familiarity and strong emotional connection.

However, this doesn’t mean buyers shouldn’t beware. Cain routinely refuses people who email begging to purchase one of his haunted dolls. “I tell them it’s not for everybody. You don’t know what you’re asking for,” he says. “These dolls aren’t for entertainment or fun. These are actual haunted items with spirits attached who want to be respected. Then you have those who, if you’re not careful, are demonic and ready to tear into your soul.”

He describes an episode where a young woman bought a doll online that was supposed to be haunted by a kind, positive spirit, but she ended up with something dark and malevolent. After a string of strange occurrences culminating in feeling tiny hands around her neck one night, she contacted Cain and shipped the doll off to him. Luckily, he knew how to bind the demonic spirit, ultimately sealing the doll in a box coated in holy water and storing it on the highest shelf in his home, where it remains.

Demons aside, selling haunted dolls online comes with some technical challenges. For one thing, eBay isn’t too keen on the whole concept and has a policy that specifically forbids the selling of souls. According to a statement from the company back in 2000, “eBay does not allow the auctioning of human souls for the following reasons: If the soul does not exist, eBay could not allow the auctioning of the soul because there would be nothing to sell. However, if the soul does exist then, in accordance with eBay’s policy on human parts and remains, we would not allow the auctioning of human souls.” In 2012, eBay further banned metaphysical items including spells, hexes, potions, and magical services.

Some sellers found creative workarounds, including winking claims that their dolls are “for entertainment purposes only” or “sold as is.” They also often state there’s no guarantee of paranormal activity and indemnify themselves from the consequences of anything that does or doesn’t happen. Others, deterred by eBay’s crackdown, simply packed up and moved to Etsy.

The haunted doll market certainly isn’t disappearing anytime soon. Cain expects there’ll be a huge surge in demand this summer thanks to Annabelle and Chucky’s big-screen appearances — something he’s not particularly thrilled about. For anyone considering a haunted doll purchase, he has one message:  “Be careful what you buy. It may be phony — or, worse yet, it may be something demonic.”

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