Halloween Haunt 2025: Does anyone still care?

In this special post, we explore if people are still into Halloween like the old days and look at some of the Halloween exposure outside of the decor and costumes including fast food offerings and more!

We're days into October and after a months of Halloween decor hunting we're all decked out for the spooky season. But, beyond us hard core Halloween and horror fans, do the "normies" even care anymore?

We've seen almost no Halloween decor adorning porches and lawns. Stores and businesses that have previously decorated for All Hallow's Eve have nothing. Even the venerable Mountain Dew cancelled their Voo-Dew this year. And worst of all, many towns and cities have given up on trick or treating in favoring of the unholy, godawful concept of lining up cars and serving treats out a car--also known as "trunk or treating."

Now, by the numbers, Halloween is extremely popular. Between costumes, decor, haunted house attractions and, yes, candy, Halloween is a billion dollar industry. Spending has gone from $3 billion in 2005 to $11.6 billion in 2024.

We all remember The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Halloween Door," right? This tells of how Halloween is the trust between humanity and ancient supernatural forces that walked the Earth prior to humans. Basically, they left the planet to humanity as long as we remembered them--first as the Celtic harvest celebrations and finally as present day Halloween. It's a good thing that is only fictional, because I don't think we're holding up our side of the bargain anymore.

Or are we?

The evidence may not be in the merch or decor from the likes of Homegoods or Marshalls--it may be in the places you least expect it.

Like fast food places. McDonald's "Boo Buckets" haven't quite lived up to their 90's predecessors, but now Burger King and Wendys are getting into the mix. This year, BK is offering nods to Dracula/vampires (nuggets), the Mummy (Mozarella fries) and Frankenstein (a sundae). An all-orange bun adorns their Jack o'lantern Whopper. Its kid's meal features Scooby-Doo characters (bring back the Universal Monsters!).

Kid's Meal bag features Halloween artwork.

And the regular brown bag does, too.

Wendy's didn't have Halloween bags, but they did have their Frosty Frights toys back for another year.

Sure, you'll find pumpkin spice or caramel apple everything in stores, but how about Halloween Spaghetti O's?

And when you're done eating, wash your dishes with these Halloween Scrub Daddy scrubbers. They appeared last year, but we never found them. This year, they appeared (and quickly disappeared) from Five Below. In addition to the Frankenstein, pictured below, they also offered a ghost and jack o'lantern.

Dillons (our midwest version of Kroger) offered a tiny Halloween section, but included these mini-buckets in the form of Frankenstein!

And, finally, while Walmart's regular Halloween merch left a lot to be desired we were excited to find this Blu-ray featuring the WNUF Halloween Special and its sequel Out There Halloween Mega Tape. These two features take you back to the early-to-late 90s with a newscast, talkshow and more--all which end with terrifyingly reality-based consequences.

So, does this mean Halloween is still alive and well? Of course, it does! So, pick up your favorite merch, watch those horror movies and enjoy those tricks and treats.

But, for god's sake, boycott trunk or treat.