Some people take it too far. This shouldn’t be allowed since it’s not public property; it’s government property. Someone hung (no pun intended) this woman being hung on a traffic sign, which is owned by the MASS DOT.

When did we make the jump from "spooky harvest time" and "yearly cycle of death and rebirth" to full blown "grisly murder scene"?

This stuff is just trashy.

My 10 year old saw this. Said it was hilarious.

Looks to me like a Stranger Things reference

its from the most popular “horror” series/media since halloween, how is it trashy?

It's not funny.

Nothing to see here, just another soul-less levitating ginger.

That supposed to be Max from Stranger Things?

Is he disturbed or just sort of looking away? Kind of seems like a leap

It's from a scene in Stranger Things where a character is levitating, not hung

I drove by that and did a double look, I think it is supposed to be Max.

I drove by this recently and it is absolutely Not hung from a stop sign. It is in someone's property. It's from the TV show Stranger Things, and it looks cheesy and not at all scary when you see it in person. Quit making a big deal of something harmless.

It's from a popular scene in a TV show. It's harmless.

As a ginger, I feel the need to be pedantic and point out that we DO have souls.... It's just that we're not born with our own and have to harvest them from someone else.

It's not quite as comfy as being born with one, but on the bright side I've got a closet full I can put on when this one gets boring. So I guess you win some, you lose some.

I get that the intention is to be kind of edgy but it is a mannikin of a person who is being lynched. I'd cut it down. It's really not funny. What next? Mannikins of women being raped? Hah hah hah, look at that broad being raped!

It may only be obvious people who watch the show, but to others this appears like an effigy of a child hanging. The doll's clothing is not distinctive enough to look like it's "from" anything. Suicide prevention teaches the rest of us who are left behind by suicides that depictions of hanging can shock us into memories of grief and loss. These are things that are really important to keep in mind when putting out decorations on a public street. People with antisocial personality disorder already know this and get a thrill from stoking a negative reaction in bystanders. Halloween seems to bring out the worst in some people.

My neighbor has a bloody dead baby coming out of a bag in their yard. It’s certainly a choice. I thought it was funny because I like disturbing humor, but I am pretty mad about it for people who’ve lost a baby who are going to walk by it. Also my 6 year old was pretty disturbed by it.

I don’t know. I just don’t think I should expose other people to my morbid humor unwillingly so I wouldn’t put something out like that.

100% agree. I first starting seeing the fake bloody dismembered feet and hands wrapped in supermarket meat packaging around 15 or so years ago at the popup Halloween stores. Mummies and ghouls are one thing, but glorified carnage is too much.

I anticipate that this comment will be hidden with downvotes.

Tell me you don’t watch the #1 grossing Netflix series of all time without telling me

Fair point…soul-on!

"grossing" doesn't make any sense for a show that is streaming and generates no direct sales. Or shows in general.

How do you think Spotify streams compare vs buying CDs?

They're not measured by gross sales that's for sure.

Words mean things. "highest grossing" literally means it had the highest gross sales over a given period.

Sorry I work in the music industry not movies I assumed it worked the same. Can you explain how it’s different to me?

Yes, I see it now. I’ve seen the new season of stranger things; it just looked like something else when I gave it a cursory glance.

For starters Netflix doesn't have ads and Spotify does. Spotify also does not generally make or license their own content. So even though it is technically not accurate to say grossing when you are including streaming plays of songs you can kind of get maybe close enough by drawing a direct comparison to the compensation agreements and the payment that goes to artists and record labels when Spotify plays their song. But it's still really not right.

Dexter was a popular TV show at one point and I feel like I would be out of line if I put a plastic wrapped bloody corpse in a bathtub on my front lawn. I'm on the fence over whether this isn't poor enough taste to be a problem. I'm personally not bothered by things almost ever so I have a hard time judging what's appropriate in the context of society in general, something being a reference to a TV show doesn't magically make it fine if it otherwise wouldn't be.

>I am pretty mad about it for people who’ve lost a baby who are going to walk by it.

"Oh wait, shit, is that my baby? ... Nope different baby. I need to hang up more posters."

Record companies are selling rights to the songs to streaming companies, and getting paid based on traffic. There are definitely people in that transaction for whom "gross sales" makes sense.

She's not hung; she doesn't even have a penis.

It’s a levitating kid from a show. Do we really need to get outraged over what is likely some young fans having fun and being creative?

There’s plenty to be upset by in the world. This isn’t one of them.

Those are by definition not gross sales. It makes sense to combine them with the actual sales from CD as well as other sources of royalty for an overall metric of apparent success, and that's exactly what they do now when they chart songs and albums, but it's not "gross" anything.

When a movie "grosses" $100M in a weekend, it literally means people went and spent $100M on tickets to see that movie. Straight up. It's unfortunately just a term people repeat where it applies because they've heard it used in a close context but don't understands why it doesn't apply. Pedantic I know but I lack the self control to ignore it.

That is super disturbing.

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When I was about 8, I saw a Halloween decoration like this hanging in the garage at an apartment my dad managed at the time. At least that's what he told me at the time. Years later he told me it was a tenant that hung himself. Happy Halloween!

What would you call the amount of money a company is paid by another entity for their product?

> I feel like I would be out of line if I put a plastic wrapped bloody corpse in a bathtub on my front lawn.

This would’ve been expected in the neighborhoods I grew up in here. Unless it was a real corpse, that would be a little bit out of line I guess.

Revenue.

The word you're actually looking for is revenue.

Money that comes from things like royalties and usage agreements are generally not sales and certainly not gross sales.

Of course all this is an irrelevant digression from the fact that "stranger things" doesn't "gross" anything because it is streamed, universally, because a view of it generates no discrete payment or revenue of any kind. The best you can do is look at its share of viewing hours which is not "grossing" anything and estimate how much it plays a role in the overall value proposition for the average netflix subscriber.

Well before I was born in the 80s. Shit like this has always been a part of the halloweens I remember.

We were doing this in our neighborhoods in the 90s. Definitely much further back than 15 years ago, but we also had Halloween Outlet so we had ample resources to do it big.

ITT: people who didn’t grow up celebrating Halloween in MA. A levitating character from a show is tame compared to some of the decorations we and our neighbors would put up (plus the in-home haunted houses) throughout the 90s.

This is such a Massachusetts attatude... Why did I move back to the west coast?

I think that if you had found a hung family member or knew someone who had, you may feel differently so perhaps wait on your judgement that this outrage is manufactured, not the natural response to seeing something distressing.

Episodes of Stranger Things alone have triggered people and made the show impossible to watch for some so even if it was more clearly Max, it could still cause distress, though I think to a somewhat lesser extent of the intention was clearer.

As it stands however, it looks like a person hanging from a tree, a visceral image for people with loved ones who have died in similar ways, which is a large number since approximately 800,000 people die annually to suicide and most of them had someone, in some cases many people, who cared for them, a person who found their body, and usually multiple people involved in the removal and care of their body. That is a lot of trauma that needs to be considered when putting up Halloween decor. I get that creepy is fun, but not at the expense of my neighbors' mental health.

I think that's kind of the point thought.

There's a lot of us who haven't seen it, and this is gonna just look like a child being hanged.

I mean, I don't think it's disgusting or anything, but I think it needing a description to NOT look like a hanged child means it's poor taste.

Um. Just letting you know. The mannequin is from Stranger Things. The girl is levitating, not being lynched.

“Uh oh, who invited this guy!?”

You can move over to England if you want to be a weak helicopter citizen thanks

Mind your business and stfu

Nah, I’m going to stay. If you knew how to read, you’d see that I thought it was funny. I was just implying that I’m sure other “helicopter citizens” are going to say something. But again, you don’t know how to read so I’m sure this comment too will go over your head.

Completely understood the preceding attempt to cop out and not come across as being other people’s helicopter nanny.

Mind your business, cry some tears, or go back to England.

Good luck out there snowflake! It’s a big bad world out there isn’t it 🥴

IM SO TRAUMATIZED THOUGH WE NEED TO REGULATE HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS BECAUSE MY FEELINGS GET SAD ABOUT IT

Nope, I am going to stay and be a snowflake. And I love how upset you are about that!

Hey! Glad you're staying!

Could you imagine if all of us in this country with the emotional intelligence to see things from several several perspectives and employ empathy all packed up and went "back to" whatever rando country today's Internet Idiot prescribed? What a thought! 😂

Yeah!!! Internet points!! You won! You did it!

Quick, put your weak little baby in a bubble before they’re traumatized by Halloween!

Sounds like you need a Marblehead Mommy Facebook group to complain to, stay safe out there in that big bad world outside of your sheltered bubble! We’ll all be rootin for ya!

It’s fucken crazy the kind of weak and timid little spawn (you) that your culture has created, and those you continue to rot out (your kid), no wonder you’re all afraid of life. What a sad way to live. Enjoy that, have fun

I’m trying to be understanding of your point. And if you include yourself in that category of people who have experienced a family member who’s committed suicide I honestly I am very sorry and sympathetic to that.

My response though would be, should we no longer be allowed to depict suicide in movies and TV shows, or books? Following that logic, maybe Halloween decorations should be banned in total because just walking through a shop equates to witnessing a massacre.

My point is that we can’t “trigger proof” the world. It’s not the world’s responsibility to not trigger anyone. If someone is so traumatized that seeing a Halloween decoration sends them into depression, then I think that’s an issue for them to overcome personally.

With respect, does that sound reasonable?

There's a house nearby that has a decoration of a dead baby in a spooky bassinet and it freaks me the fuck out and upsets me and my husband.

I'm a married woman who isn't going to have children and has a pretty dark and liberal sense of humor but I find it super gross to look at. Also, yes, it's traumatic to people who have experienced miscarriage or infant deaths.

Just put up some pumpkins or Frankenstein or your favorite horror character, the fuq.

I think there is a clear distinction between a Halloween store, a fully decked out house with the music and the full decor, cobwebs, spiders, and other additional context is different than seeing a child-sized body hanging in a bunch of trees at a crosswalk used by children and no other contextual-building devices such as a Grandfather clock, Max's friends, Vecna, anything to say this is a character from that RIDICULOUSLY popular Netflix show, NOT a dead child. I think that is very reasonable.

That context may not be necessary for people who aren't immediately effected by what they see, for example the top comments mentioning how, upon closer inspection, they realized it was likely meant to be Max. It took time, time that people suffering loss or other traumas don't have, they'd see the body and instantly be brought back to their loved one with all of the feelings and pain at once. Building the context gives their mind time to say "Oh neat! Halloween decorations! Oh that must be from Stranger Things?... Not my jam, but I'm glad others are having fun." Rather than "Oh God! Is that child okay?!?" Which would be a sign of on-going awareness for dangers, parents, care-givers, doctors, teachers, crossing guards, etc. who are in charge of child safety, or be pushed back into old trauma.

If you saw a squished body on the pavement outside of a skyscraper with no context would that be a Halloween decoration or a tragedy? Context is KEY!

Killjoy, I know. Sorry, I just love my loved ones, know that they hurt because of carelessness, and want to be the change I wanna see, right? If that means raining on careless Halloween decorations, I will. Sorry that's not very fun. I work with kids all day so I have a lot of practice saying, "Sorry, but that's not how we treat people. We can be kinder." I hope you're Halloween decor is clearly Halloween decor and that everyone in your neighborhood has fun being the correct level of frightened, not the heart-pain kind.

You changed my mind. I agree with you there should be more context. If at first sight a passerby is shocked and worried if there is a kid who needs help, that's a problem. Thanks for the feedback I understand your point now. Thanks : )

I wasn't expecting that at all, but great! I'm glad. I think being reasonable is the first step and so I always try to go into these just explaining why I, or someone I know intimately, would find this unpleasant and work from there. I'm not trying to ruin Halloween, I promise, or take anything away, just explain why it's not great. We can always improve and make more elaborate displays 🙂

Tldr; My solution: MORE HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS Lol.

Haha. Yeah this is what really got me:
If you saw a squished body on the pavement outside of a skyscraper with no context would that be a Halloween decoration or a tragedy? Context is KEY!

I always say context is key, so you gave me a dose of my own medicine. Many thanks! And happy Halloween!

IKR?! We have a skeleton that we have out on the porch year round. We dress them in clothes befitting whatever holiday is coming. On Halloween, since we now have two of the fun plastic bone guys, we are getting them married. I can only guess that there are some folks that walk, or drive by our home year round and have been offended by them. I mean the day I found "The Future" shirt at Target I will admit I thought "Is this too much?" But I bought it and put it on the main skeleton. My neighbors loved it. There are other streets people can take. Heck my dad, back in the 80's made all kinds of stuff to put in the field, and even took time to enjoy scaring the piss out of us kids walking by. These days some "Halloween should be cute not scary" Karen would probably leave a note on the front door

Pretty sure that people hanging from trees in the US has a bit of a different history than skeletons and ghosts...

#HARUMPH 🤧 SO OFFENDED

Have another shot from when he turned back and he did look rather disgusted. I’m sure he had no idea it came from a show and since he volunteers to cross kids he must love them.

Bummer for that guy but fake bodies hanging is pretty standard for Halloween. I didn’t know it was from some show either and it just seems like spooky decor.

By now I’m sure he is well acquainted with Stranger Things