Taking Back Halloween

Is it time to take back Halloween?

Americans love to be terrified.

Exactly 40 years ago, the year 1972 earned an odd distinction: 189 horror movies were released that year, the most in any single year. And no, that does not even include The Exorcist, which came out in 1973.

Since then, the horrors have continued:

According to Fast Company magazine (October 2010), the movie Jaws grossed $470 million. It remains the No. 1 horror movie ever.

Thirty-seven of Stephen King's scary stories have been made into feature films.

Jamie Lee Curtis became "The Scream Queen" by starring in six horror movies between 1978 and 1981.

One horror film actually won an Oscar for best picture: The Silence of the Lambs, in 1991. But it remains the only horror film in history to win best picture.

More recently, zombies have been popping up in a number of movies. You have to hope that their wages have improved. The nightly wage for a zombie in 1978 was $1.00, according to an extra who played one in that year's Dawn of the Dead. That's a whopping $3.35...