7. The Kids Are All Right...To Wander The Streets Alone! (ET: The Extra Terrestrial: 1982)
Hocus Pocus demonstrates this too, but ET...well its a rather better film, isn't it? And far more memorable. One of the things I remembered most...and can never understand as a child why it didn't happen over here in the UK...were the hordes of children 'trick or treating'. And I mean hordes. Children in costumes wandering the streets with seemingly no adults in sight. It's a great little scene for sure. Covered in a white 'ghost' sheet, ET is smuggled out of the house by Elliott and his big brother Michael. Elliott's (frankly questionably clueless) mother assumes the ghost in the sheet is her daughter Gertie, not realising her (eight-year old?) daughter has snuck out of the house anyway. And on their travels, ET meets a costumed kid dressed as his remote 'cousin' Yoda. Yes I know it's a family film. And yes, I know things were different back in the 1980's. (Admittedly I was one year old when ET: The Extra Terrestrial came out). As a film that continues to captivate audiences to this day, it only helps to reinforce that cool notion for all children that Halloween gives them the free reign to escape and have fun...when the stark reality is that a Halloween like the one portrayed in this film, is the perfect melting pot for child abductions (and worse). And as a parent, that makes me a little nervous...