Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? One Podcast Ignited a Holy War Over Candy, Tracts and Horror Movies

Allie Beth Stuckey says believers should rethink Halloween and horror — and the backlash, from “stop being weird” to “horror is the most Christian genre,” has split Christian social media a week before Halloween.

A week before Halloween, one of the loudest arguments on Christian social media isn't about doctrine — it's about candy, costumes and scary movies. BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey lit the fuse on her “Relatable” podcast on October 19, arguing that believers probably shouldn't fully participate in Halloween or watch horror films — and the backlash has been swift, fierce and very online.

Stuckey framed Halloween as a “Christian liberty issue” and laid out four options for believers: total abstinence, full participation, partial participation, or what she called “redemptive participation.” Her preferred path: use the holiday as an evangelism opportunity. In a clip she posted to X on October 20, she described her mother's approach — attaching a Gospel tract to every piece of candy handed out, with John 3:16 printed on little slips of paper, and decorating the lawn with evangelistic signs, including one calling Jesus the “ultimate grave robber.”

The response was not gentle. Claremont Institute fellow Joshua Lisec wrote: “I can't think of worse anti-persuasion for Christianity.” Another user replied: “I am begging parents to stop being weird.” The popular Reformed Baptist account 5 Solas added: “It is possible to enjoy some things without being Ned Flanders,” invoking Homer Simpson's good-natured but annoying Christian neighbor.

Then came the second clip — one Stuckey posted on October 20 and later deleted after intense pushback, only for it to resurface when another user reposted it on October 23. In it, she argued Christians “shouldn't be a fan of horror in general”: not scary books, not true crime podcasts, not scary movies. She recalled that her mother didn't want her watching the 2002 film “Signs” in middle school because it was scary, and argued that deliberately consuming content meant to frighten runs against Scripture's repeated command: “Do not fear.”

That drew a second wave of pushback — including from inside conservative media. Daily Wire host Matt Walsh argued that “horror is the most Christian genre of film,” saying supernatural horror is “often subtly Christian and sometimes very explicitly Christian,” and that there is nothing “inherently sinful” in stories that are tense, suspenseful or scary. He singled out “Signs” — the very film Stuckey's mother blocked — as a movie that handles dark spiritual questions well, and added that “bland, bad, boring Christian entertainment” is “a far greater cultural problem for Christians than any horror movie ever could be.”

Stuckey answered Walsh directly, saying she was warning specifically against “movies that are meant to stoke paranoia, anxiety, a nagging sense of dread and fear,” not arguing Christians can only consume Christian entertainment or that they can't watch films that are “complicated and sometimes violent.” Others split the difference: Catholic podcaster Aaron Irber said Stuckey was “too overly general” — “there's horror and there's horror.” Author Eric Metaxas backed her fully, writing that “almost all of today's horror is demonic and should be UTTERLY avoided.” Conservative commentator Peachy Keenan said she can no longer watch “The Exorcist” because the bedroom in her old house reportedly “became possessed by a dark spirit” after her family watched the 1973 classic.

With Halloween falling next Saturday, the argument is nowhere near settled — and both sides are recruiting. The question at the center of it is simple enough for a comment section to explode over: is Halloween harmless fun for the kids, or a night Christians should sit out — or redeem?