Horror, of course, has always been interested in women; Traditionally women and girls are victims of crazed killers or of monsters. They scream a lot. Yet the terms have changed along with the times, and a horror renaissance seems to have been taking place over the past decade.

Called the Dancing Sewer Clown, the costume includes a "white gauzy dress with a square neckline, puffed sleeves with flared cuffs, black pompom embellishments, a bubble skirt, a ruffled neck piece with a hook-back closure, and a matching wide belt with velcro closure."

It’s no secret that women have been ever-present in horror flicks on the silver screen, seen getting hacked to bits by off-the-rails male killers and shot in sexual-driven sequences always angled from the male gaze. But it feels as though they’ve been somewhat missing on the other side, shadowed over by male filmmakers whose clout and influence takes up another seat at the dinner table.

Men have fled an Indian village after people in the town feared a female ghost was attacking male residents. It appears as though only women are now living in the tiny village of Kasiguda, in the Nirmal district of Telangana, after reports of the ghost.

“One of the challenges with this was obviously highlighting the gender reversal but in a way that it was subtle and “normalized” without making it a big deal but also showing that it is a big deal,” said Day. “We also wanted this to not just be about the boy dressed as a girl, but also that the daughter dresses up as Batman and not Batgirl. For some reason girls dressing up as boys is more “normalized” and “accepted” whereas it’s not for a little boy.”

At some point, your kids will start to notice that most of the options for women are ridiculously revealing. More than simply explaining that these disguises are for grown-ups, you can take the opportunity to help kids understand the sexy-costume phenomenon, how it sells women short, and how they can reject it and replace it with positive role models who communicate strength, intelligence — or anything else they want to be for Halloween (or in life).

“Witchcraft is more of a lifestyle now than a religion,” she says. She recommends that they read a BuzzFeed article to that effect. “So if a spell works it works.” In the old days, she tells them, you might have had to resort to the formal magic kept in some arcane spell book. But now, she adds brightly, you can just check out Witch Instagram for ideas.

It’s refreshing to see films that not only refuse to objectify women for the male gaze, but also feature women as leads who function as characters, not caricatures. Whether they’re the victims or the villains, women’s importance in the canon of horror cinema is undeniable, with most of the genre’s greatest films starring women.

The top female costumes were Wonder Woman, Belle, Leia, Annabelle, Rey, Lorraine (from Focus Features' Atomic Blonde… another surprise), Hela (Disney's Thor: Ragnarok), Ahmanet (Universal/Comcast Corp.'s The Mummy… huh), Gamora (Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) and Valkyrie (Thor: Ragnarok).

Exeter is believed to hold the ignoble record of having hanged the last women convicted of witchcraft in England. Now research by a West Country academic suggests it may also have been the first place to convict and execute such unfortunates, for crimes such as being seen with a large toad.

"When did Halloween become the new swimsuit season?" she asks in her hilarious video rant.

As our girls get older, let’s talk with them about the kinds of costumes that are featured for girls. This year, my daughter is going to be a “Devil.” We looked at pictures of girl devils with really short tight skirts and pictures of boy devils wearing long pants. We talked about how that felt weird and she agreed she’d be fine wearing pants as long as she had a really cool red cape, tail, horns and pitchfork.