Psychologists agree that the thrill many experience from the act of being scared derives from feeling as if one has escaped a very dangerous situation. When a haunted house volunteer dressed as a ghoul or goblin leaps from the shadows and screams in your face, you are not really in danger of being eaten by a ghoul or goblin. But your nervous system, guts, etc. feel as if you are. Thus, your body releases a flood of pleasant-feeling chemicals when you walk past this volunteer unharmed (save for perhaps having caught from this person a serious case of COVID-19 coronavirus).

In much the same way, many people feel a thrill from celebrating Halloween, as it is the closest they can come to worshipping Satan without spending an eternity in the fiery lakes of h*ll.

With that in mind, today I have released a special Halloween edition of Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s? in which I recount the macabre tale of a haunted McDonald’s in upstate New York, United States, New York. Plus, I make plans to serve chicken McNuggets to trick or treaters while I am away from home.

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