This Woman's Viral Halloween Decorations Are Haunting — but For an Unexpected Reason

Halloween decorations can be frightening from afar, but they rarely elicit a visceral reaction upon closer inspection. However, a Detroit woman's Halloween display is making headlines because it features the real-life horrors people face daily in America.

Larethia Haddon's yard is a sharp commentary of American society: the Halloween decorations show six dummies based on actual atrocities. One dummy is a man from Flint, MI, holding a contaminated glass of water, in reference to the polluted water in the town. Another dummy sits bloodied under a sign reading, "My hands were up," making a nod to the police brutality epidemic. Elsewhere in her yard is a backpack, evidently referring to the bomb detonated in Manhattan earlier this month with a sign saying, "Book bag bomb why!"

Haddon told Michigan Live that she intended to shed some light on real-life terrors, as opposed to imagined Halloween horrors. "[We] want to get people to be a little more focused on the issues, what's going on in the world," Haddon said. "We need to stick together more. We need to come together. And if we don't, this scene in my yard is going to be reality every single day."

Haddon created the display and invited visitors to see the decorations with the help of her 5- and 10-year-old grandchildren. The visitors are abundant, she said. Despite how uncomfortable the display might be to see, Haddon's message is critical to understanding just how horrific reality can be.