After many requests from faithful readers in reference to my annual Halloween column, I've decided to go ahead and write one anyway.

So if you are afraid of yet another rant about how adults have taken this perfectly good (and by "good" I mean "dangerous and basically unwholesome") childhood pleasure and ruined it, the way they've done with sports and Saturday morning cartoons, feel free to browse any of the other excellent features elsewhere in this newspaper and/or Web site.

You may have seen a review recently for a very scary movie of the kind producers like to roll out at this time of year. But it's not a movie I'll be going to. I don't doubt that the film in question is entertaining, but as a husband, father, mortgage-payer and newspaper employee, I find real life much more frightening than all the industrial 55-gallon drums of fake blood Hollywood uses in an entire season.

You know what frightens me? The television commercials for drugs designed to treat conditions that I already have or may develop in the future.

These show persons of a certain age enjoying all that life has to offer - golf, kayaking, skydiving - while an earnest voice-over announcer explains how all this is possible for people who are suffering from the truly disgusting and embarrassing medical problems they have. It's thanks to a drug with an unpronounceable Latinate scientific designation, but a nice cozy-sounding brand name like "Placiderol." The commercials leave you thinking, "Well, if you can still do all this if you just take these pills, that's not so bad."

Then comes the disclaimer: "You should not take Placiderol if you are taking any other medications or if you consume alcohol, caffeine or water. Certain rare but serious side effects have been associated with Placiderol, including death. If you should experience death, stop taking Placiderol and consult you health care provider."

You want scary? Teach your teenage daughter to drive. Although, in point of fact, my daughter has become an excellent, confident driver. Now, the only thing that scares me is the auto insurance bill.

And then there's former Vice President Dick Cheney. Yes, I know, but that's not what's scary. Now we have Cheney accusing the current administration of "dithering" on international strategy. Because, after all, what was wrong with the way his administration handled these sorts of things? You take bad intelligence, plunge headlong into harm's way in support of an unstable and unpopular government with no clear-cut plan and no exit strategy. Look, that's the way we've been doing it for the last 40 years, and see how well that's worked out?

Somehow, a guy in a hockey mask just isn't that frightening anymore.

TOM REILLY is a Sun Chronicle news editor who thinks Halloween is somewhat less scary than a balloon mortgage payment. He can be reached at 508-236-0332 or at treilly@thesunchronicle.com. Read his blog at thesunchronicle.com/reilly. And Happy Halloween.