It’s time to carve the pumpkins and dust of the decorations because it’s Halloween season again.

And though October 31 might look different this year, our round-up of the spookiest stories from South London are sure to provide some thrills.

From devils to dead animals, find out about all the freaky things happening on your doorstep.

A spooky satanic ritual in Plumstead

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Walking home on a dark December night in south east London you would not expect to see the remains of a satanic ritual.

Devilish writing was painted on the shop shutters near Plumstead station, and there were reportedly a number of dead animals found on the floor outside the shop.

Rats, mice and a fish were all left behind from what appeared to be a sacred ritual, while the words EXTANARA SATAN roughly translated as "The Devil is the Devil" in Banga.

People on Facebook reacted with a mixture of surprise and horror, with one commenter saying: "There are some real nutters out there these days, this is disgusting."

A haunted home with a difference

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A Halloween-loving Crayford family turned their family home into a haunted house to raise money for a schoolboy with leukaemia.

Connie Woods, 41, her husband Mark, 43 and daughters Cheyenne and Rhiannon, 19 and 21, invited thrill seeking adults and kids into a creepy lair to raise money for little Denny Nassy.

Denny from Hastings was battling Leukaemia, so his family organised a huge campaign to raise £500,000 for his treatment in the USA.

The Woods family transform their house on 46 Dale Road every year - but for 2019’s display, they dedicated the proceeds to Denny's cause.

Trick-or-treaters get nasty surprise

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A group of trick-or-treating youngsters were in for a shock when they were handed a lamb's heart, by a woman in a bloodied butcher's apron brandishing a fake knife.

The four children, aged between nine and 12, were knocking on neighbours' doors in Orpington in 2013 when they called on a local woman.

The woman, who had set up a table in her house with offal and raw meat on it, answered and gave them the lamb's heart wrapped in a plastic bag.

The children's horrified mother said she would not be letting her daughters go trick-or-treating again.

She added: "I can't believe anybody would do anything so sick. To give children raw meat as a treat is just disgusting.

Gang causes firework chaos in cinema

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A gang of teenage boys created chaos in the Vue cinema on Eltham High Street on Halloween night last year.

In a screening of Maleficent around seven to eight boys ran through the cinema, supposedly letting off fireworks in the corridors and by the fire-exit.

The audience were forced to evacuate following the antisocial behaviour.

Knife-wielding children’s costumes

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A grandmother spoke of her horror at seeing images of children brandishing knives dripping with blood on Halloween costumes in Bluewater.

Linda Taylor, 63, took her ten-year-old granddaughter to the shopping centre's pop-up store, Halloween HQ, in the hope of finding an appropriate outfit for the trick-or-treating season.

Instead, she found a collection of costumes sold with images of children holding weapons in their hands, including and evil clown costume and a possessed doll costume.

Ms Taylor, from Welling, said: "In today's world of knife crime, displaying photos of kids holding knives is completely inappropriate.

"If the costumes are for adults, obviously that's fine, but these are clearly aimed at children.

"They're not your usual goblins, pumpkins and witches - it's horrendous."