Followers of my blog will have no doubt noticed that I haven't discussed horror movies this month. It's October, Halloween month: everyone discusses horror movies now; you have to discuss horror movies now; why ain't I discussing horror movies now? Doubly odd is that I'm a horror fanatic; I discuss horror movies year round. So, why would I avoid it now? I suppose this is partly due to my somewhat contrarian nature—everyone else goes right, I go left. More than that, however, I guess I get horror movie overload this time of the year.
It's impossible to escape horror this month. Everywhere I turn everyone is talking about old favorites, new likely-to-become classics, the underrated, the overrated, and all in-between, horror-wise—stuff, like I said, I write about year round. Maybe I'm just like that indie scenester douche who complains, "Oh, I was into this band before they were cool." (You can hate me now.) Or maybe it's the opposite: maybe I'm like that kind-hearted fellow in the Christmas movie who explains that the generosity I displayed wasn't in fact a Christmas miracle, but something we should all follow all the time. To focus on horror in October would belie the fact that, "Folks, I believe everyday is Halloween."
Or maybe, experiencing the horror overload that I do every year this time of year, hearing people talk about the movies that scare them, it's just that I'm reminded that horror flicks generally don't do much for me anymore. Wait, you're now asking, doesn't that contradict everything you just wrote in the previous couple paragraphs? Not so fast—I still love the heck out of horror movies; they just rarely scare me anymore. I guess, in an odd way, they're rather comforting. I love 80s slasher films, for instance, because they're so rote, so predictable, so familiar; even if I've never seen a particular flick, I'll always know everything about in advance. These movies operate like clockwork. They're safe.
I've seen so many horror movies, it's damn near impossible to get lost in them, to get terrified. I can see the strings being pulled; I always know they're just movies. Not only that, they usually contain the sort of unrealistic scenarios that I just can't relate to. I love The Exorcist, but demonic possession isn't an actual thing; it's not something I have to worry about encountering in my life. A movie has to present a likely threat to seriously unsettle me.
So what really scares me? This fucking Hurricane Sandy coming my way. Fuck. I hate fucking weather.
3 comments:
Sandy is real horror, judging by a lot of the images I've seen. I hope you're doing well.
As much as Halloween and horror is overdone right now- and it really, really is so much overdone- I can't get enough. It's the one month out of the year where everyone else decides to have the same movie tastes that I do.
Thankfully I kept safe during the storm. But it was scary as shit.
Glad to hear you made it through okay.
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