I am a horror film enthusiast.
I love that feeling you get as the "big bad" is closing in on its unsuspecting prey. Not too unlike the thrill I get from a roller coaster. Good horror, will frighten the bugeesus out of me and I won't be able to sleep right for days. It will play tricks on my sensibilities, leaving me vulnerable and checking every shadow for signs of something sinister.
I know the response is a self-preservation mechanism and in a real world situation, I should run. So, yes, my real life horror flick would last less than 5 minutes...
"Wow, baby, this is beautiful. We got chandelier hangin' up here, kids outside playin', it's a beautiful neighborhood, I really love - this is beaut--"
[demonic whisper] "Get out!"
"Too bad we can't stay!"
Thank you Mister Murphy.
But for my film fear jonze, I stay and endure (knowing rationally that its not real and that I am safe... right?) I love the chill that creeps up my spine, the race in my pulse, quickened breath and the urge to turn on every light in a 3-mile radius.
That being said, its been a really long time since any film has frightened me to the core. Am I jaded? Have I seen it all? Is my flight response busted? Or is it that today's horror masters, just aren't that scary?
Sigh... there's tons of gruesome stuff out there to make you squirm or simply induce anxiety, from traditional "splatter films" to the oh-so-trendy "torture porn" genre and there's also plenty of cheap ploys to make the viewer jump (loud sound effects/music swells, 'effen cats jumping out of nowhere, etc.)
But what about the fear, like when you were a kid and you knew the boogie man was real and he was coming for you? You would lie paralyzed with the knowledge that tonight might be the night. Afraid to move. Afraid to breathe. Afraid to get out of bed and go to the bathroom. Feeling like you were going to burst and wondering what was worse... the-th-th-th-thing-under-the-bed... or explaining to your mom that you'd wet the bed?
It's Halloween - my favorite day of the year - and I am having a movie marathon featuring some of my all-time favorite films along with some new aquisitions that I have never seen before and I hope I am so scared, I pee my pants :)
We'll see... maybe one day there will be a release that comes with a Depends®
