We are approaching the Fall season and one of my favorite holidays, Hallowe’en. It’s kind of odd that it is one of my favorite holidays because I generally don’t like scary things or horror stories. Which is also odd because the wife writes horror stories and makes me beta read them for her. (I’m still trying to scrub some of them from my mind using lots of brain bleach.)
There are two main reasons I like Hallowe’en.
First, I like a day when you can be something other than what you are normally. You get to dress up in costumes and be somebody (or something) else. You can be a soldier, or an astronaut, or a firefighter, or a superhero, or a monster, or anything. You can step outside your usual reality, with all your faults and frailties and be someone who doesn’t have them. All that daily anxiety you carry around with you is put aside as you put on a new persona. Maybe something closer to who you truly are, or truly want to be.
Second, I’m in it for the candy. ‘Nuff said.
The rest of the world likes Hallowe’en because they like being scared. I find the world scary enough without needing to seek out such opportunities.
I’ve consumed some horror media because they are cultural touchstones. Dracula and Frankenstein, for obvious reasons. I’ve watched Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Phantasm, and The Shining because they are all cultural touchstones. I’ve watched many others because the wife wants to watch them and I’m sort of dragged into watching them too. (I sometimes get away with doing the same to her with sci-fi and fantasy movies.)
I actually just finished reading The Shining. Much different than the movie. I read it for no other reason than a scene in the movie pissed me off. Towards the end of the movie Jack is running around the hotel, seemingly back in time during prohibition and Gilded Age era, while a fancy party is going on. He opens a door to one of the rooms, sees a guy siting on the bed while another person dressed like a beaver is standing in front of him. No explanation. WTF? It wasn’t really covered in the book very well either, but I gather the beaver was a Furry, people with a sexual fetish about anthropomorphized animals. It takes all kinds, I guess.
I found most of these movies illogical and annoying. They are not great acting, or even great moviemaking, and rely entirely on jump scares too much. I want my stories, even horror stories, to make some sort of sense. I guess I’m very much not the target audience.
All of which brings me to the question I face every year around this time. There are two horror movies I haven’t seen that are very much cultural touchstones. Those would be The Exorcist and Hellraiser. From what I’ve heard about these movies, and having seen the trailers, and talking to the wife about them, these are genuinely terrifying movies.
And I ask myself, is this the year I watch one or both of them? Other than the maxim of ‘know your enemy’, and because they are cultural touchstones, I’ve yet to come up with a reason to watch them. I guess I don’t want to have to spend a lot of time trying to scrub them from mind with brain bleach if I can’t handle them. It could turn out they are just overhyped as the other movies listed above. I don’t know. Every year has been the same – no, this isn’t the year I watch them.
What do you think, my Hordeling? Are either of them worth watching? Hit reply and let me know.
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