This guest topic from Sarah G is a total gimme. “Horror movies: best and worst tropes and themes; scary things as a mechanism of comfort.”
I LOVE HORROR MOVIES!
Thank you, Sarah G.
Horror is total escapism and catharsis for me.
My roots are deep.
Saturday mornings, while Mom slept it off, the only time me and my little brother James were a team was when “Creature Feature” came on. It was right before the show that alternated Sherlock Holmes one week and Charlie Chan the next.
“Kreeetchurrrfeeeetuuurrrr!” All one word. My little brother and I would plop down on the pull out sofa bed and get lost in a world that ranged from groundbreaking, black and white Frankenstein and the Wolfman to horrible stuff like “Tentacles” and “Count Yorga”. I imprinted my horror movie snobbiness at the tender age of 10-ish.
Best and worst tropes are entirely subjective
Me? I’m addicted to the shaky camera, found footage, college kids break into the haunted insane asylum at night and get picked off one-by-one genre. Or any variation on that theme. I’ll watch them with subtitles and in a boat and with a goat. BEST
Homemade ghost hunting reality shows that you’re only willing to watch at insomnia-o’clock a.m. on Amazon. Their only plus is that they don’t intrude on playing Mahjong on your iPad and dreaming of sleep. These are about as entertaining as your 47 year old, creepy aunt’s attempts to get you to hug her when she smells like cigarettes, BO and desperation. WORST
Horror marks my life journey.
Sometimes, I’ll do something so life-altering that I need to quieten my racing mind and horror is the perfect anesthetic.
After I left my steady, life-sustaining job with Renaissance Entertainment Productions in 2009, my home office back-ground noise was “A Haunting”. It was one of those Lifetime-y re-creation shows that tell the stories of people’s personal paranormal experiences. You know the ones. The camera bounces back and forth between the person and the slightly more attractive re-enactor. It was perfect.
On Wednesday evenings, it was Ghost Hunters. It’s the original paranormal reality show. I ate up every investigation and googled all the team members. I loved these guys with a passion never experienced since my youth. With my brother. On Saturday mornings. During the only time we felt like a team and all was peaceful.
I wonder if James still likes old horror movies. I should ask him.
I’m Susan Scot Fry, the author of “A Life of Significance”. Honest, occasionally humorous and sometimes I swear.
A Year of Significance 