200 Movies, 1 Woman, 1 Blog

Freddy, you and I are through.

I don’t care for horror movies. I see one or two a year, and that’s more than enough for me.  I can’t even stand watching trailers for them.  When I went to go see Eclipse, a trailer for Paranormal Activity 2 was shown, and I winced and even squealed a bit.  I’m pretty sure my friend Dawn lost a bit of respect for me that day.

I can’t stand the tension and the uneasiness that comes with horror movies.  I enjoy thrillers; movies with tense moments, but with horror movies, I never know when something is going to jump out.  It’s not a feeling that I enjoy.  Plus, I’m a huge wimp, so I have a tendency to squeal at every little thing, and make a fool out of myself in other ways. There’s also the noise factor. I’ve recently discovered that I fear loud noises – balloons popping, loud bars, etc. They make me uncomfortable and frighten me. Horror movies tend to be loud, so that just makes me feel even more uneasy.

For some reason, horror movies are huge “date” movies.  I don’t get this.  I suppose stereotypically, the girl gets scary and hides in the arms of her date, allowing her date to feel like he’s “protecting” his girl.  And that’s all fine and good…if the female is okay with being scared.  I’m generally not okay with it.  In fact, I can find few things least romantic than watching something that terrifies me.  I think comedies are much better date movies than horror movies.  If you can find a good comedy that appeals to both of your tastes, you’ll laugh, feel good about yourself, and you may even learn something new about your date (what he or she finds funny, and how often they laugh).  It’s a good ice breaker, because it’s easy to talk about a comedy after the fact.

I do watch horror movies occasionally.  If I hear enough good things about one, I’ll brave it out. I’m also a fan of the movie 28 Days Later, and its sequel 28 Weeks Later. They’re horror movies, but they’re also very good examinations of how humanity reacts to a massive crisis.  Humans can react in horrible, immoral ways, but they can also react in beautiful, selfless ways.  Another sequel, titled 28 Months Later is supposedly in development.  That is one that I’d go and see in theatres, despite the fact that the dark, the huge screen, and the surround sound amplify the terror.

One of my best “horror movie stories” is the story of when I saw I am Legend.  It was shortly after I turned 18, and I was taken out for dinner by a friend to celebrate.  I was new to alcohol, and had two drinks (both of which contained more than one serving of alcohol).  I was a little bit tipsy, and didn’t want to go home in that state, so we decided to see a movie.  Seeing an already scary movie while inebriated amplified the fear I felt, and it was one of the most terrifying movies I’ve ever seen.  I can’t fathom ever watching it again.  Of course, I’m pretty sure my friend laughed at me after the movie was over, and I talked about just how scary it was to me. I told all of my friends how scary the movie was, and the ones who had seen it laughed at me and told me that it “wasn’t scary at all”.

It was. I swear.