Who doesn’t like a good horror movie? Anything good enough to actually scare you, counts, as a good movie as far as I’m concerned. The problem of course arises when the movie is over and you realize you’re still scared. Getting scared during a horror movie: great! Getting nightmares because of it: not so great.
My husband and I have a lot in common but a love of horror movies just isn’t one of them. Getting him to agree to watch a scary movie with me is therefore not an easy feat so of course, certain promises have to be made before he actually agrees.
Him: Now, are you sure you won’t get scared afterward? I am NOT sleeping with the lights on, ok?
Me: Of course, I won’t get scared! It’s just a movie I know that.
Him: Well that’s what you said last time but you still woke me up twice during the night to check under the bed for clowns.
Me: Oh that was ages ago! I’m more mature now.
Him: That was last Tuesday honey.
The thing is, watching a scary movie that doesn’t scare me seems like such a waste of time but on the other hand, remaining scared after the movie is over is not a fun experience either. It’s a ‘damned if you do it, damned if you don’t sort of dilemma.
I come from a long line of females who love scary stories but to the best of my knowledge, I’m the only one who’s managed to develop a debilitating fear of mutant clowns because of said stories. Why can’t I be more like my grandmother who was so used to the idea of living in a haunted house (true story) that nothing fazed her? The best example of her totally blasé attitude towards everything supernatural that I can offer is from one of the times my sister and I were spending the weekend at her place. Upon being woken up in the middle of the night because my sister and I were convinced we could see a ‘shadow man in the corner, her only response was to ask ‘is he stealing anything?’ On being told that no, he didn’t appear to be making away with her prized porcelain horse statuettes, she simply rolled over and started snoring again. So yes, I know people love to say that the apple never falls far from the tree but in the case of my ability to deal with all things scary, I’d say I’m not even in the same galaxy as my familial tree.
Will I stop watching horror movies anytime soon? Definitely not. Will I ever stop getting scared because of them? Probably not. What can I say, I may not have inherited my ancestors’ fearlessness but I sure as hell inherited their love of scary stories.
So what’s your favorite scary story?