Sep 08 2008
Scary Flick Chick
I love Halloween, in part because I’m a scary/horror film addict. I have it bad–so bad that I will give pretty much any scary movie a try in the hopes of getting my fix. (Hello, 1408, I want my money back!)
I was raised on scary movies. I bet you don’t believe me, but it’s true. My absent permissive parents didn’t care when my sister and I stayed up late to watch 1976’s The Little Girl Who Lived Down The Lane (I was learning how to read and write at the time), or 1972’s Home For The Holidays (when it aired on television). And there were, of course, the classic slumber party films such as 1976’s Carrie and 1983’s Cujo.
Now before you go shaking your head about my parents, you should know that even had I not been allowed to watch those films, I was reading the books anyway. By junior high, I was a fan of Stephen King, and I went on to appreciate the likes of Dean Koontz and Anne Rice. But somewhere along the way I put down the books and expected scary films to fill my need.
That need is the heart pounding, dry mouth, dropped stomach, almost pee your pants feeling of being scared silly. But more importantly, it’s the exhilarating feeling of being alive. There’s no question that when your heart feels like it’s beating in your throat, you’re very much present and accounted for.
Through the years, I’ve come to catagorize the scary films I watch into five general types, although some films fall into more than one category:
Pee Your Pants Horror (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake)
Psychological Horror (Silence of the Lambs)
Gross Out Gore Horror (House of 1,000 Corpses)
Silly/Funny Horror (Scream trilogy)
Smart Horror (The Blair Witch Project)
To me, any film that is scary (horror, sci-fi, thriller) is fair game, as long as it falls into at least one of the above categories.
Among my favorite horror flicks are The Blair Witch Project, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake), and The Shining.
How about you?
[...] one person in the group heard I was a horror film reviewer/blogger and buff, she asked, “So what’s the scariest movie you’re ever [...]