Boo! An Ode to Horror

Your shoulders raise. Your muscles tense. You can feel the hairs on your arm, something you’ve never really noticed before. The air feels cooler. Or maybe, you’re just feeling the air. Something is about to happen. Your entire body can feel it. And then: boom! Out jumps the monster or ghost or murderer. That’s the joy of a horror movie. Many of my horror movie-hating friends ask me what I like about being scared for 90 minutes. And the answer is: the anticipation. Watching a horror movie is a bit like riding a roller coaster, except I don’t have to drive to a theme park or wait in line. All I have to do is put the lights low, don my coziest pajamas and pop in a DVD. It delights me to be continually frightened by a DVD I purchased from a mall Target. My favorite horror movie is Insidious. Made for approximately $12, it stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as a disconnected couple living in a house plagued by ghosts. To their credit, they move homes midway through the movie. They won’t let their mortgage prevent them from fleeing from supernatural scares. Against their credit, the ghosts follow. I have watched this movie every October for the past six years. It always frightens me, every single time. And there’s something so special about that. We’re surrounded by entertainment possibilities at every turn and yet boredom reigns. But horror movies always bring me something new, something surprising, something I never anticipated.