by TheMadDreamer

Created on: May 10, 2008   Last Updated: February 10, 2009

Horror movies? There are two kinds of people when it comes to the subject of horror movies. The kind that would rather live without them, and the kind who are 'scare junkies'. Craving that next frightening fix! When I was younger it seemed as though everyone was seeing the scariest horror movie at some sleepover or another, I wasn't. I only heard tales of the 'Nightmare On Elm Street' movies, 'Candyman' and the 'House' movies (one of which I watched, and which I'm pretty sure was kind of scary... I think). The same goes for 'Child's Play', 'Poltergeist' and 'It'. But I never watched them, I was too scared and my parents didn't really offer them to me. But when, at an older age, I ploughed my way through all of the 'Nightmare', 'Poltergeist' films etc. I realised something very important... they weren't really that scary at all.

The first thing you should know when it comes to the subject of a good horror movie is that it should be unbelievable. Not only because the unreal is scarier but because the last thing you want is to walk away from a film, mentally disturbed, with plans to keeping a knife under your pillow. Take this selfsame writer, who found 'A Clockwork Orange' and 'A Handmaid's Tale' brutally disturbing and scary. That's not the kind of fear anyone wants, they want jumps, figures appearing in mirrors and scary ghosties. To sum up, it is important to have an unreal subject matter, not only to protect your delicate psychological state, but because it is definitely much scarier when you know that a simple gun won't be able to protect the protagonists. To sum up, ghosts are scarier than serial killers. But when you go to bed at night, you are more likely to panic yourself into thinking that a serial killer is in your house rather than a ghost.

The second thing you should know when it comes to watching horror movies is that being scared is a relative emotion. Some people would have found 'Poltergeist' truly scary. But the fact is that by the time this writer had seen it, 'The Shining' had already been on late night television and she was none too bothered by the little blonde girl and her television, as much as she bared a resemblance to her younger self. This is why I believe it's a good idea to build up to scary films. I would never recommend that someone watch 'The Shining' before 'The Exorcist', not because they would need to build themselves up gently to the scares of 'The Shining'. But because I believe the latter to be much scarier than 'The Exorcist'

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