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When people ask me if I ride roller coasters I tend to say "no." Although, technically, that is not true. You see, I actually LOVE roller coasters. What I hate are drops.
For example, at Disney's Magic Kingdom there are three "mountain" rides: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. About 99% of Splash Mountain's ride is "kiddie"--floating along in a "log" boat watching animatronic animals sing and tell the story of Brer Rabbit. The other 1% (really, only about 3 seconds of the ride) is a steep plunge into the "briar patch." I rarely ride Splash Mountain because of that drop. But I ride Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain without hesitation because despite the fact that they are true roller coasters they do not have any big drops. The reason I tell people I don't ride roller coasters is that Space and Thunder Mountains are the exception and not the rule. Most roller coasters boast big drops, so I stay clear.
I realized I've been telling people for years that I don't like horror for a similar reason. I came to associate blood and gore with horror movies because of the string of slasher flicks that really hit big back in the Eighties (when I was a teen). I had grown up on old black and white horror movies--Dracula, Frankenstein, Swamp Thing...My Saturday mornings were spent in front of the TV watching "Creature Feature," a local show hosted by "Dr. Paul Bearer."
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And then one day, at around the age of fourteen, someone invited me to watch Nightmare on Elm Street. I think my young mind must have made this association: What I've been watching was not actually horror. THIS is horror. I do NOT like horror.
Yet, looking back on the list of films that have been my faves over the years, I see titles like: Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview With a Vampire, The Terminator, Alien(s), The Crow, Pet Sematary, Misery, The Sixth Sense, Silence of the Lambs, etc. All of these have a bit of gore in them, but it's not the main feature the way it is in the slasher movies. I actually like scary movies, creepy movies, psychologically intrusive movies. I just don't like deranged and disfigured psycho-killers bent on mass murder and dismemberment. I want movies with a certain level of intelligence--not just bloodfests meant to gross out the viewer or inspire cries of, "Cool! Did you see that! I didn't know your skull made THAT sound when hit with one of those..." Ick.
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My point? I've been thinking about the "horror" label that has been placed on some of my writing. At first I didn't quite agree with it. I preferred "dark fantasy" or "thriller" because I was holding on to that old idea of horror meaning nothing but blood and guts and "Don't pick up the phone..." :P. But lately, I've begun to embrace the label. And this weekend I had the priviledge of attending the Necronomicon, a sci-fi/fantasy/horror/anime convention in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I met other horror writers and sat in on some cool discussions about the genre.
My next post will probably be some of the pics and such from the Necro. I haven't had time to download them yet. I had a LOAD of fun there. And I even got to meet the ultimate in horror, Cthulhu. He's really not so scary in person.
2 comments:
Kat, this is one of the best posts you have ever written IMHO (in my humble opinion) Great!
I had the same perspective, but my view was that HORROR = DEVIL. I caught THE EXORCIST at a very young age, and had a friend begged me to read the AMIITYVILLE HORROR series with him at a young age. (Saw the slasher films too - but already had the demon movies under my belt. Didn't bother me - just kidding) I then put Horror in one "vein" --- devil. Didn't like it.
I think the first time I really noticed I was wrong happened when I notice UNDERWORLD in the horror section -- and then I too loved: ANN RICE and M Night Shyamalan and THE CROW, VAN HELSING, HELLBOY. . .Thus I changed my mind. I will just stay away from the "drops" Damian Omen, etc. LOL
The Necro sounds great. Can't wait to see pics!
Oh and lets not forget WILLING BLOOD by Kat Heckenbach.
I think I need some of my family members to read this post!!! :)
Thank, KM! I was kinda afraid I was blathering a bit :). You bring up a great point about thinking horror equates to evil. Man, I could go on about that, too. I guess they're kinda parallel--if a movie is just there to glorify gore and the viewer is only watching it to get a thrill out of seeing people die, then yes, it's evil. But that is not just bad horror--that's bad movies. Bad stories.
I still haven't seen Underworld. I WANT to--I just haven't had a chance.
Thanks for pluggin' "Willing Blood" for me, too :). I've got another horror coming out in that mag (The Absent Willow Review) in January! Woo-hoo!
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