Here I am at work when it would be a perfect day to stay home, curl up under a cozy blanket and watch horror movies. I don’t think that I’ve mentioned my proclivity for all things horror…movies, TV shows, and books. Why that is, I have absolutely no clue. When I was younger, I was completely terrified of anything that was remotely scary…The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and just about every other ’60s semi-scary show. I would hide behind chairs or cover my eyes while others watched them. As I got older, I started to become a bit braver. I guess that the first full-on scary movie that I saw at the theater was Race with the Devil. I was probably 13 years old. It scared me but it also gave me a bit of a thrill. And from that point on, I was hooked. The one and only nightmare that I remember having was when I was 15 or 16 years old. My grandmother had just died and the funeral, like so many in small rural areas, was held at a funeral home that was in an old Victorian style house. I was also reading Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot at the time. The funeral home setting was very reminiscent of the Marsten house in the book so I guess my overactive subconscious went into hyperdrive the night after we got home from the visitation and I had a nightmare that I’ve often thought about turning into a short story. Maybe one day I will. When I was 18, a friend and I went to the theater to see the original Halloween, which is still my all-time favorite horror movie and became a huge fan of the jump scare. I remember sitting there in the theater and I was wound up as tight as a spring and Michael Myers popped up and I jumped completely out of my seat and kicked the chair in front of mine. I think I scared the woman in front of me more than the movie did. I like suspense and dread more than blood, guts, and gore but it doesn’t gross me out. Most nights, I fall asleep watching a scary movie so I suppose it’s my own version of a demented bedtime story. I even like the ones that have low ratings. I usually watch those when I’m concentrating on other things. You never know when you’ll find a low budget diamond in the rough. That’s always fun. Well, that’s today’s peek inside my brain. It’s a scary place sometimes.
