BOO!

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.

- William Shakespeare

There is a graveyard by our apartment complex. It's the first thing I noticed when we first moved here four years ago. I told hubby, "We're going to be in trouble if these folks decide to wake up one night!"

If I had never seen "Night of the Living Dead", I might never have thought to say such a silly thing. But as it is, I have a morbid curiosity with horror films, mostly since I've been with my man. I can only watch horror flicks with him or with friends, though...never alone!

I do not like the gruesome, gushy blood fanfare. Especially any head lopping stuff. I can thank my 8th grade history teacher for that. She showed us a film on the French Revolution that had guillotine scenes. That did it. My lunch period was next. I don't recall having had lunch that day; my stomach was in a knot. Yuk. Sorry if you feel sick at this moment, but you can understand my aversion to certain scenes. Nothing will make me puke faster than a head scene.

I'm more into the eerie psych stuff, which I think is scarier than lots of butchering. Films like "Psycho", "Raising Caine", "The Exorcist", and "Rosemary's Baby" still scare me to this day! %-0 Even "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"--which actually did not show a lot of blood but only let the audience imagine it with the screaming and the sounds of the chainsaw, is more a psychologically scary film than the slash and burn types. It certainly leaves more to the imagination than some newer films, which is why I like older films in general, because they're not insulting to my mind.

The other week, I got "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi from the library.. I'd seen it eons ago, but hubby never saw it. It was GREAT! We had seen the Dracula movie by Coppola with Winona Ryder, Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, and Keanu Reeves. That was also very good, and stylish! But there was something very pure and raw about the 1931 version with Bela Lugosi--he was portrayed as more human...and tortured. The other Dracula movie we saw was an older one with Christopher Lee as Dracula, probably from the 60's or early 70's. That was a funny one: there was a host in the castle named Clove (as in garlic clove!), thick blood that looked like it came out of ketchup bottle, and Dracula sinking into the ground like the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz"!

Silent horror films can be spooky, too, like German expressionist films "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "Nosferatu". They look tame...but don't watch them by yourself!

Also, when we first moved here, we had a horribly noisy fan in the bathroom. It sounded like the motor on the boat in "Jaws". Yes, in my wild imagination (especially if I was home alone), I fully expected a shark to rip through the bathroom wall and violently tear my flesh off! I had that thought for only a moment! But t was enough for us to call maintenance to come and quiet the thing. They did something, I don't know what; afterwards, it was still loud, but not so obnoxious. :-)

Many eons ago, I heard some horrible voice coming from another room and went in to find my honey watching "Hellraiser". I was so scared for him! As if the skinless people in the movie were going to reach out and grab him! Aren't you scared, I asked? Oh no! He was very non-chalant about it, and in fact, was getting quite a bit of thrill and morbid amusement out of it. Being the good wife, I stayed with him cuz I was worried for him. Instead, I ended up hiding behind him everytime I thought something gruesome was going to happen, like a head scene. Yuk!

Would you believe I saw it a second time? Or maybe it was the sequel. I don't remember! All I remember is that I was laughing my head off at Pinhead! The other characters, too, but mostly him. Some of these horror flicks have a lot of black humor in them, if you can get past the red liquid part. Hubby and I tend to be attracted to the bizarre and black humored fare (which, I suppose, could mean both of us may be weird, ourselves). ;-)

This can include non-horror entertainment, such as Dr. Who, The Twilight Zone (the old, black and white episodes) and Monty Python, all of which were prone to showing some horror--usually in a very, dark-humored way.

I don't know why some find horror fascinating and others are revolted by it. I guess it depends on your tolerance level. I just figure: it's only a movie!

Books are another matter. I went through a Stephen King phase in jr. high and high school and got scared reading "The Shining" while babysitting; my neighbor's heater was really loud one night, and their little girl didn't like to be in the dark, yelling for me to come keep her company. And wouldn't you know it--her yelling combined with the choking, gutteral, wailing heater coincided with the "purple lady in the bathtub" scene! %-0

A few years later, at a church youth group xmas party, "The Shining" was on the host's tv! Yes, a church Christmas party! It really was quite funny that it was on during most of the party! Most of us were only looking at it periodically until the really scary parts--then we were all glued to the tube! I'll never forget that party because it's when I ran into my ex-boyfriend and he asked if I was going to the senior ball (he had graduated two years previously), and I said, no...no one asked me. NO ONE? he asked incredulously. Nope. Wanna go with me? So he did...and then stood me up two weeks before the event saying he couldn't get off work; then a friend found me another "date", then the ex called back and said he actually could take me, so I had two on my hands! I ended up going with the ex, since I hardly knew my friend's friend and didn't particularly like him to start, AND my parents knew the ex from before (you know how it is, put the parents at ease so you can get achieve your goals!).

I read a few more of King's novels, the scariest being "The Stand". Then I had enough! They sort of became formulaic, like Danielle Steele novels. Or cheap romantic novels. You read a few of them and they all seem the same. I despise that! Scary to me is Edgar Allen Poe's work...try him if you'd like your imagination to fly.

Or Dante's _Inferno_..."ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE"...oooh! And that was just at the gates of hell, not in the depths! %-( I actually had to put the book down because it got scary and gruesome! On the second reading, it was actually amusing, in a dark way, which is probably why it is part of a larger work called "The Divine Comedy" (which I read in junior high but did not appreciate at the time).

How about music? The scariest contemporary artist we heard was Marilyn Manson. We were on the road one day, and didn't hear the announcer say who was singing until after the "song" was over. It sounded like the devil! Is he related to Charles Manson, I thought?! Geez! He sounded inhuman! I was thinking of "Rosemary's Baby" when I heard it! %-0

You can listen to good, classical music and feel very spooked, such as with Maurice Ravel's "Isle of the Dead" and Modest Mussorgky's "Night on Bald Mountain". Probably many people have heard these tunes in pop culture, but didn't know their origins. I didn't until the last several years. Check them out sometime...just don't listen to them by yourself at night! %-0 Then there's "Pierrot Lunaire", by Arnold Schoenberg. NOT for the faint of heart! Just be prepared--you might just think there is a crazy person in the house...! And everyone's heard Bach's fugues for Halloween. Did that master of music ever turn in his grave to know what was done with his work?

I had good restraint today: I only took two Tootsie Roll candies out of the plastic pumpkin overflowing with sugar at the library! And I haven't eaten them...yet!

Oh, I miss dressing up for Halloween. The last time I did that was in college. I was a gypsy. I hope to go to a grown-up Halloween costume party one day. I think it would be fun! And I wouldn't be a gypsy again. I'm inspired more by Marvin the Martian (of Looney Tune fame) or the creatures in the bar scene from "Star Wars". Or even the "creatures" who carded me at a dark disco somewhere south of Market Street in San Francisco during my wild college nights! :-D


BOO to you!

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.

- Emily Dickinson