Scaredy-Cat's Guide to Horror Movies: An Editorial

My love for the horror genre runs deep. It’s almost exclusively the only thing I watch – but it wasn’t always like this. There was a time when I was a big scaredy-cat. 

For the majority of my childhood, I was simply terrified of scary movies. I couldn’t even watch a trailer without having nightmares, let alone an entire movie. I would have to change the channel immediately, or else a week of sleepless nights would follow. 

My fear of scary movies also comes with a few embarrassing stories. One time in seventh grade a classmate was having a birthday party during which all the kids wanted to watch The Vacancy. At first I played it cool, but about ten minutes into the movie I was already trembling with fear, so I did what any scaredy-cat would do – I crawled out of the dark room on my hands and knees in order to avoid detection, and spent the rest of the night in the kitchen drinking tea with the classmate’s mom. Talk about lame!

Now I can’t explain when or even why it happened, but at some point around the age of 15 I slowly started getting over my fear of horror movies. Actually it wasn’t that slow; it was more like a switch went off in my head and suddenly, I wasn’t afraid anymore. Maybe it was when I realized that reality is far scarier than some of the most notorious horror movies, but if I had to guess, I would credit my transformation to my friend, who sat me down to watch Amityville Horror one night and added his hysterical comedic commentary the whole way through. 

I couldn’t stop laughing to the point where my sides were hurting and tears were streaming down my face, and for the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid. He taught me how to laugh in the face of fear. 

A lot of horror movies are actually quite silly; you just have to find the comedy behind it. Once I realized how funny some of these movies really are, my perspective changed entirely, turning me into the horror movie junkie that I am today.