Musing on Movies - October 25, 2005

Quick brother update: he's fine, just without power, and probably will be for several days. There are trees down on four cars in his section of the parking lot at his apartment building; thankfully, none of them are his truck. There are also at least five trees laying completely across the roads between his building and the entrance/exit to the complex, so he won't be going anywhere for a while. Or not anywhere he can't walk to. Thank goodness the weather has cooled down.

Now for a meme:

What are your favorite horror and/or suspense films? What horror/suspense films do you think are terrible? Do you tend to watch a lot of them, or do you avoid them completely? Do they give you nightmares and/or continue to "creep you out" for days, or are they gone as soon as you leave the theater?

I don't do horror movies. Ever. I need sleep. Jurassic Park is about as scary as I can handle these days (seriously). The last scary/horror movie I saw was SE7EN. It was a truly excellent film; I highly recommend that you see it if you like that type of genre. But *I* will never ever ever ever ever see it again. I *literally,* I kid you not, did NOT sleep for three days after seeing it. Watched it Friday night, did not sleep until Monday afternoon, and then only because my then-BF (now DH) went with me to my room to watch over me while I slept. Once he left (usually around dinner time, but sometimes around 9-10 PM), I had every single light on in the room (thank goodness my roommate was never there), and I didn't sleep again until BF came back to "help" me take a nap the next day. This went on for over a week before I was willing to sleep at night, and even then, I still had every single light on. That film bothered me and my sleeping for a couple of months, the images haunted me so badly. I couldn't sleep because every time I closed my eyes, my brain would replay those scenes and images over and over. ::shudder:: I swore I would NEVER see another horror film again, and I never will.

Suspense movies (often called thrillers), however, I love! Fallen is one of my all time favorites. Arlington Road was fun, especially with the particular crowd we watched it with (two huge macho guys screamed like little girls at one point; we all just died laughing, including the two of them). Frequency is somewhat in this category, but not completely; it is excellent, though, so you should see it. Psycho (Hitchcock's, of course) is really the gold standard, but Rear Window and The Birds are good as well (my brother is a Vertigo fan). The Sixth Sense was good, but it bothered me for a few days after (just a general creepiness); so did What Lies Beneath (that *one* stupid image, sheesh). I really wanted The Forgotten to be good, but the ending/resolution just didn't do it for me. I can't really think of one I thought was truly bad, especially since I see so few of them because I have to be so careful about not seeing "scary ones."

How do I know what movies are "safe" for consumption? My brother and I have a great system worked out. He adores all kinds of horror movies and suspense films (though not so much zombie or slasher type films), so he sees lots of them. He also knows what kinds of things I can handle and what I can't, so he usually previews movies for me and lets me know if they are okay for me to see. If he says no, I trust his judgement, and that's the end of it. If he says it's safe, then I'll go. So far, he's been right every single time (well, about the safe ones at least; can't speak to the scary ones, since I've never seen them! LOL).

Currently feeling: creepy