Dance With the Devil
the attraction and repulsion of horror
There a few things - movies, books, stories and TV shows - that scared me enough as a kid that I still remember them. Some are just moments from a book, show or whatever that wasn't that scary beyond that one moment or two.
Some of them I've seen again as an adult and for the most part, they don't scare me the same way. Which is good.
Granted, I could probably watch them in a dark room alone and get very afraid again.
But I won't! I, uh…don't have time.
One was The Shining. The book was scary as well, but I was a little older when I read it. The Stanley Kubrick movie, though: that terrified me. I saw it on TV as a kid. It must have been a TV edit, but it didn't matter. I couldn't get rid of the fear for quite awhile. Another was “Johnny I want My Liver Back” which was a story my Aunt told us while camping. Frikkin terrifying.
Another was an episode of the 1980's Twilight Zone called “Gramma”. That show scared me out of my mind.
Anyway, it came back to me in my memory lately, and I wondered if it would scare me again. I thought, probably not - but for some reason I'm hesitating to watch it. I did buy the DVD set of that series. And I'll probably watch it when I reach that episode. There's no way it will have the power to scare me the way it did when I was a kid - but maybe some part of me fears being that afraid again, haha.
But it made me think of the interesting contradiction with being a horror fan - it's the attraction to watching them mixed with the revulsion of wanting to NOT be afraid. I still remember staring at the video store boxes of horror movies in the old rental shops. I couldn't take my eyes off them. I HAD to see them.
There's been plenty written about this subject - we crave a scary story the way we crave a ride on a roller coaster. It's exciting and thrilling to feel those fearful emotions in a way that's safe. I also wonder if it's a way to stretch ourselves mentally, feeling negative emotions. I used to dwell on old fights or disappointments, or even imagine bad things happening to me. Is it just to feel those things? To practice feeling those things and be ready when trouble really DOES happen? Maybe!
When something dangerous or challenging or bad happens for real, there is a rush of relief when we get through it. A catharsis. Good chance that's what we're after as well, when we subject ourselves to a scary story or experience.
It's a way to approach those natural fears we all have as humans - to experience them and survive them without getting hurt. A little dance with the devil rounds out our experience of life and gives us a taste of fear. Just a little taste.
If I do watch Gramma and survive the experience, I'll see you next time!
take care!
Is there a story, book, movie or show that scared you as a kid? Or as an adult?
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Dance With The Devil
Banes at 12:00AM, Oct. 17, 2024
3 likes!
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Green_Lightning at 10:34PM, Oct. 19, 2024
Playing with the devil. Pretty much none of my stuff is safe for work. https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/old_sketches/5786827/#3365255
Banes at 6:42PM, Oct. 18, 2024
@bravo - interesting! I saw some old Godzilla movies here and there on TV but the Kaiju types didn't really scare me (although there were some uber-giant creatures in books that boggled my mind and scared me.
bravo1102 at 2:31AM, Oct. 18, 2024
By the time I was ten or eleven I actually collected books on hortor movies especially the Hammer and Italian ones of the 1960s. Every chance I got, there I was watching one on the 4:30 Movie or the Million Dollar Movie (came on at 4pm, just right for finished homework and waiting for dinner) Only ones that ever really marked me were kaiju movies. Had recurring nightmares about attacking giant monsters. That is until my brother joined the army and became a tank crewman. Still love Roger Corman, Terrence Fisher and Mario Baca and others from the Kodacolor horror films of the 1960s-70s. And now watching them uncut in their original release versions can finally appreciate how the movies were put together.
Banes at 9:38PM, Oct. 17, 2024
@ozoneocean - the rush of adrenaline would explain a lot, yeah - I don't like feeling sad or depressed either. Horrors that go too far, or that have downer endings...they can be surprising and effective but I've found that I can almost never watch them a second time. Just don't want to! There are a couple exceptions, but overall I want to feel some kind of victory over the horror when the story ends...
Banes at 9:36PM, Oct. 17, 2024
@kawaii - that's the one!
Banes at 9:36PM, Oct. 17, 2024
@PaulEberhardt - I can laugh at most horror movies now...or laugh with them! Once in awhile something will still scare me but it's clearly not the same as being scared out of one's wits as a kid! Hey, if any genre is going to be cursed...:D
Banes at 9:34PM, Oct. 17, 2024
@marcorossi - the one with the alien in cryotasis waking up sounds vaguely familiar - not sure if I've seen it! I remember a scene of a half-alien baby being born in one of the "V" Tv series...the baby hissed with a forked tongue. That scared me so badly, haha. I kept stalling going to bed. It just struck me as scary for whatever reason, haha.
Ozoneocean at 8:18PM, Oct. 17, 2024
I think people just like horror for the action and blood and the fun scares... simple adrenaline XD. Horror gets me down and makes me feel bad unless it's over the top and silly- then it's comedy. Stuff that scared me as a kid were things like Dirty Harry because the violence and racism felt so real and awful. Violent 1970s movies O_O Oh, that one scene in Damnation Alley where the people get eaten alive by cockroaches coming out of the underground fuel storage tanks TERRIFIED me! Anything about Army ants or Piranhas eating people alive was bad too.
kawaiidaigakusei at 2:41PM, Oct. 17, 2024
I think I recall that “Gramma” episode of the Twilight Zone. Is it the one where the young boy’s room is right next to the grandmother’s room with a glowing light coming out from under the frame. Then at the end of the episode, his eyes start to glow because he is possessed?
PaulEberhardt at 4:35AM, Oct. 17, 2024
When I was very little, I was scared of all kinds of things in movies for no good reason. Got that out of my system pretty quickly though and even developed a taste for the horror-inspired children's books and their film adaptations that were around back then. I mostly found them as stupid as much of the rest, as I recall, but at least they weren't that saccharine and had some spunk in them. To this day, I sometimes catch myself thinking of the horror genre in very much the same terms. Most of the time, I prefer trashy Z-movie flicks which I enjoy for their sheer shoddiness and involuntary camp humour. And here we go again: this is never a really pleasant watching experience by any standards, and I'm not the type of guy who takes a special delight in laughing at others' ineptitude either, so what the hell do I do that for?! What makes me feel drawn to them? - Guess the horror genre is cursed. ;)
marcorossi at 3:54AM, Oct. 17, 2024
When I was a little kid, I watched a sci-fi movie with my parents where those earthly astronaut went on Mars and found a lost alien spaceship. they entered the ship and found the body of a dead alien, like in cryostasis. They went on exploring the ship but - ta-daan! - the alien open its eyes! it wasn't really dead! Then my parents ent me to sleep. I had nightmares for years about that specifical alien, I don't know why. Also as a kid I was scared by the BW bodisnatchers, that I called "fagioloni" (big beans), and from the giant ants of some B-movies (might be "Them!" from 1954). Tunrs out my parents liked old sci-fi movies, since I was born in 1976.