Can you smell the fear?

October is here and for me that means horror movies! I want to feel and smell the fear and yell at people for their ridiculous actions.

Horror movies have made us squirm for generations now from Dracula to Psycho to Wrong Turn. We watch them with our eyes covered waiting for the next horrible event to occur.

One of the first horror movies I ever watched was The Pit and the Pendulum first created by Edgar Ellen Poe. He was a suspense- horror master. I was young, probably under 10 and my uncle was watching the movie. Most likely I wasn't supposed to be in the room or he thought I was busy playing and wouldn't be paying attention. I was watching and became engrossed in parts of the story. My eyes were probably as wide as saucers. I fell in love with Edgar Ellen Poe that day and have been a lover of his writing ever since.

It was years later before I got to watch another horror movie but again it was a classic, Psycho. I didn't jump during the shower scene because I knew it was coming but I kept thinking, What are you doing? Get out of the shower?  It was the ending that surprised me. It takes a special kind of master to weave a story like that and Hitchcock was a master. I went on a Hitchcock movie binge after that.

Jump another couple years into the future and I went to the movies with a group of friends to see Pet Sematary. Like most teenagers my parents had no clue that we were going to see that movie. For the next few months I jumped into my bed to avoid Gage cutting my ankles. The scariest part of that movie for me wasn't the dead boy they brought back to life it was the ghost, and he was good. I think it was his creepy looks that freaked me out. I read some of Stephen King's books after that and fell in love with his morbid, tangled plots heavily laden with suspense.

Many years, decades later I have watched more horror movies than I can count or even name. One that stands out as especially morbid and bloody even I haven't seen it twice is Hostel. The closeup of her eye dangling from her socket just before she is smashed by the train stands out in my memory. I think it is tasteless horror. 

A few good ones that I love are Sunshine. It is a sci-fi movie. The sun is dying and a team of astronauts/ scientists have to save the Earth. 28 Days Later, it's a zombie movie. Everyone gets sick with a virus that kills them and a few stragglers seek to survive by escaping the city.Since I mentioned zombies, another all time favorite of mine is Dawn of the Dead the remake. My favorite scene is where they are standing on their roofs popping off zombies. The last movie I'm going to mention I can't remember the name. In the movie the house changes and shifts as its occupants attempt to vacate it. If anyone can remember it please, please post it below in the comments.

There are many great horror flicks I haven't mentioned. If you have a favorite post it below I would love to know and if I haven't seen it yet I will put it on my must watch list.