Scary Movies

I’m supposed to be writing an article about smelly dogs right now which, as you can see, I’m not writing at the moment. It’s not a hard subject. There are plenty of things to write and I can even be humorous about it. I have solutions for the problem, which will make my client happy. I even have people on Facebook offering to send me their smelly dogs to inspire me. But, somehow, I’m not in the mood to write it.

Instead, I am playing hooky from work. I’m watching the wind blow the tree branches outside and the rain fall. I looked for and found a few four-leaf clovers outside a little while ago. I’m cooking some food for my old dog who needs a little extra something added to his regular dog food these days. I’m browsing the Internet to see what people thought of The Haunting in Connecticut, which I’d like to see.

Have I mentioned that I’m addicted to the series A Haunting? Everyday I take a break from work so I can watch people deal with the paranormal for an hour. I know it probably sounds ridiculous, but I love it.

It goes like this: people move into a new house. They begin to notice strange things happening but they try not to pay any attention. They tell themselves that they are imagining stuff or that there is some logical explanation for events. Then things begin to escalate until they can’t ignore them anymore. Then all hell breaks loose! LOL Okay, maybe it’s low-key hell, but people get spooked. That’s when they try to get some outside help, whether it’s a priest or a paranormal investigator or a local historian or someone like that. Half the time that doesn’t work and they have to keep trying. Or, they may just have to move out of the house. Most of the time they get things worked out. But sometimes they just learn to live with whatever is in their house.

I have loved supernatural stories ever since I can remember. I adore them. When I was very young I used to watch Dark Shadows every afternoon. I would dress up my cat in baby clothes and watch Barnabas and Angelique while I chewed my nails. It was wonderful. I always thought Angelique was just the best, smartest woman in the world. You have to admire her tenacity. I have always liked single-minded people, people who don’t let anything stop them. Like facts or someone’s aversion to you. :)) I thought Angelique was a wonderful role model in life. And, of course, she was very beautiful. Did you know that Lara Parker is from Knoxville, Tennessee? I only found that out much later but I think Tennessee should be very proud of her.

I loved other supernatural stories, too. When I was a kid one of our local TV stations used to show old black and white horror movies every afternoon. I remember that I particularly loved the old mummy movies. I never got tired of them. One of them was on TV again recently and I stayed up watching it late at night. I think I enjoyed it just as much now as I did when I was a kid.

I could never get enough vampire movies either. I used to try to watch every vampire movie on TV. I loved Frank Langella, Jack Palance, the Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee movies. Somehow I didn’t like the Gary Oldham movie very much. But I loved the Lestat books. I wasn’t crazy about the first movie with Tom Cruise but I thought the second movie with Stuart Townsend was pretty good. Not as good as the books, of course, but pretty good.

I know many people have explained why we love the paranormal and why we love to be scared. I still don’t know what it is that gives us such a delicious feeling when we watch a movie that frightens us -- and we sit there knowing in our minds that we’re really safe. I still think one of the scariest movies I ever saw was The Haunting with Julie Harris. And yet you really don’t see anything at all scary in the movie. It’s all done with atmosphere. But it’s terrifying. I have watched it again and again and it’s still great. On the other hand, the original Halloween scared me so badly that I wouldn’t watch the sequels for years. That was too much, especially for a kid. Now I can watch them and they’re no big deal but when I was 12 years old or so it was horrible. It did not give me the pleasant kind of scare. I still don’t like gory movies.

But I do still love scary movies. I really like the movies that have been coming to the U.S. from Japanese originals, like The Ring, Dark Water, The Grudge, and one I saw this week -- Shutter. It was good, too.

Maybe I can find a good scary movie to watch this afternoon instead of writing about smelly dogs.