There are a lot of you out there who don’t like or outright hate the horror genre. You wonder about and question those of us who do. While I would never try to force my tastes onto someone else, I feel the need to explain a few things. I warn you, this could get rambling and weird.

I love Horror because I love magic, fantasy and the supernatural. For many many years now the only way I can find those things is in the horror genre. The horror genre as a whole is loaded with the mystical and fantastic.

I also have an absolute love of dark imagery and nighttime. I see beauty in things that some others don’t. I might be arachnophobic, but I still think that spiders are one of nature’s most beautiful and perfect creations. The sight of a well crafted monster looming out of a misty environment is lovely to me. The ethereal nature of the things you see in a good horror movie has no comparison.

And FUNNY! I can find a good laugh in more horror movies than in a lot of the so-called comedies that get released every year. Cheesy one-liners, stupid zombies, the ridiculous nature of some of the giant monsters, all of these things are funny to me. I think that gross out comedy is … well … STUPID. Gimme a good gross out horror with a confused monster and a silly hero any day.

More hard hitting social commentary than the drama genre too. They even make it entertaining to watch for us. There’s nothing quite like learning about the inadequacy of FEMA by showing a terrifying catastrophe is there? A documentary about hurricane damage might be educational, but let’s face it, it would be too BORING to learn anything from.

Adult content. That’s right, I said it. Somebody had to say it. One of the things I often find myself saying when I’m loading something up on-demand is this “Ahhh, Language, Violence and Sex. The good things in life” Call me a pig if you like, but the world isn’t rated G, it’s rated “Holy Crap! they did WHAT?!” At least horror doesn’t pull punches or censor itself (much) just for popularity. A horror movie without a death, nudity, or some kind of weirdness in the first 30 minutes is going to be a snoozefest. Trust me, I’ve watched hundreds and hundreds of them.

And finally, the final nail in the coffin of why Horror is awesome. It is NOT real. That’s right, I love it BECAUSE it’s fake. What, like I need to be reminded of how bad the world sucks? Pffft. I can find that out anytime I leave the house. I’ll stick to fake atrocity, thank you.

Oh yeah, before I end this rambling behind I gotta get something else off my chest. Crime dramas need to stay out of my beloved genre. I’m talking about Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, and all those other true-crime stories. Are there monsters? Demons? Supernatural events? Magic? Then get OUT! I guess I’m a bit of a purist in some ways. When I say horror I mean something specific. Some things just don’t count in my book. Not that I don’t like crime dramas and thrillers and so on, I just don’t consider them true horror movies. They’re a cousin at best.

So that’s all …. for now. Keep smiling and #Be-the-Virus!

dracoselene

I'm an artist, writer, ordained interfaith minister, veteran, spiritualist, androgyne, and piles of other labels that never seem to fit. I'm following my passion and attempting to make myself and the world a better place. I think that through compassion and understanding we can all become one unified race of human beings, and life is better when you remember to play.