A Haunting Interest
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The tense emotional roller coaster that a horror movie takes us on fills our psyche with an ocean of personal terror. The kind of terror that leaves you stuck in an imaginary world, where you feel as if the killer on the screen is going to pop around the corner and get you too. M. Night Shyamalan a director familiar with horror movies explains, “Some stories just resonate with you as a storyteller and never leave you. This is a story that just kept haunting me.” If these stories haunt us why do we desire the thrill? No matter how distressing a movie is; we somehow feel a curiosity that leaves you longing for the roller coaster to start.
My first horror movie was a re-make of the 1959 classic “House on Haunted hill.” I was 12 years old at the time and my parents never let us watch anything other than “G” or “PG” rated movies so this was a special occasion. I mean a movie where, “A millionaire asks a group of people to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past,” (IMDB.com, 1999) doesnt sound all that threatening Until you watch it. As the movie progressed my bravery slowly drifted to feelings of shock and intense worry. Not just worry for what was going to happen next, but a worry of what was going to happen to me. Just going out of the room to get a glass of water made me feel as if I was going to get trapped somewhere or a ghost was going to jump in front of me. Not wanting to make my emotions visible, I was determined to finish the movie so that I could not only prove that Im able to watch a scary movie, but also see what was going to happen to all the characters in this horrible place.
“Emotion is the complex psycho physiological experience of an individuals state of mind as interacting with biochemical (internal) and environmental (external) influences.” (Wikipedia, 2011) Watching “House on Haunted Hill” developed feelings inside my mind that made me scared, but it was also creating an ambiance or horror that flowed through the atmosphere no matter where I went. So no matter what, I could not shake the haunting feelings I had. The storyline of the movie kept me wanting to see more. Of course, the “wow” factor of how the events were occurring made me think “Do these things really happen?” Or “Where do you go to experience these things?” But my interest wasnt a desire to have the experience; it was to know what was happening was infract not real at all, so that I could begin to feel safe and human again.
The Interest that I felt at the time of “House on Haunted Hill,” didnt stick with just that movie. Every time I see a horror movie Im left in question, or curious about whats going on to a further extent than whats just in the movie. I think its the query of the unknown and the lack of truth we have surrounding it. We see so much today that