One thing I've always found interesting is how people react to scary movies. My own personal tactic is the duck and cover- something I've perfected just recently. That's right- I don't scream, I don't just close my eyes, I literally get low in my seat and cover my head. Like that helps. "Gemorrah" was the first film where I noticed I do this- halfway through the Italian mob film I tried to take cover after a drive-by shooting exploded out of nowhere. And that's not even a horror film. I heard somewhere that when you feel you're in danger your instinct is to cover your heart. Maybe I just have great survival instincts?
So while I'm spending most of the film in the cage of safety provided by my forearms (although I also use the more traditional covering my eyes tactic- usually while still peaking through the tiniest slits imaginable) my sister has her own way of dealing with it: she talks. A lot. I can remember in junior high when we got our hands on a copy of "House on Haunted Hill" and while I was focused on the creepy doctor giving a lobotomy while the dumb blonde stood and watched through the high-tech flip out screen on her Sony Handycam (terrifying at the time!) my sister started chattering on about anything and everything. It seems it's not enough just to distract herself, but she has to pull everyone else's attention away as well to achieve her full effect of disconnecting from what's happening. Even better than that is when after the film is over, in this case it was "Zodiac", she can't even begin to go to bed until we've had several more minutes of mindless chatter related to anything BUT the San Francisco masked murderer, or even Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery- no, we must be miles away from anything we just witnessed.
So while she does everything she can to avoid watching anything scary, J seeks out only the greatest source of fear he can find in the form of movies. Although, sometimes I'm not sure if he takes greater pleasure in the film or in how easy it is freak me out during and/or after. One of his greatest triumphs happened when I took a bathroom break during "The Orphanage" at my apartment (that's right- I got so scared I literally had to pee). The worst part was I was washing my hands, thinking about how he was probably going to scare me the second I came out and I even noticed a shadow blocking the light coming from under the door- classic horror movie stuff, right? I still screamed. However, what I didn't know was that his best friend had come over and was waiting in my closet. Double scare. So much worse since you've already let your guard down and had a good laugh about how ridiculously you reacted (with full recreations of the whole thing of course). During "Drag Me to Hell" J couldn't stop laughing and smiling with complete and utter joy: though I'm not sure if he was reacting to the film or my cowering in the chair repeating, "No," to myself over and over. I even managed to anticipate a few scares I remembered from the trailer to preemptively hide my eyes.
So why did I go? Obviously, J is great but even my fondness for him couldn't be the only reason I sat in that seat- although, the fact the film was free probably contributed to it as well. In 1895 Thomas Edison hired Alfred Clark to film a re-creation called "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots" which is sometimes considered to be the first horror film. Basically, they brought Mary out, revealed an executioner, switched Mary out for a dummy, chopped off her head, and the executioner showed it to the audience. The end. It was hugely popular.
I think we go to horror films for the same reason we go to any type of genre film- to feel a heightened emotion or emotions we don't normally get in our everyday life. Most people didn't go to high school parties as incredibly well written as "Superbad". Most couple's relationships don't reach the romantic pinnacle of "Pride and Prejudice". And most people aren't bankers who refuse to give a lone to a crotchety old lady who freaks out and puts a curse on you only to make your life miserable where you're continually tormented by unseen monsters and flies go up your nose and nobody believes you and everyone thinks you're nuts all the while demons are trying to drag you to hell and even the crazy Mexican medium can't help you.
I must say though, it was a pretty great movie...and I'm still having nightmares about it.
