Me, Myself and horror movies - the deadly fiasco...

The snap -





I love seeing quality horror movies, movies like the ring, 1408, the silence of the lambs, saw part 1 (the other parts lacked the good screenplay and descended into mere blood and gore). But I have one problem – I cannot, I repeat I cannot watch these movies alone. I need company to hold hands and get scared with. To shrug at each other and laugh it off once the movies is over.

Usually when I see movies or do something that I am interested in, my external sensory perception abandons me and I get sucked into the vortex of what I am doing. And in the case of movies, I get so into them, that I can get jolted for simple surprises.

Like in Jurassic park movie series, of course I know that some creepy looking reptile is going to jump on the guys from any side now, especially when they put that really creepy music and it’s going to chase them with the protagonists escaping within hair’s breath of a distance. Absolutely predictable. Really... absolutely predictable. Nothing new. But I can’t help it anyway, my mind goes haywire calculating the possibilities of the reptile emerging from every nook and corner of the screen that when the animal finally arrives, I literally jump out of my seat sweating like anything.

And this anxiety of mine easily creeps up to those around me and people watching horror movies with me usually have their worst times and best scares. Paradoxical but also memorable are those moments. Man I still remembered the way I and Ram (a friend of mine) freaked out seeing the movie sixth sense (esp the girl ghost with the noodles like stuff flowing out of her mouth), the movie “saw – part 1” when I almost went through a death and rebirth phase when that guy in that weird white mask comes to kidnap people (By the way, both are absolutely good horror movies).

I can really freak the shit out of myself and out of the people who are watching horror movies with me.


-------And now I have had this 1408 horror movie with me for a long time (for almost a year)and I never saw it for I did not get any company to watch the movie in my home(My sister hates horror genre and father and mother aren’t really into English movies). I avoided watching the movie at all costs almost till then but I couldn’t quite bring myself to delete the movie. Having heard from my friends that it’s one good scare and a meaningful scare at that (a horror movie with a good plot), I was too damn curious to just scrap and delete the movie. So I kept it.

And every time, I came across that movie folder in my PC, it would silently mock me and I would just put my head down and would try to ignore it pretty much like the way we people ignore the politicians kicking up each other’s dust and disasters during the pre – election campaigns.

But then on one fateful day, I was too damn bored to care about anything. I was too reckless if I remember exactly. I started to see the movie alone.

I steeled myself. I had to see the movie someday I reasoned. No use, postponing the inevitable. I had to do it. I must confront my fears. Face what has to be faced. I have the guts to do it and I am going to do it. Yeah, in a way I think talked myself into it.

And the movie started. It was completely wicked. With every passing scene, as the tension and the complexity to the plot increased layer by layer, I started to sweat around my neck. My grip on the arm rests on my chair tightened a bit. The idea of the story was so evil that all my insides were slowly quivering scared for the hero. I just wanted to stop the movie, shut my PC down and get outside into the sun but I was held rapt by what was happening on the screen that I could hardly move.

But somehow this time, though I was watching alone; I was determined not to lose my cool. That is... my exterior cool. I am a grown guy and I am going to take it like a man. But the movie was challenging my solidarity.

Each and every twist was so evil and cruel, that each time I consoled myself that the movie couldn’t get any possibly worse, it outdid itself. It was like trying to run away from a horrifying ghost, only to find that the more I ran, the more the ghost got closer to me. And the climax was even more twisted when the last knot of the story was unveiled at the funeral of the hero. It was like finding that until now I have been running on a treadmill whose remote has always been in the hands of the ghost that was pursuing me.


The funeral of the hero - Hurrah. I have finished watching the movie. Oh yeah, I have finished watching the movie. The statement was so dense that I had to repeat it to myself to fully understand it. Fully comprehend the meaning of it. I have just finished watching the movie. And that too alone. I did not need company to watch the horror movie and nor will I anymore. Oh…. Yeah. I am the man.

I relaxed. Took a deep breath. Loosened my grip on the arm holds. I was having those thoughts of proud self appreciation and bravery, which guys usually display on completing some task of heavy challenge or mortal risk.

And then it happened.


How can I forget it? How could I have let my guard down? The ghost always comes back for one last scare. My quick euphoria on my completing the movie without getting jolted must have gotten to my head.


Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.





The last and the final scare got to me. I was severely jarred and visibly shaken. I was left speechless.


I think I am going to need company when watching my next horror movie.





Author's note:

Guys, I just returned from Coimbatore.

A few highlights of my travel, if you ask me - it would be - 2 haiku s, 1 poem(I always write while traveling - will post them later), drank a lovely glass of mulam palzham* juice (*Tamil for musk melon, in Hindi - kharbuja); the drink was so lovely, I am salivating just thinking about it, and I realized I am slowly getting addicted to blogging. :D


Cheers then. Until later.

Muthu.