Jason Voorhees, Jaime Lannister and Me by Jamie Hill

Ah, October. Leaves are changing color, and everyone is talking about football, or the return of The Walking Dead. (YES!) Halloween is just around the corner. As a child I loved everything about Halloween from making decorations to dressing up to trick-or-treating and bringing home a mountain of candy. I didn’t particularly like being scared, but a little bit was okay—the kind of scared when I knew I was really safe, such as a tour of a haunted house, or going to a scary movie. (These days, the prices of the ‘good candy’ alone are enough to scare me!)

We love scary movies in my house. I married a man who grew up watching Vincent Price and shows called Chiller and Thriller and even Twilight Zone. Movies back then used to advertise that there would be a doctor in the theater for those who might find themselves in need of one. One oldie I watched even had flashing lights and a clanging bell when something scary was about to happen, in case the viewer wanted to avert his or her eyes. *snort*

On our first date, my future husband took me to the drive-in movies to watch Friday the 13^th, the first movie starring villain Jason Voorhees. It scared me sufficiently that I spent the second half of the show much closer to my date (possibly his ulterior motive for choosing that movie?) My mother nearly passed out when we told her later. Much later.

That was the beginning of our relationship, and our joint love of scary movies. We’ve seen a good share of them. Many were really awful. Some were just gory. A few were top notch, such as the first Halloween movie. (The sequels slowly went downhill.)

Hubby doesn’t like demonic or satanic themes, so we don’t watch those. I don’t like violent gore-fests where bad things happen to good, innocent people for no reason. (This does not include those teenage camp counselors in the Friday the 13^th movies. Those kids should have known better.)

These days we are slightly choosier about what we watch. We know many scary movies are going to be silly and/or stupid, and if we don’t expect too much going in we aren’t disappointed. That’s part of the fun of it. 

I am guilty of recently watching the 2013 supernatural thriller Mama because it starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones). But that’s a whole ‘nother topic, right there. And don’t even get me started on The Walking Dead. Best zombie show ever!

Happy October and Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it!

Jamie Hill

www.jamiehill.biz
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