Halloween Horrors : Scary Movies

by Chin Wye Mun, Junior 1 Cempaka, Class of 2014

Bring out the spiders, welcome the witches and summon the skeletons. It’s that time of the year again where little kids are running around as superheroes and adults are groaning at having to buy buckets of candy for hordes of charming princesses and ghoulish fiends. I think this is probably the one day in a year where cobwebs are gladly accepted with hospitality rather than being chased away.

Halloween is a celebration right down my alley. Costumes, candy, creepy stories, and did I mention, candy? I’m a sucker for horror movies and scary stories. It’s not like I have a strong heart, on the contrary, I’m much more of a scaredy-cat. Even just searching for the pictures for this article makes me scared. Nonetheless, I do enjoy my share of spooky tales and scream-inducing films. 

Speaking of which, some are indeed legendary. Of course, there’s the movie actually titled Halloween which first came out in 1978. The movie is the birth of Michael Myers, whose mask has become a popular Halloween accessory. The plot follows the story of a slasher who murders his sister, gets institutionalized and gets out again to continue his killing spree. The only horror movie I know that’s out now is Insidious Chapter 2. I find the scarcity of horror movies at this time weird ; shouldn’t there be an abundance of them right now? Maybe horror movies are getting harder and harder to produce, which is understandable. There’s almost a formula to scary movies nowadays and it makes everything unfortunately predictable. 

There are few types of scary movies : psychologically, gorily, ghostly, paranormally scary movies and etcetera. The most mind-blowing are of course the psychologically scary ones. I mean, psychology has to do with the mind so naturally it’s as such. In my personal opinion, the most spine-chilling, blood-curdling and hair-raising ones though are the ghostly type. The gory movies come second and paranormal ones come third for me. 

I’m not a strong believer in ghosts and spirits but I think these stories make great movies. Not just apparitions and flying cutlery but those with outstanding characters like Ju-On, The Ring and Shutter. I think these were great horror movies. After watching The Grudge (or Ju-On), I couldn’t sleep properly for months and that’s no exaggeration. I was always paranoid that there was a demon child stuck to my ceiling and another one under my blanket. I’d stare at my toy cat the whole night and wouldn’t blink an eye because if I closed my eyes, the terrifying image of the ghost would be the first thing there, engraved and unmoving, fixated on taking over my mind and possessing my body. 

Ghosts are just so much easier to imagine. They’re simple. They’re dead people. They’re ghostly and pale and the girls wear white dresses and seem suspiciously pure and innocent and have mysteriously long, untidy hair. 

Killers on the other hand are (weirdly enough) more far out than ghosts for me. The murderers in scary movies are always really crazy. I just can’t imagine a guy with a mask bursting into my room with a chainsaw, coming to chop up my body into disgusting, indistinguishable, minuscule pieces. 

The gory ones are absolutely revolting ; they document the case of the terribly sick-minded and twisted criminals. Good examples of movies with simple gore galore are Saw and apparently Begotten, Aftermath and Ichi the Killer are some good ones to check out too. To sum up such movies, it’s all blood, body parts and demented lunatics. Don’t watch if you have a low tolerance for blood, obviously. It may leave you puking and mentally scarred for life. 

The next subdivision in the genre of scary movies are movies about paranormal activity, such as the so-aptly named, Paranormal Activity. I personally hate these movies, which is why I’ve never watched one of them. But watching the trailer is enough for me to dislike it. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t judge because I haven’t even watched one but from what I’ve seen, it’s just magic tricks and sound effects. I hate the shooting style of Paranormal Activity that’s like the night vision camera because it gives me a headache and the set is so restricted. Often times, the awkward movements in paranormal movies evoke more of a laugh then a scream from the audience. Trust me, I know this from the scenes in exorcism movies where the victims just start flying up and down. 

I don’t know if it’s just me but I’m finding the variety of horror movies nowadays just not up to what it was before. The plots are too predictable, you can tell who’s going to die from the first five minutes and the characters always make the most stupid decisions. Why on earth would you want to spend a night out in the middle of the woods alone? “Oh, I need to rest and seclude myself from the rest of the world, in the middle of nowhere.” Not just that, but the characters are always extremely inquisitive. If it were me, I wouldn’t be getting out of my car to check for ghosts or killers, I’d speed my way out of there. 

Anyway, Halloween is the perfect time for just staying in and scaring the wits out of yourself. Have a Halloween Horror Movie Marathon! Chill out, sit back, relax and enjoy yourself some Scream, The Exorcist or Silence of the Lambs. Horror movies are really great, even though I spend half of them shielding my eyes with a pillow, looking away or just running away with the excuse of getting food or going to the toilet. Or you could just opt to dress up and go trick-or-treating. A much safer (and tastier) bet indeed.