Escapism-ing?

Firstly, why are we so unconscionably drawn to horror films to scare the BEE-Jayzus out of us? And secondly, why are we so unbelievably unimaginative when it comes to creating ‘baddies’?

What I mean is that people (not me) find a desperate need to cram themselves into dark dirty cinemas to watch the latest corn-syrup drenched vile that comes onto screen (I am specifically referring to Resident Evil 3: Afterlife to which I was unwillingly dragged). A recent movie was entitled Paranormal Activity and the tagline reads: “Paranormal Activity is one of the scariest movies of all time. You will be affected as it’s hard to avoid the effect it imprints on your psyche. Nightmares are guaranteed.”

Um, am I the only idiot in the room who thinks there is something severely off-putting about that? Am I the only one who thinks, ‘Er, I’ll give that one a skip, thanks. Oh look, a Julia Roberts movie’? Notice there isn’t a rush to go and watch movies about people dying of AIDS, or domestic violence. Alcoholism and crime and poverty don’t exactly make for blockbuster quality (unless Eminen sings the soundtrack, and stars in it). The fact is that despite Tsotsi winning Gavin Hood an Oscar, I struggle to name 5 people I know who have seen it (myself included).

The things that should really scare us, the likely things that could actually happen and will have the worst consequences, are not the ones we like to terrify ourselves with. Are we escapism-ing? (yes, I’m making that a transitive verb). Are we putting on the blinkers and making ourselves scared of something else? It’s a strange reflection on the modern mentality that we’d rather terrify ourselves on abnormal activity than face up to the real terrors of life.


On the second point, as to imagination, I feel like there are just waves of scary-type monsters. When I was growing up it was Hocus Pocus, The Craft and for daytime viewing, Charmed. Then it went through the Slasher-movie phase of I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream and the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Then simultaneously we had the rise of the undead (ohhh….good movie title). We had the vampire classics of Interview with a Vampire, the daytime viewing of Twilight, the social commentary of True Blood and the sexy edition of Vampire Diaries. With zombies, we have a collection of everything from Tarantino’s corn syrup-soaked Planet Terror to Simon Pegg’s humour with Shaun of the Dead. Are we really so derivative that we cannot muster anything more terrifying than the undead?

                                   Looks like Rose McGowan can span two of those themes...