I love horror. My mom and I, me being like 9 and beyond, would go to rent a movie and we'd pick them on the terrible covers. 😆🤣 I've seen so many horror movies. I've never once been scared by any of them. Werewolves, vampires, demons, nothing scared me. The one monster that does exist and scares me to this day, is Man. Mankind has done atrocities to each other worse than any imagined monsters. 🤷♀️ so, bring on the make-believe monsters, I can escape in them. The real ones? Yeah. No thanks.
I read the book in 1972 as a young adult who was raised Baptist. It scared me so bad I couldn't go to the bathroom at night without my husband by my side! I guess I was afraid the demon was waiting for me in the darkness.
Now, as an older widow, I'm not afraid of the dark anymore. "Hell is empty; all the devils are here."
Love this! I also didn't see any of these films until I was an adult. But, my children saw them all and loved them. I also like to believe that not indoctrinating fear is positive, and encouraging resilience supports our kids. My kids are definitely braver than their peers (at ages 25-35). I don't know if I set them up for being ok in the next life (if there is one), but no-one truly knows that. I definitely did my best to set them up for this one.
I actually know somebody who was involved in an exorcism. She told me all about it (it had happened the weekend before). I was sick to my stomach listening to her describe it because I knew, even if she didn't, that what the girl was going through was 100% a mental health issue and 0% demonic possession.
And the thing is, she was a super sweet young woman. Her entire family were really great people. They all worked with me and I could always count on them. The rest of the employees treated them like shit because they were "weird" and kept to themselves. The young woman once told me that I would "make a good Christian" and it was too bad that I was am atheist. But, the reason they kept to themselves was because they were in a cult. And I'm not being hyperbolic. The whole family was a part of, and nearly the only members of, a doomsday cult. One of the aunts was a prophet and foretold not only the anti-christ but the second coming of Jesus. Who was already born. And was Hmong. And was her son conveniently enough.
I had a minor freak out because as soon as I posted this, the young woman liked one of my photos on Facebook. I triple checked to make sure I posted this in the right place. 😬
As a teen, I asked for a Ouiji board for Christmas, and my friends and I would sit in a dark walk-in closet with a flashlight on, conjuring up the spirits ( BTW, we were all raised Catholic, and it was against our faith to indulge in these type of activities). We also went to some local psychics to have our palms and Tarot cards read. I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal, watching the ghost stories on TV, and going on Ghost Walks in many cities I’ve visited.
In college, my roommates and I saw The Exorcist when it first opened. Scariest movie ever! Maybe because I believed it could happen. Much later, watched The Sixth Sense, which also scared the sh+t out of me! I’m now streaming Evil on Paramount Plus, which I will only watch during the day and not at night because it’s so creepy, yet so funny in parts! (My husband wants nothing to do with this type of genre). I suppose I’m sharing this because your well-written essay brought back memories of how I’ve always loved the spooky stuff (not the blood and guts of some of the horror movies) even now at the age of 70!
I'm sorry, but horror and the supernatural leave me cold. Even when I was an evangelical, I thought the whole "demons, exorcists, Satan behind every bush, speaking in tongues" thing was BS. That was one of the things that drove me out of the church entirely. I simply couldn't take any of it seriously. The whole thing started screaming "CULT!" to me.
Science fiction is my thing. The scariest movie I ever saw were the first few Alien movies.
I love horror. My mom and I, me being like 9 and beyond, would go to rent a movie and we'd pick them on the terrible covers. 😆🤣 I've seen so many horror movies. I've never once been scared by any of them. Werewolves, vampires, demons, nothing scared me. The one monster that does exist and scares me to this day, is Man. Mankind has done atrocities to each other worse than any imagined monsters. 🤷♀️ so, bring on the make-believe monsters, I can escape in them. The real ones? Yeah. No thanks.
I read the book in 1972 as a young adult who was raised Baptist. It scared me so bad I couldn't go to the bathroom at night without my husband by my side! I guess I was afraid the demon was waiting for me in the darkness.
Now, as an older widow, I'm not afraid of the dark anymore. "Hell is empty; all the devils are here."
Love this! I also didn't see any of these films until I was an adult. But, my children saw them all and loved them. I also like to believe that not indoctrinating fear is positive, and encouraging resilience supports our kids. My kids are definitely braver than their peers (at ages 25-35). I don't know if I set them up for being ok in the next life (if there is one), but no-one truly knows that. I definitely did my best to set them up for this one.
I actually know somebody who was involved in an exorcism. She told me all about it (it had happened the weekend before). I was sick to my stomach listening to her describe it because I knew, even if she didn't, that what the girl was going through was 100% a mental health issue and 0% demonic possession.
And the thing is, she was a super sweet young woman. Her entire family were really great people. They all worked with me and I could always count on them. The rest of the employees treated them like shit because they were "weird" and kept to themselves. The young woman once told me that I would "make a good Christian" and it was too bad that I was am atheist. But, the reason they kept to themselves was because they were in a cult. And I'm not being hyperbolic. The whole family was a part of, and nearly the only members of, a doomsday cult. One of the aunts was a prophet and foretold not only the anti-christ but the second coming of Jesus. Who was already born. And was Hmong. And was her son conveniently enough.
I had a minor freak out because as soon as I posted this, the young woman liked one of my photos on Facebook. I triple checked to make sure I posted this in the right place. 😬
As a teen, I asked for a Ouiji board for Christmas, and my friends and I would sit in a dark walk-in closet with a flashlight on, conjuring up the spirits ( BTW, we were all raised Catholic, and it was against our faith to indulge in these type of activities). We also went to some local psychics to have our palms and Tarot cards read. I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal, watching the ghost stories on TV, and going on Ghost Walks in many cities I’ve visited.
In college, my roommates and I saw The Exorcist when it first opened. Scariest movie ever! Maybe because I believed it could happen. Much later, watched The Sixth Sense, which also scared the sh+t out of me! I’m now streaming Evil on Paramount Plus, which I will only watch during the day and not at night because it’s so creepy, yet so funny in parts! (My husband wants nothing to do with this type of genre). I suppose I’m sharing this because your well-written essay brought back memories of how I’ve always loved the spooky stuff (not the blood and guts of some of the horror movies) even now at the age of 70!
I'm sorry, but horror and the supernatural leave me cold. Even when I was an evangelical, I thought the whole "demons, exorcists, Satan behind every bush, speaking in tongues" thing was BS. That was one of the things that drove me out of the church entirely. I simply couldn't take any of it seriously. The whole thing started screaming "CULT!" to me.
Science fiction is my thing. The scariest movie I ever saw were the first few Alien movies.