Procrastination and Kegel Camp
The other night I find myself watching the pilot episode of Ryan Murphy’s new TV show American Horror Story. I am terrified. It’s actually so creepy that all I want to do is shut it off, step away from the download, and walk in fields of wildflowers with the entire cast of Glee in broad daylight, holding hands.
Instead, I watch the whole thing. I convince myself that if I just take a break now and then and play folk music, it won’t be so scary.
It doesn’t work. The songs can’t cancel out all the gruesome images now filling my head.
Then, get this: I tell myself that if I floss my teeth while I watch the show, it’ll distract me.
Doesn’t work. My hands get caught up in the floss and my teeth so I can’t use them to cover my eyes during the worst scenes, like when the high school bully girl gets tricked into going down into that creepy basement.
I ask you this: what the hell was I thinking?
I mean, I like a little spooky now and then. A thriller, a mystery, a bit of things going bump in the night. But not too much. I finally swore off horror movies a while ago because they didn’t seem to be making my life any better, or at least helping me extend my flights on Tiny Wings.
And yet, there I was, unable to pull myself away from my laptop (and in full disclosure, I must admit this to you: I downloaded the 2nd episode and watched it in one fell swoop, then couldn’t sleep that night because I kept imagining that creepy guy in the black latex suit slowly walking up my basement stairs…)
How many of you out there scare yourselves silly sometimes? Where you know you should just turn off the TV, step away from your computer, or walk out of the theater, and yet you don’t? You are transfixed to the screen, and then stay freaked out for hours, or days, or weeks afterwards?
For some of you, this may seem like a silly question. I know many of you are fans of the horror genre, and enjoy being scared witless.
But what about those times when it’s too much, and yet you don’t stop? What is that?
I would love to hear your comments on this topic, for two reasons, really:
- I don’t know why I did this the other night. Maybe by having some great back-and-forth conversations about the whole topic, we all could be a little more enlightened around those times when we do scare ourselves silly, and,
- You would be doing me a great service. If I had all of your comments to read, I would be too busy answering them to sneak over to iTunes and download the third episode of Murphy’s freaky new show, just to try and figure out what the heck is going on in that basement. It’s the least you could do.
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Oh, wow, do I relate! I've paid good money to see many movies that I saw only half of because my hands were over my eyes! Why do we do this? I don't know – why are we compelled to look at car wrecks? I think we're looking to see if we are witnessing death. Maybe it is a good way to remember we are alive? and maybe be grateful for our alive status?
i can’t figure out what’s worse: staying rooted in my seat in the theater because i paid for the movie, even though i’m scared witless, or walking out of the theater halfway through…
Jeff, I think the reason we sneak peeks at scary stuff is that we're biologically set to feel fear–you know, all those big wild beasts ready to pounce on us. Now that we don't have to worry about being eaten by tigers, we still need our adrenaline rush–hence the spooky stuff. Of course, if you look about you today, you might think there's enough terror to go around, without us having to sneak it on the side.
great points, mary. even though we aren't being chased by tigers these days, there is still the push to experience all that adrenaline rush. and as cat mentioned earlier, it might be a way to peek at the fact that we are all mortal, without having to actually, um, go there (for lack of a more elegant way of saying it.)
After I saw The Blair Witch Project, I had to keep the lights on 24 hours a day for a week. I got my husband a sleep mask so he could block out the 1000 watts I had to have on. Even though I didn't seem to enjoy myself when I was so creeped out I do look back on that time fondly–like wow, look what that movie did to me! I agree with the other posters that we like adrenaline rushes. They make us feel alive, engaged, in the moment. And dental floss is just not enough to distract us from that kind of fun!
the image of your husband wearing a mask just so you could sleep with the lights on cracks me UP! oh, the lengths we'll go to in order to scare ourselves. i am finally over freaking out about that show. but something that i left out of my original post here was the night after watching the show American Horror Story i spilled tomato soup in my kitchen. the only paper towels i had were downstairs in my creepy basement. i tried to talk myself into going down there to get some but chickened out. guess who didn't clean his floor until the next day?