Things that are on my mind

Thoughts on Horror

Warning- this chapter has descriptions of horror texts. Do not read of you are sensitive to that sort of thing

So, I'm not a big fan of horror.

Let me rephrase that
I'm not a big fan of mainstream horror.

By mainstream horror, I refer to the run of the mill, jump-scare ridden 'horror' comics, films and games of the modern day. As someone who isn't fond of screaming, I'm not a fan of jump scares.

However, I am a fan of good, thought provoking horror.

Good horror is something that gives you that sense of tension, that sense of dread. It twists reality and keeps you on edge. It's honestly kind of a disgrace to call jumpscares 'horror' because honestly, all they are are just startling you.

What I consider good horror is using media to twist reality into something that puts people on edge.

My chosen example? The Twilight Zone.

The twilight zone is one of favorite pieces of media of all time. You've got your dark, weird horror, your early 1960s aesthetic, everything. Some episodes of it are definitely better than others, but all in all it's way better than Twilight.

The twilight zone portrays people in their 'normal' settings. I'll be using the example of one of the episodes, 'The Hitchhiker', where a young woman from New York is traveling alone to the west, San Francisco if I'm remembering correctly. Around the middle of her journey, she realizes she is being stalked by a man, a hitchhiker. Well, not stalked, more like wherever she goes, he's there, waiting for her. This drives the woman mad, and there are multiple instances where she almost dies. At one point in time, she reaches New Mexico, where she runs out of gas in the middle of the road. Luckily, she is only a few miles away from a gas station. While at the gas station, she calls her mother and receives the news that she's been dead the entire time.

That episode, while not the best, serves my point well. The Twilight Zone builds up a story that, on the surface, seems mundane. It could happen to any of us, yet it can't because it's that supernatural.

I could go on and on about this sort of thing, but I won't.
Thanks for reading!