Horror Movies and Books

I watched this YouTube video on why we need the horror genre by Michael Martin and I really liked what he had to say about it, so I thought I'd write about how I feel about them here.

I've always been really into horror and fantasy books ever since I started reading. I loved the Goosebumps books (which I grew up reading and it sort of fostered my love for reading.) and I have a special place in my heart for Carrie by Stephen King and a series that I've only read the first book of because it's out of print now, but it's called the Fearless series and it's by Francine Pascal. I've also always loved horror movies, but that's because most of them are hilariously bad either in action or in CGI.

But there is something about the horror genre that I find so fascinating, and I always thought I was the only one who thought this about it. And that's that horror has a great story, because it's light versus dark. You can always tell the evil from the good. And you know who's going to win. But life isn't that certain. It's more grey.

I think that's why I like that genre so much. It's black and white. Good versus evil. And good always wins. And in life, it doesn't seem to work out that way. You see the bad, the evil in the world and you can't imagine these things, but they're out there and it seems that they are getting worse and no one is there to stop them. But there is always a hero in books and movies. 

It's scary sometimes to think about all the evil in the world. But then when you see horrible tragedies happen you always see people out there helping them. So, maybe the world doesn't have a single hero, maybe were all our own heroes fighting our own personal evils and helping each other out when they need us. Maybe we're the good. 

Horror is a great genre, because it doesn't say that monsters aren't real. It says they are real, but they can be defeated and that's what is important. Knowing the monster can be slain makes us feel safe. We may not have that certainty in life, all of our monsters might not be able to be slain by ourselves, but that also shows that we're human and sometimes we need help. And there will always be someone ready to take up a sword and fight along with you. You just have to ask.

Love,

Natalie