storyteller
Superstar
I'm kinda obsessed with narrative and symbolism. Horror takes a lot regular fears than creates physical threats to represent those fears and I LOVE that ish. How we interpret the scare can tell us more about ourselves and other people might find a completely different aspect scare or take a different symbol. That sort of stuff is hype to me, horror becoming an ink blot test when we get deep into what scared us about a film.
Then there's the fun aspect. Being in a theater where everyone jumps at the same time or where you can FEEL the hush that comes over a crowd before a jump...people scream, grip their seat, and then they laugh because of the shared catharsis. It's a rush, and as you go down the rabbit hole there's this whole community of like-minded people chasing the thrill.
And finally, there's the creativity...Horror takes age-old myths and legends, but has to repackage them or reimagine them to avoid feeling stale. We know what a vampire is and that means a writer/director has an uphill challenge to scaring us. He can follow the tropes and use them to his advantage or flip them on their head. We thought we knew zombies for decades before 28 days later was like "hey what if they ran though?" And the game straight up changed from there. Movies like Scream and Leslie Vernon didn't change the rules, but packaged them in ways that winked and nodded to the audience. Meanwhile, movies like Candyman and It Follows lay their rules out for you early-on but then leave you helplessly watching fools stumble into the trap.
But even beyond the classics, there's all this low-budget stuff that's made with love. I can't watch a low-budget action movie and a cheaply made drama will fall flat. But you give me a horror movie that was made with love or with some creative bit behind the concept and I will hold it dearly. So you wind up being like a prospecter looking for gold...and eventually, if you get to fanatic level...you wind up in a community like this one. Sharing your favorite hidden gems, debating about the merits of Rob Zombie movies at least once a month, and leaving movie theaters excited to come back to everyone else with the results of your experience.
