People go to horror movies all the time–voluntarily. When I was a teenager, my friends (Dean, Dean, and Shelly) took me to see Friday the 13th in 3D. Granted, it wasn’t much, beyond gore and screams, but I watched it with my hands in front of my face. I lied and told my parents I’d seen “Pirates of Penzance.” I’ve never been interested in horror movies.
Who needs horror movies when you can read in the local paper about a 35-year old mother who let her 7 week old and 16 month old babies starve in their cribs? The police found 307 empty beer cans in the apartment, along with a 2 and a half year old malnourished toddler who’d been foraging in the cupboards for dry rice and noodles. The mother’s blood alcohol level was 0.40. How long does a baby scream from hunger before it stops?
On the news tonight was a story about a 51-year old father who killed his 11-year old and 8-year old daughters and then himself.
And then I heard about a mother in Plano, Texas, who cut off her 11-month old baby’s arms. The baby died in the hospital.
I just finished reading First They Killed My Father, a story told about a child who survived the war in Cambodia in the seventies. The atrocities, the killings, the violence . . . how does that happen?
The world has gone insane. I can even see that with my hands held in front of my face.
Actual Unretouched Photo 
Wow. Excellent post.
But don’t forget the sun.
The sun is shining somewhere.
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I can’t stand horror movies.
My son has a theory on why he loves them.
We did a semester in highschool on the holocaust, focusing primarily on the stories of children. We both became SO depressed. The REAL kind of depression – not my usual ‘why am i fat and poor’.
His theory is that his facination with horror movies and horror fiction comes from his not being able to deal with REAL horror. He aspires to be a horror fiction writer.
The sun IS shining somewhere – THANK GOD.
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It is very hard to believe…
I don’t/can’t watch horror movies either…
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Wow. Excellent post.
But don’t forget the sun.
The sun is shining somewhere.
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I guess I’m strange… I can watch horror movies, and enjoy the adrenaline rush… but I can’t stand to read the news, especially regarding some of the things above. It’s easy to comfort myself with the fictional element of horror movies, but much more difficult to deal with the tragedy and reality of horrors like those you listed.
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I can’t stand horror movies.
My son has a theory on why he loves them.
We did a semester in highschool on the holocaust, focusing primarily on the stories of children. We both became SO depressed. The REAL kind of depression – not my usual ‘why am i fat and poor’.
His theory is that his facination with horror movies and horror fiction comes from his not being able to deal with REAL horror. He aspires to be a horror fiction writer.
The sun IS shining somewhere – THANK GOD.
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You ought to have a parental guidance warning if you’re going to share stories like that…
A few years ago, the local paper ran a long article about children who had died while in foster care or otherwise in custody of the local social services agency. I remember thinking that I just couldn’t cope with stories like that since becoming a parent, because every horror story I projected onto my sweet babe. That article came out on September 10, 2001.
Some days I don’t know how any of us cope with the world.
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It is very hard to believe…
I don’t/can’t watch horror movies either…
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I guess I’m strange… I can watch horror movies, and enjoy the adrenaline rush… but I can’t stand to read the news, especially regarding some of the things above. It’s easy to comfort myself with the fictional element of horror movies, but much more difficult to deal with the tragedy and reality of horrors like those you listed.
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You ought to have a parental guidance warning if you’re going to share stories like that…
A few years ago, the local paper ran a long article about children who had died while in foster care or otherwise in custody of the local social services agency. I remember thinking that I just couldn’t cope with stories like that since becoming a parent, because every horror story I projected onto my sweet babe. That article came out on September 10, 2001.
Some days I don’t know how any of us cope with the world.
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I agree that the world does seem to have gone mad. I do like horror movies and always have, undoubtedly because they projected an imaginative medium for dealing with the horrors of my own childhood.
I make horror art and write horror. I do not commit horrific acts and am a compassionate sensitive person often astounded by the real life horrors of the world at large. While I like horror, what I cannot abide is sensationalistic journalism.
This took root in recent years in American culture during the 90s, with things like that damned O.J. trial. I personally boycotted it yet was still informed of all the “juicy,” (And irrelevent.) details against my will. What I cannot abide is the corporate media, and I have not been a T.V. watcher for some time, apart from the occasional movie on my DVD player. Any
God-awful crime against humanity is guaranteed to get plenty of media focus. Why is that?
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i agree, all that you hae mentioned coupled with the gang violence, drugs and overall illogicity of the government just shows how nuts the planet has gone. im 15 and i already dread getting my own house, with riding taxes, the “property ladder” crap, and i only have to worry about that IF i dont get shot, stabbed, kicked to death etc by a bunch of idiots who have grown up thinking this is the right thing to do!
i guarentee you there will be a war soon, those who kill for pleasure, and those who kill to preserve the civilisation that is humanity.
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