It’s my pleasure to give this week’s Follow Friday to Amazon bestselling author, and physician, Carrie Rubin. Carrie’s blog is enlightening as well as humorous. She’s chock full of great stories, in addition to being a lovely and supportive blog friend. Go visit her blog and maybe even buy her book :)
Fridays are usually freeform. Mostly, I preface them with a Follow Friday, and then I yak about whatever’s going on with my projects, or something on my mind. This week – a brief discussion about horror, as that’s been something relevant to me this week.
Horror and I have never been good bedfellows. I’ve never seen Saw, or Hostel, or even classic slasher movies like Friday The 13th. Until I was 17 and Repo! The Genetic Opera became one of my favorite movies, I had a real aversion to gore as well. I’m still squeamish, but only with the “realistic hardcore” gore from something like Django Unchained or Saving Private Ryan. Or anything that involves demonic possession. Or really hardcore disturbing stuff like American Horror Story, because of all the disfigured skinless serial killers they’ve got running around. But the fake, dismembered-limbs, bright-red-blood, obviously-fake-entrails gore from Death Race 2000, or the 300 movies, or even Harper’s Island? Doesn’t really bother me anymore.
I can count the amount of “scary” movies I’ve seen on probably one hand. About the only ones I grew up with were Poltergeist, which is fairly tame, and some mild Stephen King fare like The Langoliers and The Stand. Last year, I watched Devil during October and quite enjoyed it.
So, since it’s the season of horror, I’m going back and watching a few movies I would have been afraid of once, but can now handle just fine. Austin and I have begun with the Scream trilogy, which is on Netflix. I’m adoring them so far. The irreverent humor is just grand and I’m still never able to guess who Ghostface is. The first one was basically like “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Murder Spree” and I really need a gif of Matthew Lillard being hit with a phone and whining about it as he’s simultaneously bleeding to death. And they’re really not scary at all so much as they’re hilarious. I don’t even know why movies like Scary Movie were made if Scream already nailed the horror parody.
Next on the list: The Cabin In The Woods, which is a Joss Whedon movie and supposedly quite wry; The Craft, which I’ve seen bits of before and enjoyed; may give the first 3 Resident Evil movies a shot (as I’ve seen 4 & 5 and they were basically just action movies with a few zombies). Maybe Cursed too, because I think it’s on Crackle or Amazon? I may also watch Rubber, which is a dark indie comedy about an evil tire that rolls around and makes people’s heads explode. And I’ve got The Cable Guy, World War Z, Carrie, Rosemary’s Baby, Apollo 18, The Raven, Prophecy, Let The Right One In, and Donnie Darko all in the queue, all of which I’ve never seen…..so that should be enough to get my slightly wimpy horror/thriller fix for Halloween XD
And after all that – Chicken Run. Because Thanksgiving. :P Have a good weekend!
Aether House 
Enjoy your horror movies! Netflix always has some weird ones. :)
I’m not really a horror movie person either. I enjoy them for camp but there are a few movies that have scared me in the past, like 13 Ghosts and Hannibal. Still shudder when I think of those movies!
13 Ghosts is one that I can’t watch either. I want to, because I like the actors in it and I really like the set design/concept, but the ghosts look so scary in it! I don’t want any movies that are gonna give me nightmares.
I could probably watch Hannibal without being scared, but it’s just so gross. I just can’t do stories about cannibalism. Even Cloud Atlas disturbed me because of that.
“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Murder Spree” is a great description of the first Scream movie, lol. I should go back and watch them! I love scary movies myself, though I tend to lean more towards the psychological ghosty haunty stuff than the slasher films. Cabin in the Woods is fantastic; I saw it with a friend who can’t stand horror and she even enjoyed it, so I think it’s also a good stepping stone into the other ones. Come October, I get the urge to just watch all the creepy horror flicks I can get my hands on, even the really, really bad one.
You’ve got a pretty sizable list already, but if you can get your hands on Session 9 (sadly no longer on Netflix), watch it! One of the best paranormal films I’ve seen, and it’s all in your head, there’s barely any gore or monsters. It’s just creepy as hell. And I’d have to say The Exorcist has got to be in there, too, if you haven’t seen that one already. That’s the first movie that made me crying-scared…and I was 16 when I saw it, lol. Soooo good.
Yeah, definitely more the demonic, creepy entity fan, but none of that stupid “jump-scare” or Blair Witch type stuff. Watching people slowly denigrate into evil beings by forces beyond our control? What is scarier than that?
Yeah, I’ve heard Cabin in the Woods has some camp to it, and it has Chris Hemsworth, so I’m looking forward to it. I think I lean towards slasher movies more than psychological horror because slasher movies really don’t scare me (slasher as in serial killers on a rampage – not torture porn like Hostel. Bleck.) And I also like trying to guess who the murderer is. Movies like The Machinist or Requiem for a Dream are way more terrifying than most horror to me. I have some weird tics for what I find disturbing.
I think I had Session 9 on my queue awhile ago. Maybe it’s still on Amazon. I do like suspense/intrigue, as Devil was. I will not do The Exorcist though, lol. I’m too superstitious for that. Demonic posession scares the pants off me.
Oh man, btw, I just remembered that Jennifer’s Body is one of the most fun horror movies I’ve ever seen too. I so wish it was on Netflix. It’s hysterical.
I never got around to seeing Jennifer’s Body, but I wanted to, because I like Amanda Seyfried. Maybe I’ll have to keep an eye out for it now that I’m in full-horror-movie-mode.
Nothing much beats working my way through my blog reader and finding a thoughtful plug for my blog or book. What a nice treat! Thank you!! You made my day. Especially when you used the words “bestselling author.” ;) That made me smile. I guess indeed my book did reach #1 in medical thrillers on Kindle June 2013 when my publisher ran a promotion for it, and I think they list that accolade on their website. But I’ve never considered that short run worthy of calling it a bestseller. Guess I’m not a very good marketer… ;)
I don’t like slasher-type horror, but I love a good book or movie about ghosts, possession, that type of thing. I enjoyed the Paranormal Activity series though I haven’t seen the last one. And of course, I’ll devour any horror novel written by Stephen King.
Enjoy your horror fest, and thanks again!
No problem! Love hearing from you and reading your blog :)
I like ghost stories, generally because they’re spooky while still being tame. I would be willing to watch Paranormal Activity because I can’t imagine how scary they could possibly be. Stephen King’s horror is usually intriguing without being gruesome too. The Stand miniseries is pretty cool – the opening sequence with all the dead sick people and “Don’t Fear The Reaper” really gets under your skin.
The Haunting of Hill House still scares me–the original one, not the remake. The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Psycho are also scary. Not much into the slasher movies and don’t do the demonic movies either. Not ever going to watch the Exorcist, The Omen scared the pants off of me. I watched that one with a blanket over my head. But then again I hid my face the entire time through the Haunted Mansion the first time I went through as a kid! Michelle got it honest.
That one is on my amazon instant queue. Vincent Price, yeah? Looks good. Also have the Legend of Hell House on there, which is an older horror movie but supposedly very scary.
Have a good time watching your line-up of horror films this month! :) I love horror but can never entirely stomach the grisly, gruesome ones. “Hostel” and “Battle Royale” gave me nightmares. Horror movies with demonic possessions also bring out the chicken in me. Lol. When I watched “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”, I could not (would not!) be left alone for three whole days. :D
Yeah, I want to watch Battle Royale, but I’ve heard it is super graphic. So I’m not gonna try watching it. Even The Cabin In The Woods pushed my gore limit. As much as I liked it, I had to watch Chicken Run afterwards to bleach my brain lol.
Tarintino movies have a way of bothering me with gore more than most horror movies tbh. Tarintino’s form of gore is usually just brutal and gross. I can handle some obviously fake decapitated heads, but not a man getting eaten alive by dogs.
And jeez, nooooo. I would never watch any of those exorcism movies lol. That again is just some scary crap :P