#10 - Pandemics
After watching endless of hours of zombie movies topped up with the most recent pandemics like Rec, Quarantine and The Walking Dead, I'm convinced that these stories have some real life influence. After watching History Channel's Zombies: A Living History I'm even more convinced that 1) zombie-like states have existed within humans through out history, and 2) if the cause for this state will spread, it will do so through some pandemic. And every time I hear reports on some new H5N1 or SARS I'm convinced it's the start of some Armageddon/Ragnarök pandemic.
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| The Walking Dead (2010) |
#9 - Camping
My undying love for 80's horror brought me to Friday the 13th at a very young age. Followed up by Campfire Tales, Cabin Fever and most recently The Ruins and Eden Lake, the brutal consequences of going camping or hiking are rather evident. Combined with the old story about a couple of young people who got brutally stabbed do death whilst camping in the same woods as where I was born, these movies haven't really contributed to the safe and comfortable feeling of camping. My love for the outdoors and my obsession with sleeping in tents or whatever hut is available (yes, I was a girl scout for many years) still take the overhand, and mostly I can enjoy camping even though it wouldn't surprise me if some lunatic showed up in the middle of the night and attacked our tents.
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| Friday the 13th (2010) |
The house where I was born is surrounded by thick, tall beech trees that during fall have a striking resemblances to the woods in The Blair Witch Project. This movie has probably had the strongest influence on me. I've been interested in the paranormal since I was in Junior High and the unexplainable has always fascinated me, making ghost stories and mocumentaries the most intriguing movie and book material. Although I haven't lived in that house, or those woods, since I was very young, I've still gone there several times a year with my family, and during October to February the place has always led my mind back to the great impact that The Blair Witch Project had on me.
To make matters worse, my other family home (in which I grew up and moved away from 4 years ago) was also surrounded by thick woods of pine trees. And as you might've guessed already I'm a huge fan of Twin Peaks and have been since I watched the show for the first time when I was 14. Being 14 years old, struggling with my own social life and inner troubles, I was very emotionally affected by Twin Peaks. Given the strong but subtle importance of the woods in the show, and its underlying importance in life, the story that it held in the show became somewhat present in my everyday life as well.
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| The Blair Witch Project (1999) |
#7 - Off-beaten tracks
Every damn time I'm out driving I'm worried about running out of gas, making a wrong turn, stopping at the wrong gas station or offending some outback douche while I'm asking for directions, just to end up in some sequence from Deliverance (I actually don't understand why my parents let me watch that movie at all), The Hitcher, Wrong Turn or The Hills Have Eyes. This was my first fear when I was on my road trip through the Pacific Northwest, US and BC, Canada last fall. Driving alone for five days. Taking shortcuts through the mountains in Washington State so I wouldn't get caught in the snowstorm (or the Twin Peaks woods) before I'd reach the border. I was sure there were gonna be some banjo playing inbred kid just waiting for me to make the wrong turn. Luckily my driving skills are exceptional!
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| Deliverance (1972) |
Although my biological clock is turning and churning and tolling I have a hard time forgetting the mass psychoses that was Children of the Corn, the hamstring slashing Gage in Pet Sematary, Antichrist personified in The Omen or becoming mysteriously pregnant as in Rosemary's Baby. The list could be made long. What if my kid turns into Samara or an Esther psychopath?
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| Pet Sematary (1989) |
#5 - Motels
My conviction that some motel managers run their business for other than money making purposes made me a bit skeptic during my road trip in the States and Canada last year. I tried out carefully at a hostel in Seattle the first night, but after being stalked by a drug addicted South American guy all night (who later that night fled over the Canadian border since his Visa expired that same day) I realized that crowded places might not be the best option after all. Since my budget didn't allow me any 5-star suites I swallowed my fear and spent two nights at different motels in Squamish and Nanaimo, BC. These sound like very harmless small towns which they in fact were. But stopping in the middle of the night after driving for hours and checking in to a motel alone with three unknown men in the reception claiming that no room is available but the one right above the reception when you know that the parking lot in front is not nearly half full... is kinda unsettling. After watching Psycho and Hostel I knew I would never set my foot in a motel. But now I have. And all by myself.
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| Psycho (1960) |
#4 - Space
Probably nothing is as scary as the uncomprehending. Never ending space? Distant planets? The serious risk of getting lost and never be able to come back? Disgusting creatures as in Alien? Writhing tentacles as in The Faculty? Nuff said.
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| Alien (1979) |
#3 - Empty school hallways and locker rooms
Basically every teen slasher has a sequence taking place either in empty hallways, dark locker rooms or bathrooms in school. Scream has Mr. Hambry's death scene in his school office. Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master has Sheila's classroom death and the 2010 remake A Nightmare on Elm Street has Kris' nightmare sequence in both class room and hallways. Cherry Falls has Jody's chase in the school corridor and the library. Carrie has the bully scene in the locker room.
When I went to school for the last two years I was always a bit nervous staying after hours. And now at work I have to move through a huge locker room to get to my locker. And the lights can't be turned on manually, instead they automatically turn themselves on with a motion sensor that reacts painfully slow.
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| A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) |
The headline speaks for itself. Not only have I been terrified of clowns ever since I can remember, but being a Stephen King fan since early years didn't really help my case when I insisted I'd watch It. Such a terrible mistake. Not even today, as an (in most cases) grown adult, can I face a clown or even see one at a far distance without having this gut wrenching horror gripping my insides, making my palms sweat and my brain cells FREAK OUT. This fear has stretched so far that it also goes for people wearing masks or being disguised in general. I have a hard time even when my boyfriend wants to run around in his Autobot-mask (yeah, he's turning 30 soon and is a die hard fan of Transformers).
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| It (1990) |
#1 - Haunted Houses
Combining my fear for masked people in general with the fact that all people are born with two fears in life - one of them being frightened of sudden noises or movement, results in my most awkward fear of Haunted Houses. And I'm not talking about being a little spooked; I'm talking about panic attack-hyper ventilation-type of fear. This is however something that's grown on me during the years, as I can't remember being this afraid when I was a child.
When I visited The Haunted House at the local amusement park in Stockholm last summer I completely freaked out. Simply because people wearing masks or other forms of disguises make me so uncomfortable that I can't function properly. I panicked, hyper-ventilated and screamed so much that not only did I get the condescending looks from a freakin' 10-year old, but I made the British personnel who were working the house as ghosts for the season, stop their haunting routine and come check that I didn't need medical attention.
The same thing happened at The London Dungeon. Not only is it scary itself since the torture chamber, Sweeney Todd's barber shop, Mary Jane Kelly's bedroom and all other parts of the dungeon is in fact reenactments and replicas of actual historical places and events. But its simple ghouls and haunted settings are enough to utterly terrify me from all my sense.
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| House of 1000 Corpses (2003) |
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