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Horror Movies
I grew up watching Hammer Horror films and Kolchak: The Night Stalker, so it should come as no surprise that I love a good horror film. Now I'm casting the net wide here, including everything from spooky ghost stuff to hack & slash flicks.
I like them really good, and really bad, it's just the mid-range that bores me. Part of my love of horror came from my love of comedy. As a teenager at the time when VCR's first started becoming common, I loved going down the video library and hiring a bunch of comedies. But I quickly discovered that a bad comedy is more tragic than anything else. And there are a lot of unfunny comedies.
But at the same time I discovered something else. If I hired a horror film, I could win either way. A good one I'd come away happy with, a bad one I could laugh at. Many truly awful horror films are vastly funnier than many mid-range comedies. And if my luck was really bad, or it was just a boring film, I may still get to see naked women! Kind of hard to lose, really.
But, because of the pedigree I grew up with, it was kind of hard to find ones that scared me. I couldn't tell you what scared me as a kid, but the first film to get any sort of solid response once I was into double digits was the first Nightmare on Elm St. when I was about 18. I just found it worked on many levels. Great concept and I've always loved anything surreal.
For the record, the next film to get a really good response was the original version of The Ring, and that was a couple of years back. More recently, I've been enjoying the Masters of Horror anthology series. The quality is up and down, but when it's good, it's amazing.
Most of the appeal in horror films for me is the range of ideas. Good, bad, or ridiculous, they are well outside the cinema norm. Some draw on ancient ideas of zombies and ghosts, other create new twists or just come up with all too real human baddies. It fascinates me, what people think is scary, what I think is a scary or creepy idea... And I have to admit, I go looking for something that will give me the same buzz as Elm St. or The Ring.
The Move
Yep, it's upon us. The Move. And normally I actually like moving house, I used to do it every few years. And I'm really looking forward to living in Canberra. Shaz went for a walk in the park last night, down to the water - she could hear frogs. Just the thought makes me smile.
But this move is different to all the others.
I'm not doing it, I'm not controlling it, and we have to move everything! Actually what is really frustrating me is that I am essentially useless at the moment. I can manage a quarter to half an hour of moving or packing small things, and then I'm exhausted for the rest of the day, and beyond.
One of the things I like about moving is the chance to go through all the crap and get rid of it. Problem is my last two moves, and now this one, don't really contain enough of that element. So I'm not sorting and getting rid of stuff, I'm just moving it.
I'm trying to declutter, eBay is helping with that, but not enough. Originally I was going to have until the start of next year, but that went out the window. Add to that, I've slowed down because of my health and mood - the black dog nipping.
Fortunately the movers will be packing a chunk of the stuff. The non-Doctor Who stuff, non-DVD stuff, etc. - the things I care about are getting packed by me, even if it kills me.
So yes, the frustration of the Move is getting to me. Mainly because it reflects how little I am able to do. I will be very glad when it's over.
I grew up watching Hammer Horror films and Kolchak: The Night Stalker, so it should come as no surprise that I love a good horror film. Now I'm casting the net wide here, including everything from spooky ghost stuff to hack & slash flicks.
I like them really good, and really bad, it's just the mid-range that bores me. Part of my love of horror came from my love of comedy. As a teenager at the time when VCR's first started becoming common, I loved going down the video library and hiring a bunch of comedies. But I quickly discovered that a bad comedy is more tragic than anything else. And there are a lot of unfunny comedies.
But at the same time I discovered something else. If I hired a horror film, I could win either way. A good one I'd come away happy with, a bad one I could laugh at. Many truly awful horror films are vastly funnier than many mid-range comedies. And if my luck was really bad, or it was just a boring film, I may still get to see naked women! Kind of hard to lose, really.
But, because of the pedigree I grew up with, it was kind of hard to find ones that scared me. I couldn't tell you what scared me as a kid, but the first film to get any sort of solid response once I was into double digits was the first Nightmare on Elm St. when I was about 18. I just found it worked on many levels. Great concept and I've always loved anything surreal.
For the record, the next film to get a really good response was the original version of The Ring, and that was a couple of years back. More recently, I've been enjoying the Masters of Horror anthology series. The quality is up and down, but when it's good, it's amazing.
Most of the appeal in horror films for me is the range of ideas. Good, bad, or ridiculous, they are well outside the cinema norm. Some draw on ancient ideas of zombies and ghosts, other create new twists or just come up with all too real human baddies. It fascinates me, what people think is scary, what I think is a scary or creepy idea... And I have to admit, I go looking for something that will give me the same buzz as Elm St. or The Ring.
The Move
Yep, it's upon us. The Move. And normally I actually like moving house, I used to do it every few years. And I'm really looking forward to living in Canberra. Shaz went for a walk in the park last night, down to the water - she could hear frogs. Just the thought makes me smile.
But this move is different to all the others.
I'm not doing it, I'm not controlling it, and we have to move everything! Actually what is really frustrating me is that I am essentially useless at the moment. I can manage a quarter to half an hour of moving or packing small things, and then I'm exhausted for the rest of the day, and beyond.
One of the things I like about moving is the chance to go through all the crap and get rid of it. Problem is my last two moves, and now this one, don't really contain enough of that element. So I'm not sorting and getting rid of stuff, I'm just moving it.
I'm trying to declutter, eBay is helping with that, but not enough. Originally I was going to have until the start of next year, but that went out the window. Add to that, I've slowed down because of my health and mood - the black dog nipping.
Fortunately the movers will be packing a chunk of the stuff. The non-Doctor Who stuff, non-DVD stuff, etc. - the things I care about are getting packed by me, even if it kills me.
So yes, the frustration of the Move is getting to me. Mainly because it reflects how little I am able to do. I will be very glad when it's over.
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