Scary movies.

For those of you who enjoy watching heads being decapitated, startling moments that make you jump out of your seat, and being scared to death, I am not in your camp. When I go to the movies I go to enjoy myself with my wife, family or both. The thought of seeing someone being tortured or murdered creates a very uncomfortable feeling for meand makes it much more difficult to eat popcorn without choking.

When I was probably in 7^th grade my family went to two separate movies one night; my brother went with friends to see “The Exorcist” and I went with my parents to see, “American Graffiti.” I enjoyed my movie very much, my brother on the other hand—at least what I recall---didn’t enjoy his movie as much as I did. Like millions of American’s heads turning around, beds shaking and self-mutilation were not as appealing as Ron Howard looking for Suzanne Summers in the powder blue T-bird.

I recently read the location for the “Blair Witch Project” continues to be a tourist attraction---I didn’t see it, and for sure don’t plan to visit anytime soon. (Probably about 10 years ago I was at Universal Studios and saw the robot shark used in Jaws. It was obviously not real, but I still didn’t like being that close to a mechanical fish that gave me nightmares so many years ago.)

So what’s wrong with me? Why does this form of entertainment take away all of the joy of going to the movies or being out of doors when I feel there is something out there? My family teases me at times, and I am fine with it---I still won’t go to scary movies or watch them in our home.

I have a feeling Hollywood and entertainment outlets need to scare the you know what out of people; today the top 3 movies over Memorial Day weekend were down nearly 15% over last year. Of the top 3 movies, 2 of them were sequels and the other one is a video game brought to the screen. Maybe we need Saw XX or Jaws XVIII to stir things up a bit---I don’t know but the likelihood of my seeing “Sex in the City” is nil.

The photo above was taken at Lake Ellyn about 5 blocks from where we live. Taken at night, the full moon peaked through the trees, and the branches created a mysterious effect; I was not expecting to hear a howl or for someone to tap me on the shoulder as I took the photo, but I was ready to leave once was done. I was the only one in the park that night (that I knew of) and that’s about as appealing to me seeing Freddy Kruger and Jason having a night out together.

Thanks for stopping by.