Into the Unknown

Changes in life and trying new things can be exciting. This same change and the associated newness can also fill us with dread. We are, after all, creatures of habit.

I’m sure you’ve experienced or witnessed this firsthand. Trying a new food can excite or cause nauseating fear. Even the most adventurous “foodie” has seen or heard tell of the one delicacy where they draw the line. But why do we fear things that will not likely hurt us? Short of writing this off as just preference, and to avoid making us all hungry, I’d like to take a moment to explore preference and what can happen when we step away from the familiar and venture into the dark waters of unknown.

I love horror in all its gruesome forms, yet there are some sub-genres I gravitate to. If left to my own devices, I would probably stay in the orbit of slashers and possession films and rarely see the rest the world has to offer.

While I don’t claim to be an expert on everything in the genre, I am a big fan of the unsettling and macabre. There are, however, several facets of horror I had little to no knowledge of prior to 2020 ,and all the things that go along with that decade of a year. Sure, I had opinions, but they were not informed, just conjecture really.

Taking a shot in the dark.

By May of 2020, Tia and I took the plunge and started our podcast. Learning as we went, having bought more equipment than needed and learning how to record and edit was all the technical side, the work part of this adventure. The fun part was the research, that is, watching movies.

The films I always planned on checking out “someday” were soon slated for upcoming episodes and films I had never heard of now played on screen. We rode the highs of finding a film terrifyingly beautiful and the lows of sitting through a real stinker. This adventure was made more entertaining by having a wonderful partner who would get to enjoy or suffer through the same films.

So where do we go from here?

In the past year I saw bizarre tales of a demonic bed; I had my heart stolen while witnessing a young crush on a Swedish vampire; and ultimately learned that a film can be made bereft of a script, cast by mostly dancers instead of actors, and yet still captivate me more thouroughly than a high budget slaughter fest could.

I took a chance rewatching films I saw decades ago and remembered not liking , only to realize that maybe it was just a bit over my head when I was 7.

Sure, I came across some that are not so great. In this, I found even “bad” films could help calibrate my expectations for other films in the same sub-genre or from the same  studio.

I’m not saying you should start watching movies because you feel like you have to. This is a genre I love and for Horror, I’m willing to take a chance.