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E-mailI do not like paying for something that will scare the hell out of me. I hate it when movie houses show trailers of horror movies, especially when I am there to watch a romantic comedy or animated film. I have a very fertile imagination and I tend to brood – scary scenes tend to stick in my mind and haunt me, sometimes even invade my dreams (Hello Freddy Krueger!). On the other hand, my partner loves horror movies so I have to go out of our room while she watches ghosts, zombies, vampires and other unspeakably scary beings.
I was not always scared of horror movies. The Oscars tribute gave me an opportunity to reminisce my horror movie moments. I was surprised that I could remember and identify sounds, scenes, characters and films. The tribute opened with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws with its unmistakable sound. Dun dun dun dun… I hear that sound whenever I’m at the beach. Another unforgettable horror movie sound is from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. I watched it alone and when I went to the bathroom, I carried a pocket knife to protect myself from the psycho (me?). I watched The Exorcist as a child and watched the director’s cut as an adult - I cannot forget the head-turning, the crawling on the ceiling and down the stairs, the puking, and the scary split-second evil image on the kitchen cabinet. Other unforgettable scary movies for me are Hitchcock’s The Birds and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. REDRUM.
I love Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street even its sequels; I still remember the gnashing, screeching sound of Freddy Kruger’s gloved razor-filled hands that he loves to clash together and claw against walls. I think the opening scene in Scream with Drew Barrymore is one of the best ever scream scenes - up to this day, I still play the phone call prank on my mother. I remember watching it early morning after an all-night drinking session and the screaming quickly sobered me.
Mike de Leon’s Itim and Kisapmata rank as two of my favorite movies. A few weeks back I showed Kisapmata to my Art Studies Philippine Cinema class. The fear and tension inside our small classroom were palpable. De Leon’s use of cinematography and sound coupled with the consummate acting of Charito Solis, Charo Santos, Jay Ilagan, and the wonderfully horrifying Vic Silayan all contribute to the horror that is neither paranormal nor supernatural but filial. I have watched it several times yet my stomach still ties up in knots when I see the father, my heart still tightens and I am still shocked at the denouement.
I remember exactly why, when, and how I came to hate horror movies. January 11, 2003. SM Megamall. I remember flying back to Manila from Bacolod to catch the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I had time to kill so I decided to watch a movie and saw a movie poster that said “one of the highest grossing Japanese movies.” So I thought, “what the heck, I love Japanese films, might as well support one now.” So in I went to watch Ring (Ringu in Japanese) without any idea it is a horror movie - the most horrifying for me ever! I was not ready for Sadako crawling out of the well and the television or that huge scary eye underneath the disheveled hair. I spent most of the time with my hands covering my eyes. I wanted to run out of the movie house. I was so terrified and haunted that I moved back into my mother’s house for a few weeks. I wondered why my oldest nephew was always sleeping in my mother’s house too. Turned out he watched the Ring with his erstwhile girlfriend, and he actually ran out of the movie house, leaving his girlfriend behind. She left him soon after that horrific movie moment.
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