A Blog in Which I Compare Carpenter’s Halloween with Mac&Cheese

I’ve been a fan of horror media my entire life. One of my earliest clear memories is going to see Child’s Play in the theater with two of my friends when I was 8 years old. It was a common occurrence at my place growing up to have sleep overs where we would get a few kids and stay up marathoning Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street before I turned 12. I can say with little doubt more kids saw their first horror flick at my house when we were kids than the average theater can claim(massive exaggeration but sounds cool right?) I began reading Stephen King by time I was 13, Clive Barker by 16 and horror anime and manga by time I was 17. In other words I’ve been exposed to horror media from variety of sources since I was young, going on 35 years since I’ve been away of it.

I enjoy all kinds of horror stories, rather they be Lovecraftian cosmic horror, Croneburgian body horror, Anne Rice inspired Sexy Gothic horror, a psychological horror along the lines Jacob’s Ladder, a Stephen King masterpiece or a classic slasher. I really like being scared I guess. There is something comforting about having that control over something you normally do not have control of. As a person who suffers from severe anxiety, a lot of people think it is strange that I adore horror, but horror allows me a bit of control over something I normally don’t, providing that comfort.

I have to admit that I do have a personal favorite type of horror. That type that is more comforting, my baked mac and cheese of horror, that thing I go to when I desperately need that comfort, and that is holiday horror. Now when I say Holiday horror, I am not referring to only Christmas or Christmas Season as our upcoming anthology concentrates on, but any holiday based horror. Carpenter’s Halloween in particular is a feel good movie for me, as morbid as they may be. April Fool’s Day makes me smile to this day. Hell I even have a soft spot for trash like Killing Tree and 2001 Maniacs.

My point is we find comfort in horror for many of the same reasons we find comfort in the holidays…the traditions and familiarity of the situations and the good times we associate with those memories. I do not find comfort in seeing or reading about slashers or demons, I find comfort in the chills and fears, the laughs and tears these stories produce from me, that which they create in me, that feeling that words don’t really do justice. Its not nostalgia per se, but if I had to give it a name, that’s the one that fits it best, a nostalgic love for holidays and horror have created a perfect storm so that I’m constantly nostalgic for holiday horror.

I’m Nate, your you, let me let you go now.