Let’s Talk…Scary stuff. And I why I shouldn’t watch it.

It’s that time of year again. 

Halloween is right around the corner, and so I get the urge to watch scary movies. 

That being said, I know I should not watch scary movies.

And that’s why I’ve decided to discuss this matter today for Talk To Us Tuesday, hosted by Impulsive Addict and Shawn.

I enjoy a good scare.  Or at least, I think I do.  I tend to forget that scary stuff traumatizes me.  And after watching it, I have to sleep with a light on for days.  Living pretty much by myself doesn’t help.  (There, another reason I need a husband:  So that I can watch Criminal Minds again.)

As I get older, it seems to get worse.  When I was in high school, my friends and I had sleepovers and watched scary movies all the time.  They didn’t seem to really bother me back then.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I can pinpoint the time I realized I shouldn’t be watching creepy horror movies anymore.  It was during my college days I believe; the night my friend Sara & I decided to go see the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Bad idea.  VERY BAD.

We spent 97% of the movie hiding behind our coats, looking at each other and asking ourselves why the hell we had paid $10.00 (plus popcorn expenses) to do this.  It felt like the longest two hours of my life.

Since then, I’ve limited the scary stuff I watch, and usually it’s movies I’ve already seen – favourites of mine include Halloween: H20 (hello, Josh Hartnett), the Scream series, The Sixth Sense, Pet Sematary, Idle Hands (more funny than scary)…stuff like that.

But Saturday evening, after deciding I should watch a fright flick to get in a Halloweeny mood, you know which one I picked?

Ghost.

Whaaaat?!  Is that even considered a scary movie?!  NO.  It’s  a romance, for crying out loud!

But as I stood there, debating between The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Scream, I ended up picking Ghost.  Because I knew Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg wouldn’t give me nightmares.

How lame am I???

Okay.  Gimme a break.  I redeemed myself last night.  Sort of.

I’ve been reading on a few other blogs about this new show called American Horror Story.  It started airing in the United States a few weeks ago.  Canada got the premiere last night on CityTV, as a sneak peek for the new digital cable channel coming called FX Canada.

So that means, I have no idea if American Horror Story is going to continue on CityTV, or if I only get one episode.  I’m not sure it really matters, because it’s a miracle I survived.  I’m not sure I’d be able to tune in again after that debacle.

The reasons I wanted to watch it:

1. Other bloggers said it was cool.  And I always want to be cool.
2. I liked the names I was hearing for the cast.  Connie Britton is one of my faves from my beloved Friday Night Lights.  Dylan McDermott is hot.  Jessica Lange is larger than life.  These are some powerhouse names, people.    

3.   It’s almost Halloween, and I needed to recover from my lame choice of Ghost the other night.

These are not good enough reasons to scare myself, people.

See, Monday night is laundry night at my house.  My basement is dark and cobwebby and creepy, and also the home of my washer and dryer.  So I force myself to go down there once a week to do laundry, even though I really don’t want to.

When American Horror Story started, I still had one load of laundry in the dryer.  And of course, the show features a very scary basement.

The story revolves around a couple that has just moved to LA with their teenaged daughter to try and save their marriage after the wife, Vivienne (Britton), had a gruesome miscarriage, and shortly thereafter caught her husband, Ben (McDermott), having an affair with a much younger woman.  They move into a huge, old Victorian home that comes cheap because of it’s dark past.

You got it.  Haunted house.

And a cast of unsettling characters living in their neighbourhood that could send a shiver down your spine:  the eccentric neighbour (Lange) whose special needs daughter, Adelaide, keeps showing up telling them, “You’re going to die in there!”; the strange, psychotic boy who is Dr. Ben’s new patient and is making a disturbing friendship with his daughter, Violet; the mysterious housekeeper who magically appears, and seems determined to seduce Ben (creepy, since she’s an old lady, but he somehow only sees her as a sexy young maid); and the scarred peeping tom who hangs out in their backyard amongst the sheets hanging on the line, looking up at the house and smiling strangely.

Did I mention all the really scary stuff happens in the basement?

And that I had a damn load of laundry waiting for me in my basement right after the show ended?

Frig, frig, frig.

When the show ended, I was left with a very disturbed feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I debated leaving the laundry down there.

But then I told myself, “Oh, come on.  It’s just a show.  Fiction.  Be a big girl and go down there and get your laundry.”

So I did.  Gold star for me.  But of course, while I was down there, I started hearing noises.  Bumps and stuff like that.  It sounded like someone was walking around upstairs.

Have I mentioned I have an imagination?

I ended up throwing all the laundry in the basket, not bothering to fold it, and raced up to my room.  When I went to bed, I kept a light on, of course.  And I didn’t sleep very well.  At all.

I should’ve just stuck with Ghost.

Has anybody else seen American Horror Story?  Thoughts?  What are your favourite scary movies?

Or are you like me, and try to avoid it all?