I can always tell Halloween is coming because almost more than any other season, it really takes over Instagram.
Move over, Christmas trees. It’s time for pumpkin spice, gourds, and all things spooky.
And while I’m generally more than okay with that (love me some pumpkin spice), it also usually means horror—both movies, and games. That I’m not so great with.
See, horror is one of those things that I just…can’t deal with. I’m not sure what it is, but whenever Shane wants to watch a horror movie, it usually ends up with me hiding either behind him or behind my hands and peeking when I know something is going to try to scare me.
And while he’s one of those people who can sleep through a horror movie, I’m one of those people who can’t sleep for days after one.
That’s right. I, Erin, am a chicken.
Exhibit A: We went to see IT at a drive-in.
It was my first time at a drive-in, and I was actually pretty excited about it. I’d promised him we’d go see the scary clown movie, and he got excited when he found out it was running a double feature at our local drive-in, which we’d also been planning to try.
So we packed up my hatchback with as many blankets and pillows as we could find, headed out, and built a little fort in the back just in time for the movie to start.
One of the things that I guess people just know when they go to a drive-in is that you have to start the car every hour or so, or else your battery runs out. By the time we got an hour into IT, though, there was no way in any kind of heck I was starting the car.
Because I drive standard, which means that to start the car, you can’t just reach up and turn the key. You have to climb out, get to the front seat, and push the clutch pedal in at the same time.
So I, the coward that I am, made Shane do it, because I was 90% sure there was a clown under the car and at least if there was, Shane would have the presence of mind to punt it.
Not my proudest moment.
Exhibit B: I can’t even watch him play horror games.
One of Shane’s favourite things about the PSVR is just how many horror games there are for it, and every now and again, when Netflix runs out of scary movies that he hasn’t seen, he likes to boot it up for an extra bit of scary.
The first few times he did that with the Exorcist (yes, that is a VR game), I tried to watch him play. But it only took a few jump scares for me to realize that the only thing I was really doing was hiding behind my hands and trying not to freak out. I couldn’t even watch him play a horror game.
I also distinctly remember one time I tried to play a scary game for myself.
Shane handed me the controller for Til Dawn one time so I could try it, and I made it into the very first room where the light flickers, and I was done. It was so much scarier than watching a movie, because I was interacting with everything. I can’t even imagine how scary VR would be.
Now, for all of you who love horror, and love to post about it, I honestly think that’s a great thing. I remember horror being kind of frowned upon when I was growing up (although that may have been because I grew up in a Mennonite area), and I love seeing stuff like that come out of hiding for Halloween.
Rock your spooky selves—just know I’ll be here in the corner with a pillow over my eyes.
