AV's Halloween Countdown: 30 Days- Horror Movies I WILL NOT watch

*Note: I walked into a pawn shop in which the employees were watching a Faces of Death video, and Dwyer's suicide was included. I did not seek it out, nor do I wish to see it again. I do not endorse suicide, nor trivialize it.---AV



I have seen hundreds of horror movies in my lifetime, from "Nosferatu", to the original cinematic "Phantom of the Opera", to "Nightmare on Elm Street", to the 'Saw' and "Hostel" franchises. I've seen ghostly, long-haired girls crawl out of TVs; women being molested by living vines, and a decapitated head; and watched R. Budd Dwyer's suicide* .


In short, I have seen many horrific things committed to celluloid. However, there are things that even I won't watch, and I felt like I would share them with you. Maybe I'm being a baby, maybe I'm being overly sensitive about certain topics and visuals, but these are not going to be in my DVD player, streaming on my computer, or anything else I would put effort into seeing. Some are things I am offended by, some things I am actually scared by, or otherwise just can't deal with. Though I will list a few examples on each subject, there are many other, similar, titles I will not watch.


Without further ado and in no particular order...

Horror movies about rape- I include movies such as "Last House on the Left", "I Spit On Your Grave" (both their original and remade versions); "Teeth" (which includes emasculation, as well as attempted rape), and the original and remake of "Straw Dogs". Though I know logically they are just movies, I can't bring myself to watch them. I'm not sure whether it's fear, revulsion, or just indifference to the genre, I simply won't watch them.

Children in Peril- This differs from movies in which children are the villains. I can't take watching a child being hurt or killed. For example: I watched "Feast", and though I thought it was an awesome flick, I couldn't forget that one of the first killed was a little boy. I couldn't put "Audrey Rose" out of my mind, whenever I knew that little (fictional) Audrey Rose burned to death in a car accident. Ditto "Silent Hill", which was double trouble for me, because a) I saw it in the theater,  b) T went with me, and knew it was going to happen and didn't tell me, and c) the little girl died horribly after living an equally horrible life. Being a mother myself, I hate seeing these things happen to a child, when I think that it could happen to my child.


Overly-hyped movies- I hate being told THIS IS THE MOVIE OF THE YEAR! THE SCARIEST THRILLER THIS SEASON!!!!! or YOU MUST SEE THIS!!!!...in any genre. I managed to not see "Titanic" until years after its home video release (and it was not worth the wait, in my opinion), still haven't seen "The Notebook", and a lot of the videos I mentioned above (including "Saw" and "Hostel"), were watched on cable, not even worth the price of a rental. Call me cynical, but often the movies just don't live up to the hype. Worse, I feel as though someone's trying to push it on me. One exception: "The Blair Witch Project", which I did wait until home video to see, but I was right there to see it as soon as it came out on video, and was---and still am---thoroughly entertained by it. However, it was original, and though it was hyped to hell and back, it was worth it. Most of the time, however, extra hype equals a usually mediocre movie.


Now, I'm sure you were expecting a list, but I was most interested in explaining what I don't like overall, versus demonizing particular individual movies. Thanks for reading.