Of Horror movies and Friday the 13th – Becoming The Muse
If the first of a month falls on a Sunday, the 13th day will be a Friday…. Friday the 13th.
This happens at least once in a year but can occur upto 3 times in a year. For example in the year 2023, 13 January and 13 October have the spooky honour of falling on a Friday. Superstition has it that Friday the 13th is an unlucky date where misfortune and bad things happen.
Pop culture has also helped push the narrative by releasing horror movies and TV series themed around Friday the 13th. The iconic franchise Friday The 13th starring Jason Voorhees was first released in 1980.
11 sequels and a reboot later the 13th movie, Friday the 13th: The Awakening comes out on wait for it….. Friday 13 October.
October is considered the spooky season with Halloween and all, usually horror movies are released in October and TV programming tends to have some sort of Horror or Halloween movie special where all the movies with things that go bump in the night are featured.
What is it about horror movies that some people find appealing?
Growing up I was a sensitive soul with nervous disposition and an active imagination. This one time I stayed up to watch the TV Series Jack The Ripper I woke up the whole house in the dead of night, screaming that there was a headless corpse in my bed. My mum had to change the linen and remake the bed before I could be convinced it was safe to go back to sleep.
Naturally, after that, I stayed away from anything violent or scary. I had even became attuned to when such things would happen, the fading and swelling of the soundtrack, spooky drum beats and of course the worst of it was usually punctuated by a heartbeat rhythm…
Later, as I grew older, I realised that the things I saw when I looked away and imagined what was happening, were actually scarier than if I simply kept watching… So I stopped hiding behind a pillow when a scary or violent scene came on and faced my fears, which didn’t turn out to be so bad, sometimes funny even.
No surprises that I find horror novels more spine chilling than movies because of what plays out in my head. Shoutout to Stephen King and Dean Koontz and of couse the Goosebumps Series by R.L. Stine that lead me down that path.
I acquired a morbid fascination for the horror genre, name a horror movie and I have probably watched it, at least once… Younger me, would be surprised at how I turned out.
Why do we watch horror movies?
According to Stephen King’s essay Why We Crave Horror Movies… Getting to watch the insanity and depravity on the movie screen allows us to release our inner insanity, which in turn, keeps us sane. He writes that watching horror movies allows us to let our emotions have little to no rein at all, and that is something that we don’t always get to do in everyday life.
I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all
-Stephen King on Why We Crave Horror
I don’t know about you but for me, it’s the adrenaline rush from the jump scares that have your heart missing a beat, plus there’s an escape in watching someone else however fictional go through nightmarish things that makes me feel like no matter how much my life sucks I am not them…
My brother has an interesting theory that someone who likes hot spicy food is likely to love horror movies. I love love my hot sauce and of course I am horror movie fan what about you?
Feel free to drop a comment about you relationship with horror movies, novels and spicy hot sauce.
Also if you can help out with this research:
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?