Idyllic Chick

I vividly remember the first horror movie I ever saw in the theatre. It was _Halloween II_. I saw it with Barbie Helm at the two screen theatre a couple of blocks from our homes in Kingwood, West Virginia. After the show, with a great amounts of self control, we walked back to her house. Then I *ran* all the way to my home. My parents were downstairs in the family room watching whatever they watched on Saturday nights. Probably Hee Haw. I didn't want them to know that I was scared, so I just sat on the stairs and watched the TV from there. Mom asked me to go make popcorn. I wouldn't do it. The rest of the house was dark. Creepy. Scary. I was certain that Jason was in the kitchen waiting for me. So Daddy made popcorn, Mom comforted me on the couch, and I was pretty much ok after that. But it took me a couple of hours to convince the folks to allow me to go see _The Howling_ later that year.

The fear I felt that night was sheer joy compared to the terror that I felt an hour ago. The remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the scariest movie I've ever seen. The blood and gore were the least that affected me. I've seen plenty of that in movies, and can laugh it off. But the tension that is carried throughout the film is done so thoroughly and for so long, my muscles were aching by the time we walked out of the theatre. I was shaking as the credits rolled. As I watched them it took all of my energy to pry my fingers from around C's arm. This movie fucking wore me out. There were no ups and downs, just ups ups ups. It's all a horror movie should be, and then some.

I loved it. Go see it.