Fear is in the Eye of the Beholder (especially when you're coming at them with a large butcher's knife) by Marika Ley

When I was a 5 years old my parents put “cute” wall paper up in my room with cartoon-like animal characters with googly eyes staring out from behind the leaves of a jungle. Adults loved the wallpaper commenting, “Oh! How adorable!” and asking my mother, “Where did you find that?”

I prayed she'd hold her tongue and not tell them where she bought the bug eyed wallpaper wishing not to subject other children to the horrors of the bulbous eyed animals that stared at me, keeping me awake through-out the night. I just couldn't understand the adults' appeal for the impinging paper – couldn't they see it was just downright scary?

Later at nine I was asked this same question by an adult who saved me from falling to my death climbing a sand cliff, only they said, “Couldn't you see how scary the height was and downright stupid you were for climbing it?”

No, I couldn't. I suppose it was a matter of perspective. So it is the case with all things scary, it's in the eye of the beholder. (I mean what the f*ck was going through the mind of the first bridge bungee jumper? And how could that, in any way, been perceived of as a good idea?)

 The fear factor is a strong draw; the underlying motivation, the drug that flows through your veins upon the challenge of overcoming, facing or enduring something – the more at stake the better. Remember these classic dares; entering the “haunted house”, taking your clothes off at a party, stealing from the supermarket, having sex in public places, etc. It's not a good dare unless a fear is addressed. The more real, the more believable the situation, the more frightening it is. Strength of body, wisdom or dignity - had nothing to do with it (that's how this organization began, for *Petra's sake!).

Horror-bath flicks like Blood Feast do something entirely different to the pulse rate than the effects of watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The types of chemical fear reactions evoked from watching things that could possibly actually happen like Hostel [what? you haven't been lured into something stupid by your libido?] and  fictionalized representations of things that have actually happened Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer are the stuff nightmares are made of...(one hopes).

In your humble Instigator's opinion, the people that collect embalmed babies and dress in [fake] bloody garb would be far more preferable intimate dinner companions as opposed to those that say, collect case studies of mass genocide, or detailed histories of sadistic sociopaths. Both are interesting, yet I wouldn't want to a) be alone with; b) give my contact details to; or c) see what's under the clammy surface of the latter of the two.

As a society we are drawn to both - we not only get off on the fear factor, we get off on the repulsiveness. We read horror tales, we watch real horror-filled documentaries, we check in on Fear Factor (and Star Search, but that's just because we're cruel... What? You don't make fun of just about everyone on the show? What are you? An idiot?), we hope we get to see someone get mortally wounded on Cops (or Star Search), and we watch CSI: Miami to see just how sick, and sickened we can get.

You want sick? You want real horror? Read the news (if you can find it completely uncensored -which you can't), it'll scare your hair white.

Blood Feast (H.G. Lewis, 1963)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Cooper, 1974)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John MacNaughton, 1986)
Hostel (Eli Roth, 2003)

*Saint Petra Peterina – the patron saint of skewed perspective. Statues of St. Petra depict her with very thick glasses, however these are said to be symbolic.
Daily exercise: scratching top of the head  
Prayer mantra: why did I do that? 

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