By D.A. Dellechiaie
BU News Service
I went to my first BU News Service meeting on Friday with the intention of pitching a review of the new Weezer album, “Pacific Daydream.” But then the editors decided that, since it’s Halloween, the writers should pitch some spooky stuff. When I heard this, I decided maybe I wouldn’t write an article that week.
The reason for my stubbornness is that I am a huge wimp. I am 20 years old and still scared of clowns, marionettes, the dark, being home alone and — worst of all — eye drops. I went to see “It” with some friends a few weeks ago and still occasionally check under my bed and in my closet for clowns.
The pitch meeting was coming to an end and I decided that I needed to pitch something. I thought back to “Mortality” by Christopher Hitchens, in which he writes that he was waterboarded in order to be able to write about it. I realized that if Hitchens could get waterboarded, I could get a little scared for the sake of journalism.
The torture I signed myself up for was to watch three scary movies and write about it.
Movie 1: “The Blair Witch Project”
I had never seen the movie before, but I knew the premise. Three people go into the woods with cameras and they go missing. Their film is found and there’s the movie.
I had been told my entire life that “The Blair Witch Project” was scary. But I realized something while watching it: the people that were telling me this were from before my time, thus they didn’t know how scary films could be with better technology.
The creepiest part was the ending. I wish I could say I realized I was brave and that’s why I didn’t find it scary, but really it’s simply not a scary movie. A basic plot summary of the movie is best said by Brian Griffin.
Movie 2: “Hush”
“Hush” is the classic “hunter versus the hunted” story. The main character is a horror writer but didn’t see anything potentially problematic about living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere alone.
Although I get scared when I am home alone, I didn’t find “Hush” that scary. When the intruder made his first appearance in his creepy mask, I got a little anxious, but not scared.
The first two movies barely made me uncomfortable.
I tried to find a horror movie that was like the ones that scared me as a little kid. The movie had to be supernatural but not artificial. It needed to be unnerving and legitimately terrifying enough to scare me. Finally, it had to contain a feeling that the conflict wasn’t resolved. I wanted to be scared before, during and after the movie.
So I did some research and found the perfect movie: “The Ring.”
Movie 3: “The Ring”
“The Ring” is by far the scariest movie I have ever seen. I thought the most horrifying thing that was going to happen to me today was forgetting my class registration time. But no. It was watching “The Ring.”
The whole premise of the movie is that if you watch this creepy videotape, you die seven days later. Now I won’t be able to fall asleep for the next seven years. Thanks, BU News Service editors.
The filler scenes of this movie are also extremely unnerving. Why does the little kid know everything and not tell his mom? Most of the terrifying things that happen are never explained, which in turn makes it scarier. One interesting allusion I liked was that the thing killing everyone was named Samara, as in “Appointment in Samarra” — you know the story about how you can’t outrun death?
I am currently sitting in my room with all the lights on. I am tired, but I am too scared to fall asleep. The things I do for journalism.
