My Abnormal
Horror
Story By Juan Espinoza
G
rowing up, I never really had much to talk about with my friends in elementary school. All everyone really talked about were cartoons/animated films that were popular at the time, for example “Ben-Ten”, “Brave”, and “Total Drama Island.” While all I knew were films about killers, creatures, and more spooky stuff, that little to no one had ever seen. I only really grew up watching horror films like “Tenebre” (1982), “Dawn of the Dead” (1978), “Ginger Snaps” (2000)
“Horror was my only real constant in a world filled with variables, and for many years, these films, characters, and creatures were my way of connecting to myself.”
Medallion 13
which really taught me valuable lessons, they actually gave me a lot of advice and commentary about how life really is. What I mean is “Ginger Snaps”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003), “It Follows” (2014) and “Student Bodies” (1981), to name a few, were horror films that taught me always to practice safe sex. Not in the way “Friday the 13th” (1980), and “Halloween” (1978) did by murdering those who had sexual intercourse, but in the way of learning and educating us about diseases and telling us how to always practice safe sex. Horror films also were my biggest best friend growing up; they never strayed away from me nor made me feel left out/ feel a bit different from everyone else. These films were an escape from my reality. I didn’t have to stick with the problems I faced at home or the problems I thought about. My family was a big part of making me feel different. They always were disgusted by the fact that I liked watching these types of films. Although I did also judge the type of films they watched, which were films of shootouts with no plot or cringe modernized romantic films of old folklore,
but never once did I ever insult them in a way they did when I talked about or was watching horror. I never let them take away the love and happiness I had with the horror genre, little me always kept watching till the endings that i either fantasized or terrorized me. Whenever I watched the movies, everything else just faded away and all that really mattered were me and the tv screen across from me playing a horror film about teenagers getting slashed. Watching these types of films gives me a feeling I never felt before, a feeling I can’t explain much though sometimes I’m left happy crying over them and it’s not because of happy endings or characters living, I tear over them by the fact that I, for once, was feeling happy. For instance, a month ago a film named “X” was released. I’ve been waiting to see this slasher film that’s set in the 70’s ever since it was announced in 2021. I went to watch “X” a day before its initial release with my dad and my stepmom because it was rated R. From the beginning to the end of the film I was watching it with a big smile on my face. That smile never went away even as my stepmom kept trying to ruin
