NOTE: This audio has been edited after the fact
(Upbeat, vibrant, cliché intro music (Storybook by Scott Holmes) starts)
Hey everybody! It’s me, ya soon to be girl Hannah. I’m currently joining you here from my humble home in redacted, but you’re all probably listening in from Susquehanna University. If you’re from the broader area, welcome. I’m here today to introduce little ol’ me. I thought perhaps that I might spend this time we have together talking about…
(Loud muffled clattering sound and music cuts out)
(Pause for a few second)
Did you guys hear that? I think it came from downstairs. I’ll check it out. It’s fine I can bring the mic with me.
(wooden chair squeak)
As I was saying, I wanted to talk about horror movies.
(Deep, guttural synth music (Last Breath by Jim Hall) starts playing, setting a darker tone)
(ghost noises)
(walking down the stairs)
Or rather, more specifically, my love of horror movies.
(Sound of howling wind slowly gets louder as I approach)
I know scary movies aren’t for everybody, but I’ve always loved the uniqueness that horror took when approaching even some of the most mundane things.
(Howling is at the loudest volume it will reach)
Huh. Um, sorry everybody, my basement door is open.
(Howling quiets and then stops at sound of closing door)
Looks like something fell over, and it must have hit the door-handle. I guess that’s what made the noise. Oh well, hopefully now there will be no more interruptions. Back to my point.
(Walking upstairs)
For all you scaredy cats out there, don’t worry. As a kid I was also too afraid to watch horror movies. Fun fact about me, (sound of basement door shutting) I didn’t even watch Jurassic Park until high school because (sitting at desk) I was too scared. I only finally watched it because I read the book for class. Instead of watching movies I would go onto Wikipedia and read the plots. To this day, this practice of mine affects me as a writer. I am a very plot-oriented person. I’ll love bad movies as long as the plot is enjoyable, which actually plays even more into my love for horror. I loved learning how these stories could be about anything, while also trying to tap into the human emotion of fear. To me this was a far cry from all the other content I was consuming at the time.
(Music stops)
(Power down sound followed by click of a power outage)
And the power just went out. It is just not my night is it? It’s fine. Luckily my laptop has enough charge, so I should be able to finish this. Let me just get a candle.
(Drawer opens and rummaging ensues)
Ah-ha, here we go.
(Drawer closes, Last Breath by Jim Hall starts again)
Oooooh, set’s a spooky atmosphere. Fitting. Alrighty then, right back into it. I think my love for horror has some roots in the fact that I like to scare people. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of standing behind a corner so that we could jump out and scare our friends. Maybe you were the one behind the corner and maybe you were the one being scared, but either way it probably always ended with one person or both laughing. There is a humor in being frightened by something that, if perhaps, given some more thought is not all that scary. Even the fact that special effects aren’t real, and we know they’re not real, should make movies less scary.
(Music fades out)
But it doesn’t. I am especially a fan of 80s horror.
(Upbeat, yet still creepy synth music (Elsewhere by Jim Hall) starts to play)
I started with this decade because I assumed the quality of the movies would be quite bad, and I wouldn’t get as scared. I was completely wrong. One of the first horror movies I actually watched, was Friday the 13th. I was bundled up in my basement, with a group of friends, far too afraid to watch the movie by myself. For the most part, it was fine. The effects were great, but nothing necessarily too breathtaking, and if you paid just enough attention you could see the difference between the fake body parts and the real ones. It was beginning to look like I’d make it through the whole movie unscathed. And then the climax happened. Our final girl of the film, Alice, stumbles upon another counselor hung from a door by an arrow. I screamed.
(screaming)
And then I burst out laughing.
(laughter)
The scene felt so simple and silly and so ridiculous to get scared at, and yet, when I put my guard down for just one moment and I was surprised and frightened and delighted all at once. That moment sticks with me. I’ve seen a lot of movies since then, but that memory of screaming and then laughing with my friends, this idea of community that comes out of enjoying horror, that’s what makes horror so special to me.
(Loud thudding from upstairs)
(Sigh in defeat)
What now? Hold on one second.
(wooden chair squeaking)
(farther from the mic)
Hello? Is anyone there? Hello?
(sitting at the desk, Elsewhere by Jim Hall ends)
(close to the mic again)
I’m not even gonna go check, I’d really like to finish this before my laptop dies. There is a point to all this.
(Slower, gloomier synth music (Heartache by Jim Hall) starts playing)
I haven’t watched any of the other Friday the 13th movies. I’ve heard about them, read about them, but never watched them. I know that after about the fourth movie, they all begin to lose any kind sense. They become far more cluttered with shlocky clichés and tropes that over-saturate the genre today and have rung it dry of good ideas. But I think perhaps I might love to watch them one day with that same group of friends. Not to relive that moment, but to create new memories and narratives. The older I get the more I realize that horror movies are a passion of mine. Watching them, talking about them, analyzing them is something I want to be able to share with other people. I definitely think my journey into the creative writing major I’m currently working through, is my first step into finding my place into horror. I hope that I can find a way to become a part of this world, in any way.
(Really close clattering sound)
What the- ahhhh.
(Clattering of a wooden chair)
Who are you? Hey, stay where you are.
(Large, thudding footsteps approach me)
Stay- stay away from me. D-don’t come any- No, no, ahhhhhhh-
(cut off ending)
(Music gets louder before fading out)
Sound effects and music were supplied by Freemusicarchive.org and Freesounds.org