October 22: "Psycho" and Shadows

I have been doing two things in the last couple of days.  I have been watching Psycho in preparation for showing it to my Intro to Film classes.  And I have been reading that Ray Bradbury tribute collection of short stories, Shadow Show.  Well, these two tasks have put me in a definite Halloween frame of mind.  Serial killers and ghosts and monsters and whatnot.  It's dark material, but I don't mind it.  As a kid, I subscribed to a film magazine titled Fangoria that revelled in showing full color pictures of the goriest scenes from current horror flicks.  I waited each month for this magazine to show up in my mailbox.

Yes, I was a slightly creepy kid.  However, my reading of Fangoria, and my knowledge of how movie makeup and effects work, made me immune to the scary parts of horror films.  I was also a huge fan of Stephen King novels as a teenager, as well.  My proclivity for gore and monsters and zombies drew me to darker, more serious films and books as an adult.  For example, when I teach Good Books at the university, there is one novel I have used more than any other.  It's a Christmas story by Oscar Hijuelos titled Mr. Ives' Christmas.  It's about a man whose son is gunned down on the street outside a church on Christmas Eve.  It's full of violence and ghosts and death and redemption.  It's one of my favorite novels of all time.

Perhaps I'm a slightly creepy adult, as well.  I will say that, as a parent, I'm appalled by some of the gornography released to theaters these days.  Saw and Hostel and the like.  However, every once in a while at night, I just want to kick back and watch an army of zombies eat some brains.  Thank God for The Walking Dead.

Saint Marty is looking forward to spending some time with Norman Bates this week.

I actually own two copies of this issue