So, what is it with the human race and our never-ending fascination with aliens, robots, and zombies; as well as anything horror-related -- demons, haunted houses, sadistic murderers, little ghost girls with creepy faces and long black hair, etc., etc.?! Check out the summer movie schedule, and you'll see what I mean!
Horror...okay, I think I can understand... Maybe this is one of the ways we deal with stuff that scares us. Maybe if we put sadistic murdering in story-form, it won't happen to us...or if the story scares us enough, we won't be as frightened of real life. Demons...I get that. We all wonder what the truth is about heaven and hell and everything related to them. The Bible gives us a few thoughts but never any real concrete answers, so we constantly wonder about it all, and again, it scares us. Haunted houses and little ghost girls -- that's all that heaven and hell stuff combined with our fears about death and our unlimited imaginations taken to a whole other level!
I suppose the living dead -- zombies and the like -- is much the same as the aforementioned horror genre...I just thought it merited its own category! When I googled it (forget college, kids!...we have all the information you need), there were literally hundreds listed. One database had over 4,000! People dying, then rising to eat other people...hmmm...interesting. Wonder who first came up with that idea?!?! You know the story line. You know what's gonna happen. Yet, you are still inexplicably drawn in and curious. Will it simply be gory? Will it be gory and funny? Will it be gory, funny and silly? Will it be a total gore-fest, but with a delightfully happy outcome? Will it be a total gore-fest but with a wonderful redemption of the human race at the end? So much to explore...and so many makeup artists having the time of their lives.
Aliens... We can't discover more planets, more galaxies, more seemingly endless amounts of space of the "outer" variety without wondering, "Could there be other life out there somewhere?"... We humans are innately curious and driven by our fantasies and imaginations, so of course, it makes sense.
Robots. Robots controlled by sadistic humans. Robots controlled by humans but suddenly developing human-like abilities and taking over. Robots that take over and can never be destroyed. Scary, scary robots which must be subdued by good robots. Big, sweet robots. Big, sweet, scary-looking robots. Big, sweet, scary-looking, misunderstood robots. Poor misunderstood robots being attacked by vicious humans. Somebody stop me! I could go on like this forever!
Well, who knows all the reasons behind our fascinations with the same things over and over again? I just thought it was funny! ...and, I didn't even mention vampires, werewolves, or Frankenstein!
c2009 Lorenda Houston
