Oh, the horror!

Ok, 100% honesty here...I struggled with what to write about today.  I struggled so much, that I asked Sebastian to give me an idea.  As he munched popcorn and watched cartoons, his suggestion was "Pinky Dinky Doo".  It also happened to be the cartoon he was watching at the time.  He understood when I said I didn't think I would write about that, and he is still eating, watching and humming happily.  Thank goodness he doesn't hold grudges!

Geoff was my next victim.  This time I asked for multiple topics, so that I could pick one that I liked and felt inspired by and not get stuck with something I wasn't feeling.  He brought up a couple of things, and I picked horror.  So, today's blog- all about the blood!  :)

A perfect segue into this topic is a little incident that happened at work today.  As you may (or may not know) I have some tattoos.  14 in all.  When I am at work, I often cover the vast majority of them.  In fact, in the fall, winter and spring, you would have no idea that I have them.  The summer is a different story.  With t-shirts, capri pants and skirts, the tattoos come out to play.  Take 'em or leave 'em.

Anyway, my (relatively) new boss was in the office today.  He and I had a conversation early on about my tattoos, and the fact that they exist.  He told me he has a couple himself and all was well.  Today, I wore a skirt, so they were on full display.

As I sat at a desk near him, working with my partner, I happened to glance over to tell him something.  He was staring at my legs.  Now, before you get any lewd ideas running through your head, just know a couple of things:
a)  I am not his type.  NOT his type.  So it wasn't like that at all.
b) The staring was not lavicious or lewd.  It was more perplexed, moving into horrified.

Since I just love a good confrontation over my choice of body mods, I spun in my seat and asked him if he had any questions.  He was quiet a moment and then asked what all the red on my calf was. My response came quick and easy.

"It's blood running off the machete.  Or the eyeball stuck on the machete.  Depends on what red you are talking about."

John looked at me, then started laughing.  "You are a little bit morbid, aren't you?" he asked.

After that, I had to get up and show him the leg band of zombies I have around my left thigh.  I talked about the fact that I want to eventually cover the entire leg in horror themed images.

So, yes, I am a little bit morbid.  I like horror movies, blood and gore and scary things.  I am intrigued by monsters and ghosts and all manner of things that go bump in the night.  I have (and am continuing to) build a business based around combining my love of horror with Geoff's talent for photography.

My love of horror is ingrained in my genes.  My grandma used to watch every horrible, terrible b-level horror movie out there.  She read the crazy, awful paperback horror novels that you could pick up for a dime.  My mom instilled an early love for Stephen King in me.  My brother and I bonded over Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and every other slasher flick you can think of.  I never had a chance.

Now, I am married to someone that decidedly does NOT love horror.  So much so that I have a "horror movie husband".  Our friend Bill, (whose wife also is not a horror fan) is my date for horror movies.  We have seen a lot of them (not so much recently, but I am sure we can get that to change!).  We laughed through Hostel, cringed through The Last Exorcism.  He is the one that burned "Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus" for me, along with "The Human Centipede".  It's nice to have someone that enjoys it with me, since Geoff most surely doesn't.

There is a huge comic/sci fi/ horror convention in Toronto every August.  With our horror photography business, we have actually been a vendor at the show for the last 3 years.  I LOVE IT!  I have made tons of contact and have made friends with other horror business owners and artists.  And I have had the opportunity  to meet and get autographs from some of my heroes in the business.  Last year alone, I stalker jumped Tom Savini, got Robert Englund's autograph and realized that Elvira is the sweetest lady every.  In previous years, I got Bill Mosely to yell the "F" word in Ernest Borgnine's direction, completely ignored Bruce Campbell at the Benihanna's (by accident of course!  I am just incredibly non-observant!) and met
Robert Kirkman (who wrote the Walking Dead series).  This year, we aren't vending (for a number of reasons that don't make me at all happy) but I am hoping to make the trip up for at least one of the days, to get to experience some of the people and selection and new awesome things that are always up for grabs at the show.

So, horror...what do I like?
- the creepy, the truly scary.  Slasher has it's place, but what keeps me up at night is the subtle scare.
- possession stories scare the crap out of me.  It is one of my irrational fears.
- Good stories.  Don't rely on the effects, don't rely on the blood and gore.  Actually write a story and a good one.  Doesn't have to be complex, or confusing- just good. The original Saw movie  and Rob Zombie's Devils Rejects both had a really good story behind them.
- Stuff with kids bothers me more since I had kids.  I have turned some movies off that 10 years ago, I would have watched in a heart beat.  I relate too much with them now.
- Make me jump and cover my eyes.  I am the easy sell, because I do it in every scary movie.
- Don't put women in traditional stereotypical roles.  If they aren't the hero, then they are the slut.  If they are the hero, then they are often a bitch.  Do something different.  i don't get up in arms about the role and exploitation of women in horror movies.  But I also don't like annoying chicks in my movies.

So, don't judge me when you learn that I like horror.  I have a t-shirt with the original movie poster for "The Gate" on it.  I will compare Stephen King books and movies in conversation for hours (and fyi, the books always win).  I watch movies that have an operating budget in the 10's of thousands.  And I enjoy them.

My name is Anita, and I am a horror fan.  :)

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "now, that wasn't so hard, was it?"