Channel surfing is like a walk through Amityville, anymore. Between Grimm, Witches of Eastwick, those Returned people and Rosemary's Baby...it's all I can do to get through the commercials. We've got Unquiet Dead, Walking Dead...Sleepy Hollow...the list goes on and on.
And if television doesn't grab you, the movies will. There's Awakening, Annabelle, Jessabell, The Quiet Ones and the not so quiet ones: Afflicted, Insidious, Possession, Oculus, Sinister...(What's up with Hollywood and the one-word titles?) If that's not enough, The Haunted and Paranormal Activity sequels just keep on keeping on, and that's on top of your garden variety Dracula movies, Alien movies and those scary Chucky things. (That Ouiji commercial sends me leaping for the remote every time.)
The thought of spending money, much less 2 hours of my life to be scared out of my wits makes no sense to me (and that's not counting the time I'd lose to nightmares), which begs the question: "Since when did we equate evil with entertainment?"
I've resisted writing about it for not wanting to give it more energy, but the question sincerely haunts me. Then this morning, driving to an appointment, a news story lent insight. Maybe it's not the horror we're addicted to...It may be the adrenalin.
Seems there's a new degree of haunted tours these days ... Your ultimate "experiential" into the horrific. As I listened to the interviewer described her "immersion" as it is called, it was all I could do not to change the channel, and yet I really wanted to know what was driving this trend, so I listened as she described the most sinister haunted tour you could fathom.
For the sake of her story, this interviewer signed a release and was given the softer version of the tour (which means they didn't kidnap her; instead she met up with her host, only to be duct taped, blindfolded and hooded before being stuffed in a trunk) ...Eight solid hours of sheer terror, the thoughts of which me ask, "Who pays people to experience this?"
Well, it turns out, plenty of people do. As a matter of fact, they have a waiting list of some 27,000 people for this one. And you know who in our population resonates to this most? Soldiers. Go figure. Soldiers! Theory was they've been living on such adrenalin just to stay alive, they come home depressed, wondering if they'll ever feel the rush again. In other words, their adrenalin highs have flattened; this is the closest they can think of to jump their juices again.
Scientifically, even psychologically, I guess it makes sense. But it's sense in the saddest sense of the word. To me it spoke volumes to the unspoken casualties of war...The PTSD...The depression...The alcohol and drug abuse...We've thrown so much horror at such a precious part of our population (and at such a young age for most) ...that now our cultural bell curve is grossly out of whack.
The only good news to the story is that the proceeds from this went toward animal causes...It's not for the money that they do it. A can of dog food will get you a ticket.
As for me, think I'll just send a check to my local ASPCA. (Those ads with Sara McLachlan's singing are scary enough for me.) But the concept of what's really going on beneath the surface of all this, or where it winds up leading...to me, is the most frightening part of all.
