Horror Movies are Funny Too

At the start of this semester, I never would have thought one of my unrestrained laughter blog posts would involve a horror movie. As many of you probably know, horror movies are designed to produce screams, not laughs, so why in the world would this specific instance result in the latter. The answer is that it was not the movie that was the subject of ridicule, but rather the reaction of one of the viewers to a certain scene. The movie in question was Anabelle, the story of a creepy doll that becomes possessed by a demon and drives a young mother to the brink of insanity. The scene that provoked the outlandish reaction involved the mother looking under the bottom of a closed door when suddenly the doll appears out of nowhere on the other side. Basically, it was an example of the classic horror movie scene in which everyone in the audience knows that something is going to pop out, yet still get scared even when it does. Now, the normal response to a scene like this would be to jump in your seat or maybe even let out a little scream, but what this viewer did resembled neither. No, what she did was much closer to a cheer or a "whoop," something you might hear at a TCU football game. Of course, the rest of the audience, myself included, were not prepared for this out of place response and the incongruity of the situation immediately caused us to break out in laughter. The movie had reached a climactic, terrifying moment and she was cheering? It was obvious that she was scared and not actually cheering, but that fact did nothing to stifle our laughter.

Why So Serious?

During my time in college, I have noticed a somewhat upsetting trend. People take everything a little too seriously. Before I go on, I just want to clarify that I'm not saying this about all people, but just as a general observation I have noticed overtime. With that said, people desperately need to learn to just chill out and relax sometimes. A lot of college students just seem to be a little more tightly wound than others. It might have something to do with college being the time in our lives where we are supposed to discover our true passions and pave the road for our entire futures..... Okay, so I admit that college is an important and stressful time in our lives, but treating every little thing as a life or death situation is not going make it any more enjoyable and rewarding. Now I don't want to be hypocritical. I too have fallen prey to this ailment. I've had times of worry, anxiety, and seriousness to rival most stringent of students, but I have never once felt like I have benefited from them. During spring break, I experienced one of these sudden transformations from a happy go lucky college student into a sullen middle aged man. For some reason, the middle aged man part of me was trying to convince the college student part that my spring break should be spent studying and getting ahead in my classes rather than relaxing and spending time with friends and family. The sad part is the middle aged man part was winning. If it wasn't for a valiant effort from some of my friends, my spring break very well could of consisted of me sitting inside with my head buried in a book and I am eternally grateful to them that it didn't. Instead I spent my time with them and with my family doing fun things a college student should do over spring break. Not only did I have a kick-ass time, but I came back to school with a refreshed mind, ready to dive back into the tough part of school. So my point is this: college does require us to be serious and to take the influence this time has over our futures seriously. But in order to do this and stay somewhat sane at the same time, we also have to learn to relax and take a break sometimes. I was lucky and learned this lesson the easy way.