Tasha Dhanraj turns her back on horror

I went to see a horror film at the cinema for the first time yesterday. I’ve seen horror films before, but never in a dark room filled with strangers. In general, I don’t watch scary films just because I don’t see the point. Fear is the emotion that tells you to run away from harmful situations. Why pay money to feel that? I can just go into the cupboard under the stairs and let spiders crawl on me.

Somehow, the adverts for this film convinced me that sitting through an hour and a half of fabricated tension would be worth £6.50. And so I went with my sister to a cinema in Brighton. Just like every other time I’ve been to see a film, the floors were sticky, there was chewing gum lodged into the bottom of the cup holders and stale popcorn scattered over the seats. There was something about going with the anticipation of being scared that made the normal cinema features creepy. The dark curtains, flashing torches and surround sound all gave me chills before the film even started, despite the commercials flashing across the screen advertising M&Ms.

The film itself wasn’t particularly scary. There were a few moments that made me jump in the same way as you do walking across the road and a bus toots its horn at you. Most of the time, the thing that made it most terrifying wasn’t the horror on screen, but the over-the-top screams and cries from the dramatic teenage girls in the audience.

The last time I watched a horror film, I was 15 and at a sleepover. It was dark, cold and windy outside, which just so happened to be the exact weather conditions in the film. My friends all fell asleep before the opening credits ended. I watched the whole thing in silence and then spent the rest of the night wide awake and too terrified to turn off the light.

“It was broad daylight and I was eating a ham sandwich”

I once watched The Ring whileon holiday in Corfu. It was broad daylight and I was eating a ham sandwich. It was one of the least scary things I’ve ever seen. I don’t like horror movies at the best of times, but there’s no other genre of film or television where the atmosphere and surroundings have to be a certain way in order for you to enjoy it. Horror films are rubbish. Let’s just be honest with ourselves and save our money by only going to see movies that contain cartoon dogs.