A Note on Horror Movies

In the shower I was thinking about zombies, and I know which friend-once-removed to blame. I don't like them, horror movies - the original Dawn of the Dead gave me years of idle speculation, sitting in classrooms and plazas, standing at airports and in movie lines, any time my brain was underemployed: okay, the zombies come NOW - what's my plan?

It's one of those canards of critical studies that the monster in a horror movie always represents something else. That's a shop I don't frequent often, but I do buy this. What is it we fear: the criminal, the lone and determined sociopath (Freddy, Jason), or Everybody, other people, Society - with a final betrayal by our friends (Dawn of the Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatchers)? Does the disembodied Evil work from within (The Exorcist, The Shining) or without (The Amityville Horror)?

Funny - I don't think of myself as especially frightened or prone to capitalized absolutes, but I hate what dreams come after, almost invariably. I've developed a new horror habit - reading all the spoilers on the internet in the event that I ever end up watching it. The innoculation won't prevent the fever, but may contain it. I hope that horrifies somebody.