I select a thematically appropriate horror movie for each day of the year and tell you about it.
Why?
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
How do you get to decide what qualifies as a horror movie and where each one goes on the calendar?
I am the Mayor of Horror Movies.
Are all these movies good?
Oh gosh no. But I recommend all of them to the adventurous viewer.
What’s with the CWs?
In horror movies, disturbing material is part of the entertainment package. But for some viewers, elements like sexual violence or bigotry ruin the fun. For those folks, I include content warnings. That said, the warnings are based on my personal reactions and should not be expected to cover all potential cinematic skeeviness, so proceed with caution.
Who are you, aside from the mayor?
I’m Shaenon K. Garrity. I’m mostly a cartoonist. I watch a lot of scary movies while I draw cartoons.
I had an incident of sleep paralysis about 15 years ago. I didn’t see any figures, but there were definite auditory hallucinations. The worst part was that I knew exactly what it was, but I was still terrified. I finally broke it with an exertion that should have let out a yell they could here three blocks away and left me standing on the other side of the room. The actual result was a whimper and a slight twitch of one arm. You know when they say someone died peacefully in their sleep? What if it was actually a heart attack induced by the utter terror of sleep paralysis?
Sleep paralysis is literally a world-wide phenomenon, with multiple legends (such as night hags and morae) being inspired by it. Basically, how it works is that the motor cortex of the brain mostly shuts down during sleep, causing temporary paralysis, and when someone has an occurrence of sleep paralysis, they partially or fully wake up but the motor cortex is still in sleep mode, leading to paralysis and feelings of disorientation or fear. This phenomenon then inspired legends of creatures that would sit or lay on a sleeper and prevent them from moving around, causing terror and nightmares. In fact, the word “nightmare” is derived from the legend of the marae, creatures that would come and sit on a sleeping person’s chest, paralyzing them, and stealing their life energies in the night–all inspired by sleep paralysis!
I even once read about a study where biologists managed to turn off the mechanism that shuts down the motor cortex in a small group of cats, and when the kitties fell asleep and started dreaming, they got up and chased imaginary critters around in their sleep while dreaming! Not only did this allow the researchers to learn about the motor cortex being “turned off” during sleep, but also gave them insights as to the mechanism of sleepwalking.
I had an incident of sleep paralysis about 15 years ago. I didn’t see any figures, but there were definite auditory hallucinations. The worst part was that I knew exactly what it was, but I was still terrified. I finally broke it with an exertion that should have let out a yell they could here three blocks away and left me standing on the other side of the room. The actual result was a whimper and a slight twitch of one arm. You know when they say someone died peacefully in their sleep? What if it was actually a heart attack induced by the utter terror of sleep paralysis?
I’ve only ever heard of sleep paralysis while reading manga. Is it just a Japanese thing or what?
Definitely not just Japanese, though they might have more cultural awareness of it.
Sleep paralysis is literally a world-wide phenomenon, with multiple legends (such as night hags and morae) being inspired by it. Basically, how it works is that the motor cortex of the brain mostly shuts down during sleep, causing temporary paralysis, and when someone has an occurrence of sleep paralysis, they partially or fully wake up but the motor cortex is still in sleep mode, leading to paralysis and feelings of disorientation or fear. This phenomenon then inspired legends of creatures that would sit or lay on a sleeper and prevent them from moving around, causing terror and nightmares. In fact, the word “nightmare” is derived from the legend of the marae, creatures that would come and sit on a sleeping person’s chest, paralyzing them, and stealing their life energies in the night–all inspired by sleep paralysis!
I even once read about a study where biologists managed to turn off the mechanism that shuts down the motor cortex in a small group of cats, and when the kitties fell asleep and started dreaming, they got up and chased imaginary critters around in their sleep while dreaming! Not only did this allow the researchers to learn about the motor cortex being “turned off” during sleep, but also gave them insights as to the mechanism of sleepwalking.