Go with Your Gut

The plot of any horror film is driven by the characters’ irrational impulses to pursue anything that provokes their curiosity. As we all know, the flat characters typical of these films inevitably face odd scenarios and we can always predict whether they will engage in something ridiculous. For instance, would you like to provoke a psychotic clown? (YES!) Delve into a sticky ghost situation? (YES!), enter an abandoned theme park full of zombie carnies? (YOU KNOW IT!) These options all seem like a picnic, right? Maybe there’s some ice cream down in the poorly lit basement, who knows?!

On a whole, horror film choices make you think, “who in their right mind would keep talking to that creepy old lady with the weird eyeball?”, or even, “don’t leave the body there! He’s not dead! I repeat, he’s not dead!”

But, regardless of whether these films have any merit, we all do things we know we shouldn’t. For instance, I know I should technically avoid certain things, such as:
- Mathematics
- Airplane food
- The random French guy at the coffee shop who talks for too long
- Zoning out in the kitchen and eating a whole row of cookies out of the box (yeah, it happened. No judging.)

For the most part, I do avoid these things; however, there are times when you don’t see any harm. (The in-flight pasta seemed safe.)

If it were not for these lapses in judgement that last throughout a narrative or your daily life, things wouldn’t be very interesting. But, these instances get you thinking: where are all of the gut feelings or the first impressions of impending doom? Why follow the bodiless whispers down the dark alley when you know you probably shouldn’t?

In fact, as I am writing this two perfect examples of just-because- you-can-doesn’t-mean-you-should walked by. The first guy is wearing a shiny leather suit (for serious!). I should note that the temperature today is an unseasonal high of 15 degrees. If life were a horror film, this dude would be outta the game first. The second guy appears to be meeting someone for an interview of some sort. He’s wearing a shirt and tie, and decided that, because it is St. Patrick’s Day, he’d sport an oversized glittery shamrock necklace to meet with his potential employer. Memorable, or a metaphoric leap into a pit of flesh eating bugs?

That’s the thing – how do you know? You really don’t. And that’s the beauty of watching people live life like it’s a horror film. That’s not to say people literally wander around aimlessly in empty warehouses or hang out by the swamp for some fun times, but sometimes you see stuff and wonder if, for even an instant, the random dude with the fanny pack thought, “nah, maybe this could be weird”. Yet, no matter how many road signs along the way warn of dead ends or danger, we all make “horror film” choices every once in a while because we just can’t help it.