GHOST STORIES AND LOCKDOWN

"The Mummy" movie was released in 1999. This movie had a big impact in my life since I watched it. I was young, when I happened to watch it for the first time. I didn't understand the story and stuff but its impact on me was terrible. While watching, it was fascinating but it didn't last long. At night, I woke up in shock and started crying. The scene where the Mummy and the bugs like things come, was haunting me as a nightmare.

Since then, I haven't watched horror movies. To be honest, I'm not scared of ghosts nor I believe in such things but still it's hard for me to watch horror films. 

I've seen "Manichitrathazhu", but that was more like a psychological thriller with a horror element. I've seen "Ezra" but only the first half.

"Conjuring" series - can't even imagine! 

I'm so unfamiliar with horror movies, that I can't even name a few. I've heard of films where ugly stupid dolls scare people, that's it.

So I always kept distance from the horror flick discussions.

As I grew older, my love for the cinema increased. Being a cinephile, I watch films which were great, of all kinds of genres except horror.

In college, I got friends who were equally cinephilas. Suggesting movies and watching became common. But unlike me, they were horror fans. And there was one guy, who always pushes me to watch horror even after knowing my problem with it. He always made fun of me, and his suggestions of horror films never ended.

 Finally, I agreed to watch it.It was "IT 2". I downloaded it and decided to watch it. 

Yes. I watched the film. In the afternoon with full display brightness. Also with minimum background music.

It worked. 

Without these three things, horror films won't be horrifying.

1) Darkness

2) A lot more darkness

3) Background music

Still, I was not comfortable watching horror. Also there were many other great movies to watch so why waste time watching darkness and darkness? 

In the lockdown period, I watched many awesome movies. And finally I watched "The Titanic" completely. A Magnum Opus!

Most of you people might have watched a lot earlier, but I think, I enjoyed the movie because firstly, I'm grown up now and I can find meaning in every frame of the film. In this age I can assume the magnitude of the craft pulled off by the entire crew of the film, but not sure about the young me.

Also one thing happened amidst the binge watching in lockdown. I happened to watch the same movie that made horror films forbidden to me.

Surprisingly, I watched it without any problem.

When that particular scene came, which haunted me as a nightmare when I was young, I thought about how I've changed in due time.

A lot of things have changed. From a young boy, who changes the channel when a Bollywood item song appears, to watching Game of Thrones episodes without blinking. 

From watching just Malayalam and Hindi films to wide range of Japanese and Korean movies.

Finding meaning in every shot, dialogue and silence, I learnt a lot watching movies. 

Literally I was growing up by watching movies!