So I was sitting here a few hours ago, trying to write a blog post and in no state to do one. In fact, I was pretty misaligned. I realized that I needed to get up and take a break. I shouted as much to my wife in the other room, and then tried to reassure her that I wasn’t upset at her, but just needed to get up from my desk.
“I’m going to watch a movie!” I said.
“Fine, you do that,” she replied.
It was about 5pm. This is a little early for me to watch a movie. Often my wife and I watch things together. Yet today, I was feeling impulsive. So I turned on HBO Max on our iPad, and…
Ended up watching “Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.”
Say what??
This is not a normal choice for me. Sure, I watched “Nightmare on Elm Street” a year ago. And at some point I watched “Hellraiser” out of general curiosity. Then there was that time I watched “The Re-Animator.” But I don’t tend to watch horror movies. A bit too much, you know, blood and death for me.
Nonetheless, since childhood the horror genre has often captivated my imagination. As a kid, I was terrified of Freddy Kreuger movies. I only ever watched the first one, and only because I stayed at a friend’s house one night and his parents allowed him to watch such movies (mine didn’t, at least not when I was 10 years old). It’s been over thirty years and before tonight I hadn’t seen more than the first movie.
With Freddy Krueger, there was always fascination accompanying the terror. He’s not just another horrible killer. He’s supernatural. He lives in dreams. “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies are dark fantasies, but they are fantasies nonetheless. They have an element of magic to them because the villain is sort of a telepathic, soul-possessing demon. The movies also possess a sort of heroism, too, as at least in the first two movies (which are all I have so far seen), the heroines go after Freddy and are ultimately successful in fighting him.
In other words, there is some kind of hope!
Strangely enough, I got an inspiring message from watching the movie tonight. Rather than simply vanquishing in fear like so many other unlucky characters in horror movies, the heroine pursues Freddy to save her boyfriend, whom Freddy has possessed and is using to kill people. She risks her life in the hands of a supernatural madman. Instead of running from her fear, she faces it, and professes her love aloud to her boyfriend, calling him back to her. This performs a magic of its own, and Freddy, suddenly neutralized, burns away in flame and disappears.
She chooses love, and she wins.
Moral of the story? All one needs to do is embrace love, and the “evil monster” will disappear.
Because love is the answer!
This feels like just the message I needed to hear.
Sort of funny that I would get that from watching, of all things, a Freddy Kreuger movie.