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Films

The Horror Anomaly

Daniel Toré contemplates the ethics of finding pleasure in displeasure.

I was no more than eight years old, sitting crossed-legged on the floor, when I watched Michael Myers leap out of nowhere to pin a teenager to a wall with a knife in the film Halloween (1978). It was shocking, I was terrified – choking – but I was also exhilarated! But then I thought, What the hell is wrong with me?

Having been baited by my giggling much older brother to watch this film together, something changed in me that night. From then on, every weekend when we went to the video rental store (yes, I am that old), I would stand, open-mouthed and dumb-struck by the images and colours on the chunky VHS boxes on the horror display. Not knowing it at the time, I had begun a life-long loving relationship with extreme cinema.

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