OTM #14: Reaction

Happy almost-Halloween! I went to the theater to watch Perfect Blue with my friends last week, an old horror classic for animation nerds like myself. Every time I watch it, I’m profoundly affected; it so wonderfully blends reality and fantasy, its horror comes from its psychology. However, I think I was in a different mindset than the rest of the crowd. Several times throughout the film, people clapped, cheered; it was as if they’d seen the film millions of times and weren’t affected by it anymore. I was kind of shocked at this. I wasn’t mad by any means, but with such heavy subject matter, I wondered, how can they all be so cheerful right now? So when the lights came on at the film’s end, I sat there motionless, tears filling my eyes while the rest of the crowd happily moved on with their day.

This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this – an insanely different reaction than the rest of the theater – but with this particular film, it felt personal. I want to laugh at myself a bit more, to say, “stop taking it seriously!” But I am who I am. I guess in some ways I like to be profoundly affected by media. Hope you are all able to enjoy a good movie (perhaps a horror flick) this week!