Horror movie therapy

My mum did not understand why someone would want to watch a horror movie when they're feeling down. My response...

"Can't wait to see it (Split)! And mum, i need my horror fix when i'm feeling down too. Sometimes it's because you feel patronized by happy endings. Or if the thriller has an ending where the protagonist survives, it makes you feel good about someone succeeding against adversity. Or sometimes generic Hollywood makes you feel numb and you need a jolt to feel something, even if it's a scare. Or maybe you get caught up in the intruiging mystery like we did with Scream."

We watched Scream one time. It was a total... i don't know if accident is the right word. Fluke? A fluke of nature? A flature? A nuke?

Anyway, one day i came home from school way back in the late 90s. I had just turned 15 and was legally allowed to rent VHS from my local video store... man i feel old. So because all my friends had already seen Scream as it had been out since 1996 i needed to watch it as it sounded like my jam. Meta commentary on thriller movies, 90s self referencial comedy, what more could i ask for? So it was a Sunday and i sat my butt down ready to watch the movie my friends raved about for the last 3 years.

Then my mum came home. She looked flustered and tired and told me "I don't care what you're watching i just need to sit down in the lounge." I was like "are you sure? This isn't your type of movie." My mother loves Jane Austin, romance, period films, drama etc. But on this occasion she didn't care, just needed yo rest her feet. So the ads ended and the movie began. She at first thought it was a bit silly but as it went on and the mystery and tension ratcheted up i realized it tapped into the genre she also liked... murder mystery. And while it's not exactly a Ms Marple or Poirot, it had all the same elements. Red herrings, sordid backstory of the protagonist's mother's infidelities, and a clear explanation of the format and rules of the horror/thriller genre (which my mother wasn't privy to prior to watching). What's more a protagonist you can get behind, and humorous side characters.

2 thirds in we were on the edge of our seats, leaning forward, wanting to know whodunnit! Then we realized we had to get to mass. We're Christians, and this is why i know this event happened on a sunday, sometime probably in mid 1999. We went to church, twiddled our thumbs and raced back. It was so fun to connect with my mum on a film that under regular circumstances we would never have seen. We cheered at the end i think. It's a memory that we'll always have. She still mentions it to this day.