Seeing as how Halloween is just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to indulge in the rich tradition of ghost stories and share some spooky tales to get hearts thumping.
And then I looked out the window鈥
Maybe next year?
I think there is enough real life fodder happening to sustain the horror junkies and all-hallows-eve fanatics until next October.
The days of COVID-19 easily sound like a frightening movie premise read by an intense, gravely-voiced announcer in a commercial.
鈥淚n a world where an invisible threat lurks everywhere you go,鈥 that voice would growl. 鈥淲here there was no defence and nobody was safe. A world where longstanding institutions toppled and the very fabric of society fell away in the blink of an eye.鈥
The tag line would have to be something along the lines of 鈥淭his 2020鈥on鈥檛鈥eave鈥our鈥ouse.鈥
Add an election to that mix, and then you鈥檝e got yourself a frightening political thriller featuring a controlling power at the helm that hasn鈥檛 put the public at such risk since the folks in Soylent Green.
You know, that 鈥70s movie where the food supply comes from recycled humans?
I鈥檝e come to the conclusion, anyhow, that most politicians resemble Frankenstein monsters who lumber from function to function, speech to speech, and debate to debate; it鈥檚 madness how candidates drain themselves of all life as they embark on exhausting campaign trails.
I won鈥檛 even get into the Frankenstien-eqsue patchwork of money and greed that goes into creating some of them.
The public is no better.
People seem to go after candidates like a pack of zombies looking to steal any part of them they can grab hold of (whether it鈥檇 be story-hungry journalists like myself or desperate residents hoping for change).
What鈥檚 happening south of the Canadian border is so frightening, I think I鈥檇 rather spew pea soup and have my head spin around than be subjected to another Trump/Biden debate; in fact, that鈥檚 kinda how the whole thing looked liked.
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Perhaps how we are so captivated by watching the decay of society through social is the real terrifying part.
In these times, I鈥檓 reminded of a long-forgotten gem of a horror movie from the 鈥60s called Targets, in which the relevance of original Frankenstein, Boris Karloff, is questioned when juxtaposed to a young man who goes on a shooting rampage.
Maybe we鈥檝e gotten ourselves into such a place that a manufactured scare just doesn鈥檛 do the trick?
Obviously, fake monsters made from make-up can鈥檛 hold a candle to real acts of harm and terror, but in modern times, we are so inundated with forces beyond our control 鈥 it, for a lack of a better term, is quite scary.
Between an increase in forest fires and the prevalence of pandemics and the world鈥檚 future has become vastly uncertain.
Most folks believe they outrun evil beings the Mummy and the Wolfman chasing after them鈥he looming threats of climate change鈥 that, I鈥檓 not so sure.
But if ghost stories and horror movies have taught us anything, there is always a fighting chance for the good to triumph and for a few lessons to be learned along the way.
So, I suppose the moral of the story here is, no matter what you do on Oct. 24th or 31st, remember to be safe and don鈥檛 get too frightened.
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Email: ryan.uytdewilligen@aldergrovestar.com
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