The cat was fine yesterday, he just has cystitis. And he’s not dumb at all, as Dasha said—he’s actually quite well-behaved and polite.

Last night, I spent hours watching analog horror—those eerie videos that mimic old VHS tapes or television broadcasts. I love horror stories with instructions, like, “If the elevator opens and the light inside is red, turn away and count to 15,” and things like that. Since I have absolutely no confidence in my memory or attention span—which is fair—it terrifies me that in a dangerous situation, I might need to recall precise instructions and follow them exactly.

Honestly, I can be quite a coward—I’m afraid of mirrors and the dark. Especially mirrors. There’s always some kind of monster lurking in them, staring at me whenever I look at it. But what’s funny is that when I’m not overthinking things, I have zero self-preservation instinct. If I think I hear burglars, I grab my sword and charge at them. If I suspect ghosts or junkies in an abandoned building, I run in screaming to scare them first. Writing this now, I realize I have no brain😭Oh well.

A year ago, I used to love listening to horror stories before bed, but now I pass out within the first few minutes. Not because they’re boring, but it just happens.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about horror movies that have truly scared me.

First of all, Silent Hill. My god, I was terrified of this movie as a kid. It wasn’t the atmosphere or jumpscares—it was the monsters. Especially the one that looked like a scrotum, the one on the toilet, and the burned girl at the end with metal tentacles. I think the first two scared me because of their helpless, grotesque deformities. At least the scrotum guy could spit venom, but the toilet monster was completely harmless. Still, the way he crawled and licked the air with his tongue horrified me. As for the burned girl—seeing burnt people, their labored breathing, their cracked skin—it just unsettles me on a deep level. And I remember that scene had organ music playing, making everything feel even more ominous. If I remember correctly, she approached the protagonist and asked her to look at her, but the protagonist really didn’t want to. I’m not sure if this is directly tied to Silent Hill, but many of my nightmares involve demonic little girls begging me to look at them. I also found the policewoman’s burning scene deeply disturbing. Another scene that really got to me was when the main character had to memorize the route to a specific hospital room—I knew for a fact I wouldn’t even remember three directions, and there were so many.

One thing that never scared me, though? Pyramid Head and the nurses. They were too… hot? Buff? They looked too cool to be scary. No idea why, but creatures like that don’t frighten me at all.

I rewatched this film recently—of course, it’s not scary at all. But the monsters are amazing, especially knowing that they’re not CGI.

The second movie that messed me up as a kid was Mirrors. The idea of reflections doing whatever they want and, again, burned people—it really got to me. I was absolutely terrified of being in a dark room with a mirror for a long time. Even now, I’m kind of wary around mirrors. I try not to look into them for too long—I feel like my gaze is heavy and unsettling. The scariest parts of Mirrors for me were when the reflection ripped its own mouth apart and when the little boy saw a burning woman in his mirror. I don’t really remember other specific scary moments, but I rewatched it recently, and while it’s not actually scary, it’s still a decent film.

Now, a movie that absolutely destroyed me as an adult—Mama by Andy Muschietti. I remember going to the theater with a friend, expecting to laugh at a dumb horror flick, and instead, we nearly died of fear. First off, the plot is solid—the characters actually make sense and aren’t one-dimensional. It’s about a non-traditional couple—the guy’s brother kidnaps his own daughters, crashes his car in the woods, and disappears. The girls are later found in an abandoned house, feral and filthy but alive. The main couple takes them in and tries to rehabilitate them. But with the girls comes their “Mama”— the ghost who raised and protected them in the wilderness. And HOLY SHIT, this ghost is terrifying. The sounds she makes alone are nightmare fuel. I would really like to attach a picture with her, but OnlyFans requires tagging her, and I can’t do that.

I’m only speaking for myself, of course, because different things scare different people, but I won’t spoil the plot. I do want to talk about the character that stood out to me the most—the older sister, who was raised by the ghost. At first, she only loves Mama, but as she slowly reintegrates into normal human life, she starts realizing Mama is actually terrifying. That feeling you get in nightmares when you suddenly understand something wants to harm you, but you have to pretend you don’t know? That’s exactly what she goes through.

I also want to mention Oculus—I wouldn’t have even remembered it if I hadn’t seen memes about it recently. It’s about a brother and sister fighting an evil mirror. It has that heavy, inescapable, trapped feeling, and I was absolutely on edge in the theater. It’s not even that scary—it’s just really interesting to watch.

I’m sure there were more movies I wanted to mention, but I forgot.

Oh, and I was just watching a video about extinct animals seen by ancient Egyptians. The list includes: a bigger lion, a bigger bull, a bigger heron, a colorful duck, some elephant, and a bigger hippo.