![\"trickrtreat\"](\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trickrtreat.jpg?resize=300%2C200\")
<\/p>\nWelcome to our countdown to the most anxiety-inducing horror films for parents! \u00a0Today\u00a0is day fourteen!<\/p>\n
Each day, we are covering the films I both love and hate because they\u2019re awesome and they give me panic attacks now that I\u2019m a mom.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In our review today, we take a look at another film based on\u00a0the truth in Ed & Lorraine’s work as paranormal psychologists and ghost hunters. \u00a0These films are typically largely fiction, but what isn’t is that these occurrences always happened to families. \u00a0Children, fathers, and mothers were affected and infected in ways that had near devastating consequences.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. The Conjuring<\/strong><\/p>\n So, I admit. \u00a0I just saw this movie three days ago. \u00a0It came out when my daughter was a year old and after having been deeply thrown by severe postpartum anxiety and depression, I figured it was best to stay away from movies like this. \u00a0Far, far away. \u00a0But, since I knew it had to be on my list, it was time.<\/p>\n Since it’s one of the newer horror films, I honestly didn’t expect much. \u00a0The gratuitous gore\u00a0and underwhelming stories we’ve all seen a thousand times have left me a bit dry. \u00a0So, I wasn’t expecting much, maybe a few jumps, probably some blood, maybe a graphic compound fracture or two and probably someone floating at some point. \u00a0I miss the old days of delayed gratification, haunting musical scores that sweep over you and stay with you for days after. \u00a0I long for the director who uses the “magic hour” to create a sense of desperation and loss without having to speak to those feelings directly.<\/p>\n I was pleasantly surprised when this film was both captivating, beautiful\u00a0and severely disturbing in all the right ways. \u00a0It felt like the old days of horror where the importance really was on the suffering of the victims and telling a great story, not just on how scared or disgusted the audience could\u00a0feel. \u00a0This, of course, made it more frightening, more real and a much better film than most I’ve seen in recent years.<\/p>\n As a parent of two small children watching this movie for the first time, there were so many feelings floating around. \u00a0After my first child was born, I was thrown into a severe chemical\/hormonal imbalance. \u00a0I struggled with feeling sick, worried I was going to get hurt or fall victim to some unknown disease. \u00a0I had bruises that couldn’t be explained, I heard voices, saw shadows and lived with a deep sense of fear that if I did not hold my child close and watch over him at all times, he, or I, could die.<\/p>\n This movie brought many of those feelings back as I watched the mother encounter the same experiences but because of a demonic presence, not any sort of chemical imbalance. \u00a0As I watched her fall deeper into the grip of the monster of the house, I watched her children being terrorized by things unseen or only seen by them.<\/p>\n How often do we discredit our children who tell us they see things we cannot? \u00a0How often do we pat them on the head and say things like, “sure honey… I believe you” when they tell you there are things hiding in the corners of their rooms? \u00a0It’s true stories like this that remind us the shadows we don’t admit we see, the fear we swallow as we close the shade on a dark window, hoping nothing stares back at you from the darkness or in the reflection of the glass from behind you are sometimes not as imaginary as we wish they were.<\/p>\n Same thing with our pets. \u00a0Our animals understand things we don’t. \u00a0We just get irritated with them and tell them to stop barking, stop being annoying, stop freaking out for no reason, but what if there really is a reason and we are just not listening to them? \u00a0…And while we are on that topic, seriously – we all know that if there is a sweet dog in a movie like this, chances are they’re going to die, right?<\/p>\n There were a few things that made this movie hard to watch as a mom with anxiety:<\/p>\n 1; Watching the children be terrorized in this house, manipulated and messed with by something unseeable was hard to see. \u00a0I can’t imagine my children having to go through something like this and as a result of this and other movies like it, I am certain I would trust them and do all I could to help them through those feelings and experiences if they told me they were having them. \u00a0It wouldn’t take seeing this above their beds for me to believe them. \u00a0At least, I hope it wouldn’t.<\/p>\n 2; I feel like I had a lot in common with this mom. \u00a0She was making the best of her situation and loved her children deeply. \u00a0They were her entire world and her whole life revolved around them. \u00a0She stood up for them and didn’t hide from the monsters. \u00a0She walked toward the shadows and the voices, she threatened them, demanded they show themselves, thinking she could intimidate them with her strength and desire to protect her children.<\/p>\n She was wrong and got her ass kicked, quite literally. \u00a0I’m pretty sure if I were in that situation, I’d have done the same thing… walking toward the creaking floorboards and screaming out demands to show themselves, trying to command them with my Will. \u00a0Would I have ended up like her, consumed with the darkness of a monster\u00a0and nearly murdering my child? \u00a0The thought is too horrifying to dwell on.<\/p>\n 3; The monster\u00a0moved outside the “haunting space”. \u00a0An ability only having been seen before in Ringu\/The Ring, the ghost\/demon\/monster moved away from the confines of an item or a house, a well or a doll and passed through a necklace into another necklace, to torment another child in another house in another town.<\/p>\n This changes everything. \u00a0I studied all this stuff years ago when I had wanted to be a parapsychologist and one thing was always very clear; spirits attach themselves to items, locations or people. \u00a0They can be shifted from one person to another within a confined space, or passed between locations by moving an item they are attached to, but they are present within that space, only. \u00a0Just like people – they cannot be in two places at once and if their presence is linked to someone or something, it cannot just randomly manifest someplace else. \u00a0This film changed the rules and brought to light another reality, one I hadn’t studied as much but is apparently well known in the Catholic community: Demons don’t need a sympathetic item to bind them to anyone or anything. \u00a0They are above such needs because they were never people first.<\/p>\n So, the whole …. let’s get away from the house, throw the item in the trash and salt, burn and toss the ashes to the winds solution absolutely would not work on this kind of monster. \u00a0Just like in The Ring, the real anxiety here comes from the fact that it transcends a safe space. \u00a0There is no barrier of protection, outside faith, to keep you safe and even then, it might not be enough.<\/p>\n There was one last element that had me in tears as the film closed that I wanted to bring up. \u00a0The story is heartbreaking, as most ghost stories are. \u00a0The reality that this has happened so many times before in this house, that for generations, this monster was manipulating mothers to murder their children in horrifying ways, had me in tears as the credits began to roll.<\/p>\n So, in this film we have random bruising, unexplained injuries, a malevolent spirit, a benevolent spirit, three dead mother-spirits, a demon, a witch, a possessed mother, terrified children, and a rickety old house. \u00a0Perfect film for a parent who has anxiety, right?<\/p>\n Well, one thing I am 100% sure of after seeing this – we will absolutely not in any way for any reason EVER play “hide and clap” in my, or anyone else’s house. \u00a0Ever.<\/p>\n Tomorrow’s pick carries the seal of Ed & Lorraine Warren’s legacy, another film for another beautiful, hazy, October day. \u00a0Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to our countdown to the most anxiety-inducing horror films for parents! \u00a0Today\u00a0is day fourteen! Each day, we are covering the films I both love and hate because they\u2019re awesome and they give me panic attacks now that I\u2019m a mom. In our review today, we take a look at another film based on\u00a0the truth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4,9,14],"tags":[516,517,515,514],"class_list":["post-13713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-and-reviews","category-lessons-from-the-mother-ship","category-news","tag-demons","tag-ed-and-loraine-warren","tag-horror-for-anxious-parents","tag-the-conjuring"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1opIU-3zb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13577,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/horror-film-countdown-movies-anxious-parents-should-avoid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13713,"position":0},"title":"Horror Film Countdown Day 1 – Movies Anxious Parents Should Avoid","author":"Janelle","date":"October 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Halloween season, everyone! \u00a0It's October 1st and officially Halloween time, so here- have a countdown list! \u00a0It's a fun, little exploration inside the mind of a\u00a0parent with anxiety who also love horror films! Each day we will cover an aspect of my personal brand of crazy as it relates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/blog-and-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"trickrtreat","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trickrtreat-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13598,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/horror-film-countdown-day-4-movies-anxious-parents-should-avoid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13713,"position":1},"title":"Horror Film Countdown Day 4 \u2013 Movies Anxious Parents Should Avoid","author":"Janelle","date":"October 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Welcome to our countdown to the most anxiety-inducing horror films for parents! \u00a0Today we are on day four and today, I admit.. I kind of cheated. Each day, we are covering the films I both love and hate because they\u2019re awesome and they give me panic attacks now that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/blog-and-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"trickrtreat","src":"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trickrtreat.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13646,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/horror-film-countdown-day-9-movies-anxious-parents-should-avoid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13713,"position":2},"title":"Horror Film Countdown Day 9 \u2013 Movies Anxious Parents Should Avoid","author":"Janelle","date":"October 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to our countdown to the most anxiety-inducing horror films for parents! \u00a0Today\u00a0is day nine. Each day, we are covering the films I both love and hate because they\u2019re awesome and they give me panic attacks now that I\u2019m a mom. The movie of the day is a personal\u00a0favorite in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/blog-and-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"trickrtreat","src":"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trickrtreat.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13582,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/horror-film-countdown-day-2-movies-anxious-parents-should-avoid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13713,"position":3},"title":"Horror Film Countdown Day 2 – Movies Anxious Parents Should Avoid","author":"Janelle","date":"October 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"To recap this series; Each day we will cover an aspect of my personal brand of crazy as it relates to the films I love and how they affect me as a mom by listing the most anxiety-inducing films I, personally, have ever seen. It's October 2nd and today we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/blog-and-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"trickrtreat","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trickrtreat-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13596,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/horror-film-countdown-day-3-movies-anxious-parents-should-avoid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13713,"position":4},"title":"Horror Film Countdown Day 3 \u2013 Movies Anxious Parents Should Avoid","author":"Janelle","date":"October 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you haven't stopped by so far this month, let me sum up; Lessons From the Mothership is doing a Halloween countdown just for parents!! Each day, we are covering the films I both love and hate because they're awesome and they give me panic attacks. \u00a0These are 31 of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs\/Reviews\/Stories","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/blog-and-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"trickrtreat","src":"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trickrtreat.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13686,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/horror-film-countdown-day-13-movies-anxious-parents-should-avoid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13713,"position":5},"title":"Horror Film Countdown Day 13 \u2013 Movies Anxious Parents Should Avoid","author":"Janelle","date":"October 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to our countdown to the most anxiety-inducing horror films for parents! \u00a0Today\u00a0is day thirteen! Each day, we are covering the films I both love and hate because they\u2019re awesome and they give me panic attacks now that I\u2019m a mom. 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