Happy Halloween season, everyone!  It’s October 1st and officially Halloween time, so here- have a countdown list!  It’s a fun, little exploration inside the mind of a parent with anxiety who also love horror films!

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.

Disclaimer: Trigger warnings are a given when you talk about horror, but I’m going to say it anyway.  Many subjects covered by horror films are disturbing to parents in ways we can’t possibly understand and each is unique to the parent and his/her experiences. Tread carefully and know your limits.  If this begins to be too much, there’s no shame in closing the window.  Also, this post contains some spoilers throughout. 

For October first in 31st place, I give you: 

31. The Shining

I have always loved this movie.  It’s seriously disturbing in all the right ways with ghosts, hallucinations and insanity, mind games and isolation, enough bizarre, unsettling yet completely random imagery to rival any David Lynch picture and STILL has room for both good magic and demons.  I used to LOVE watching this movie.  Now? Not really so much.  If my kid starts making up games with invisible people using funny voices and assigning personalities to body parts, there won’t be enough sage in the Western Hemisphere for the amount of cleansing I will be doing.  Oh wait, he already does that… crap.

Also; bodies of dead children are no longer okay.  Ghosts I can deal with, creepy and bizarre randomness I can handle even a ghost in a shower and the elevator with pig’s blood isn’t that bad, but the dead and bloody bodies of those girls just twist my heart in ways only someone chanting “Kali Mah” can appreciate.  

Check in tomorrow for #30 and see which movie we picked!