{"id":671299,"date":"2026-11-01T00:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T00:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671299\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T00:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T00:16:16","slug":"im-a-scaredy-cat-who-skips-scary-movies-at-halloween-life-gives-us-enough-jump-scares-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671299\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m a scaredy cat who skips scary movies at Halloween. Life gives us enough jump scares \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was 18 \u2013 officially old enough to watch a horror movie \u2013 and Hostel<\/a> was showing. You probably don\u2019t remember it \u2013 ironically, it lives rent-free in my head.<\/p>\n

The plot? I\u2019m so glad you asked. Three American backpackers are lured to a Slovakian town, only to be captured by a group of underground thugs whose business is torturing and murdering people. All the makings of a delightful 94 minutes.<\/p>\n

Twenty years later and I still don\u2019t think I\u2019m old enough to watch Hostel. Images of gouged eyeballs and severed fingers remain firmly lodged in my mind. Even with my best attempt at disappearing into the reclining seat, there were still some scenes that managed to seep through my half-closed eyes, embedding themselves in whatever corner of the brain stores things we\u2019d rather forget.<\/p>\n

My mind has always been a little sticky like that.<\/p>\n

I remember being about 13 and watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with my best friend. Somehow, she managed to doze off midway through all the sawing, while I spent the night trembling, waiting for Leatherface to make his move.<\/p>\n

So, why is it that some of us can switch off after the credits roll, or in my friend\u2019s case during the movie, while others, like me, feel the fear for longer?<\/p>\n

According to psychologist Aoife Durcan, who specialises in supporting highly sensitive people, part of the answer lies in the way we process emotional experiences. Some people, she explains, have a \u201cgreater depth of processing\u201d when it comes to emotional experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have been exposed to particularly disturbing imagery, this can then stay with you for longer as you continue to process and reflect on what you have seen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Which might explain why, 20 years later, I can still summon up scenes from Hostel with alarming clarity given how blatantly wrong the entire film was. I can\u2019t imagine anyone one needs to see people being tied up and poked with sharp things.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Halloween festivals, spooky parades and ghoulish galas to consider this midtermOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

For the thrill-seekers among us, this kind of fear can feel exciting; the racing heart, the surge of adrenaline, that sense of what\u2019s next. For the more faint-hearted \u2013 my fellow scaredy cats \u2013 the experience can become a little too visceral.<\/p>\n

I must have endured hours of torture over the years \u2013 not just on-screen, but my own personal hell unleashed \u2013 at the hands of horror movie makers. Masked villains, psychotic strangers, deadly apparitions; I\u2019ve seen them all. And while my pals appeared to be having a ball, I was praying I\u2019d be spared from any such eventuality.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t bow out sooner.<\/p>\n

I think I so desperately wanted to feel the same rush. I wanted to be part of the collective, not the anomaly who overthought and catastrophised every possible scenario.<\/p>\n

I wanted to be a big girl.<\/p>\n

I think there\u2019s this notion that fear \u2013 particularly when it comes to ghosts and ghouls \u2013 is for children. That us grown-ups with mortgages and our own children should be able to rationalise that scary movies are just that: movies.<\/p>\n

I am now thankfully wise enough to recognise that I will never be old enough to watch Hostel<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where my sticky mind gets me into trouble. It takes an idea, gives it substance, then clings to it like Velcro. <\/p>\n

And unfortunately, a sticky mind doesn\u2019t care how old you are.<\/p>\n

At Halloween<\/a> when scary movies dominating the airwaves, is there any cause for me to revisit Hostel all these years later? Could my cure be facing those sadist fiends with a new sense of resolve and courage?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not convinced. And surely that uncertainty \u2013 that type of self-awareness \u2013 is important: If something feels too distressing, we don\u2019t necessarily need to push through it.<\/p>\n

And that feels like permission worth sharing.<\/p>\n

After all, doesn\u2019t life give us enough jump scares \u2013 impromptu emails, unexpected direct debits, withheld numbers?<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Why Halloween pumpkins are smaller this year, and three viral hacks to carve themOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

So, while the spooky season might lure some of us in with the promise of thrills \u2013 much like those poor American lads in Hostel \u2013 I am now thankfully wise enough to recognise that I will never be old enough to watch Hostel.<\/p>\n

Instead, I shall revel in the softer side of Halloween.<\/p>\n

I will drink warm things from large mugs, bury myself in blankets and carve friendly faces on to pumpkins. I will watch the Sanderson sisters run amok in Hocus Pocus, maybe even brave Goosebumps<\/a>, and accept the fact that I still need parental guidance when it comes to movies.<\/p>\n

Mostly, I will embrace Halloween for its cosiness and soft light and abandon any notion that I need to feel terror to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

After all, in true horror movie fashion, survival is key.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was 18 \u2013 officially old enough to watch a horror movie \u2013 and Hostel was showing. You…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,631,21008,61,60,976],"class_list":["post-671299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-for-you","tag-halloween","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}