See Saw II

Some day I will figure out why some people like to watch horror movies and why I hate them.

We don't like that sort of movie either. The real horrors of this world include suicide bombers, plagues, and natural disasters, and they can be seen on tv every night for free. We like bird movies, like the March of the Penguins.

At the recommendation of a friend we rented Saw I. Not knowing anything about it we watched the first 20 minutes. We looked at each other and said enough. We turned it off and watched Book TV instead.

Ah, but the beauty of the horror movie is that it *isn't* real. Except symbolically. Exposure to symbolically resolved conflicts in narrative is one way to get perspective, and that can be helpful to us when dealing with horrific events in real-life. So if you are alarmed by what you see on the six o'clock news, you might try engaging yourself in a horror movie.

As far as Saw II goes, though; I'll probably pass. Unless of course the big twist is that the villain is actually just an economics grad student driven mad by lack of grant money, who, ridiculed by academia, decides to conduct his unorthodox game theory experiments on... himself!

"They called me mad at George Mason! But I'll show them... I'll show them all!"

My kids found the March of the Penguins extremely disturbing. Seeing a mother penguin in the jaws of a seal, a chick frozen to death, and a hawk eating a young bird makes me wonder if they're ready for Saw. ;-)