Scary? More like disgusting.

I used to check the movie listings every Friday night for the next scary movie coming out. It is my favorite genre. Or should I say it was my favorite genre. Hollywood has now made my favorite wide-eyed, edge-of-your-seat, bone-chilling scary movies into gagging, bloody, gore-filled experiences that leaves me completely disgusted.

When a movie is said to be under the genre horror, by definition that means “a very strong, painful feeling of fear, shock or distress,” according to my dictionary. But it seems Hollywood has mixed up its genre definitions and has mixed horror with grotesque and revolting feelings.

I believe the last good, truly scary movie was “The Ring.” It had just enough plot-line, anticipation, and menacing characters to scare anyone down to their bones. But, what it lacked, thankfully, was this new obsession with blood and gore.

You can’t go to the theater anymore without seeing someone’s flesh being torn apart but some form of mutant or alien. Movies like “Halloween,” about Michael Myers, or “The Hills Have Eyes” are some of the most disgusting movies I have ever seen. I was more scared of my dinner coming up than of what was actually happening.

But what frustrates me more is the lack of creativity in the plot line. I used to love guessing what the final twist would be; if the protagonist would turn out to be the killer or if the ghost was actually trying to warn the characters of what was happening. Now I must sit back and endure two hours of torture, stabbing, and death rather than rising adrenaline, fear and alarm.

This is not to say that such violent and supernatural events aren’t scary, in fact, they are incredibly scary, and it does thrill most of its viewers. But as a sap for the good old scary movies, I am not impressed with this cheap tactic to provoke fear.

Newsflash, Hollywood: scary movies are meant to make you hide your eyes because you’re afraid, not because you’re about throw-up.

– Genevieve Head-Gordon

I just finished my UC application last night, and I can literally feel a huge weight lifting off my shoulders. But the second I feel the stress reducing and a light at the end of the tunnel; boom! I come to school, and I have 3 tests tomorrow, an in-class essay to prepare for, and SAT II’s this Saturday. And I thought the hard part was finally over with! Where did the fun, social high school life go?

The second that college became competition and APs became class fillers. When did students stop taking classes that interest them, and start adhering to what “name-brand” colleges look for? The worst part of it is, is that I am one of these college-obsessing zombie-like students like every other person at my school.

In my UC essay addressing the prompt about my world, I talked a lot about my multifaceted personality, and how I try not to limit myself to excelling in only certain areas, particularly academia. I want to shake some of this sleep-deprived, stressed out students and ask them, plead them to realize that this isn’t worth it. Killing ourselves to be a Harvard, Yale, or Duke alumni isn’t worth it, if you don’t truly know why you want to go there. This is not to say that I don’t advocate people going to these amazing schools, but I don’t believe that people should go there if the only reason they can name for why they want to is, “because its Harvard.”

I thought the stress of my senior year would only be a phase, and I’m sure it will be, for me. But, as I look around my school during brunch or lunch, and I see freshmen stressing about college, something has to be wrong. Maybe its what their parents are telling them, or maybe it’s the need to maintain that competitive GPA right off the bat, but I think that high school should be an interpersonal experience, that should be enjoyed through the relationships you form.

So put down that text book, and ignore one AP class that you know doesn’t interest you, and enjoy high school. Besides, its only four years long, and you don’t need AP calculus or AP physics to tell you that it’s only a minute fraction of the rest of your life.
—Genevieve