Everyone remembers their first horror movie.
Maybe it was at a sleepover where everyone insisted they weren’t scared. Maybe it was sneaking to the theatre to catch a film you weren’t allowed to watch as a child. Horror has always been a communal experience — a genre passed around through hushed recommendations, shared dares and dark living rooms.
My first horror film memory was catching The Exorcist (1973) on television with my cousins, knowing full well we weren’t supposed to be watching it. We’d scream at the jump scares, laugh immediately afterwards, then spend the rest of the night dissecting every scene and convincing each other we could definitely sleep with the lights off.
That was followed by years of movie marathons of horror movies. I barely remember every plot detail. What I remember is the feeling: the anticipation, the adrenaline and the thrill of being scared together.
From box-office blockbusters to online fandoms, horror has become the genre that best captures the fears and anxieties of our times
