The first horror movie I ever saw was Scream. I was sixteen and I didn't sleep for weeks. Now I own the trilogy and watch them every Halloween. If I'm single on Valentine's Day, I rent the Halloween (old not stupid Rob Zombie) movies I don't own and I marathon the Halloween series all night. I've been sick and I was trying to stay awake until time to take my next dose of medicine so I put in a scary movie (Scream) so I wouldn't relax. I was out like a light. So I got to thinking about the desensitization I have to certain movies that really weren't worth watching if I got no jumps out of it at all. Then I thought about when I went to see The Strangers by myself and for the first time walked out of a horror movie because I was too scared to finish it. I got in there late and got there just as the action was starting and stayed for maybe 15 minutes and part of that was because I was really craving popcorn. So I thought about that movie. What was it about that movie and about the horror movies that intrigue me enough to come back at least annually and found the common elements.

• The villain was invading someone in a place they considered safe.
• The action (with the exception of Scream where things went down constantly) usually occurred at night.
• The lighting was generally dim.

 I watched Scream again tonight and was genuinely scared again.  It was really simple.  First off, I went to the zoo last week with my sister and niece, spent time in the children's play area, and proceeded to eat without washing my hands.  This gave me a cold.  With a cold comes a fever and a little bit of fogginess to life.  Oh and it comes with the right to take cold medicine.

Then I turned off every light in the house and put the two big dogs outside.  I got a bunch of tea light candles and put them all over the living room (the coolest part was at one point I think I could smell them).  I turned the fan on in the next room so the candles would stay lit, but flicker a lot.

The whole time I was doing this I had the soundtrack for Scream playing and I started at dusk which was atmospherically perfect. 

After Red Right Hand, I turned on the movie.  It was almost dark and with the candles flickering I was genuinely spooked.  As the movie played, an occasional candle blew out, Joe (German Shepherd man beast of a puppy) kept jumping up on this storage thing we have right by the only window I can see out of, but it was dark so I couldn't see.  I actually was so caught up in it that at one point Joe got either on or off of it and I wondered what that noise was and paused the movie to listen for the door.  I was really proud of myself for making it through without giving into the urge to turn on a light.

Figure out what exactly scares you about scary movies. You can't make a mystery mysterious again, but much like spicing things up in in the bedroom, you can play around to bring the spice back to a movie. The dark room and candles thing is better than just a dark room. Having a moving flame anytime, anywhere has always conjured up pictures of things that go bump in the night.

But that's just me. How about you. Leave some comments on what you do to set the mood when watching a scary movie.