Article posted Wednesday, October 27, 2010 4:59pm

Dear Mary Pat,

Halloween is here and it fills me with dread. I hate horror movies, but now that I’m in college, I can’t get away from them. Growing up, we were never allowed to watch scary movies thankfully, but ever since October 1st it’s been fright fest in my dorm. Every room seems to have some sort of slasher movie on. Every party for the past couple of weekends has had a Halloween theme complete with, you guessed it, horror movies, and don’t even get me started on all of the gory decorations. Can you explain this to me?

Scared Out of My Mind

Madison, WI

Dear Scared Out of My Mind,

No, I can’t explain this since I feel exactly the same way that you do. When I was at a slumber party in junior high, we watched Cujo. I’m sure as far as horror movies go, that was pretty mild, but I was totally traumatized. During that same slumber party (fun times!!), we watched Psycho. I would consider that to be a life changing and scarring event and one that put baths much higher on the list than showers. In high school I was able to avoid all slasher movies. That trend ended abruptly in college when I was tricked into seeing Silence of the Lambs. Since I was without wheels of my own and 15 miles away from campus, I joined my deceitful, evil, cruel friends in the cineplex. This was a whole other level of scary. To this day, it’s hard for me to look at Anthony Hopkins, lamp shades and moths.

I think some of us are wired differently. I can’t fathom how people find these movies to be entertaining just as they can’t understand why I refuse to watch a blood bath. Real life can be scary enough, don’t you think?

My advice is to stick to your guns. Don’t watch anything you don’t want to watch. Instead, focus on the redeeming parts of Halloween – little kids in costumes, pumpkin seeds, caramel apples and crisp fall days.

Good luck,

Mary Pat