The horror community: Real monsters among us

I am an equal opportunity horror lover. I like most horror films that I watch, and I love a lot of them. The ones that I don’t enjoy, I can just shrug and say, “It just wasn’t my cup of tea.” I have watched some films on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs that I would NEVER have hunted down on my own.

Incidentally, Joe Bob had some encouraging words for independent filmmakers like my friend Erik after he showed One Cut of the Dead, and you can see that clip at the end of this story. While I didn’t love (or even like) all of the movies I watch on The Last Drive-In, I enjoy Joe Bob and Darcy’s commentary and trivia, and I appreciate the campiness of many of the offerings.

And, speaking of Darcy A/K/A Diana Price, she was at the center of a different type of cyberbullying incident that shook me up last year, an incident that was very much a personal attack. A member of a horror group that I am part of insulted Darcy’s physical appearance, basically saying that she had so much plastic in her face, she couldn’t even smile properly.

First of all, who in the horror community thinks it is ok to just slam the personal appearance of someone like that? I am sure the guy who gave this opinion is physical perfection, so he can get away with it, right?

The most heartening thing about this awful post was the number of fans who rallied to Darcy’s defense, and the guy ended up being booted from the group. The most disheartening thing was the effect it had on Darcy herself.

Darcy is always very active on social media, and after an emotional post on Twitter about how the mean people had finally won, she went silent for a day or two. When she chose to post again, it was to thank everyone who reached out to her with kind, reassuring words, and she even wrote a very emotional blog about the experience, titled Fake Parts, Real Heart. Read it now, I’ll wait.

That blog was an honest admission of the extreme Body Dysmorphic Disorder she suffers as a result of being ridiculed and shamed by classmates and even her own mother as a child. She wrote about how she hated the “chipmunk cheeks” that became more prominent when she smiled, about how hard it is to work in the porn industry when every single body imperfection is focused on and criticized. She talked about the days she laid in her bed with a knife in her hand, contemplating suicide.

And finally, she acknowledged that the majority of the horror community were very supportive after the incident, and that, unfortunately “the villains get more attention.” Accompanying this raw, honest blog was a rare photo of the lady herself with no makeup. And you know what? She looked beautiful.

So, where do we as members of the horror community go from here? We really need to do better, to stop thinking it’s ok to post insulting comments simply because we can hide behind our computer. My advice would be to stop and think before you make a post like that. Would you voice that same comment to the person’s face? Could you look in their eyes, maybe seeing the hurt there, and still feel good about yourself?

I suspect for most of us, the answer to those questions is no. The rest of you? I’m sorry, but you are not part of MY horror community.

Just because we love monsters doesn’t mean we have to act like them.

How do you feel about the more negative interactions among members of the horror community? Tell us all about it in the comments section.