Amuse-bouche:

My daily step-count average according to my phone (which I don’t always have on me when I walk) for 2023 was 3,333.

For 2024, my daily average was 6,666 steps.

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Today’s Wonderful Word: “horripilation.”

Definition: a bristling of the hair on the skin from cold or fear.

Alternate definition: goosebumps.

Example: The chilling horror movie gave me such a fright that I felt horripilation ripple through my entire body.

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Scary movies. Gotta love ’em. ‘Tis the season. Pop some popcorn, turn out the lights, get bundled up on the couch, and engage in a form of entertainment that many people would describe as a form of self-torture.

One problem with talking about scary movies is accurately describing them. Which adjectives do you use for a movie that didn’t quite make you feel scared but made you feel stressed or disturbed or other types of discomfort?

“Horror” is maybe the genre. Maybe “scary movie” is the layperson’s term for “horror film.” But then you have blurred lines between suspense or thrillers and movies that make you feel fear. How do you describe any of the mixed flavors of blood-curdling sensory input from scary movies?

I’m not sure the point I wish to make here. I mostly just want to introduce some terms (adjectives and/or sub-genres) that can be helpful in categorizing scary/horror movies/films. So, here’s a list I came up with:

• Suspenseful / Suspense
• Thrilling / Thriller
• Psychological
• Supernatural
• Paranormal
• Demonic
• Disturbing
• Violent
• Gory
• Gruesome
• Unsettling
• Dreadful
• Twisted
• Freaky
• Creepy
• Unusual
• Upsetting
• Chilling
• Horrifying
• Eerie
• Ominous
• Bloodcurdling
• Gripping
• Haunting
  

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Answer to Saturday’s riddle:

A poultry-geist!