Original Post Date: 08.04.17

Hallelujah sweet lord baby jesus, thank you! Oh thank you. I wish I could put into words what I am feeling right now, this flood of good happy energy, of hope, of peace. It has been at least one solid month since I last felt motivated and emotionally available to sit down and do one of my favorite things – writing about horror movies.

[Side note: People do not talk about it -and certainly not online- because if there is one unspoken rule in life is to put our best foot forward, to present only our best side, to appear okay and in control at all times. I call bullshit on that. Even though life is full of great things, it is also full of uncertainty and sad moments, so we as adults do our very best to deal with the good and the bad, but sometimes, goddammit, we simply cannot deal with it all and that is okay. It is okay to fall and stay down for a little bit while we try to figure out (by ourselves, with the help of family, friends, or a trained healthcare professional) what the hell was that dragged us down… and my time to get up has finally arrived. Today I felt like myself again, and it happened suddenly yet smoothly while watching a horror movie I half-wanted to watch (for the past few weeks I had barely watched any horror). I am back. I AM BACK!]

Today I watched for the second time As Above, So Below (2014) and yes, I remembered I liked it but man, today it made my brain radiate and burst with admiration and gratitude. Admiration because the story was original and done really well even though it used the [often hated] first person point of view/handheld camera technique, and also because the horror moments were unique and oh my fucking god, so scary! [the piano? the phone? are you kidding me! *mic drop*] Gratitude because it was refreshing seeing a female as the main character, a well written character, that is.

Enter Scarlett. She was everything I admire in a woman: brave, strong, persistent, smart, humble, adventurous, resourceful, caring, supportive, resilient (hella resilient!), but like any woman, scratch that, like any human, she too had flaws such as being stubborn, manipulative, and a little reckless. But hey, good and bad, remember?

Scarlett made me care for her. I wanted her to succeed at finding that which she had dedicated her whole life to and, in the process, reinstate her late father’s good reputation in the academic community. I knew she had many positive attributes on her side, what I didn’t know was that life had planned to throw many curveballs her way, and guess what, her being the badass human that she was she kept going and pushed forward.

Thank you, Scarlett, for letting me ride with you in your journey. Thank you for letting me see that it is possible to get to the other side. Thank you for letting me feel there is a way out.

“As above, so below. As I believe the world to be, so it is.” -Scarlett

Love you today, always, and forever,

- Marath