How Microsoft turned me into a horror fan
You’ve probably already figured out I'm a horror fan. I mean, I wrote a 1,000-word essay around my Alien head canon. And described my Predator growth theory in the Lightning Round. And heck, it’s right there in this newsletter's banner: “Occasionally monsters.”
To be honest though, I became a horror fan relatively late in life. I have been a monster fan since grade school. But I never considered myself an actual horror fan, until I went through a very tough time at a large software firm in the Pacific Northwest. (I won’t use any names, but it rhymes with “Shmicro-roft.”)
“Wait," I sense you shouting at your email, “If you were a lifelong monster movie fan, weren't you already a horror fan? And what’s with the ’Shmicro-roft’ rigamarole? You already said “Microsoft” in the title."
Fair points. And I can explain. Right after the news.
What’s going on?
- First of all, my thanks to Dean for being the first to use the "More like this" button at the bottom of this newsletter. So helpful, much appreciated.
- A new piece of mine, Ophelia Teaches Herself to Swim, appeared this weekend at the Jane Austen Film Festival in Bath, England. I really wanted to go to this one, but it’s like over a hundred miles or something between here and England. And I think you have to take a ferry. Oh, well.
- I made a couple of animations for my friend Pam's podcast, Canned. I’m looking forward to doing more. The podcast is a series of timely, poignant, and surprisingly funny conversations with people describing jobs they’ve been fired from:
over at the canned HQ, we've been collaborating with @reqfield.bsky.social on these little animations. i continue to learn how to build these things, but here's the first whack. full episode -- it's a good one -- here: cannedpodcast.com/s2-e7-medica...
— Pam Mandel (@nerdseyeview.bsky.social) September 5, 2025 at 6:06 AM
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The wide, dark, taloned embrace of horror
“Horror” is a surprisingly complex genre, with roots all the back to the Victorian ghost stories, Mary Shelley, the Gothic novels of the late 1700’s, and even as far back as Homer.
There are a gazillion sub-genres, but here’s a simplified way to look at it: just ask the question: what’s the scare / the antagonist / the cause of the horror? You can split that into three possible scares:
I spent my youth firmly in the Nature circle. Godzilla, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, even Alien, these were my guys. As a good Catholic (now lapsed big time), Supernatural stuff gave me the major willies. I slept with my rosary under my pillow for two weeks after just being told the plot to The Exorcist. And movies and novels that had People as the scare often disturbed and depressed me. So how did my taste change?
An unlikely Happy Place under the sea
In the mid 1980’s, back when the Earth’s crust was still cooling, Mari and I headed north from the Silicon Valley to work at a fledgling software company called Microsoft.
I lasted six months.
It was a perfect storm of a bummer gig and my own inexperience. (Vindication came just a few years later, when I went back to Microsoft and was a success in a more demanding role.)
But back in the 80’s I found myself in a new city, with no job and no contacts. Not a happy time. I got through it by having married The Best Person Ever. And also with a little help from a weird source of solace.
That source was a monster movie about an ill-fated deep water research station called Deepstar Six. (I encourage you to click over and take a quick look at the trailer.)
Isolated research station? Check. Fun design for a pre-CGI actually-on-set monster? Check. Spooky corridors with the creature running (in this case, swimming) loose? Check-a-roonie. It had everything I look for in a monster movie.
And it had something more: the late, great Miguel Ferrer playing a character called Snyder.
Snyder, we barely knew ye
Snyder is one of the workers on the eponymous research station, and he has a very, very bad day in this movie. In a few short hours he:
- Mistakenly sets off two (count ‘em!) nuclear missiles "danger close" to the site, nearly destroying the station and allowing an antediluvian monster to get inside,
- While on the hunt for the creature, he accidentally stabs his boss in the back with a CO2 shark dart, blowing the man’s heart out his chest,
- Pursued by the hallucinated ghost of his open-chested boss, he takes off in the station’s only escape pod without decompressing first, thus going all a'splodey on the way up – and leaving the survivors behind with no way to reach the surface while water pours into the station through the hole he made stealing the pod.
Snyder is kind of a hero to me. I mean, not exactly a hero, but he arrived in my life at exactly the right time. Because no matter how bad I felt, not matter how crappy a day I was having, I could always stop and think, “Hey, at least I’m not as bad as Snyder."
Now, this wasn’t schadenfreude, which often has an element of malicious enjoyment to it. This was something more empathetic, something I termed:
Glad-enfreude (n)
The soothing effect of watching horror movie characters deal with being in a horror movie.
I didn’t wish ill of Snyder. I didn’t enjoy his suffering. Watching someone make all these bad decisions actually helped me be empathetic with myself. Sure, I was out of work with no contacts whatsoever. But on the bright side, I hadn’t triggered any nuclear explosions lately.
I began to see horror movies as a chance to examine people in extremis. How do they react to these crazy circumstances? Would I have done the same? Do I agree with the choices made?
It switched the focus for me from the monsters to the characters. I began to expand my horror watching into the other two circles of the Venn diagram. In fact, two of my favorite movies of the last decade are both solidly in Supernatural, each with a minor in People, and one with a soupçon of Monster.
So now, I would say I am a fully rounded horror fan. Thanks to Microsoft, and the late, lamented Snyder.
Your mileage may vary
Despite being a fan, there are some movies I just won’t watch. Hereditary? Nope. The Exorcist? Still no.
I strongly believe that you get to decide your own tolerance for Horror consumption. And it’s a lot easier to make informed decisions now, what with Wikipedia, Letterboxd, and IMDb.
Remember, Horror is entertainment. Entertainment should be entertaining, not an exercise in endurance.
In a genre that ranges from Beetlejuice (adorable) to Midsommar (seasoned horror fans only!), may you find your own gladenfreude.
Fun facts to know and share
I seem to have collected a fair number of quotes from Bluesky:
Regan Penaluna
I really enjoy the fact that swimming technique has advanced way beyond what I learned on the swim team in high school.
Vest pocket typewriter! Vest Pocket Typewriter! VEST POCKET TYPEWRITER!
Over to you
There’s hidden depths to every form of entertainment. Like the myriad sub-genres of romance novels. Or the deep analysis of pop music you can find on podcasts like Song Exploder and Switched on Pop.
What’s a form of entertainment you enjoy that you wish other people could better understand? You know, something you enjoy for its hidden depths? Let us know in the comments.
Until we talk again, I remain,
Your pal,
Jamie
