My Life as a Horror Movie

I don't know if it's because I have grown up in a more metropolitan area, but there's something about being in the country, especially at night, that gives me the creeps. I don't know if it's because there are so few people around or because it's so dark. I'm a little afraid of the dark. Or maybe it's because I have seen so many scary movies that are set in the country. Country people are always portrayed as being really strange (a la The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, The Shining, Children of the Corn, Blair Witch Project, etc.)

Last weekend, I was visiting a friend who lives in this small town in nowhere Illinois, population 16,000. As I was leaving his house, it was all dark out, and I was convinced some weirdo psycho killer was going to come rushing at me out of the shadows wielding a chain saw or wicked long knife. The drive home, even though it was along a highway, wasn't much better. I kept having visions of little girls in white dresses jumping out onto the road in front of me and causing me to crash my car. So, while I can visit the country once in awhile, give me big cities with plain old thugs with guns any time.