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[couldbebeautiful]

Hey, what's your favorite horror movie?

[So starts Veronica's latest video, showing her dressed as Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street. The costume's not complete just yet, there are three wigs of varying shades of brown in front of her, but she's definitely getting a headstart on putting this outfit together.

There's also a small stack of DVDs beside one of the wigs, with titles such as Children of the Corn, Massacre at Camp Macintosh, and Friday the 13th printed on the sides. Clearly she's put some thought into this.]

Barring that, in case you had no idea what a movie was before you came here, what's your favorite kind of horror story? Something with ghosts, monsters, evil killers—if it's something you'd tell around a campfire to scare the shit out of your friends, I'd like to hear about it. [She taps the stack of DVDs.] Research purposes, you see.

[And by research, she means she's trying to find the movies that'll terrify the shit out of the most people to screen for the night.]

Comments

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[viced]

The Fly.

The one with Jeff Goldblum. Cult classic, weird science, and a little touch of Kafka in the mix? It's perfect horror.

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[couldbebeautiful]

Yeah, I saw that movie! [A beat.] I thought it was really off-putting, honestly. And not in the way horror movies are supposed to make you feel.

[She might be overidentifying with the movie’s Veronica, a little bit, but there are—parallels there, between her own life and the movie’s plot, that mean it hits just a little too close to home now. She might not have blown JD’s head off with a shotgun, but she remembers the shock on his face when the gunshot rang out.]

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[viced]

Yeah? Why's that? Was it the body horror... or something else?

I mean, the body horror is pretty bad, so I wouldn't blame you.

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[couldbebeautiful]

[Something else.]

The body horror and the part where the main girl’s named Veronica. It’s really hard to watch a movie where the monster’s saying your name. [Lie, it’s much harder when the character bearing your name loses the man she loves to a darkness inside himself.]

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[viced]

Oh -- Yeah, I can see that.

[ Thankfully, Mitchell isn't the type to press. ]

I guess it's the same way that Silence of the Lambs wasn't popular with girls named Clarice.

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[couldbebeautiful]

Silence of the what? [She’s from 1989, Hannibal Lecter isn’t quite the pop-culture presence he is now.] What happened with in that movie, someone named Clarice was murdered horribly?

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[viced]

Oh no, she just enlisted the help of a Cannibal, but when you have Sir Anthony Hopkins saying your name...

It sticks.

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[couldbebeautiful]

He's the guy from that old movie about the killer ventriloquist, right? I didn't know you could get a "Sir" in front of your name for that.

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[viced]

Shit, now that's a reference I haven't heard in a long time.

I'M pretty sure he got knighted because of his other works, but goddamn I forgot he was in Magic.

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[couldbebeautiful]

How long are we talking here? Because it was just over ten years ago for me, but I've got a funny feeling it's been longer for you.

Yeah, that one! Thanks, I couldn't remember the name.

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[viced]

Uh -- yeah, I'm from...2009? It's been... a really long time since that fucking movie came out.

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[restingstitchface]

I see you're dredging up the great and terrible flicks of yesteryear.

[You have a poor taste in cinema is this nerd's unspoken statement.]

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[viced]

Hey! It's a matter of taste, and completely subjective.

Next you're going to be telling me your favorite is... fuck, I don't know, Nosferatu? The Omen? Something pretentious, I assume?

[restingstitchface]

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, actually. A true classic in every sense of the word.

[Unlike, you know, the later version of the fly.]

[viced]

Christ.

[ He sounds resigned. ]

Dare I ask... what drew you to it?

[restingstitchface]

The artistic style, I confess? I throughly enjoy it's sharp, insightful commentary of the danger of brutal authority.

[Considering, you know, the way he ran Arkham and all.]

The rest of the film is also pretty good. Isn't it?

[viced]

Oh yes, it's just fine. [ An audible shrug. ]

I don't know, classics like that are great and all, but they don't hit me that much.

[restingstitchface]

[A blithe tone.]

Oh, you're just skeptical because I'm the fellow who mentioned it. Think about it.

[viced]

It fucking could be!

But also, if I was going to mention a classic, it would probably be Metropolis, or 2001. Scary in their own right, but we all know I favor machines.

[restingstitchface]

I certainly do now you're told me!

[Anyway.]

By the way, would you consider Frankenstein a machine?

[viced]

That's... Frankenstein is complicated.

It's flesh and body parts more than a machine, I think. Otherwise...I might have to think of human bodies as machines too, and they aren't. I can't talk to them.

But if I met Frankenstein, I could tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt.

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[couldbebeautiful]

It wasn't that long ago, it came out three years ago. They still show reruns sometimes.

[restingstitchface]

[Crane clears his throat a little. He pauses for a few seconds afterwards.]

The year is 2018. What do you mean three years ago?

[Three years ago, what the?]

[couldbebeautiful]

For me, personally, it was three years ago. Four if you count the year I've been living here.

[She tosses off a small wave.] I'm from 1989.

[restingstitchface]

[Huh. He blinks for a second and barely waves back. The fact she is near as old as he was feels both awkward and intriguing.]

By God. When I figured you a child of the Eighties, I hardly thought so literally.