I'm fascinated with my changing relationship with horror as I get older. For me it's been really profound. Moments in films I've seen a million times land differently. Films I found terrifying seem ridiculous, and films I found ridiculous seem terrifying.

I was terrified of horror as a kid. Didn't watch ANYTHING 'scary' until I was 14 and saw Alien. It went on to be 'my' genre, of course. My reassuring place, despite the blood and knives. Horror in your teens and twenties is much like the roller coaster simile so often used.

When you're older, horror films become a parallel of something personal in your own experience. The way you feel about each film changes. Hopefully, most 15 year-olds watching The Fly WON'T have had to watch a loved one lose a fight to a disease. Many 50 year-olds WILL have.

And the weird thing there is again that comfort factor. If you rewatch The Fly after a loved ones illness, or The Exorcist whilst living with a teen who you love AND fear, or countless films after bereavement - EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT in your relationship with that flick yet...

Yet it also reassures you even if the films message *isn't* reassuring, because it reminds you of a relationship you had with that concept in the abstract. Before it became real for you and, often, back at a time when you felt invulnerable. It's a balm.