What horror films teach us about ourselves and being human | Dr. Steven Schlozman | TEDxNashville

Wow

A standing ovation

I haven't done anything yet.

Don't hardly feel right as they say.

Okay.

Sorry this is your last thing.

Right so this is what you're

going to look at.

That behind you

That's a mirror. Okay.

That's a mirror of all of you.

Not trying to be insulting it's just true.

And it's a mirror of me

its a mirror of pretty much

anybody who looks at it

except that guy in the picture

'cus we know he shouldn't show up on film

but it's okay that that's the mirror

Right? We know how it works.

'cos if it were more pristine.

If it were more kind of accurate

I think it'd be hard to look at

this is what I'm going to try

and tell you about horror,

it teaches us about ourselves

it actually entertains us

and helps us to love each other even more

and I know that sounds like a cliche

so you're gonna have to

bear with me a little bit

and you're going to have to bear with me

as I tell you some stories.

So let's let's get started.

That's me with as just bangs

makes the difference.

When I was eleven years old

with bangs

I saw a vampire,

I- I- did,

he was someone's brother this vampire, and

he was hovering outside a second story window

through which he was trying to gain access

and his nails they'd grown

unnaturally long throughout the night,

he was staring at me with kind of these

kind of lifeless glowing yellow

bile filled eyes

and you know what?

I let that vampire into the house.

I've been thinking about that vampire

for a long long time.

He was scratching at the window

and he was smiling.

So,

if I could play you this scene,

which we can't because of copyright reasons

that's good because the music alone

would scare the hell out of me again

and I'd be back at that time

when I had bangs, So, rather than

to do that, what I'd like to do for you

is paint the picture.

I'd like to take you back.

So like I said,

I was eleven years old.

It's 1978

you need to picture wood panelled basement

okay, and I'm home all alone

it's just me and my my trusty dog Patches

this mongrel this white mongrel animal

whose white fur kind of blended seamlessly

with the white shack carpet.

My parents were out for the evening.

My sister is having a sleepover

at someone's house.

And I've eaten all but the last piece

of one of those God given Tostino's

Frozen Pizza. Those are like the greatest

gift ever to frozen food.

And I'm clutching one of those 70s

plastic translucent cups which you've seen

-which you've probably seen - have

in your basement

- I'm clutching a glass Dr. Pepper

and there's a vampire at the window.

Tell you what. You know what I did?

I got up and I ran up the stairs

and I turned on every light in the house.

Every light went on and I didn't care

that I had little bits of pizza crumbs

stuck to my flannel shirt. didn't care

that my dog was running after me going,

"What's going on Steve?

What's all the fuss?"

I didn't care that I was pretty sure

I'd knocked that Dr. Pepper thing

down below. None of that mattered to me.

What mattered was that there's a vampire

at the window. In the basement.

So I had to do something.

I had to take action.

My dad was a doctor.

So I went into the bathroom

and I found all these tongue pressers

and then I found these rubber bands

and I made them into crosses

I made like 12 crosses

out of rubber bands.

No really I did this.

But you know what the funniest part

of all this is? I'm Jewish.

I've never made a cross in my life

you know? I knew the rules. There was

a vampire in the basement.

And I'm wasn't taking any chances.

So -so that vampire

those of you who may have recognised him

that was from the made for tv movies

Salem's Lot. That was a network television

I don't know how that gets passed.

Network television.

You talk to people from my generation.

And you say "what was the scariest movie

you've ever seen?"

They'll go through the cannon.

They'll say the Handmaid, the Exorcists,

The Omen. Then you say, did you ever see

'Salems Lot?

And they'll eyes will grow wide

and look with this big smile.

Oh my god.That movie scared me to death.

Directed by the same guy who directed the

Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But -But

I will bet you a thousand tickets. To a

thousand horror conventions.

That if they tell you their story about

'Sales Lot, It'll be a lot like the story

I just told you.

It might not involve Tostinos Frozen Pizza

it might involve a bag of Torritos instead

it might involve a sleepover.

But nobody sleeps over. Right?

Everyone's up all night

in this delightful terror

after having seen the show.

This is what horror does.

Horror grabs you when you're 11 years old

which by the way the average age

when people see their first horror movie.

That's eleven

So there's something transgressive

about horror.

It grabs you and it makes some of

the most loyal fans on the planet.

Even bad horror films make money.

Don't get me wrong there are plenty of

really really good horror films

that are celebrated by crisis

and the fans alike

that's one of them The Shining

Who has not had nightmares

about the twins in the hallway.

That little kid with his redrum thing

and the bike and the elevator. The Shining.

It was Rosemary's Baby. 1968.

I teach this film to Harvard undergraduates

they've grown up with youtube

they need to see the story from beginning

middle to end

and they sit through 2+ hours

of Mary's descent into littly and to hell

and they have this huge smile on this face

why don't we see movies like this anymore?

There's It Follows that came out

really recently

if you want to see a terrifying depiction

of what it means to come of age

in this society

this is your movie.

There's this one we've forgotten to come to

Nightmare on Elm's Street

a generation of people grew up on this movie

including me.

And theres dawn of the freaking dead.

If you see one zombie film.

This is the one you want to see. 1978.

This movie's made.

.... he showed us that you don't need

a radiation or ... virus zombie

what you need is a shopping mall.

That's it. That's what makes the change.

These are the movies that I love.

A horror fan.

These movies scare me to death.

But I will go again and again

with a big smile on my face

and I went out with a big smile on my face.

But there's a bit problem for me here.

Because' you know what?

I went to a child psychiatrist

I have a bodified MD

and I take care of children for a living

and they're not just the kids I'm raising

they're the kids whose parents

actually pay me and I see them.

You bring your kids to see a doctor,

you do whatever somebody does these days

you google their name right?

And in addition to being a child psychiatrist

I've written horror novels

I've written a couple of novels

I've written a couple of horror short stories

I've been involved in horror movies

and video games and a project right now

where we're using virtual reality

to create these