Two From EW; Totally Surprised by the First and Empathize with the Second

Horror Films...And the Women Who Love Them!
Chicks dig scary movies - A surprising look at why women buy more tickets to slasher pics than men - and how that's changing what we see on screen

The trailer for Jennifer's Body has everything a teenage boy could reasonably expect, as well as some things he probably wouldn't dare to dream of. Megan Fox playing a cheerleader, for instance. Megan Fox having a sleep-over with Amanda Seyfried. Megan Fox swimming nude, lighting her tongue on fire for kicks, and — talk about a transformer — turning into a snarling beast with fangs. But the strangest twist to the movie may be that it's a supernatural bloodbath made by women (Girlfight director Karyn Kusama and Juno scribe/EW columnist Diablo Cody) and, in large part, for women. "My primary reasons for writing Jennifer's Body were that I knew about the female horror audience and am a fan myself," Cody says of the movie, which slashes into theaters Sept. 18. "Growing up, I was absolutely mesmerized by the horror section at the local video store. It wasn't a particularly feminine compulsion, and my parents didn't want me watching that crap."

Cody's parents — and the parents of young women everywhere — have lost the battle big-time. For decades, it seemed the sole purpose of movies in which masked and/or disfigured men hunted down lusty young damsels was to give guys a 90-minute outlet for their own aggression and hormones. Today, however, the genre's biggest constituency of die-hard fans is women. Name any recent horror hit and odds are that female moviegoers bought more tickets than men. And we're not just talking about psychological spookfests like 2002's The Ring (60 percent female), 2004's The Grudge (65 percent female), and 2005's The Exorcism of Emily Rose (51 percent female). We're also talking about all the slice-and-dice remakes and sequels that Hollywood churns out. . . .

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My Screen Addiction
The author compares his symptoms with the Neilson Company-commissioned study on technology obsession

. . . I'm below the Nielsen average, but still — seven and a half hours per day of computer-related activity? That's a lot of voyeurism. Put another way, I'm spending almost half of each day's consciousness right where I am now — with my face bathed in electro-light. It's hard not to think of George Orwell's Big Brother telescreens when you realize a thing like that.

The National Institute on Media and the Family ("Find Me on Twitter!" is prominently displayed on their website) lists some key symptoms of screen addiction: Playing computer games generates roughly equal feelings of pleasure and guilt; users sometimes put off meals because of computer activity; users incur large bills for online services (thankfully iTunes and Amazon in my case, rather than porn and gambling).

PurpleSlinky.com lists addiction symptoms that strike even closer to home: Is my entertainment center hooked up to my computer? (Uh...yes.) Have I ever taken quality time away from my family to spend quality time watching YouTube video clips? (Welllll...) Have I ever gotten computer-generated headaches? (Er...) Do I get mad when my computer malfunctions? (Are you kidding?) Does the thought of not having computer access make me nervous? (Duh.) Do I feel that checking my e-mail first thing in the morning is a priority? (Doesn't everybody?) Do I check my e-mail more than six times a day? (I take the Fifth on that one.) . . .