Guilty pleasures

Hello there! I’m not exactly sure who it is I’m addressing and whether anyone will actually read this, but here goes. This is my first blog post, so bear with me until I get the hang of it. Initially I wanted my debut to be about a topic concerning "university life" but right now I don’t want to get into that. I’m swamped with homework at the moment and I don’t want to spend the little free time I have philosophising about my life as a student. But don’t worry. The Easter break is coming up and I will share my pearls of wisdom on "university life" - generously and relentlessly. There will be no escape.

Last weekend was pretty uneventful. All I did was finish off some homework (most of it already way overdue). So naturally when I finally got it all done by Sunday afternoon, I wanted to relax a little. But what to do? Luckily the weather was bad so I didn’t have to bother finding excuses to NOT engage in any kind of physical activity. So I ended up doing what I always do when I don’t know what to do. I went to the video store. I don’t know about you guys but when I’m in a video store I usually have no idea what to rent. But this time I came prepared and brought my "must watch" movies list. Munich, An Education, Flags of our Fathers...and so on – all award-winning movies, of course.

Then suddenly I see One Missed Call, staring at me from the top of the shelf. I could almost feel it call out to me, its tantalizing cover seducing me and for a fraction of a second my hand, with a mind of its own, started to reach out for it.
But then I regained my composure and hurried away. Having read the scathing reviews I KNEW it was something to avoid at all costs and I felt shameful, even dirty for having let my guard down and most importantly for secretly knowing that I had wanted it.

You see, this is my guilty pleasure. My not so secret addiction. Crappy movies. While others read movie reviews to find out what to watch, I scan them to find the ones you should avoid, the ones that rank the lowest on rottentomatoes or metacritic. "Do not watch under any circumstances" is my kind of recommendation. However, I don’t just look for the "so bad they are actually good" kind of quality. Just plain awful is fine by me.

Anyway, I ended up creeping back when nobody was around and quickly snatched a copy of One Missed Call a.k.a. the movie about "a ghost in cell phones that kills people". Having already given in to temptation - no wonder my "must watch" movie list is almost two pages long by now - I grabbed a copy of Bitch Slap as well on the way out. Needless to say I had a fun afternoon.

If someone can offer some psychological insight into my addiction to crappy movies (especially horror), please feel free to leave an evaluation in the comment section below. While I call it a guilty pleasure, my friends say it’s more like an alarming addiction that has gotten out of control. Of course you could also tell me all about your own guilty pleasure or secret addictions.