Everyone has had a best friend like Emily. The beautiful, smart girl who actively enjoys making you the third wheel when you hang out with her and her adoring boyfriend, who likes to walk ahead and you to trail in her wake, who – without ever needing to verbalize it – insists on being the shining star at the center of all your waking moments.

I was around 14 when I read an old FANGORIA interview with Jamie Lee Curtis where she talked about how she didn’t like watching horror movies. She mentioned Death Ship as one that particularly freaked her out, and thus I added it to my must-see list. My adolescent thinking was that if it was too much for Laurie Strode, it must truly be terrifying.

From a non-horror fan’s perspective, one may wonder how can such a bloody, frightening, and nightmare-inducing experience be cathartic? What sort of person enjoys the thrills and chills of jump-scares? How can all of those monsters feel like family? Why is that the genre where you feel comforted, and, dare I say, normal?

The death of a loved one is a difficult time, so it’s no surprise that many people choose to process their loss by orchestrating elaborate murders.

If your girlfriend died while competing in the 100-meter dash, of course you’re going to knock off every single member of her track team with sporting goods (Graduation Day). If your little sister got bullied until she fell out a window, most therapists would agree that the best way to deal with your grief would be to show up at her prom six years later and decapitate as many people as possible (Prom Night).

From 2010 to 2015, it was pretty common to hear people talk about women horror directors as if they were an anomaly; that they weren’t good enough, didn’t want the jobs, or didn’t network properly with the right people. I knew firsthand from watching thousands of short films every year that this simply wasn’t true.

The day Shudder released The Amusement Park was very emotional for me. I think of George all the time, of course, but that day I felt a rush of memories flooding my thoughts.