Jon Cecil
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joncecil.bsky.social
Jon Cecil
@joncecil.bsky.social
Hey, I’m Jon(athan). Happy to be here, Bob.

LB - https://boxd.it/1ca47
Some games that I have utterly failed to play in any way, despite trying, never getting more than an hour in:
Fatal Frame II
Dead Space (watched friends play it, loved it, couldn't play it)
Alien: Isolation
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 2 remake
Outlast
Condemned

It goes on. I'VE TRIED SO HARD
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Some caveats: I did really really love the first Alan Wake game. Many people would consider that a horror game, and they would be right, but for some reason it just never felt or played to me like that. I felt the Twin Peaks of it all really early, and I think I just tapped into that vibe.
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Maybe that's boring! Maybe that's wrongheaded, or lacks a sense of adventure, or whatever else. And I can accept that! The world is already pretty stressful for the most part, and I've never had much success "fighting fire with fire" in that way.
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
In a movie, you're watching. It's a story presented brute force into your psyche. Horror games are also that, but you are a willing participant, taking the actions required so that scary shit happens. And deep deep down I make the basic decision of, "I just wouldn't put myself into the situation."
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
But I have never once found a way to do this with video games. I've been playing video games for 30+ years now. I've been around the block a few times, it's not like I don't know how video games work, or have some mechanical sense of them. But I think that's also precisely why it's so hard for me.
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
But I had an incredible time! The evil magic was gone, and a new, fun magic was born. Sure, I'm only human, scary movies will always be creepy of course. But I found a way through the veil and into a place where I could see their machinations, the seams, the technical wizardry.
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I just remember saying to myself, "Welp, it's about to be funny in a minute, so just buckle up." "It'll be scary soon." "Oh, I remember this from cable, this'll be funny." I did that through the entire movie, and I came out of the other side with my shit fucked all the way up.
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I was 19, my bedroom, pitch black windowless basement, by myself. I had always heard that Evil Dead was hilarious, and I knew it was creepy, but also nutty and funny. I had seen clips on cable, c'mon! So I decide to watch the first Evil Dead, ~scary laughs~!
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I used to have huge problems with horror movies, but I slowly but surely cleared that hurdle in my teens. I vividly remember when I first felt that I had made it, that no other movie could hurt me.
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
One thing though
I keep seeing sites and pages say he "invented the romcom," with When Harry Met Sally. This isn't a dig to that movie, huge respect and love all around, but the romcom was nearly 60 years old when it came out. It invented a new kind of romcom, no question, but not romcoms full stop.
December 16, 2025 at 12:42 AM