Calendar Letters: Oh, the horrors!

Kudos to Times critics Kenneth Turan and Justin Chang for their fine pieces on horror movies [“The Age of Horror: It Doesn’t Thrill Him” and “The Age of Horror: The Ideal Genre for These Times,” Oct. 15]. As one who has avoided horror films for many years, I was grateful to Turan for explaining so cogently why he felt the same way. Then I read Chang’s piece and found it all the more impressive for making a case that the genre has a legitimate place in our culture.

In particular, I found hugely therapeutic Chang’s suggestion that we think of Donald Trump as a character in a horror film. This angle not only provides added distance but also reminds us that the show will at some point be over.

Glenn Pascall

Dana Point

A thank-you to Turan for validating my reluctance to watch horror flicks. Like him, I try to manage the input of disturbing images into my head if I want to sleep at night.

I also avoid mainstream movies with graphic brutal violence.

Though these films are not labeled as “horror,” to me, they are every bit as horrific. Luckily, here in L.A., there are many humane, thought-provoking and entertaining films from all over the world to be seen any day of the week. Except maybe midsummer, when thankfully, I have baseball to turn to.

Laura Owen

Pacific Palisades

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It’s refreshing to read an insightful piece about a genre that I find increasingly disturbing. Who needs images of torture and gore inside one’s head

Connie Eakes

Los Angeles

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You want something truly horrifying? Forget the chain saw-wielding psychos, the big bug aliens with multiple rows of razor teeth and the devil himself. The most horrifying film you will ever see is German writer-director Michael Haneke’s original “Funny Games.”

All his movies exist on an intellectual level of artistry that towers above that of his contemporaries. Watch “Funny Games,” but don’t hate me because I recommended it; too many people already do.

Philip DiGiacomo

Pacific Palisades

The downfall of a movie mogul

Thank you for your thoughtful, cogent and ultimately hopeful column concerning the precipitous downfall of Harvey Weinstein in wake of the mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against him [“How an Issue Got to Warp Speed,” Oct. 16].

I sincerely hope you are correct in your thinking that the speed of his public demise, following similar rapid downward trajectories experienced by Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and L.A. Reid, may reflect a much-needed and overdue paradigm shift concerning the need to recognize, confront and ultimately punish ugly sexist behavior by powerful men rather than ignore or excuse it. It is unfortunate indeed that Donald Trump’s documented history of this behavior was not punished either in law or at the ballot box as it should have been; hopefully, the backlash against Weinstein et al. will eventually catch up to Trump as well.

George Legg

Rolling Hills

These two were in ‘Zone’ too

Regarding “The Richard Matheson Zone” [Oct. 15]: I have been a fan of Matheson’s stories and screenplays since the 1950s.

Yes, he did write the best episodes of “The Twilight Zone.”

As did the two other full-time residents of “The Zone,” Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont.

Ted Herrmann

Los Angeles

It’s the Boss, baring his soul

Regarding “Serious Boss” [Oct. 13]: I saw “Springsteen on Broadway” while it was in previews. I was asked what it was about, and the only way I could explain it: “It was two hours of just Bruce and me, as he bares his soul.”

June Cafarella

Dumont, N.J.

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I want to thank you for your extremely well-written, insightful review of the show. You nailed it on every level — right down to what Springsteen’s duets with his wife wordlessly say about their relationship — that’s some subtle, extremely sensitive viewing you’re doing — and expressed in a way that conveys almost as poetically as the moment, the moment you are describing.

Billy Joseph

Topanga Canyon

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