Category: Real Life Horror

Real Life Horror: LASIK Eye Surgery

Stefanie Snider

I’ve decided to give contacts another go. I still love my glasses, but it’s nice having the option, especially for DayJob. I’m not at the point yet (and may never be) where I feel like wearing contacts every day. Sometimes they dry out. Sometimes I have trouble getting them lined up correctly (hello, astigmatism, you bastard). Sometimes I’d rather have the extra couple minutes of sleep in the morning.

Why don’t I just get LASIK, then?

This.

This is why:

THE EYE FLAP. If I was in an accident and part of my eye CAME OFF, you can bet your ass I’d be screaming all the way to the emergency room. I wouldn’t dream of getting it done on purpose.

I should be clear: I’m not saying LASIK is bad. Lots of people are happy with their LASIK results. More power to them; they’re braver than me. It’s the actual procedure that freaks me out: something about scalpels and eyeballs sets my hair on end. And yeah, yeah, bladeless options, blah blah, it’s too late. I saw the video. The damage has been done. I’ll keep my malformed eyeballs, thank you.

(It should be obvious: don’t watch this if you’re considering the procedure. Have this instead.)

Real-Life Horror: Man Eats Man’s Face

Stefanie Snider

Did you guys hear about this? What the HELL.

From abcactionnews.com:
“Several vehicles, including buses and even three bicyclists, went past on a Miami street as a naked man chewed the face off a homeless man Saturday in what has been called a zombie-like attack, video footage posted by the Miami Herald shows.”

Read the article here. (It goes without saying that information and pictures at this link are disturbing.)

I just…I don’t even have words. Zombie attacks are only cool when, y’know, they’re not really happening. Jesus.

Fuck Basements.

Stefanie Snider

I don’t think there’s a scarier place in any home than a basement. (Except possibly a dark hallway. Or the back porch when the motion light comes on and you fully expect there to be a serial killer, knife upraised, on the other side of the glass…waiting for you.)

One of the scariest experiences I had as a kid was the time I went into the basement laundry room. I don’t remember what I was going in there for, but when I got inside I saw what I was certain was a dead body hanging from the rafters. It was life-sized, it swayed a little, and it was right in front of me. I remember my lungs froze and I couldn’t move, and my eyes slowwwwwwly worked their way up the corpse to realize…

…it was my Dad’s coverall, drying from him having worn it to shovel the driveway.

Even once I knew what it was, the terror took a few moments to subside; and while I tried to remember how to breathe, I kept watch, expecting it to reach out and touch my shoulder.

I think now, as a horror writer, that if I can scare one person the way that suit scared me, I’ll have told a story the right way.

creator unknown

Real Life Horror: Devil’s Breath

Stefanie Snider

Scopolamine comes from Columbia. Known on the street as Devil’s Breath, this drug literally grows on trees. According to this Vice documentary, the merest whiff of this stuff causes you to become a living zombie, seemingly coherent but highly suggestible. It can be slipped in your drink, blown in your face, or spread by skin contact. Victims empty their own bank accounts and hand over the cash without the criminals having to do a thing.

Vice went to Columbia with the intention of experimenting with the drug themselves. In the end they were handling the stuff with rubber gloves and face masks, and were glad to be getting the hell out of there. Truly frightening stuff.

Real-Life Horror: Lobotomy

Stefanie Snider

This video is disturbing. Watch with caution.

I have a notoriously strong stomach, and this made me feel ill. There’s something…sacred about the brain, about what makes “us”, “us”. The idea of someone manipulating your very self with something so everyday as an icepick is terrifying to me.

It happened to Rosemary Kennedy, JFK’s younger sister.
“We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. We just made a small incision, no more than an inch.” The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. “We put an instrument inside,” he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord’s Prayer or sing “God Bless America” or count backwards. … “We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded.” … When she began to become incoherent, they stopped. (Kessler, The Sins of the Father, p. 226, via Wikipedia.)

Lobotomies are still performed as a treatment in certain debilitating mental illnesses.

There are greater horrors in life than I could ever hope to write.