Watching The Walking Dead is like...

watching a horror movie... sometimes... most of the time...

Every episode, I swear, is like sitting through a freaking horror movie. I'm currently watching the 4th season, so I've been through at least 40 hours of terrifying zombie-apocalypse scares. I know I've been talking about The Walking Dead for what feels like months already, but I'm still on the 4th season because I've been trying to slow my binge-watching. They're not going to release season 5 till September, I believe, so I need to make it last until then. I thought I could make it last longer by watching it slower, just like I did with Breaking Bad.

I digress.

The 40-ish minutes in which I am watching an episode I am literally always holding my breath, my heart is pounding like I'm actually there, and I am either perched on my seat or curled up in a ball. Many episodes have that classic horror movie feel to it: being chased by something that seems invincible or too profuse and there's no way to escape. I feel like that's the worst kind of scare. Knowing that you have to run away from something, but that something is always right at your heels. And everywhere you hide, it always finds you.

My nightmares consist of scary monster-like things or crazy/lunatic people (trying to kill me) chasing me. Since I was little, that's the only kind of nightmare I ever have. The worst thing ever is when I'm running in my nightmare, trying to hide from whatever is chasing me, and then they find me and drive me out of my hiding spot and I have to run all over again. Then just as I think I've gotten away, I trip and fall. I look over my shoulder and see them coming towards, but when I get up to run, I am either stuck on the spot or I can't run at all and can only trudge. It's like all of a sudden, I'm walking through mud or wet pavement. It's so terrifying, seeing the things/people come towards me while I helplessly try to trudge away from them. I'm too slow and they're too fast. Not fun.

Anyway, that's the feeling I get when I watch The Walking Dead. You never know when the zombies will get the person you're rooting for, or when someone will trip and get eaten by a zombie/zombies. You never know when it's safe; it could be safe one second, then the next, there's a wave of zombies and it feels like no one will make it out and it's hopeless. It's the feeling of knowing that you'll always be on the run, always be the one being chased. That is what scares me most about watching The Walking Dead. That's what makes it seem like a horror movie; the bad guys are always ahead, always winning, always breathing down your neck. There's nowhere for you to run.