Someday We're Going To Start Mocking You Right Back

Last night my friend and I went to go see Mama and, in the lobby of the theater, ran into another one of our friends and her family. When my friend’s dad asked what we were seeing and I told him, he made a face and said sarcastically “Well, have fun with that.” I think he thought he was being funny but my feelings were hurt.
(We ended up not seeing the movie anyway because the audience was too full and I knew people were going to talk through the whole thing, which I fucking hate. If you went to see a play and someone talked through it they’d be kicked out but for some reason people don’t need to be polite at the movies. It disgusts me.)
The point is, I didn’t mock the fact that my friend’s parents go see every movie that’s nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, regardless of whether they would have wanted to see the movie if it weren’t nominated. I think that’s a stupid thing to do (I used to work at the library and there were all these ladies who worked there who would rent movies saying “I didn’t want to see this but it was nominated for an Oscar,” then return it the next day complaining about how much they hated it; why’d you rent it in the first place, then? Just ’cause something was nominated doesn’t mean you’ll like it, especially if you could already tell you wouldn’t!!) but I wouldn’t have mocked them to their face for seeing Zero Dark Thirty even though I think it looks like a shitty movie. So why should he get a free pass to mock my taste in movies?
The answer is: “because horror is a lesser genre.” Never mind that it’s been a hugely popular genre in the United States since about 1931 (when Dracula and Frankenstein were both huge hits). People seem to have the attitude that it’s okay for them to mock horror films because they look down upon them. I don’t understand it.
There’s a book (I don’t remember who it’s by) called 150 Movies You Should Die Before You See. The title alone is enough to piss me off (who are you to say what I shouldn’t watch?) but I was glancing through it just to be sure I didn’t like it and, sure enough, it was filled with horror movies. And not the lousy ones, but things like Suspiria, Deep Red, The Black Cat, Re-Animator and Cemetery Man (some of the most well-reviewed and highly respected movies in the genre). The author clearly didn’t bother to do any research; he just figured “Oh, it’s a horror movie, therefore it must be terrible,” and threw it into his Book Of Negativity.
And probably tried to play it off as “I was just trying to be funny,” just like my friend’s dad did.
It isn’t funny. It’s hurtful and rude.