Summary

In “empire,” Ellis explains that he liked horror movies as a kid because he recognized the way those movies paralleled with the disfunction in his own family’s life. Because his parents were not “helicopter parents” he was on his own to raise himself. He believes that the horror novels he read and the horror films he saw confirmed “that the world was a random and cruel place, that danger and death were everywhere, that adults could help you only so much” (11-12). He argues that he and his siblings were never wounded by any of the movies they watched alone as children. He believes the lack of “parental filters” (14) made his generation stronger.

Ellis writes that he learned at a young age that it was not winning, but losing that made joy and happiness more intense. There were no participation awards...