The United States was in a deep sadness after 9/11.. that stretched through the final months of 2001 and never fully broke in 2002. Instead, that year was filled with alerts, homeland insecurity, and terror scares across the United States and the world. I wrote this in 2002 as I attempted to sum up my own emotions about the changing of a calender:
The Horror-Report, a name purchased for the reporting of news concerning horror movies and the entertainment industry. It still relies heavily on that genre, and that form of news reporting, but has evolved into something even more. Some might not care as much as I, the owner, do, but in a New Years reflection it has became evident that the turning point was the clear warm day when fire took the lives over thousands, and fear took hold of millions. Fear turned to resolve, though…Leaders were born, and villians were made. Usama bin Laden became a household name…
Things were weird.. Plain weird. People were uptight and ready to fight–we were told of impending war by the President, and in pop culture, everything had suddenly become questionable. Even a scene from ROSE RED, a Stephen King made for TV movie. The scene involved someone getting their fingers cut off. A fight developed between King and Disney’s ABC, the network that wanted to halt the fingers from being shown.. King won; the movie was still a virtual flop. It was a clear sign of how we were not sure what we as a people were ready for.
While some things change, other things don’t.
In the middle of 2002, we were warned that come 2019 the ‘dark ages’ would be upon us with an asteroid.. Interestingly enough, now so many years later, we don’t hear much about that threat.. But we sure hear about many other ‘near misses’ that we’re told about immediately before or after they come dangerously close to the planet earth. The asteroid discovered was 2002 Nt7. We are still awaiting that arrival. Hoping doomsday is avoided.
2002 was also a great year for horror.
SIGNS was released–I named it my movie of the year that year..
Also, the RING was a close second.
In pop culture, Michael Jackson dangled his child over the railing of his hotel. That was outrageous and the media went on about it for months.
The HORROR REPORT had some takes on pop culture that, still to this day, are accurate about 2002. Then, we wrote,
The best song of the year:
Eminem singing Lose Yourself is enough to give you hope, even to the masses of the hopeless. It’s no surprise he is the leading entertainer of 2002, and that his movie was one of the more impressive of the year.Worst song of the year:
A Moment Like This. American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson sings this song, and the radio plays it daily at least 50 times on each station. It’s like a hostage crisis ready to start. If that song plays one more time, violence will inundate the nation.
Some predictions for 2003 were spot on, too..
Jeepers Creepers 2 will be delayed again…
Two Supreme Court members will retire…
John Kerry will become the leading contender for the Democratic nomination for President…
George W. Bush’s popularity will continue to remain high, despite a sluggish economy…
Bill Clinton will continue dating….
The Return of the King will be next year’s movie of the year…
All if those things happened.
In 2002, George W. Bush choked on a pretzel. And this happened to his face.
George W. Bush also had hundreds of MMR/vaccine files sealed from public viewing.
And then came Iraq. The year closed without war. But the stage surely was set for the chaos of ’03.
