I would like to wish my friends, acquaintances, and new and random readers of this blog a very happy Thanksgiving! Have fun today, whatever you do.

Absurdity can be an important element of horror films. A well-done bit of absurdity, when combined with the viewer's willing suspension of disbelief, can lead to magical moments. Absurdity at the level of an instant "Oh, brother," reaction is not good, and usually not fun.

I am not asking for absurdity at the level of a Eugene Ionesco play when I shell out a buck-fifty to go see the second run of a horror flick, but I would like to see something a little more realistic than this: In the movie "Cabin Fever" --- in which a flesh-eating virus brings out the worst in a group of five just-graduated-from-college friends on a remote getaway --- a girl has sex with a guy other than her boyfriend, realizes afterwards that she has the skin disorder, and THEN takes a bath and shaves her legs. The leg-shaving scene is simply there as a gratuitous audience gross-out. As if it's not bad-absurd enough that she decides to shave her legs AFTER sex and AFTER contracting the virus, she shaves off flesh (I couldn't tell you how much, because my eyes were covered at this point) THREE TIMES! (I only know this because one of my friends who went with me told me, so I will take his word on it rather than watching the film again.)

At the other end of the absurdity spectrum, there is "Bubba Ho-Tep," which is approximately 90 minutes of extremely well-done absurdity about how still-alive Elvis Presley (arguably Bruce Campbell's finest moment as an actor) and John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis, having some fun) --- the latter turned into an African-American man so Lyndon B. Johnson could become president --- team up to stop the killing spree of a soul-sucking mummy at their Texas rest home. This film is clever, funny, and even touching at times. I highly recommend it; it's much heavier on humor than horror, in case scary movies aren't your bag but comedies are.

(I know . . . I used the word "absurdity" quite a bit today.)