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There's a long history of disability in horror, and it's mostly bad. There's a lot I can talk about, but think I want to focus on accessibility aids, mental health, and maybe the magical crip. 1/
I've only ever been in a wheelchair once. When I was a kid, my dad and I went to visit his friend who was dying from ALS at a monestary in New Mexico. He invited me to try out his power chair, and I was really struck by how fast it was. And how easily it maneuvered. 2/
I was just a kid, and I'm not sure if it's offensive to call it fun (please feel free to correct me on anything I say), but it's not at all how I imagined wheelchairs. I think it was around the time I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. 3/
The film is (in) famous for having a person in a wheelchair who can walk in his dreams (eye roll) and is attacked by wheelchair covered in knives. It presents a mobility device as torturous; as a source of pain. In reality though, it illustrates the horror of abelism. 4/
Because agae, not a wheelchair user, but based on what I've read and what I've been told, the only thing wheelchair users fear about them is the price. Or being pushed without consent. 5/
Wheelchairs usually show up in movies like this - as a barrier instead as an aid. Rear Window relies on it. The angry guy in the chair in Texas Chainsaw Massacre is portrayed as a burden. There have been a couple of positive examples though. 6/
Silver Bullet isn't great, and does rely on a lack of mobility as a trap, but Marty loves his suped-up motorcycle/chair hybrid. Made by a drunk Gary Busey, which should have been the real horror. 7/
Mark from Friday the 13th Part 2 is another good example. Throughout the first part of the movie, he is shown being a regular camp counselor, in a chair. He even gets a love interest! 8/
And although you should never ask a disabled person if they can have sex, it shows the rare except because it's an invitation. It doesn't happen, because Jason hates sex, but it's one of the few examples I've seen where a disabled person is seen as sexual. 9/9
