Who doesn’t love watching a good scary movie? These types of movies are popular at any time, but especially around this time of year, horror movies are practically a staple of one’s existence. With that being said, have you ever noticed how many times cigars come into play in a scene from a scary movie? If you haven’t, you might not have been watching closely enough because the truth is, cigars are used in a lot of different scary movies. More importantly, they are much more than mere props. They are used to signify something important about the story that is being told. In many cases, the use of a cigar signifies something very important about the story that’s being conveyed to the audience.
Different scary movies handle scenes with cigars in unique ways. Sometimes, a person lights a cigar because he thinks that there’s nothing to be feared or that the danger has passed and he only gets to take one long, precious drag off of the cigar before he is violently dragged away to be brutally murdered later on. In other stories, cigars are used as a means of celebrating an end to a long battle, signifying all of the effort that has been put into surviving the night, killing the evil entity or figuring out the solution to a mystery. Every once in awhile, a cigar is actually used as the focal point of a particular scene. Think about the movie ‘Night of the Creeps’, where the police officer decides to set the house on fire by pouring gasoline on everything in the basement and then throwing his cigar down. This scene serves as the climax to the entire movie, so it has to be dramatic. What’s more dramatic than fire?
Why’re cigars used so effectively in these types of movies? For the most part, it’s largely because they signify emotions. Cigars are used to commemorate a job well done or to celebrate after an incredible challenge has been overcome. The same methods are used in scary movies to help set the scene. More importantly, they’re capable of doing so very effectively so that it makes the entire experience much more intense for the viewer.