Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Scooby Doo and Flying Monkeys

The title of this post says it all. I was a total fraidy cat as a kid. Total. I only ever remember watching one episode of Scooby Doo and I was embarrassingly old (I'd guess at least ten or eleven) and I wouldn't shower for months after because that involved closing your eyes and when whichever character on Scooby-doo closed his eyes in the shower, someone peeked out from behind a tile that moved and then the whole tub and shower went down some terrifying rollercoaster track to a dungeon. Phew...
Shower? No way. I'll take a bath. At least when you bath you can keep an eye out for moving tiles.

And The Wizard of Oz? I honestly, without a lie, think I may have been well into my twenties before I actually saw that film all the way through. However old I was on my first attempt, I was so freaked out, I didn't even bother to try again until I'd already gotten through The Amityville Horror. Oh, the flies, the flies! Why did I go to that movie? Why was I allowed in? I was only seventeen! Why wasn't it restricted? Oh, the humanity.

And recurring nightmares. The only one I remember as a child involved a witch at the window (I blame The Wizard of Oz for that one, too) whereas most of my nightmares these days involve various parts of my house falling into total disrepair. Oh, wait. That one's still true even when I'm awake. ;-)

But I'm much better with the scary now. I somehow let Molly and Sinead talk me into seeing SAW when it first came out, and Sinead dragged both Molly and I to see the IMAX version of Alien when it was re-released a few years ago, and after seeing Pan's Labyrinth at the TIFF I became a big fan of Guillermo del Toro -- although it did take more than one sitting to get through Mimic when I rented the DVD.

And I do like a good suspenseful read such as Eileen's HOLD BACK THE DARK.

Happy belated release week, Eileen!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh, remember that Alien, had never seen it on the big screen till that moment. And Saw, not my favourite.
But Pan's Labrynth, that movie was on the my top 5 for that year..
So freakin' tense..

Great list..

Molly O'Keefe said...

Wizard of Oz is pretty scary. Don't get me started on Pinocchio. Kids movies are not for the faint of heart - The opening of Nemo - Bambi - total nightmare material. That said my son is watching Monster's Inc as I type. Saw was the last scary movie I saw and thank God the dialogue for that movie was so awful or I truly would have been in trouble Luckily they said things like "we'll sneak in under the cover of night..." or something equally stupid.

Oh, and the previews for Shutter Island? OH MY GOD!!!!

Pan's Labryinth was a different league of scary - part war film, part fantasy, part horror and all the best of each.

Eileen said...

You saw Saw? I can't even watch the commercials for those movies! I did love Pan's Labyrinth, even though Andy and I had to sit in the theater deep breathing for about ten minutes after it was over before we were prepared to face walking out into the world again.

Here's my funny kid/Scooby Doo story . . . My aunt and uncle were visiting back when my kids were little, like maybe 3 and 5. My aunt sat down to watch cartoons with them and Scooby Doo was on. My little guy came over to her and whispered to her that she didn't have to be scared because "the ghostas were just guys in suits."

Maureen McGowan said...

Your kids were way braver than I, Eileen.

Saw was super scary. But Molly's right. Other stuff, like the corny dialogue, and really bad make up, as I recall, was so funny it helped break the tension for us. (We giggled.)

Chevy Stevens said...

I write thrillers, but I can't watch horror. Just can't do it. You watched SAW? that"s amazing. I loved PAN'S LABYTRINTH.Loved it. One of the only movies I've ever watched with subtitles, and at a certain point I actually forgot there were subtitles.

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