Things that go bump in the night..

For as long as I can remember I have loved all things scary. Well, scary movies or books. I wouldn't love being mugged or trapped somewhere. Geez, how awful. I have fond memories of watching the Friday the 13th movies with my best friend, Shawnna, when she would stay the night. Back then we actually had to have my mom drive us to the video store so we could rent those wonderful bloody slasher flicks. There was no Netflix or internet so we could pirate what movie we wanted to watch.  Certainly if my mom knew what our young impressionable minds were seeing in these movies we would have been watching The Sound of Music instead. Back then movies were far more scary than they are now. As kids we were terrified from the very first scene. Watching these films in complete darkness was a stupid idea. We would find ourselves looking at all the dark corners of the room and out into the even darker hallway, waiting for Jason and his butcher knife to casually walk out of the shadows and chase us off, probably to steal our air popped popcorn. Going to bed was even scarier. We would sleep in the middle of my grandmothers queen bed, as close to each other as possible. We were smart, nothing could get us if we were in the middle of the bed no matter how big their butcher knife was. The monsters would have to just lay there under the bed or in the closet, frustrated with how clever we were to have the insight that we were safe if we stayed in the center of the bed. Obviously these wretched creatures fell asleep when we did because they never did come out of hiding while we were asleep and naturally drifting away from the middle into more comfortable positions. Maybe they just got bored and went next door to try and eat the neighbors.

These days those movies that caused so many sleepless nights for us are rather cheesy. I find myself laughing at Jason or Freddy now instead of fearing I would be the next victim. I was blaming this on age, I'm not 10 years old anymore. I am a rational adult. We adults know better. Yesterday proved that theory false. I went to the $2.50 movie theater, formally the dollar theater.  I saw The Woman in Black. Great movie. None of those awful special effects that usually look so fake it ends up ruining the movie. These scares were subtle. I did have a hard time believing Daniel Radcliffe was old enough in the movie to have a wife, and also to have had sex with said wife since he has a child in the movie. In reality he is 22 years old, but I still think of him as a teenage wizard. Being it was the middle of a Wednesday afternoon there was only one more person in the theater with me. I ran into her in the bathroom after and would guess she was quickly heading towards 80 years old. She laughed and said that she knows she will be sleeping with the lights on that night. I wonder if she knows  about the sleeping in the middle of the bed trick.  I did like the movie, but still didn't have that wonderfully terrified feeling like I did when I was a kid watching Jason hack his way through all those hormone raging teenagers partying at his lake. I'm hoping the older I get the scarier movies will seem again. Hopefully I will be peeing in my pants from fear and not incontinence.