Tis the season to be scary! Yes, Halloween, a holiday that feeds on fear, is quickly approaching. But you won’t be seeing me in any haunted houses or wearing a mask from those Scream movies. Call me a wimp, but I don’t get my kicks from being scared.
I’m not a scaredy cat per se. Ok, well maybe I have to hit the mute button when the music in a scary movie starts getting creepy. But I just don’t see the entertainment value in having nightmares. And it’s one nightmare in particular that ruined scary movies for me forever.
I must have been 11 or 12 years old when I saw the movie Jagged Edge with Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges. It’s a courtroom thriller about a man accused of a violent murder. Not exactly the kind of movie a tween should be watching. But I watched the entire movie, including the ending that left me with such horrible dreams of masked men wielding gigantic killer knives that I ended up sleeping on a cot in my parents’ room that night. And because of that final scene, to this day, I can’t sleep with my feet outside the covers. I also have never watched that movie again. It traumatized me!
I’m not scared of Nightmare on Elm Street or Poltergeist (because those are outrageously fake and could never happen). I’m not scared of the Blair Witch Project (because I thought it was dumb). And I’m only marginally scared of the Scream movies (marginally because they remind me of drinking beer in college). But most scary movies that could maybe kinda sorta happen, like Silence of the Lambs (the reason I don’t drink chianti), The Shining (the reason the term cabin fever gives me the heebie jeebies) , Copycat (the reason I hate public restrooms), and of course, Jagged Edge are the ones that terrify me. Does that make me a scaredy cat?
So this Halloween, as with every Halloween, I’m playing it safe. No haunted houses. No creepy costumes. No spooky decorations. And the scariest movie I’ll be watching is It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.
I used to like scary movies when I was younger, but something about getting older did me in. I just can't take it! I watched this awful horrible scary scary one years ago, had a panic attack, and that's it.
Ok, now I have to watch Jagged Edge. And I can't sleep with my feet uncovered either, but that's because of my family's crazy stories. I posted the story.
I can't watch scary movies or the lights will be on at night forever! ha, ha. But, I can visit haunted houses — as long as it's not the kind where crazy people jump out at you. Hmmm… perhaps I am a scaredy cat after all!
Happy Halloween!
Kristina
Not even Silence of the Lambs could turn me off a nice glass of Chianti, but I completely agree, it's the somewhat realistic thrillers that scare me more than the outrageously ridiculous ones. Psychological thrillers freak me out!
I am a wimp. I hate scary movies… my dad took my cousin and I to see the Blair Witch Project when we were 11… the night before we left for two weeks of sleepaway camp in the woods! I had to leave the movie five times "to go to the bathroom" and close my eyes and cover my ears for more of it!
Anything creepy or scary just freaks me out. Even watching ONE episode of the Walking Dead gave me nightmares for four days. Sigh.
I am a big ol scaredy cat like you 🙂
Even the show Dexter gives me bad dreams.
But surprisingly one of the 'scary' movies I'll watch is Nightmare on Elm Street.
Now following you from Mama Kat 🙂
The scariest movie for me was "It". I remember I was about 8 or 9 and my brother told me, and finally convinced me, that it was a funny movie with a clown. I was terrified that I had nightmares that night. Needless to say, that I have never ever been able to watch that movie again. And yes, I hate clowns…hahaha.