I feel bad that your tentative interest in horror movies was stamped out in this way. I remember watching Interview With the Vampire through the cracks in my bedroom wall. There are some good ones out there, though I've never had a strong love for the Exorcist.
I was four years old when I first watched The Lion King at the drive in movie theater. I only saw up to the part where Mufasa died, due to spending the rest of the evening curled up crying in the back of the pickup.
I can still remember watching The Golden Child with my friend during one of our sleepovers. It’s a rather fun and funny Eddie Murphy movie about a little boy who’s enlightened, like a lil Buddha who needs Eddie to protect him from a man who’s the Devil in disguise. It’s all fun and games — lots of laughs — until the man transforms into this massive demon flying out of a dark cave. Needless to say, my friend and I had to pause the movie and take bathroom breaks together. An innocuous toilet never looked so ominous…like a hole that’d swallow you alive. 😂
I was certainly scared, and we laughed about how scared we were when looking back on the memory years later.
But, interestingly, it didn’t make me swear off scary movies. Perhaps because I watched the scariest movies (like the Exorcist) later on, when I was older. And believing it was not real prevented me from feeling a true sense of fear.
Most importantly, I experienced some real-life trauma that made the movies less scary. I think watching scary movies allowed me to process real-life fear in a safer make-believe context.
That’s probably why I can still enjoy scary movies of all types today…from demonic possession, to haunted houses, to the lighter types like Coraline and my absolute Halloween favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas.
It’s amazing how emotionally charged events can impact our childhoods and shape how willing we are to watch/read certain stories for the rest of our lives.
This was great! I think we all have experienced something like this at least once. For me, it was watching “Clockwork Orange” after my mother told me not to! It’s so crazy how we don’t realize how much of an affect things have on us or how bad they are until we get older.
Wow, your last sentences were like a cold and brutal wind breeze, but in a good way.
Happy endings represent order. But reality is chaotic, it's uncertain, and maybe there's no ending at all. It's frightening when stories depict such reality, when so many of us read or watch movies for escapism.
The photo you snagged from The Never Ending Story where Atreyu’s horse Artax is being consumed by the swamp is one of the most heartbreaking movie scenes in my memory from when my kids were small.
Much, much empathy here. Why my mother sent me along with my big brother and the little ruffians he hung out with to see The Blob, I have no idea. Spent countless nights strategizing how I’d escape the inevitable, which for a six year old was some hard work.
I saw The Omen when it was originally released. I was 28 and driving home from the theater, I kept my eyes on the rearview mirror for fear that something evil was following me home. I’d seen The Exorcist when it originally came out and it didn’t make much of an impact but The Omen certainly did.
Exactly, Patris—the movie scared the bejesus out of me and I never realized what I had been watching until I started driving home. I don’t remember ever feeling that way before or ever since.
I’m glad it hasn’t happened since. My terror as an adult resulted from a film I’d thought was simply campy until I tried to fall asleep and realized I could look down a dark hall from my pillow. Nope!
Thank you for writing this!!! So many relevant and resonant points. I suspect that sometimes adults don't consider the impact such movies (or similar real life experiences) can have on a child's psyche. Further, it's sad that the movie industry even produces such movies. Is it preparing children for real life? Or ensuring they expect, seek, or create something similar? As you said, "As soon as something good happens, they throw it out the window. They self-sabotage all their lives. Happiness becomes an anomaly in a life that has always been punctuated by bad fortune." Yes! Kindness viewed with suspicion, caring viewed as a threat. There is a way beyond that type of trauma conditioning, actually several. Until then, it can be a rather complex and convoluted maze.
This was profound. It is amazing when you look back at some of those cartoons and how traumatic things sometimes were. It is so sad when you can't enjoy something good because of trauma.
Very good post.
I feel bad that your tentative interest in horror movies was stamped out in this way. I remember watching Interview With the Vampire through the cracks in my bedroom wall. There are some good ones out there, though I've never had a strong love for the Exorcist.
I was four years old when I first watched The Lion King at the drive in movie theater. I only saw up to the part where Mufasa died, due to spending the rest of the evening curled up crying in the back of the pickup.
What a fascinating subject!
I can still remember watching The Golden Child with my friend during one of our sleepovers. It’s a rather fun and funny Eddie Murphy movie about a little boy who’s enlightened, like a lil Buddha who needs Eddie to protect him from a man who’s the Devil in disguise. It’s all fun and games — lots of laughs — until the man transforms into this massive demon flying out of a dark cave. Needless to say, my friend and I had to pause the movie and take bathroom breaks together. An innocuous toilet never looked so ominous…like a hole that’d swallow you alive. 😂
I was certainly scared, and we laughed about how scared we were when looking back on the memory years later.
But, interestingly, it didn’t make me swear off scary movies. Perhaps because I watched the scariest movies (like the Exorcist) later on, when I was older. And believing it was not real prevented me from feeling a true sense of fear.
Most importantly, I experienced some real-life trauma that made the movies less scary. I think watching scary movies allowed me to process real-life fear in a safer make-believe context.
That’s probably why I can still enjoy scary movies of all types today…from demonic possession, to haunted houses, to the lighter types like Coraline and my absolute Halloween favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas.
It’s amazing how emotionally charged events can impact our childhoods and shape how willing we are to watch/read certain stories for the rest of our lives.
This was great! I think we all have experienced something like this at least once. For me, it was watching “Clockwork Orange” after my mother told me not to! It’s so crazy how we don’t realize how much of an affect things have on us or how bad they are until we get older.
Wow, your last sentences were like a cold and brutal wind breeze, but in a good way.
Happy endings represent order. But reality is chaotic, it's uncertain, and maybe there's no ending at all. It's frightening when stories depict such reality, when so many of us read or watch movies for escapism.
I had the same trauma after watching The exorcism of Emily Rose. Couldn’t sleep for a few days. Decided to never watch any horror stories again.
Any movie with Exorcism in it is a huge no looooooooool
😂😂
The photo you snagged from The Never Ending Story where Atreyu’s horse Artax is being consumed by the swamp is one of the most heartbreaking movie scenes in my memory from when my kids were small.
Much, much empathy here. Why my mother sent me along with my big brother and the little ruffians he hung out with to see The Blob, I have no idea. Spent countless nights strategizing how I’d escape the inevitable, which for a six year old was some hard work.
I saw The Omen when it was originally released. I was 28 and driving home from the theater, I kept my eyes on the rearview mirror for fear that something evil was following me home. I’d seen The Exorcist when it originally came out and it didn’t make much of an impact but The Omen certainly did.
It’s insidious isn’t it? All that’s needed is one detail that strums that string in us that
triggers something so primal.
Exactly, Patris—the movie scared the bejesus out of me and I never realized what I had been watching until I started driving home. I don’t remember ever feeling that way before or ever since.
I’m glad it hasn’t happened since. My terror as an adult resulted from a film I’d thought was simply campy until I tried to fall asleep and realized I could look down a dark hall from my pillow. Nope!
Thank you for writing this!!! So many relevant and resonant points. I suspect that sometimes adults don't consider the impact such movies (or similar real life experiences) can have on a child's psyche. Further, it's sad that the movie industry even produces such movies. Is it preparing children for real life? Or ensuring they expect, seek, or create something similar? As you said, "As soon as something good happens, they throw it out the window. They self-sabotage all their lives. Happiness becomes an anomaly in a life that has always been punctuated by bad fortune." Yes! Kindness viewed with suspicion, caring viewed as a threat. There is a way beyond that type of trauma conditioning, actually several. Until then, it can be a rather complex and convoluted maze.
This was profound. It is amazing when you look back at some of those cartoons and how traumatic things sometimes were. It is so sad when you can't enjoy something good because of trauma.
Perhaps talking about large traumas in early childhood with trusted people is a way to have a happy ending. Maybe not. There is always the choice.