Elm Street

I slept with my parents a good stretch as a child and made it very difficult for them to get a good night sleep with the way I carried on. I had all kinds of strategies on how to get into their bed; sad notes with sorrowful faces drawn pushed under their door, tears, middle of the night calling out, etc. I hated sleeping alone and I still do to this day. I did, however, have a reason as to why I needed my parents in the night and that was because I was scared. I remember sleeping over at my cousin Nicky’s house. Her parents had gone out for an evening out and her mom had rented us a few movies or perhaps she rented them for the babysitter. I am guessing they were for the babysitter or my aunt was blind folded while picking them off the shelf. The videos lacked that Disney story line that would have left me dreaming of singing mice making a ball gown, but rather left my heart pounding and my eyes wide. Here was the movie line up for the night; Rocky Horror Picture Show and Nightmare on Elm Street. We got our hands on the second movie, popped it in the old BETA machine, and my life would never be the same. Freddie Krueger, the burned man living in the boiler room with knives for fingers, would soon terrorize my dreams much like he did to those victims in the movie. I do believe it was the scene where a young girl was dragged up a wall by an invisible force and gutted in the process that would stay with me forever.

  Of course after the movie ended and my cousin Shane pointed out that they lived on Elm Street (and they did) that I called my parents to come get me and proceeded to sleep with them till I was twelve. I remember dreaming I caught Freddie’s hat and sometimes I would open my eyes and see his face. I have never gotten over that movie. I think that movie had an effect on my cousin as well because she can’t watch anything remotely “scary” without running up and down the aisles of theatre like a lunatic. I don’t go to many movies with my cousin.

  It’s funny because I actually enjoy a good thriller just as long as it excludes hacking off limbs, torture, and blood which eliminates most good thrillers. My husband forced to me to watch all the SAW movies which was terribly painful to watch. I did, however, appreciate it excluded the “horror music” that leads up to a murdering man with a mask jumping out of a bush and stabbing a character in the throat or something paranormal shooting out of the darkness. Speaking of paranormal; these are the thrillers I actually enjoy! I love a good ghost tale. However, Paranormal Activity almost ruined my life. That was the scariest film I have ever seen and it left my husband’s and my jaw dropped open in the final scene.

There aren’t many scary movies being watched at our house since we have had kids, but perhaps this Halloween when the kidlets are in bed and the ghosts and ghouls have turned in for the night, we may partake in an old classic.

  HAPPY HALLOWEEN