Plum Crazy

Memo to self: Don't watch a scary movie on a school work night. I was watching the movie "In Dreams". For the most part, it wasn't particularly scary. Until the very end. The last couple of minutes freaked me out. In fact, the thing that freaked me out (the hands reaching through the mirror) reminds me of another not-so-scary-until-the-last-minute movie, "Carrie".

I watched "Carrie" prepared to be totally scared based on the reactions of my friends. As the movie progressed, I remember thinking to myself "This isn't scary. It's mostly just goofy." The menstruation scene wasn't scary. The pig's blood wasn't scary. The doors slamming on the prom wasn't scary. I just wasn't scared at all. Until the last minute. That hand reaching up from the grave gave me nightmares.

There are lots of movies like that. Movies which aren't scary, except for one or two scenes. "The Shining" comes to mind. Nicholson was so over the top that it was actually funny. I remember the audience laughing. But the scene in the bathtub came back to haunt me later on, as did all those "Redrum"s. I was scared to take a bath for weeks.

But none of that lives up to my scariest movie scene. Laurence was asking people "What movie scenes have horribly warped and scarred your psyche?" I didn't even have to think about that one. It was from "The Birds". The scene where the birds are in the house attacking Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor. I saw that movie when I was a kid, and it scarred me for life. To this day, I am afraid of birds. I can take baths. I was able to look in the mirror tonight. I can go into graveyards. But birds? I just can't deal with birds.

By the way, one movie that wasn't scary at all was "The Ring". It was a little eerie in parts, but it was not scary. If it's true that some people have described it as the scariest movie ever, this is because they are wimps and have not seen "The Exorcist". I know "The Birds" scarred me forever, but that's really because I was a kid when I saw it. I doubt it would have the same effect on me as an adult. But "The Exorcist" still holds the title for scariest movie ever. That movie is scary all the way through.

Oh, and Mom, "Rosemary's Baby"? May have been scary in 1968, but in the world after Freddie and Jason, it's nothing but corny.