Saturday, February 06, 2010

Being Scared...

So have you been scared lately..?

I don't mean scared for your life in the real world, cos that just sucks, really. I lived in Canberra (in one of the worst hit suburbs) when those bushfires ripped through the place and I was pretty damn scared then. The fire front reached the house accross the small cul-de-sac road from me before the wind turned it away (my short story Fireflies of the Bushfire, to be published this year, is based on that experience). Absolutely terrifying. This lil' ol' kiwi had never experienced anything remotely like an Aussie bushfire before that.

But I'm talkin' about the fun kind of scared! Y'know, that 'HOLY JESUS!' moment where you're just freaking the hell out and LOVING IT!

I used to have 3 crazy dreams on a semi-regular basis when I was growing up, one was about zombies chasing me, the next about T-Rex coming after me, and the last about Jason from Friday the 13th hot on my heels. All were pretty much unstoppable, and I used to wake up terrified. Not fun. Man, I'd be a psychiatrist's wet dream...

But no, that's not really the fun scared I'm talking about, either.

I reckon the most fun scared I've been was during Paranormal Activity--especially that scene where the lady's leg is-- well, I'd best not spoil it. But crap, that movie did a major number on me. Blair Witch frightened the heck outta me too, but PA was so much better. I saw this a few weeks ago and I reckon it's the spookiest movie I've ever watched.

Maybe I'm just a wimp.

How about in a book? That's much harder, although The Monkey's Paw by WW Jacobs was pretty damn terrifying. Novels? Hmm.....

There was a novel by Richard Laymon that freaked me out - can't remember what it was called but it was about this sicko who broke into this family's house and killed the parents, then went after the kids. That got me, but only because shit like that happens in our fucked up world. Goddamn people. My money's on the sharks.



(and don't even try with your flying tanks - they'll run out of fuel eventually and then where will you be? Yeah, you know it, punk)

3 comments:

Felicity Dowker said...

"Endless Night". That's the Laymon book you're talking about. I know, cos it scared the crap out of me too, when I first read it...when I was 14. :os

I still haven't seen Paranormal Activity, dammit! But I really, really, really want to!

And, embarrassingly, I'm watching the Buffy series for the first time ever, back to back on DVD. And I'm stunned at how often it makes me jump and actually frightens me. Love it!

Marty Young said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marty Young said...

That's it! Thanks Felicity!

And wait til you meet 'The Gentlemen' in Buffy; these things that glide and have these terrible smiles....

Oh, and there were two episodes of Doctor Who that were damn creepy - 'Blink' (the one with the weeping angels), and 'Midnight' (a real psychological workout).