Thank you Rhobin for inviting me to participate in another Round Rhobin Rambles Blog (Halloween) Fest!
Topic: My scariest Halloween moment.
Upon looking back, the reason I was so frightened was because I soo did not expect to be frightened at all.
Three of my friends wanted to catch an old black-and-white movie on Halloween night. Black-and-white movie? Sure, I would go along. I am a fan of the old Universal Studio Monster Classic movies. "The Mummy" with the wonderful special effects and amazing storyline (remember 'talkies' were high tech in the mid-1930s), and of course "Dracula" (who can forget Bela Lugosi's wonderful Slavic accent and mesmerizing stage presence?)
However, this was a Zombie movie. Ummm. . . zombies? I wasn't a huge fan of ghouls. Was a zombie anything like a ghoul? Suddenly, I realized I wasn't very well versed on Monster Culture. Still, the synopsis seemed a little campy and very low-budget. While Amy and Joyce were edging out of the ticket line, Connie (yes, there were two of us) verbalized my thoughts "How frightening could it be? This isn't the Exorcist! And the storyline is. . .uninspired!"
Synopsis:
Barbra and her brother Johnny travel by car from Pittsburgh to the countryside to visit the gravestone of their father in the cemetery. Out of the blue, they are attacked by a strange man and Johnny is murdered. Barbra runs and releases the brake of Johnny's car since the keys are in his pocket, and flees to an isolated farmhouse, where she locks herself inside. Barbra is in shock and soon she finds a man, Ben, who is also escaping from the inhuman creatures, and he reinforces the doors, windows and openings in the house. He also finds a shotgun and a radio, and they learn that the radiation from a satellite that was returning from Venus has somehow reactivated the brain of the dead. Then they find five humans hidden in the basement: Harry Cooper, his wife Helen and their daughter Karen that is sick; and Tom and his girlfriend Judy. Harry has an argument with Ben, since he believes that the basement is the safest place for them, and Harry goes not to agree. . . .
Yes, we were going to be bored into a coma!
I do not wish to disclose spoilers for the 1968 version of: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I will divulge: I have never been so ready-to-bolt from my seat, and have never experienced that I-may-never-fall-asleep-again feeling which the same intensity as I did in that San Diego theater with my friends on Halloween night.
To quote Sheriff McClelland, "Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up."
So take that, "Walking Dead" fans! This movie started the Zombie craze.
Please visit our next blogger: Fiona McGeir!
Connie Vines' Fragrance for Love Series
I love the old Dracula and Mummy movies, so funny now. I tend not to go to horror movies although horror is tending to enter other film genres. Besides my partner gets tired of me interjecting comments on the illogical science involved. Great post.
ReplyDeleteLove it! I've never seen it, and, not being a zombie fan, don't plan on it. LOL Great post!
ReplyDeleteMarci
http://marcibaun.com/
Interesting story. Remind me not to see the movie.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch scary/horror movies or read the genre...or rather, "can't". I am a full-feathered chicken when it comes to horror and suspense. lol However, one Halloween evening, my husband and I decided just for kicks and giggles to watch The Shining, Psycho (original), and Silence of the Lambs. What a terrible idea. It took the next two months of Christmas movie-watching for me to recover. ;-)
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention The Exorcist. My son had nightmares and he never saw the movie. I had to sleep with the light on for weeks. I think I should have gone to see the Walking Dead instead. I promised I would never see a movie dealing with exorcisms ever again.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom watched the original Night of the Living Dead in her bedroom, not letting my brother or me in the room. I watched it years later and didn't find it as scary as she had. But The Birds scared the hell out of me, because I used to watch them massing on trees in our backyard, or on telephone lines, and think back to the movie and get creeped out! We all have our own fears, right?
ReplyDeleteOne of the weirdest romance novels I read was one about a man who's been cursed to be a zombie...most of the time. But when he's not, he's totally hot. He just doesn't know at first, when the "zombie-ness" thing is going to come on...until he equates a tingly feeling with the start of it. The author writes paranormal romance and her husband is a huge zombie fan, who bet her that she couldn't write a romance starring a zombie. She did...but it was odd.