It's the Halloween Season, my favorite time of the year. I was born on Halloween, so annual frights and spooky delights quickly became some of my favorite things to look forward to, even at a young age. I have a pretty high tolerance for most horror-themed content, but there were definitely a few I was exposed to that left powerful and lingering trauma in my young mind. This is MY history of burgeoning terror when I was first introduced to the following creepy creatures.
1. The Headless Horseman
Washington Irving's seminal story about the urban Legend of Sleepy Hollow was my first real recollection as a child of being scared of any supernatural creature. I was in kindergarten when my school decided to entertain us with a short movie about the decapitated demon. No, it wasn't the colorful, plucky, and more memorable Disney version... it was the version narrated by Glenn Close, who may have done TOO good a job selling the story of dread, darkness, and death, coupled with beautiful yet incredibly atmospheric paintings and a musical score that was unnerving and ethereal.
Anytime I was in the woods at night, I had the fear the Headless Horseman might come for me to take my head. The legend said I had to cross the bridge and he'd vanish in a burst of fire, so I always made sure to know where the bridges were...
2. Pennywise the Clown
Though I'm happy to find this is a common one, I had no fear of clowns at an early age. I loved clowns. They were colorful and funny. At the video store, around the age of 6 or 7, my dad turned to me and asked if I'd be up for watching the movie "IT". "It's scary," he said. Looking at the VHS cover, I chuckled. "It has a clown on the cover! How scary can it be?"
I don't know why I didn't realize that the clown was going to be the monster. I think I thought the clown was going to help stop a monster. Regardless, the opening wasn't too bad at first. It was almost whimsical as a little girl sees a happy clown outside, who makes her laugh. But then... the music abruptly changed. The mood changed entirely, and the brief shot of the clown shifted from joy... to THIS.
This was followed by the little girl's mother finding her child slaughtered (off-screen), her tricycle horribly bent, and police talking about how gruesome her death was. Okay, that was a shock. The clown was clearly the bad guy and unlike other movie monsters, TARGETED CHILDREN. But I put on a brave face and thought I could stick it out. Then... the storm drain scene.
This scene - in the miniseries, book, movie - is iconic and arguably THE best scene of all three iterations. I don't think anything in the story ever tops it because it's beat for beat the most uncomfortable, unnerving, uncanny scene of growing tension and building dread. Knowing in advance the clown has killed children before, watching Georgie knowing that something is OFF, but being a curious child lured into a sense of trust and complacency around Pennywise, makes my skin crawl... even to this day. While the new movie version of Pennywise is plenty scary, Curry's version is disarmingly "normal" - an average, typical birthday clown (with intentional sharp edges on his paint, which is apparently a clown no-no) - and that terrified me because a recognizably scary clown is easy to spot and avoid, but Pennywise was like so many other clowns I'd seen (and now would no longer trust). Needless to say, things end poorly for Georgie, and as a child I nope'd out of the movie at this point and avoided it (and storm drains) for nearly 20 years.
3. Pumpkinhead
I'm not sure where my exposure to Pumpkinhead came from. I believe it was at my uncle's house and he was watching it on HBO or something. The design might be a bit TOO "Alien from "Aliens"", but something about it - and the tone of the clips I saw - lodged itself into my brain. Growing up in a religious family, I believed in demons and devils, but they were typically drawn like this:
That was my shorthand for devils - horns, red skin, pointy beards, etc. But when I saw in the movie that they were calling forth a demon to hunt down and kill a group of teenagers who accidentally killed a man's son, I don't think I was ready for what Stan Winston's crew expertly brought to life.
Everything about it was horrifying to me. Its gaunt, gangly limbs. Its taut, leathery skin. Its dead, empty eyes. Its snarling, animalistic mouth. It was malformed, vaguely humanoid, and yet utterly remorseless and savage, like something that truly would emerge from the dark and grimy recesses of a nightmare. The era of goofy goblins was over; this became my new mental image of the denizens of hell, and it terrified me because - unlike other spooky creatures - I was told demons were REAL.
3. Gremlin
My dad was an airline pilot, so I tagged along on a lot of his flights. I was fortunate to travel a lot and never really had a fear of flying. After being exposed to The Twilight Zone movie, I certainly developed a healthy fear of engine failure though. The movie ("PG rating" my ass) had a few remakes of classic Twilight Zone stories and the original version of Nightmare at 20,000 feet was famous but its gremlin a bit goofy.
(and the acting a bit Shatner)
The new movie, however, layed it on thick and gave the Gremlin a massive revamp. It paced its reveal a bit better, building the tension of its existence with the paranoia of the passenger, leading to a truly harrowing reveal. This is an expert minute and a half.
Like Pumpkinhead, this creature was so demonic and vaguely humanoid - just enough to be uncanny - that its appearance shocked me, while the maddening frustration that only one man knew it existed - and that it was orchestrating their deaths in the sky - created a narrative that would haunt every trip I ever flew on an airplane again. Every time we took off from the runway, I said a little prayer we'd get to our destination without running into THIS thing. If said airplane ride was during a thunderstorm... well, it was going to be a LONG flight then.
These were the harrowing haunts that plagued my nightmares and buried their way into my mind on a primal level. I may have grown older - decades removed from my first exposure to these traumatizing terrors - but a part of me will always recoil as the inner child in me feels his heartbeat quicken, breath grow shallow, and an innate sense of fight or flight tingles my nerves and tightens my muscles.
What were your personal boogeymen and what is YOUR history with them? I hope to hear some good stories.
Sleep well tonight.
1. The Headless Horseman
Washington Irving's seminal story about the urban Legend of Sleepy Hollow was my first real recollection as a child of being scared of any supernatural creature. I was in kindergarten when my school decided to entertain us with a short movie about the decapitated demon. No, it wasn't the colorful, plucky, and more memorable Disney version... it was the version narrated by Glenn Close, who may have done TOO good a job selling the story of dread, darkness, and death, coupled with beautiful yet incredibly atmospheric paintings and a musical score that was unnerving and ethereal.
Anytime I was in the woods at night, I had the fear the Headless Horseman might come for me to take my head. The legend said I had to cross the bridge and he'd vanish in a burst of fire, so I always made sure to know where the bridges were...
2. Pennywise the Clown
Though I'm happy to find this is a common one, I had no fear of clowns at an early age. I loved clowns. They were colorful and funny. At the video store, around the age of 6 or 7, my dad turned to me and asked if I'd be up for watching the movie "IT". "It's scary," he said. Looking at the VHS cover, I chuckled. "It has a clown on the cover! How scary can it be?"
I don't know why I didn't realize that the clown was going to be the monster. I think I thought the clown was going to help stop a monster. Regardless, the opening wasn't too bad at first. It was almost whimsical as a little girl sees a happy clown outside, who makes her laugh. But then... the music abruptly changed. The mood changed entirely, and the brief shot of the clown shifted from joy... to THIS.
This was followed by the little girl's mother finding her child slaughtered (off-screen), her tricycle horribly bent, and police talking about how gruesome her death was. Okay, that was a shock. The clown was clearly the bad guy and unlike other movie monsters, TARGETED CHILDREN. But I put on a brave face and thought I could stick it out. Then... the storm drain scene.
This scene - in the miniseries, book, movie - is iconic and arguably THE best scene of all three iterations. I don't think anything in the story ever tops it because it's beat for beat the most uncomfortable, unnerving, uncanny scene of growing tension and building dread. Knowing in advance the clown has killed children before, watching Georgie knowing that something is OFF, but being a curious child lured into a sense of trust and complacency around Pennywise, makes my skin crawl... even to this day. While the new movie version of Pennywise is plenty scary, Curry's version is disarmingly "normal" - an average, typical birthday clown (with intentional sharp edges on his paint, which is apparently a clown no-no) - and that terrified me because a recognizably scary clown is easy to spot and avoid, but Pennywise was like so many other clowns I'd seen (and now would no longer trust). Needless to say, things end poorly for Georgie, and as a child I nope'd out of the movie at this point and avoided it (and storm drains) for nearly 20 years.
3. Pumpkinhead
I'm not sure where my exposure to Pumpkinhead came from. I believe it was at my uncle's house and he was watching it on HBO or something. The design might be a bit TOO "Alien from "Aliens"", but something about it - and the tone of the clips I saw - lodged itself into my brain. Growing up in a religious family, I believed in demons and devils, but they were typically drawn like this:
That was my shorthand for devils - horns, red skin, pointy beards, etc. But when I saw in the movie that they were calling forth a demon to hunt down and kill a group of teenagers who accidentally killed a man's son, I don't think I was ready for what Stan Winston's crew expertly brought to life.
Everything about it was horrifying to me. Its gaunt, gangly limbs. Its taut, leathery skin. Its dead, empty eyes. Its snarling, animalistic mouth. It was malformed, vaguely humanoid, and yet utterly remorseless and savage, like something that truly would emerge from the dark and grimy recesses of a nightmare. The era of goofy goblins was over; this became my new mental image of the denizens of hell, and it terrified me because - unlike other spooky creatures - I was told demons were REAL.
3. Gremlin
My dad was an airline pilot, so I tagged along on a lot of his flights. I was fortunate to travel a lot and never really had a fear of flying. After being exposed to The Twilight Zone movie, I certainly developed a healthy fear of engine failure though. The movie ("PG rating" my ass) had a few remakes of classic Twilight Zone stories and the original version of Nightmare at 20,000 feet was famous but its gremlin a bit goofy.
(and the acting a bit Shatner)
The new movie, however, layed it on thick and gave the Gremlin a massive revamp. It paced its reveal a bit better, building the tension of its existence with the paranoia of the passenger, leading to a truly harrowing reveal. This is an expert minute and a half.
Like Pumpkinhead, this creature was so demonic and vaguely humanoid - just enough to be uncanny - that its appearance shocked me, while the maddening frustration that only one man knew it existed - and that it was orchestrating their deaths in the sky - created a narrative that would haunt every trip I ever flew on an airplane again. Every time we took off from the runway, I said a little prayer we'd get to our destination without running into THIS thing. If said airplane ride was during a thunderstorm... well, it was going to be a LONG flight then.
These were the harrowing haunts that plagued my nightmares and buried their way into my mind on a primal level. I may have grown older - decades removed from my first exposure to these traumatizing terrors - but a part of me will always recoil as the inner child in me feels his heartbeat quicken, breath grow shallow, and an innate sense of fight or flight tingles my nerves and tightens my muscles.
What were your personal boogeymen and what is YOUR history with them? I hope to hear some good stories.
Sleep well tonight.
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