There are some moments in your life you never forget, and for me one of those formative memories is watching The Mummy (1999) for the first time at seven years old. Every time I re-watch this movie I ask myself “should I have been allowed to see this as a kid in elementary school?”, but the violence was far from graphic and the experience only resulted in a short-lived obsession with ancient Egypt. Sure, the idea of mummification while alive was terrifying then and equally so now as an adult, yet my still forming brain could only focus on Brendan Fraser in those suspenders. Can you say woof?
It always makes me smile to myself when I realize how many friendships of mine have a solid foundation built partially through our mutual love of this one now classic horror movie. I suppose you can say it’s easy for me to judge someone’s character based on whether or not they like The Mummy, because in my mind what’s not to love about an action adventure set in 1920’s Egypt? It doesn’t hurt that the entire cast is easy on the eyes too.
Now that my nephew is approaching 11, I find myself wanting to share my love of all things disturbing and spooky with him (within reason of course). So, yesterday’s mission after school was heading to the library and finding a couple age appropriate movies to introduce him to the world of scary movies. We watched our first pick as a family last night, Signs (2002), and I can honestly admit M. Night Shyamalan’s take on an alien invasion still gives me nightmares. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it in the last 20 years, but I picked up on little details I’d never noticed before, like the alien’s hand blending in with the grate on the coal chute or the fact that Shyamalan’s character was responsible for the car accident that upended Graham’s (Mel Gisbon) life.
Signs earned two thumbs up from my nephew and when I headed upstairs to bed I noticed his light was still on. I can’t say I didn’t debate sleeping with my light on too. When we walked away from the library yesterday I didn’t notice we ended up with two of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, having also chosen a more recent release of his, The Visit (2015). I remember seeing it in a theater and not knowing whether the movie was meant to be a comedy or horror story; it turns out Shyamalan had a terrifying cut of the footage and a humorous one, yet decided to go with a blend of the two in the end. I’ve already started compiling a slightly more kid friendly list of all the movies over the years that have kept me up at night.
Tomorrow we will drag our plastic totes out of the basement filled with Halloween decorations and embrace the changing of the seasons. Summer is gone and now it’s the time of year to drink coffee in the evening with a good book in hand. Maybe this is the year I’ll finally make my own mulled cider. Fall reminds me of all the years where my friends would pile into a car, drive to Blockbuster, and rent the cheesiest and scariest movies we could find. Blockbuster is out of business and we’ve all drifted down different paths in life now, but I hold these memories so close to my heart.
One year we rented a clown slasher flick called Mr. Jingles and I’m still not sure it exists. It doesn’t matter that the title pops up in an IMDB search, it may very well have been a sugar induced fever dream. It was shot like a home movie someone snuck onto the shelves for circulation, with smartly timed cutaways and what I imagine was a dismal special effects budget. The fake intestines looked like socks soaked in red corn starch. I will no doubt spend hours scouring every streaming service my family has searching for new to me scary movies to watch curled up under a blanket in the dark once again.
Our next batch of library rentals will hopefully include Child’s Play (1988), which will either encourage the formation of a newfound fear of dolls for my nephew or elicit more than a few laughs. At the end of the day, there’s nothing funny about a killer doll wielding a large steak knife.
The Rummy Writer 