Tuesday, October 21, 2008

I Want To Play A Game

This week is fright week at our house. Each night we are watching a different version on the Saw movie series, starting with Saw I last night. My sons, a couple of friends, and my hubby hunkered down to watch the first movie, and each consecutive night we will watch the next so that on release day, Friday 10/24/08, we will be caught up to see Saw 5 at the theatre. It doesn't help that these movies are very loosely connected, but in the fourth, they suddenly claim to all tie together... We don't recall how, hence movie week refresher.
Now, I'm not one for horror movies. As a kid, my oldest kister would make me watch Night of The Living Dead with her, so SHE"D feel better. Forget the fact that I had nightmares for weeks.
As a teen there were a few horror flicks you HAD to see, just to save face with the rest of the gang.....I can remember seeing Friday the 13th (the very first one of what, 98 or so?) with not even a group, but more likely a crowd of kids at the now defunct town movie theatre, where if you were a little short on cash, someone (no, officer, it was NOT Jimmy this time) would pop the back door for you. The movie screen was distorted, and you never could get all the sticky crap off your shoes, but for $2.00 it wasn't a bad deal.
Anyway, we went to meet Michael of the hockey mask fame, and I will admit (only to you, dear reader, never to the crowd) thatI spent most of the show with my head buried behind a dear friend we once swore was destined for the nun hood!
After the show mercifully ended, we did what any other good natured, trouble seeking, marauding gang of hoodlums would: we went out to carouse the town.... Again, where were our well thinking parents?
I had recovered my composure from the movie terrors, and I remember us walking toward the old sixth grade annex of our school, when one of our crowd who had apparently sneaked ahead
and climbed a tree, waited till we were directly under it, and then jumped down at us.....
At which time, I'm pretty sure my friends learned that Sue DOES scare pretty easily....Darned insensitive friends! Where WAS our compassion?

Fast forward twenty six years, and I find myself and my then thirteen year old son sitting in a theatre Halloween weekend sharing a nice little mother/son moment in at a horror movie....Now I was a little concerned about his tender age, and that the apple doesn't always fall far from the tree(in fact, when it comes to work, I'm pretty sure he isn't even from the SAME tree...he might be a pear of maybe a peach, but definitely not an apple). Anyway, I watched him closely the first few minutes of the original Saw movie, and between the darkness of the screen, the ominous music, I snuck a glance in his direction , and saw he was practically laughing....That was the last I saw of him, because I, true to form, spent the next 90 minutes with my head once again buried behind a back...Yep, I must say, I've come a long way over the years.

Jump ahead four years, and three more SAW movies, each visited opening weekend in the theatre, with pretty much the same result...He laughed, I barely saw a thing...So, last night was kind of watching the first movie for the first time for me....With the exception that my husband's back was little larger to hide behind than my teen son's. And of course, our whole audience of 5 was there to poke(not in the Facebook way) fun at me....
There was SOME consolation, though. At one point during a particular scene, (I'd be more descriptive, but I was hiding, remember)...but at one point, I did hear my eleven year old gasp.
Yep, at least some of us ARE apples, even if we are scaredy cat apples.....Can't wait till part 2 tonight. Maybe we'll go for a walk after, and I can sneak ahead of the little bugger......

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