Dumb classic horror flicks

Thanks to the recent change in temperature and endless amounts of precipitation, I was blessed to have some free time last Sunday to spend with my family that didn’t include freezing at a ballpark. My middle daughter asked me if I wanted to watch scary movies with her and as gloomy and dark as the day was, I thought that was a perfect idea! So, we shut the blinds, got the fireplace going, grabbed a blanket and were ready to be scared!

She asked me if we could find some classic scary movies so she could say she had seen them, so I was on the hunt. I thought back to my childhood and what seemed to scare me at slumber parties all those years ago and offered up movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th, the Shining, Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist or Amityville Horror. She said since there was a new Halloween movie coming out, how about that, so she would know what it was about?

Cool!! Usually, they never want to watch my old movies and I can’t ever seem to convince my girls that they’re classics so I couldn’t believe she was willing to watch one, so I took advantage and got it rolling. Even went and coerced my sleepy 18-year-old to come watch it with us. I decided that an 11-year-old should probably not partake, even though the movie was over 40 years old. Too risky.

Anyway, I knew the girls were going to make fun of it because I had tried this in the past with an old Stephen King movie so I really played up the history of the Halloween movie before I pressed play. I explained the whole story behind it, who the characters were, the famous music score, and how devoted Halloween movie fans are. Then I told them how scared I was when I watched it with my friends at a slumber party in the early 1980’s and how the music still haunts me today along with that freaky Michael Myers mask. They humored me by acting as excited as me but still, I doubted their true eagerness to watch this 1976 low-budget horror flick made by a film student.

As the movie started and the famous Halloween piano song came on, I felt like I was a kid again, watching it for the first time in my friend’s living room, scared before Michael Myers even showed up and killed anyone. I caught my heart racing and trying to remember the scenes but it’d been so long, it was sort of like watching it for the first time. As the movie played on, I never jumped or screamed and I did kinda wonder why this cheesy movie scared me so bad back in the day, but I still enjoyed it and tried to appreciate why it’s so famous. My girls, on the other hand, obviously weren’t scared when the characters in their weird 1970’s outfits and their horrible acting were running around screaming. And the fake stabbing and ketchup blood are pretty elementary compared to what they watch today, but they managed to stay awake and watch along with me. They giggled at the cross-eyed dead people and made fun of the way their hairstyles but did jump once or twice when Michael Myers flashed on the screen. That was good! But when the movie ended, they agreed it was pretty stupid that Michael was stabbed twice, shot three or four times and pushed off a second-floor balcony yet still survived.

Oh well, I decided watching this with them was similar to taking them to visit a famous monument. They may not really want to but at least they can say they saw it if anyone asks. Like a history lesson, except in dumb classic horror flicks. Think this week, we’ll watch Friday the 13th! See what they think of Mr. Jason!