RHYS BOWEN: I see they’ve made a new version of The Exorcist. Who saw the old version? NOT ME!!! I hate being scared by a movie. I don’t mind the ridiculous type of scared when giant ants and aliens take over the planet, but anything really creepy like satanic possession is something I can’t handle.
I feel the same about scary books. I remember times in my early years when I would go on reading a book because I simply couldn’t stop, knowing it was going to keep me awake or give me nightmares. Now I don’t even start if I think it will disturb me. I remember reading Edgar Allan Poe when I was really young. Oh my. And The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
The only time I did not react with terror to a scary subject was right before my daughter’s wedding. I was so stressed that my mother gave me one of her relaxation pills. It did more than relax me. It turned me into a zombie. BUT… we had to go to the Arizona Theater Company that night, front row, for a production of Dracula, because the best man was the sound guy. I sat in the front row, saw a hand coming around a curtain and… fell asleep before I saw who it was or who it was going to grab.
Having been on stage myself I know you can see the front row audience really clearly. Did they really think they had bored me to sleep or that I had fainted with fright? In any case, I had John take me home during the intermission.
This is the month for being scared, isn’t it? I go into the drug store and something gives an unearthly scream and a hand comes out of a coffin as I walk past. We didn’t have Halloween when I was growing up, which is a good thing, because I’d not have liked haunted houses, although I do like getting into costume.
So, dear Reds: who enjoys being scared? Who will see the new Exorcist? And what books /movies really scared you when you were young?
Really great suspense, I love. As mentioned, of course, above, The Sixth Sense, and Silence of the Lambs (movie and novel), as well as the Dutch version of The Vanishing, which is by far the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Ever ever ever, and I wish I could unwatch it.
I was traumatized, maybe in a good way, as a child, when my parents took me to see The Incredible Shrinking Man at the Vogue Theater. I can still picture that, so clearly, the ISM all tiny, stabbing a now-massive cat with a needle or something, and I still think about it all the time. It was kind of great, and kind of awful, but definitely formative. And yes, of course, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, classic, scary movie, and the old one is so much better than any new one. Again, my opinion. And, of course, the Day the Earth stood still. Another classic.
But wow, talk about scary? The real Cape Fear. Argh. I can’t even watch that.
And The Stand, as a novel? I called in sick to work reading that book. I thought: I know I have a job responsibility, but nothing's going to stop me from reading this book. Now that is suspense! And yes, it's totally the prescient Covid book.
But scared? Like: BOO! GOT YOU! Nope nope nope. No fun at all.
Just a little sidenote. My stepson’s best friend is an actor, the guy who played the gruesome psycho killer in The Scream. And he was my stepson’s best man at his wedding. The wedding photos are hilarious. .
HALLIE EPHRON: I used to enjoy scary movies. THE EXORCIST. ROSEMARY’S BABY. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. THE SIXTH SENSE. But what all those have in common is that they’re really good movies.
Yes, October is the month for being scared. And around here Halloween is a very big deal. My neighbors on all sides seem to be putting ginormous plastic zombies and skeletons and witches and ghosts on their front lawns. Coating their front hedges with “spider webs.” Planting tombstones with clawed skeletal bones crawling out of their front lawns.
On the plus side, apples are in! Had my first locally grown macouns!
LUCY BURDETTE: I hate to be scared! I did see the exorcist but I was in college and wanted to go along with my pals. I could not bear to see THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, but I finally read the book. It was horrifying, but at least that way I could titrate the terror.
I do love costumes, and loved when we dressed up for the theme at the New England Crimebake (zombies for Charlaine Harris, the western look for Kent Krueger and Craig Johnson, Miss Marple for Elizabeth George, and so on.) By the way, are we dressing up for guest of honor Deborah Crombie this year??
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Oh, my God, I remember seeing THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in theaters with Ross and his dad, who was visiting. When we got home, I stayed in the car with the door locked and made them go in and turn on EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE before I’d come in. I do like movies that are creepy-scary, like THE SIXTH SENSE or THE SHINING. They seem a bit of a lost art, since the current horror trend is all about jump scares and gore - yuch.
Speaking of The Shining, the scariest book experience for me was reading Stephen King’s The Stand, alone in my dorm room, while suffering from a bad rhinovirus. Everytime I blew my nose I thought I was going to die from ‘Captain Trips.’
If you like scary, smart and subtle, I highly suggest my current K-Drama, REVENANT, on Hulu. Here’s the blurb: “A possessed, struggling student and a folklore professor who can see ghosts confront a demon about a series of mysterious deaths and the five sacred objects surrounding it.” (Warning: suicide.) And it’s got cops working on the deaths as well, so there’s something for everyone.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I can do a little creepy/scary, but a definite NO on the horror/gore scary. No Freddie for me! I'm with Rhys on THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. That movie terrified me when I was a kid. I think the idea of people not being who we think they are, or having something (or THING) living inside them, is much more frightening to me than monsters.
Fun facts: The 1978 adaptation of Body Snatchers starred Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. There was a 1993 version, then in 2007, The Wachowskis made an adaptation called The Invasion starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig! We might have to look that one up…
JENN McKINLAY: Oh, Julia, I am all over that K-Drama. Surprising no one, I’m sure, I LOVE to be terrified, petrified, horrified, stupefied - basically, all the fieds! No idea why. I just remember Halloween being my most favorite holiday ever and the scarier the better! There is no haunted house that can scare me away! I remember driving home from seeing The Quiet Place a few years ago (terrifying!). No one spoke the entire drive home. LOL.
